Album/Mixtape/Ep Process

[Tornado]

My writing process is i usually hear a beat, and 9/10 i know what track it's gonna be. In my earlier days i used to just write rhymes without beats but nowadays, if i did that, they end up becoming no subject tracks, just like im ripping the beat but not saying anything. But Behind all my tapes are stories and i'ma take you back to 06 ...


The Storm LP (2007) (Recorded 06-07)

As a rookie, knowing nothing about making tracks except i wanted to, this music shit started as hobby in a bedroom, compiling instrumentals of other rap songs, writing to them or sometimes, be so inspired by a song, write a track in that style/concept so i wasn't being original at all. There was also tracks i wrote with no beat in mind so not yet knowing of soundclick, i kept practising them over all different kinds of beats.

I went to a nice little studio after college days and started to lay down the tracks, costing me £30 an hour (it didn't last long, me going there). I recorded a good 30% of the album there and the guy that Recoreded and Mixed my Vocals, for some tracks where i didn't have a speficic beat in mind, i played him the track which i wanted it to sound like and he duly produced a cheap knock off (seriously, in Sin City, the loops you hear are in Logic).

After finding out, my music mate had a very small home setup, and he was charging £5 per track, i jumped at the oppurtunity to record the rest of the tape there (which in hindsight made the album a lot more imbalanced) as he had to mix it for me as i still didn't know how to.

The Restormation (Unreleased) (08-09) & Before The Restormation EP (09)

Having found Soundclick and my mate Bankz who puts out various instrumentals, i got my creative juices flowing when i listened to beats. The songs were still the same quality but i felt i was ever so slightly improving for my next tape but i soon had to halt due to my mate selling his studio equipment. As 08 neared the end, i started taking this music shit more seriously and studied Music Tech at College and met another quality music head where i went to his studio. I probably done about 30+ tracks there but i lost most of it due to a fire in the estate where he lived. Was so gutted most of my stuff had gone. I had saved some tracks, only beacuse i wanted to take a sample selection to listen to and that ended up being BTR. I could've used the 08 tracks but compared to the recent ones, they sounded shit in comparison

Durin this period, my writing style was most times i'd hear a beat to write to it except in some instances, i had a concept in mind or a quick two line bar which hit me at random times. I'd write this down and when i heard a beat i thought i could use this in, i shoehorned it in somewhere. This began to piss me off cos no-one made beats which i could use the idea in so i learnt how to Produce.

Black Storm (2010) (Rec: 2010)

Now as i started this, i had become adequate in Producing and Mixing (tho there is only 1 song produced by me on the tape). I felt with all the fukcery of my other tapes, i'd handle everything myself except for Production. This tape is the most personal to me, as every track is a journey towards darkness and eventually Suicide until i used Better Day as the last track. But yeh, i felt what i was doing more because i felt i was living the process which i was rapping about (be careful, might be a BS 2 dropping soon). Taking advantage of the college studio's recorded all my stuff on that, took it home to mix it (only reason i didn't use College to mix because to get a studio, you had to book, and it werent for a long time neither, 1 hour is NOT enough.) At the end, i felt like my proudest work to date as i was more personally involved through it all.

Raw As Fuck (2010-present)

Volume 1's Story:
The most long winded tape yet. Before Black Storm, i was doing regular tracks, not for anything in particular, but to keep practising. Eventually after Black Storm came out in August, I continued with track to make a tape called "Raw As Fuck" at the end of '10. Using a home setup, i quickly managed to build up a good number or productions, recordings and mixdowns. Finally, everything was being so simple. Until my PS3 and laptop got robbed. I had the songs on Hard Drive but in the robbery, it had been broken by being knocked down off the table. I really hit rock bottom then and it wasn't until i used a shitty old laptop, i went to my mate Bankz to allow me to bring setup (thank fuck for my USB Mic) and recored there but mix them at mine and hence, Volume 1 was finally created.

Volume 2:

Now i'm onto Volume 2 because i wanted to make my tapes a regular 3 month release. There was a problem that Bankz was gonna go to Uni later this year, but i thought i'd record as much as i could until then but now i'm fucked becuase he says he's too busy now to record leaving me stuck again

[Mr. Chambers]

it really depends on my mood during the process.

for me, the mood helps decide everything. if i'm depressed, then my project is going to reflect that to my listeners (hopefully) and that was my problem with my last mixtape. I started out in a GREAT mood cuz i finally moved out, only to find out it was worse then where i used to be, and not much changed. Which reflected in my music, cuz it went from entertaining, where i was having fun, to me just doing it to get the project out, and it showed alot cuz alot of the same complaints related.

so mood is prolly 70% of the actual process for me.
about 20% of it is the beat. I like to just let the beat tell me what to do. Just recently i been hearing beats and thinking of stories. its just my creativity evolving and being pushed in a new direction, which leads to the other 10%.
i like to try new things and take people's critism into play and start thinking how i could play that into my new music. its just an ever changing process and if you do the same style, content, ect. for too many projects you become boring, and chances are you'll get bored with it.