Bingo! Breakthrough on “Who’s Been Sleeping in my Brain”

In my last post I wrote about some of the challenges I have in songwriting and recording – in particular the situation where I write a song which I then struggle to sing in the studio when recording it.

As I mentioned, one of the last few songs I’m working on to finish my album –  “Who’s been sleeping in my brain” – was presenting me with this problem and driving me crazy as I tried to record the verse vocals again and again, but still not liking what I heard. I realised that I was going to have to start thinking outside the box and this is where I left you in my last newsletter, promising that I’d let you know how I got on.

Well, I am really happy to tell you that I have finally succeeded in recording the vocals for the verses in a way I am really happy with (with a little help from Mike Raine who is producing the album for me).

The song (if you remember from reading the lyrics and listening to the bridge and final chorus – also shared with you in recent newsletters) is very weird and wonderful – inspired by a post by a member of my facebook group “Laini’s Beach Shack” who asked the group to list some of their favourite weird album titles.

Trouble is, I just wasn’t channeling the right voice for the character singing the verses and in hindsight I realise that it was because I didn’t have the right image in my head of that character. So much about singing for me is being able to have a clear image in my head of the “person” singing the song, whether it be someone in love or upset, a strong character or a weak character, someone vulnerable, contemplative, or angry etc. etc. and then being able to become that person with how I sing the song i.e. acting with my voice.

Sometimes, when I’m struggling with the image of the character I chat with Mike about how we each see that character.  We did this before recording my cover of Bjork’s “Human Behaviour”. Mike said that he could see a person sitting, holding open a book and reading to the audience.  This turned into the final image of a prim and proper teacher giving a lecture on Human Behaviour, which is how I portrayed one of the voices/characters.  If you’ve not seen it before you can watch the music video to Human Behaviour by clicking on the link here:

“Human Behaviour” Music Video

Well, in the case of “Who’s Been Sleeping in My Brain” we did the same thing and it came as a surprise to me to hear Mike say that his image of the person singing the verses was of a Maleficent type character standing a-high in a huge cavernous area preaching to the masses!  My voice image was of a sweet, ethereal character!  Such a breakthrough!  I went home, tried out a few ways of recording with this new image in mind and took my tracks along to Mike’s to slot into the recording last week. Bingo!

So, just a little bit of tidying up to do on this song now – minor stuff – and then it can be put in the album box.  There’s only 4 tracks left now to tidy before I have all 11 tracks recorded, so it’s starting to feel as though I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel.

So, until next time when I hope to give your more news on my progress, take care

Laini xx

P.S. If you’d like to join my facebook group, just head on over here  Laini’s Beach Shack Facebook Group 

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Also, don’t forget you can stream my first album here on my website, and there is also an option to purchase if you want your own copy Laini Colman debut album 

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