Commit or quit

“I recently read a book called The Great British Recording Studios, and realised that British producers have often had to work with limitations. When the Americans had eight-track, we had four-track; when we had eight-track, they had 16-track, and so on. That meant British producers had to make decisions about the music there and then. If you were bouncing down the guitars to one track, you had to commit.

“And I quite like that. Commit to your sounds and your song. A lot of the time, I sample myself fart-arsing around the studio, then I’ll layer that with something else and layer it again, resample it, and work with that new sound. In the computer, I can fiddle around with it to a certain extent, but I have committed to that sound. I have decided I want it in my song. If you’re spending ages on that sound once it’s in the computer, then it’s probably not the right sound.

“Music technology has given us a lot of great opportunities, but it’s also leading a lot of producers and students astray. They don’t know when to finish a song. Modern production can accentuate FOMO. You become so worried that you haven’t got this sound or this loop, that it becomes impossible to finish a song. You lose the positivity of flexibility because there is literally too much choice.

“Songs are like relationships. At some point, you have to commit.”