Pro7ect Hotel Pelirocco
“The vocal performance is the real wow factor: Georgia delivers a pitch perfect lead and a string of BVs, all doubled, tight as a drum, in a matter of minutes.” As Lisa talks us through what's going to be our 'writing' process – how essentially there are no rules, and everyone's opinion counts - we have a listen to the guide track that Georgia and Ian have already put together: it's a couple of drum loops, some ambient pads, and a bit of piano, and Georgia casually sings the melody, seated. Firstly, her voice is ridiculous. Great tone, effortless. Secondly, this song is actually quite good already. There are some great vocal spikes in the bridge (I'm humming it as I type, in fact), and from a songwriting perspective, I see the potential right away. Lyrically? Jury's out.
What's really interesting here is, the first of us to dive in and get creative are those with the least (as in, zero) songwriting experience. William in particular is all over changing X lyric for Y, and Y for Z, and actually, he has a point in a few places; what's a bit of a headfuck is, he's immediately expecting the lyrics to make sense, and tell a story – as a consumer of music does, I guess? But honing lyrics can take hours, days, or sometimes way longer, from my experience. Then I get it - this is what it's all about; Lisa wants us to think outside the box. For now, I remain quiet, soaking it all up - as she predicted,
in fact: “You'll often find the guys and girls with the real songwriting experience don't get involved for a while in these situations,” she said, before we started. Yep, point well made. About an hour later, after Georgia's laid down a seamless guide vocal to tape (well, disk), and we've played the track back over and over, offering small lyrical changes as we go, I decide, 'sod it, I'll pick up the guitar.' I can feel a chord change coming – we need to repeat that section, and so on. Georgia agrees, and she drops in the piano parts. And it works. Great. We're all getting involved now, and we've only been going a couple of hours. Ian is clearly adept at making beats, but more importantly, he is lightning quick. This simply wouldn't work without him.
After a very satisfying late lunch, and a quick tour of the hotel (the rooms all have amazing themes, and little do I realise that come midnight, I'll be rolling into the Diana Dors suite myself – but that's another story), we're all raring to go again, and the track is really taking shape. The process is beginning to feel way less alien - in fact, it's proper teamwork. Confidence is definitely growing in the room, and an energy is certainly building. Then comes the most remarkable part of the
day; we are very close to deadline. Deadline? Apparently, a group of people will soon arrive, cocktails in hand, to give their critique on our completed song. Jesus. Georgia and Ian up the ante here, and what follows is nothing short of ludicrous. The vocal performance is the real wow factor: Georgia delivers a pitch perfect lead and a string of BVs, all doubled, tight as a drum, in a matter of minutes. Georgia even has time for a couple of vibey one-take ad-libs, which involve her hitting notes several octaves higher than I can scream, let alone sing. I also note Ian's staggering ability to keep up with the pace. He can drop in and go again in milliseconds. Before we know it, the track is complete, and when the audience arrives, it's received very nicely indeed. So what can I take from this? It was a lot of fun, and quite brilliantly run. I can imagine how buzzing this place will be at next year's Pro7ect retreat in March, with heaps of pro talent dashing from room to room Any songwriters that want to get better, or to learn more, could do worse than get involved with these guys.
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