Play it Strange Winners Hit the Studio!

My friends and I found out recently that our submission in the Play it Strange peace song competition, judged by Jordan Luck, had won a prize…

What prize, you ask? A day off school of course! Well, I suppose, but that’s not exactly the point… 

On a soggy Thursday morning in week 8, an unassuming LPHS van dropped off 7 students and one teacher on Union St (shoutout Mr Spittle for the ride) for an exciting day of recording in one of the best studios in the country. We spilled out onto the footpath, instruments in hand, and laughed and babbled – in a way which suggested nervous excitement – our way to Te Korokoro o te Tui, the university’s recording studio. Inside, it felt like we had entered the future. As our excitable guitarist pointed out – ‘this would be such an epic place to play spaceships’. She’s right – the mixing desk has over 40 (40 !!) channels each with a dozen dials and sliders, and is of the scale to believably belong in Star Trek. 

Eventually we all stopped blinking in amazement at our surroundings and got a start on recording, with the help of the studio manager Stephen. Drums and bass went first, with a guide vocal and guitar. This took the longest to lay down, as it was important to get the base layer over which everyone else recorded right. Add a guitar solo and some piano and we almost have a song! Enough of a song, at least, to justify breaking for lunch in the green room. 

Once we were all feeling a little more nourished (and in some cases caffeinated), we headed back to our spaceship to finish recording. Now it was time to add the glitter – otherwise known as violin and backing vocals. Once these were laid down, all we needed was to re-record guitar and vocals and then everything was there! Everyone halted their between-recording activities to listen to the whole thing put together. Notably these time-fillers consisted of revision for mocks for one person only (the single sensible member of the band). We are really looking forward to hearing the completely mixed song!! 

Thank you to Ms Fahy for accompanying us on this intergalactic quest for the best takes, and to Stephen who adjusted all the sliders, pressed all the buttons, and made us sound as good as possible. But the largest thank you to Play it Strange, the organisation which made it all possible by paying for the studio time, and is doing the same for other young musicians all over Aotearoa. We had an incredible time, learnt heaps, and are really looking forward to going back in a few weeks to record another song!