Brad Rose Q&A Part Two today - in the studio and track breakdown

quiet details
Jul 30
5 min read

Hi friends - hope all good :)

Thanks again for all the support for Brad’s album - very grateful and so happy to hear so many of you have discovered all of his music - really is a deep and wonderful catalogue that’s worth spending time with.

Second part of our Q&A today - an insight into Brad’s production process and how he made the album - big thanks to him for being so open.

Only two days left of half-price digital and CD still available - remember if you bought the CD and want a private bandcamp link to Brad’s beautiful long-form mix of the album, just drop me a message and I’ll sort you a code.

Please can you give us an overview of your studio and favourite instruments?

My studio is an ever-evolving organism these days, and has expanded into two spaces as my visual art and painting practice has grown (so there's a whole setup in the garage for that!). The main music space, however, is in the western most room of our house. We bought this house seven years ago from my grandmother. She had moved in with my parents the year prior and we'd always loved this place. In the early 90s, the home my grandparents lived in out in the countryside was hit by a tornado and destroyed. They wanted to be closer to my folks so they bought a house about 5 minutes from my childhood home. My grandfather was a carpenter, so he and his brother stripped the inside of the house down to the framing and rebuilt it completely. It's become a bit of a family heirloom.

My studio occupies what was once my grandfather's office. That feels like an important point. It's less organized than I'd like it to be, but that is probably true of my life in general. Favorite instruments - that's tougher as it changes. Well, my Pro One has been a favorite for decades and while I don't use it as much these days (though writing this makes me want to pull it out and let it wail), it will always be there. Last year I received funding for a project I'm working on and built a modular rig with some of that because it was the only way I could figure out how to do what I needed to in a live setting for the project. It's, unsurprisingly, become a cornerstone. I also adore the Arturia Microbrute I've had for years. It features prominently on this record.

Please can you gives a quick breakdown of how you made each track?

I will do my best from memory as I typically don't keep any notes!

Paintings of Dreams

This really began with that main synth loop on the Microbrute. I probably have an hour or so of playing that, just completely spacing out. I pulled some sections of that out and composed the song from it before layering different textures and bits to add color and sparkle. It's a sort of recurring theme on this album that one main part started something, but to give it life and to make it feel real and lived in, I added details until it felt finished.

Islands

Began as two separate songs, actually, until I realized they were in the same key and basically fit together like a glove. The harp bits are from a sample library I've had for ages and never used until recently. There are field recordings of the ocean buried in there, but there are also synth parts that sound like waves because I wanted there to be a more spectral, otherworldly feeling to it. Imagining 'lives we once lived,' making these pieces feel 'lived in' but also sort of distant and surreal, dream-like was a focus.

Particular Phantoms

Every album needs some bits of urgency and that came to life here through a somewhat melodramatic chord progression. As soon as I wrote that part and recorded it, I knew I was going to use an arpeggio at the crescendo. I heard it within minutes, but it took me ages to get the right timbre so this song sat 90% finished for months. I don't actually remember how I made that bell/chiming sound, but it's actually my favorite part of the song.

Heliosis

An entire lifetime distilled into glass. This song was about slowing down and pausing before letting go and flying. It starts submerged and ends up in the stars. It was recorded in a single afternoon, one of those songs that just drops from the ether like a fully-formed idea all at once. The Microbrute once again drives the ship here, taking care of all the main synth parts except the underlying drone (that is the modular). There's also some guitar bits buried in the ending, only vaguely recognizable as guitar. I do love taking a recognizable sound and muddying it up until it sounds like something else entirely.

Light Reflecting in Mirrors

Another bit of drama. This one always felt a little overbearing and maximalist to me, those moments in life that feel impossible, too much, and with no way to escape. There are so many different layers going in and out throughout the song, all the textural elements toward the end began as field recordings processed on the Morphagene through various effects and then pulled into Reaper and mangled further. I don't entirely remember what they were recordings of at this point, but it became more about the frenetic emotions conveyed than the actual sound itself.

We Still Glow

Another one that came together on a single afternoon. The underlying chords were actually the last part I wrote. This started with the weird, almost vocal-sounding parts (again, the Microbrute. Not sure I've spent $300 better in my life!). I sat playing around with that sound and those notes for a while before a passage I really connected with arrived. It felt like ghosts speaking from beyond - not in an ominous way, but reassuring. Maybe even comforting. From there it was about supporting and building that feeling, giving that part a place to live.

For Keeps

Not every album needs a coda, but this one certainly did. I have five or six versions of this song on my hard drive using different synth voices and it never worked until I just used a piano plugin instead. The water recording is from my hydrophone in a rain bucket in our yard last spring. I couldn't explain, exactly, why it made so much sense paired with these sharp chords, but it completed the track in a really quiet, almost intimate way to me.