TN:122 James Blake

Thanks to Audiomovers for supporting this episode. Their Listento Plugin has been a gamechanger for us and we use it across all of our remote interviews and recordings. To see their full range of plugins, visit audiomovers.com and use the promo code TAPENOTES1 at checkout to get your free month (usually only two days). In this episode, John is joined by James Blake to talk about how he wrote, recorded and produced the album ‘Playing Robots Into Heaven’. With the idea of simplifying his solo work primarily with synths and drums, James shares his process of crafting an album with the purpose of getting away from the computer, reflecting on the impact it had on his creativity and mental health. A true master of modular synths, he talks us through the long journey learning to create ‘listenable’ music with them, discussing the ways in which they are able to create sounds that he couldn't have imagined.  Listen to discover the enlightening advice James received from Universal's Head A&R, how to best record your voice if you plan to pitch it, and how to adopt the mindset of making music for fun. Tracks discussed: Loading, Big Hammer, Playing Robots Into Heaven LINKS TO EVERYTHING TAPE NOTES   linktr.ee/tapenotes  Listen to ‘Playing Robots Into Heaven’ here. Republic Records, Polydor Records, UMG Recordings Intro Music - Sunshine Buddy, Laurel Collective GEAR MENTIONS Thermionic Culture Fat Bustard Sequential Prophet 8 Native Instruments Massive Intellijel Metropolis Make Noise MATHS Make Noise Black and Gold Soma Pulsar-23 Roland SH-101 Roland TR-8S Roland TR-909 Erica Synths LX-02 OEK Sound Soothe FXpansion Geist Valhalla Reverbs Valhalla Vintage Verb API Desk Logic Pro OUR GEAR https://linktr.ee/tapenotes_ourgear HELP SUPPORT THE SHOW If you'd like to help support the show you can donate as little or as much as you'd like here, (we really appreciate your contributions :)  Donate Or you can join us on Patreon, where among many things you can access full length videos of most new episodes, ad-free episodes and detailed gear list breakdowns. KEEP UP TO DATE For behind the scenes photos and the latest updates, make sure to follow us on:  Instagram: @tapenotes  Twitter: @tapenotes  Facebook: @tapenotespodcast   YouTube: Tape Notes Podcast Discord: Tape Notes Patreon: Tape Notes To let us know the artists you’d like to hear, Tweet us, slide into our DMs, send us an email or even a letter. We’d love to hear!  Visit our website to join our mailing list: www.tapenotes.co.uk TAPE NOTES TEAM Will Brown - Executive Producer, Engineer & Editor Tim Adam-Smith - Executive Producer Will Lyons - Editor Andy Tindall - Videographer Guy Nicholls - Production Assistant