Getting Plugged In
Week 1
We had our first meeting as band 2B on Microsoft Teams. We began by conducting research into the types of jingles listed on the brief, carefully considering each one before making a decision. Eventually, we settled on a shotgun type as we wanted to keep it simple, catchy and straight to the point with our message, and not create an overly complex piece. The thirty to forty second time frame given was a key factor in this decision.
As Adam Walton’s show was based on new and upcoming Welsh music, we agreed the style of the jingle would need to reflect that. The show’s variety of music styles gave us the opportunity not to pigeonhole ourselves into a specific genre, allowing us to explore a range of sounds. Ben suggested creating something acoustic based and using that as a template to develop the jingle on, which collectively we thought could work. Our band also had two vocalists, Ben and Lily and whilst both had their respective vocal styles, we knew that could help define our jingles sound.
Week 2
During our second meeting on Teams, we spoke to our lecturer Neil about our ideas for the jingle which were met with enthusiasm. I sent my bandmates a recording of a guitar riff I wrote that I thought could be used. It was based on a single D5 power chord and having a call and response between the vocals and the guitar. My bandmates agreed to try it out at our next rehearsal.
We soon got ourselves into a rehearsal studio at the ATRiuM campus. I presented my idea to the band and we began to work on it. Initially, Ben and Lily had some trouble placing their vocals alongside the riff after I suggested they should try and shout them as part of my call and response idea. Instead, Ben and Lily tried singing more melodically over the chords. At the end of our rehearsal, we collectively felt that the idea wasn’t working and decided to go back to the drawing board.
Week 3
At our next band rehearsal, Ben played us a chord progression idea on his acoustic guitar to which he wrote a melody and lyrics to. The chord progression was in C# Minor, giving the jingle a melancholic sound I thought was reminiscent of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. The chord progression was as follows:
Ben and myself sat together with our guitars, working on adding layers and a lead part to the chords. I had the idea of playing the triads of each chord as arpeggios with my electric to make it sound less melancholic and ‘sparkle’ more. Another idea I had was by fingerpicking the root and third notes of each chord to create an ambient texture which I utilised with my delay and reverb effects pedals to achieve.
As our band didn’t have a drummer, we attempted to produce a suitable drum part. I sat at the drum kit and created a beat based around the drum toms and snare, adding a ‘tribal’ feel to our idea. Ben played the chords over the top of it and our bass player, Morgan played along to ensure the drum part fit.
Week 4
By our next rehearsal, Ben had developed the lyrics and melody and presented them to Lily who began writing harmonies and additional vocal parts. From what we had so far, we considered how we would structure our jingle before deciding on AAB song-form. As a band, we felt this would avoid it becoming too repetitive whilst still fitting with our shotgun style. I then sat down and wrote the chord progression for Section B, to provide contrast with the original used in Section A. The chord progression I wrote for Section B was as follows:
I played the chords in a funky style to create a different feel which seemed to work well. Morgan and I wanted to compose a melodic bass-line to act as a counter melody to the vocals in Section B. As he was primarily a guitar player, I helped him write the bass part for the section which was again, inspired partly by the Chili Peppers. The completed lyrics are as follows:
Turn on your radio
Tune in ten till one
Saturday nights
The new Welsh music show
What’s the name of the man
With the musical playground?
He plays your favourite songs
Or a brand new sound
At the end of the day
Tune in your radio waves
For BBC Radio with Adam Walton
Week 5
We had learnt our parts for the jingle and decided during our weekly Team meeting that we should record a demo for Neil to get feedback on our progress. I brought my MacBook to rehearsal and plugged my guitar straight into the interface using Logic Pro X to record. As we didn’t have a drummer, I used the software EZDrummer to program the drums using MIDI. After getting the instruments recorded, Ben and Lily said they would record their vocals at home and send them to me to which I could add to the recording and mix them.
Week 6
I sent the demo to Neil, who during our Teams meeting, gave us some very positive and enthusiastic feedback. He said the quality of demo could be used as the final recording, but we still intended to record the final jingle properly using microphones and to a higher recording standard. Some criticism we received was the repetitive nature of Section A and the that the vocals had too much reverb on them. However, as this was a demo, we could easily make changes before the final version of our jingle.
Week 7
We spent this week refining and rehearsing the jingle. We used the programmed drums as our backing track as we still did not have a drummer. After receiving feedback from Neil the previous week, we made the necessary changes needed to make our jingle sound better. Ben and Lily wrote some additional vocal parts and experimented with the vocal arrangement, having Ben sing the first verse before Lily joining on the second. I also made a couple of changes to the MIDI drums to make them sound more realistic and fit in with the music.
Week 8
It was the week of our recording session for our jingle. As I was producing it, I booked the microphones for the guitars as this time we would be mic’ing up amplifiers. After arriving at the rehearsal space, we made a small recording booth using the acoustic dividers in the room to record the vocals and acoustic guitars. The acoustic guitars were double tracked using a pair of Rode M5s with myself and Ben playing a take each. The lead guitars were recorded into Logic Pro X using aa Shure SM57 that was mic’ed to an Orange TH30 and 4x12 cabinet. I also utilised my delay and reverb effects pedals to achieve the ambient sound I wanted. We initially intended to record the bass guitar using an Ampeg bass amplifier, but for time purposes we decided to plug it straight into the audio interface and used an amp simulator instead. Vocals were last to record. Ben and Lily did a number of solid takes in the booth using a Neumann U87, and recorded additional backing vocals and harmonies to add some flavour to the jingle. Ben suggested recording group vocals when singing Adam Walton’s name during the outro, but these were to be cut as we were not satisfied with the results. I then took what the band had recorded home to mix them as our final jingle recording.
Conclusion
Overall, I enjoyed the creative process of making the jingle and collaborating with my fellow bandmates. Despite each of us having our own musical styles and tastes, we managed to be open minded to whatever sounds and ideas we’d come up with. I feel it was the best possible jingle we could make and as a result, I am pleased with how it’s turned out.
Photos
