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The Tuesday DiScussion: Is your bedroom the new Abbey Road?

crablin by Colin Roberts [Edit this content] ▾ 26 comments 15:51 September 12th, 2006


Not since White Town has the British undercurrent of 'bedroom music' been so interesting. Is there a real resurgence in the idea of a studio-free existence?

Look around Drowned in Sound today: this month's most interesting and, in many cases, unique artists are moving beyond the acoustic boundaries of a sole guitar and orchestrating lush full-band-style compositions from the comfort of their bedrooms.

Natasha Khan began her journey as Bat for Lashes by programming delicate, beautiful rhythms and layering her haunting vocal over the top. The success of Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly is testament to the idea of laptop music being as important as that crafted by a 'traditional' band.

The most exciting exponent of this movement, however, is south-west London's somewhere-between-electro-and-traditional-pop artist Jeremy Warmsley. As well as working on his own music in his home set-up, the man Warmsley has spent time recording with his friends and fellow bedroom-based singer-songwriters, to the point where he recorded Emmy The Great's debut single, 'Secret Circus', in such a 'studio', late last year.

Not to mention the shockingly talented Jamie T who is commanding praise and fans from across the board thanks to his bedroom-tinted West London poetry and beats.

So, we ask this: today, are we witnessing a real emergence of artists recording at home rather than paying for 'proper' studio time? Has the availability of high-quality, yet cheap, computer recording and sequencing equipment opened doors for many frustrated musicians? Has this movement existed for a lot longer than we're assuming, but it's only now that the internet is opening it up?

DiScuss...

Jeremy Warmsley Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly Emmy the Great Bat For Lashes

definitely

we do everything at home and even though that means no drummer it's still a challenge to eak out the best quality you can with the tools at hand.

The only downside is that most of the main music production software tends to bend what you're doing towards the means of the software (i.e. something like ableton is quite hard to get results when not in 4/4, not impossible but...) and is a definite stamp on the end result, i.e. you can always tell when someone's used protools or waves to master a track.

amyblue | 12 Sep '06, 16:31 | X | Reply

Jamie T

I wouldn't really class him as a bedroom artist anymore, unfortunately. The amount of money his label have spunked on the album is menkle. I'd have loved to have heard an album of his done entirely by himself.

maffy | 12 Sep '06, 16:38 | X | Reply

TOM VEK

Is a testament to the brilliance of bedroom artists.

kanefulton @Terra | 12 Sep '06, 20:02 | X | Reply

Internet

It can't be that this sort of thing has always been there and that it's just the internet that's opened it up, as there wouldn't have been equipment with which to record it on available to anyone without much money.

This sort of thing does open the dorr for a lot of artists, but that means that a lot of crap ones come through as well (I can't think of one off-hand though). It's still definitely a good thing though, as no matter how many crap ones come through, as long as some class comes through, it's worth it.

Calump | 12 Sep '06, 21:31 | X | Reply

it just proves that its just a recurrant theme that is overground now

people for the last 25 years have been making 'bedroom music' of varying quality. There is also no mention of the ultimate 'bedroom' music genius, Mr Joe Meek!

prole-art-threat @Pigfoot | 12 Sep '06, 21:48 | X | Reply

gifts of Alcohol!

Sorry

Metricemmythegreatjamietjeremy-
warmsleygetcapewearcapeflybatsforlashes

DiS seems to mention the same bands lots and lots and lots...

Jesus_Quintana @Iammatt | 13 Sep '06, 01:53 | X | Reply

they are good bands Jesus.

Anyway, of course this is a good thing. Ideas flow more easily in bedrooms - how many club nights/albums/films/whatever have found their first exit point in the bedroom? You imagine some mentally romanticised scenario, which appeals to your personality - whether you think in frozen images, or rhythm, or short films or words and on and on - and then try and define and reach that by developing that idea. Your bedroom is the easiest, least harsh place to develop those ideas until they are strong enough to stand up to the light of day.

That - as well as the broader range of sonic options computers allow for - is why artists like Jeremy and Jamie can manage to be quite musically diverse within their own work, and yet still retain some kind of coherence. Their personality's are strong, and once they have that they can inject it via various different methods of approach.

I think that at least begins to makes sense...

TheBoyDeadly @Jesus_Quintana | 13 Sep '06, 02:04 | X | Reply

actually

my new single and the previous one were done in a studio but mixed in my bedroom. and my previous ep, the drums were done at a friends house and the strings in a studio. although it was all mixed at home.

but the good thing about bedroom recording is that anyone can learn to be good at production at home and then transfer to those skills into a studio.

jeremy

j_wo | 13 Sep '06, 02:10 | X | Reply

they are all either friends of DiS people

or signed to DiS records...

Not that this site is occasionally impartial or anything...

jp100 @Jesus_Quintana | 13 Sep '06, 02:17 | X | Reply

biased, not impartial

is what i meant

:(

jp100 @jp100 | 13 Sep '06, 02:19 | X | Reply

i was only being light hearted

ruined by my typo.

Maybe i should write 'bedroom music' about it.

jp100 @jp100 | 13 Sep '06, 02:20 | X | Reply

its all about dining rooms

my dining room is the new de lane lea. thats where all the eiger stuff is recorded.

ad_c | 13 Sep '06, 09:46 | X | Reply

.....

i'd like to remind everyone that daniel bedingfield wrote/recorded his first single in his bedroom.

just putting that out there.

edtsf @MiZta-En | 13 Sep '06, 11:56 | X | Reply

skinner

I was going to mention 'Original Pirate Material'! That's probably the first time I'd heard any 'bedroom music' music, but I'm not trying to say he was the innovator or anything........

gram_caxton @Terra | 13 Sep '06, 13:07 | X | Reply

wasnt Dizzees first album recorded in his bedroom?

dont think any of the above touches that.

can i get a 'hell yeah'?

Jordan_229_2 | 13 Sep '06, 13:14 | X | Reply

wel...

..."Has this movement existed for a lot longer than we're assuming, but it's only now that the internet is opening it up?" Yes. Rave & white labels 17 years ago. Here's Audacity, here's a pc, here's myspace, go become a "pop star". 'course the beauty of this is that there will be fewer and fewer world stradling behemoths ala U2 getting a career out of selling product.

Ed_Thefallingleaves | 13 Sep '06, 13:44 | X | Reply

And this is not the Guardian

Or the Observer.

Ed_Thefallingleaves @Mike_Diver | 13 Sep '06, 15:38 | X | Reply

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