SUBVERT YOUR HABITS

“It can add a lot to your songwriting if you’re aware of your habits and try to deliberately subvert them from time to time. For instance, I love a busy drum beat packed full of ghost notes and tricky rudiments, but some of my favourite songs have been the ones, like my latest single Fine, where I’ve worked against that impulse and created a really sparse, angular beat with heaps of space.”

Get inventive with stereo space

“A lot of artists, at mixing stage, tend to focus mostly on shaping the levels and frequencies. But don’t forget about space. Stereo placement of instruments is a crucial and super creative part of the mixing process which is often given a rather by-the-numbers, left-centre-right treatment.

Don’t be afraid to try out slightly unusual techniques! One of my favourites is to record the same part a whole heap of times and pan each take to a different part of the stereo field, at slightly different volumes. It gives a real ensemble feel to an instrumental part, and can provide wonderful choral textures to vocals.”

Wrote it on one instrument? Arrange it for another

“An easy way to get some variation in your instrumental parts. Got a great guitar part? Arrange it for piano. One of my favourite melody lines ever was a long-form vocal improvisation that I transcribed and learnt on saxophone – it sounds so different from my usual saxophone lines!”