Trevor in the Studio

The First Christmas: An Interview with Trevor

Int:
  

How did the idea for The First Christmas come about?

TS:
  

We’d already recorded and orchestrated two story CDs, Mr Noah and the Ark and The Story of Creation and we were looking for another Bible story to record.  The story of the first Christmas seemed the ideal project.  We had 24-track recordings of 14 original songs from our two Christmas performances archived, so we made the decision to combine the Bible story from Matthew and Luke with a selection of songs from our musicals.
Int:
   What did you record first?
TS:
   Well, Karina started writing the story from the gospel accounts in February and we sent that out to four readers for comments and editing as we usually do.  We’ve always had our stories read by a children’s writer, a theologian and a speech therapist before we record them, to check for accuracy and flow of language and the like.  By the time the scripts were back, we were ready to get Ryan in to record the readings in June.
Int:
   That’s Ryan Saunders, isn’t it?
TS:
  

Yes.  We’d used Ryan on some of the song tracks on the Creation project, so we knew he recorded well.  Ryan was touring in rep as an actor in “The Madness of King George” at the time and we’d also recorded an audio demo for his CV, of him reading parts for radio plays, so we knew he could handle a range of different voices and accents.  We needed quite a range for shepherds, angels, men from the east – even an angry king!  So Ryan came in and read Karina’s script in a day.
Int:
   Had you already decided which of the songs you were going to include?
TS:
   No, not really.  After hearing Ryan read though, we were able to make some decisions about where to have the story breaks and that pointed us towards songs from our Christmas musicals.  Most of them fell into place quite quickly as the musicals followed the sequence of events in the gospels too. In fact, we sometimes had a choice of tracks – we had a pick of two lullabies, for instance, and several tracks we could use for the Wise Men.
Int:
   Did you have to record any new song material?
TS:
  

The only missing slot was for the chorus of angels – they really needed to be singing the “Glory to God” words from the narration and we didn’t have a song for that.  It took some time before we finally adapted a chorus from another song and got Esther in to record Glory Hallelujah.  We tried a few versions but eventually settled on a mix that was predominantly multi-layered voices, to capture the sound of angels singing. 

Int:
   How many angel voices are there on it, then?
TS:
   What with harmonies, a descant and the double-tracking, I think Esther recorded about ten voice tracks for that one.  She’s the ideal session singer and nails nearly all her tracks on the first take . . (laughs) . . Esther “one-take” McManus!   The whole session only took a little over an hour.  After the session I went back in and layered on a huge arrangement with timps and gongs and a full brass section – some awesome sounds in there . .  but when we auditioned the two versions of the track with a few critics, we eventually went with the vocal mix instead as it seemed more authentic for an angel choir.
Int:
  

So now all the song mixes were done, right?
TS:
  

Not quite.  When we played the first compilation demo through, it had Esther singing the original of Not Another King and we realised it needed a male vocal, especially following on from Ryan’s angry voice in the narrative, so we got Richard Wenninger in to do a voiceover on our original backtrack.
Int:
   Wasn’t Richard on the Creation project too?
TS:
  

Yes he was.  He sang the opening song on Creation but it was his angry voice on The Guilty One that was the convincer.  Not Another King has been a very popular song with children so it was worth giving it that bit more edge.
Int:
   If most of the song tracks were already recorded, what were you up to from June then?
TS:
   That was when the real work got started!  Apart from some breaks at the summer conferences, I spent the next few months scoring the music tracks to go behind the story.  Although its only background, that’s the part of these projects that takes the most time.
Int:
   Did you start by composing some new themes for the main characters?
TS:
   No . . actually, I started with the easiest part –  I went through the story and sampled all the sound effects first.  We’ve got an extensive library of over a thousand sounds – camels, sheep, thunder, squeaky doors! – but we still didn’t have everything we needed – no marching feet for the soldiers, f’r instance, so we had to record some of those from scratch.  The one that took the most time, bizarrely, was the sound of villagers in the street.  A lot of the library sounds were too ‘modern’ for first century Palestine – we eventually had to use the sound of people at a skating rink and edit out the sound of the skates for that one!
Int:
  

So the music came next?

TS:
    I’ve got a system now where I record a demo of all the music first on a little 4-track recorder by overdubbing, to check out what works before Karina comes in to record the masters in 24-track.  Some of it I write as a score in Sibelius and some I improvise over the story track.  The whole project is really a concept album that needs to sound as if it’s one continuous track, so I put each section of the background music in the same key as the song before it and then I make musical quotes from that song to give it some unity – then do the same at the end of that story section to lead into the next song.
Int:
   When did you start recording the masters?
TS:
  

Not until October.  I can work quite quickly from manuscript once we’ve decided how it should all sound.  Some of the tracks are very complex, using a string quartet or a section of reed instruments for maybe only a few bars – but that’s the fun of working on it!  And with 24-track you can use a lot of instruments and give them each their own track.
Int:
   Do you ever run out of tracks?
TS:
  

Well oddly there were a few sections where we had to get 28 instruments and sound effects on the 24 tracks at the same time, so we doubled up on some tracks and put like a tubular bell on the same track as a donkey or a barking dog.  It makes for a more challenging mix-down, otherwise you can get either a huge bell breaking in or the dog disappears altogether!  But Karina is very good at riding the faders in real time.
Int:
  

Doesn’t Karina do the artwork too?
TS:
   Yes – ArtsAnAnds is Karina’s own label for all the CD artwork.  Multi-talented!  Most of Karina’s work comes at the beginning and end of each project – at the end she masters the audio tracks, designs and finalises all the artwork and then outsources the pressing to The Duplication Centre.  And then we’re ready to go!
Int:
   So “Christmas” is finished – what are you working on next?
TS:
  

We’ve already recorded Ryan reading the story of Jonah – another fishy tail!  I’ve written a 1950s rock’n’roll-style song for that called Go Go Jonah, so that’s the next project.    Alongside that, we’ve been working on another album in the collective worship series called Five Jewish Festivals.  We’ve written two of the five so far – Sabbath and Passover.  I think all that should keep us busy in the studio for a while yet!
    January 2012