It is three months since I first met Paul McIver for coffee in Joburg to discuss recording my album and looking back it is mindblowing to see how much has happened since then! With me being in Cape Town and him up in Jozi, a lot of the preproduction happened over the phone, via email and with the odd trip up to the studio. He has put in so much time and energy into this project and I knew he was completely behind it when he went online and became a Future Owner and sent me a mail saying how important it was for us to make sure that everyone's faith in me resulted in an amazing album.
Since we started recording in September, Paul has truly gone beyond the call of duty. We have had 7am starts and crawlled home at 11pm at night, only to start all over again the next day. Because the budget has been tight I haven't been able to hire a car while I am up here, and Paul has picked me up and dropped me off everyday – way beyond a producer's responsibility. As if that isn't enough he has taken me to auditions, meetings and even to pick out a dress to wear to to a show!
We have gotten into a comfortable rhythm and I have taken on being in charge of sustinance which means Paul has been inducted into a world of fruit salad breakfasts, huge nut & avo salad lunchs, rye cracker snacks and woolies dinners! We really are a team in the studio and I am becoming increasingly confident with trusting my ideas and have ended up playing piano on various tracks as well as finding new directions for some of the songs. All in all I couldn't have asked for a better way to record my first album – there has been lots of laughter, some tears when I get overwhelmed, amazing musical magic, long nights of talking in crazy accents to keep going and at the end of some pretty special songs that I cant wait to share with the world.
