To most people, my job title (outside my day job … ) is ‘session musician’. The term is often used even in the music community for freelance / jobbing players. Which is a bit misleading considering there is hardly any money (certainly hardly any profit) in recording for anyone now, and so there is much more likely to be budget for additional musicians at live events. Live is probably 19 out of 20 jobs for me.
However, yesterday I was actually recording as a professional job (see photo!). Electronic music producer / writer / impresario Tai Azeez has a real love of the sound of live string instruments, and so the four of us (me on viola) were gathered to lay down various sections, lines and loops – individually and as a string quartet – for use on four or five of his tracks.
A long recording session (5 hours this time) is always hard work, but we kept it amicable and friendly. The nature of this sort of music is you can’t really hear any rough mixes till Tai’s cut up the takes into the sections and reapplied / layered them onto his tracks, but he says they sound really good. I’m looking forward to hearing some results – and working again with these lovely people!