Lust, hunger and inspiration. You never know exactly when any of these cravings will strike. What’s for certain, though, is that only one of them can be sated with a mobile phone – and especially so if phoning out for some food, or a friend, are considered to be off the menu.
For musicians, a mobile is often the ideal tool with which to capture the lucidity of the moment, whether this be just a fleeting melody, a simple lyric, or in some cases, an entire song. You can obviously capture audio onto most mobiles, by simply using the built-in microphone and a galaxy of artists have famously done so. For instance, Plan B reportedly crooned the entirety of ‘The Defamation Of Strickland Banks’ onto his old Nokia blower, with nothing more than an acoustic guitar, prior to even setting foot into a studio to record the album properly. And this seemed to work out well. The main limitation is, of course, the sound quality, certainly compared to that of a portable music gizmo such as the OLYMPUS LS-3 (£160; Olympus.co.uk) which Clash loves.
Nevertheless, a phone does have potent tricks up its sleeve which more than even the odds. The first is that this is the single item you are likely to have on you at any given moment. More so than a wallet or keys and certainly more than a dedicated audio-recording gadget. The next is that with a smartphone, you aren’t limited to simply recording a single live audio source. You can lay down multiple tracks, each containing voices or instruments, then monkey about with these using apps that literally place a software synth or sequencer right at your fingertips. Loop some beats, mash-up your own sounds, or create new ones on the hoof. Your humble dog and bone is instantly transmogrified into a digital audio workstation or, in simpler terms, a pocket studio. How cool is that?
Now, to be fair, this idea smells more like teen sprit than a credible route to audio nirvana, yet some bands are said to have already recorded an entire album onto a smartphone. The Alabama-based rockers, One Like Son, released ‘Start The Show’ in January of this year, whereas the NYC electronica duo, Nuclear O’Reilly, put out ‘Phoning It In’ way back in 2009.
To establish just how feasible this really is, Clash challenged Ghostpoet, one of our favourite UK rappers, to put together a new track, from scratch, in a single day using nothing more than his own iPhone, plus a few accessories which included some microphones and an electric guitar. Eagle-eyed readers will remember that Clash conducted a similar exercise in the autumn with Roots Manuva on an iPad. This time, however, the ante has been upped considerably, not least because a phone has so much less screen space on which to fiddle about with software than a tablet does. On the upside, Ghostpoet was given free reign to flit about in Metropolis Studios in London, and he was gamely supported by its long-suffering audio engineer whose expressions throughout the day, frankly, spoke a thousand words.
Before moving onto the specifics of what happened at Metropolis, a brief word about why an iPhone was the weapon of choice. Aside from the bald fact that our artist-in-residence already had one comfortably tucked in his pocket, there are two solid technical reasons. For starters, the sheer range of music apps available for iPhone completely dwarfs those created for other phones. Just as important, though, are the audio accessories, which opened up the door to using, among other things, a competent external microphone far superior to that built into any phone. Basically, it made no sense to even try this ambitious project with any other handset.
The humbly named Studio E of the Metropolis complex in London houses enough audio wizardry to have satisfied arch tinkerers such as Will.i.am or Mark Ronson – and even Paul McCartney didn’t have any complaints. Today, it is occupied by the Clash team attempting to create a track, almost entirely on an iPhone, in just a single day. This is a collaboration with Ghostpoet (AKA Obaro Ejimiwe), the magazine’s Mercury-nominated muse.
The day begins with everyone studiously ignoring the huge bank of switches on the mixing desk and staring intently at the Apple handset, which is nonchalantly perched near a big box of iPhone accessories. After thirty minutes of teeth-sucking and the odd frown, Obaro’s sunny disposition palpably melts the fear of the new. “Worries are for the birds, not for me,” he laughs. “I just want to try my best and make my mum proud.”
Our spectral ally decides not to waste precious studio time trying lots of hardware options and plumps for the kit he believes has the best chance of success. So, rather than auditioning mics specifically designed to work with an iPhone (see box-out) his eye is drawn to a Tascam breakout box that enables him to plug in conventional audio kit and get his groove on. The roughly six-inch-wide Tascam isn’t the most pocket-friendly option. However, its ability to provide phantom power to standard XLR microphones means that, within moments, Obaro is laying down some vocals into a cheap Shure SM58 mic. Nice work.
He listens back to the results and seems pleased. Buoyed by this success, Obaro picks up an electric guitar he finds lying about the studio and plugs it into a spare socket of the Tascam breakout box which is, of course, still connected to the iPhone and the mic. Further teeth-sucking ensues when this guitar melody isn’t at the same volume-level as the vocals. Nevertheless, with a bit of fiddling, this is resolved and the hours pass quietly, punctuated by the odd bleep and a nice panini, as he experiments with various apps to help him cook up a new tune. Growing in confidence, Obaro starts to add audio effects and create rhythms using the drum machine of an app called Beatmaker 2, which quickly becomes the hub of his own little pocket studio. He is plainly impressed at the tools this has provided to arrange his broad spectrum of disparate elements into a coherent track how user-friendly these are. “I like to make music that is a mixture of bits and bobs. It’s all just sound really,” he explains, evidently buzzing off his own creative energies.
As the session draws to a close, the new tune is finally taking shape. “I was surprised at how easy it was to get decent quality results out of this,” says Obaro, “as I thought it would be really sluggish way to work.” He is plainly proud of the ‘soundscapy thing’ he is concocting. But would he release an album created in this way? “I’m note sure about that,” he smiles.
“But with a little more finessing and arrangement, I’d be happy to have people listen to it.” The point being that this method of recording is far from ready to replace a proper studio – yet. It does, however, provide a great way to sketch out musical ideas or collaborate when this wouldn’t otherwise be possible and capture a fleeting moment of inspiration that might otherwise be lost.
“I’m sure there are people who would use all these apps or tools in very different ways to me. It’s important to give everything a go. Don’t stay cooped up in your own little world. Why not explore new things? I’ve certainly done that today.” And in truth he seems quietly satisfied with the musical journey that he has been on.
So how did the end results sound? Listen to Ghostpoet’s ‘WellYeahPaxo’ below or download HERE.
Words by Alex Pell
Photo by Hayley Brown
Track engineered by Xavier Stephenson
Thanks to Metropolis Studios.