Lime Tree Studios, Mattishall, Norfolk, United Kingdom
I thought you might like to see where I recorded all the songs you’re listening to!
There are lot of photos so you’ll need to give the page a little time to load.
Now I must set your expectations. Some of the photos are very poor quality. The ones in the studio were taken in a dark room, with no digital camera, and a dodgy 35mm film. On that note of caution – let’s forge on!
Here is the studio. A barn conversion in Mattishall, a village thirteen miles from the centre of Norwich. I’m not sure if it’s still a studio, but this is where we – Mum and me – travelled 100 miles to record my songs.
Back in 1999 this was the nearest studio to me which fitted all my requirements. It was large and wheelchair accessible. I could also lay down to rest between recordings as no one else was in the building, and Mum could cook my food. And of vital importance, it had a fantastic recording space. A huge room which took up the larger part of the building. You can see the height in the picture. It had magical acoustics.
It was also situated in beautiful countryside. This was the view to the right of me when I was recording. I must admit, I barely saw it as I was so focused on the music!
So now the pictures get very dodgy… I didn’t record in the little booths which I’d so often seen on TV. Singers separated from instruments. I performed in the middle of that huge room, with its amazing acoustics, and was recorded as though I were playing at a live concert.
You can just about see that there were several mics on me and my guitar. And the same when I was at the piano.
I would record a group of guitar songs or piano songs and then rest and listen back to them to see what I needed to adjust and correct. I was learning by doing. I’d had a lot of practise with home recordings and poor quality ghetto blasters but so little practise with a microphone. And even less being professionally recorded. I learned fast that every tiny sound was audible.
The first time I got to listen back to my professionally recorded voice, singing out of superb quality speakers, was incredible. Especially after all of my taped home recordings!
But then it got serious…
I focused in. Heard and criticised every sound and each mistake. Stephen Pitkethly – my engineer – would sometimes look across at Mum and shake his head. My perfectionism was fully in action! But I wanted the recordings to be the best they could be. Here I am at the mixing desk where all those magic buttons worked. I did not touch one of them!
After a long day, I would leave the studio with disc in hand. I now had recordings of all the tracks I’d sung on that day. Here is the disc from my first session at Lime Tree Studios. These are all the tracks in the order I played and recorded them on that November day.
Quite a few of these tracks would appear the following year on my debut album –As I Breathe. This is the album which I re-released as Breathe, with all its new artwork.
These visits were momentous for me and for Mum – in what was achieved and the energy and toll they took. I went home, was looked after, and rested and recovered until I was ready for the next visit.
I loved those trips to the studio. Mum and me, with our dreams coming true of getting professional recordings of my songs. It was a magical place for us.
But as I write this today, more than 20 years later, dreams are coming true every day but Mum is no longer with me. She did get to see my music being heard, and saw the wonderful messages people have written to me of how my music is touching them. That is something I’m so pleased about.
Thank you for sharing this musical journey with me.