24/06/2018
Extremely proud, for multiple reasons, to present the latest track I produced for my boys in All Tied Up, 'Use a Pencil to Draw Blood' (emo af, I know 🖤). So, this is special to me for two raisins... 🍇
1. ❄ The recording sessions were back when the country was dealing with the "Beast from the East" snowstorms, and we were tracking drums, bass and guitars in the barn at Westbury Arts Centre. As much as I love that place, it was beyond cold being in a drafty barn over two weekends! I was in a bad mood the whole sodding time: I was getting stressed, wasn't able to pull the tones I envisioned in my head and was likely pi***ng the band off with my defeatism. The band did a killer job with their performances, but at the end, I was pretty disillusioned with the recordings and doubted my own abilities – having previously been beyond chuffed with the raw sounds we got when tracking on the 'Breaking Silence' sessions. "Nevertheless, she persisted," and after editing and mixing, I'm FINALLY happy that I was able to mould the recording into the vision that me and the band originally had for the track, thus restoring my faith in myself and feeling that I'm justifying my aspirations to do this full-time someday. The rough-around-the-edges recordings probably actually contribute somewhat to the badass rawness of the song, so swings and roundabouts!!
2. 🏳🌈 For those of you who know me personally, a few weeks ago, I both discovered for myself and came-out publicly as genderfluid, and have been living as a woman since then. This single is special to me because it marks my first production credit and label release as my female self; albeit, the production on this track was completed before I found any of this about myself out, but nonetheless it's an important personal milestone for me. If anyone's interested in reading more about this crazy adventure of discovery I've somehow found myself on, I wrote an equally long and waffly post about it on my Facebook profile:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=224569604997295
I'd also like to extend both a personal and professional thanks to Katie Tavini / Katie Tavini for absolutely smashing the mastering (as usual) AND for being awesome by welcoming me into the family as a newly-"born" female audio engineer 😊 You rock, girl! 🤘❤ Lee Bo, you were also a hella dude when I came-out. Thank you brotha 👊😎
Peace and love, y'all! Hope you dig the track, please do show the band some sweet lovin' on their socials and share the video about...
Andi ✌️ x
(Aka "Butters")
