Richard Thompson has spoken to ClashMusic about recording his new album ‘Dream Attic’ live in front of an audience.
Live albums are part and parcel of modern music. However for his new project Richard Thompson decided to treat an audience to an entire album’s worth of new material – and record the results.
A risky project, Richard Thompson put his band through its paces before entering onstage. Rushing through his new material, the result is a raw album which seems to emphasise his strengths as a songwriter.
Speaking to ClashMusic, Richard Thompson elaborated on his decision to record live. “I was thinking that it would be a different approach, a different way of achieving what we wanted” he explained.
“The feedback that I often get from fans is “what we really like is your live records, we prefer the live records to the studio records”. I thought let’s test this a little further by taking an album of new material and recording it live. Just bypass the studio process and do things live.”
Continuing, the singer explained that the new material was completed long before sessions began. “The songs were pretty much complete. In the course of rehearsals and the first few shows the songs shaped and evolved a little bit, but I always try and have stuff as complete as I can before taking it to the other musicians.”
However the success of the project didn’t stop Richard Thompson from longing for the studio. “There are nice things about recording something in a studio, you really have more options and you’re able to choose what you think is the best take and perhaps work on it. Then you can complete what you think is the best arrangement.”
“Like, if you think “oh this’ll be great with a couple of horns on it, or backing vocals.” You have choices, so you can achieve really the sound that you have in your head. Whereas if you’re playing live you’re going for the energy of the moment. It’s going to be cruder and slightly less well arranged. It’s a trade off.”
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