Rob and Kal – The Human Beings

May 28th, 2010 | By Kal

Hey,

It’s been a while, and I’m sorry about that, but things are about to change!

I’ve written in the past about inspiration. From the “what ifs” of household names not meeting their muse, to what and who inspired me. Well last night, Rob and I attended a seminar. Oh, did I just say that? Yeah, I think I did. Rob and I went into London and spent three hours (it flew by!) in the company of all forms of the music industry, and one Ariel Hyatt (@cyberpr).

But why would uber-cool musicians like ourselves (of course), and the musicians, songwriters, managers, marketers and publicists who were also present at PRS HQ last night, attend a seminar? Well prior to yesterday, we might have been embarassed to tell you, but we were there to learn and discuss how to get better at what we do.

And it makes sense. In all walks of life, if you want to succeed at something, you strive to become better at it, and last night, we heard from truly one of the best. Ariel Hyatt runs a PR company called Ariel Publicity, has done so for 15 years and for the last 6 of those has worked with artists exclusively through the internet. Last night she took us on a journey through social media and the internet and how it can be used to market yourself and communicate with your fans; and that one sentence cannot do justice to how much we learnt.

Why would I have been embarassed to tell you all this before last night? That doesn’t fit in with the tell-all style of Mubla 2.0, does it? Well, before last night, Rob and I had always tried to be Rob and Kal the musicians. Did you know we both have full time jobs? That I was in hospital recently because I seriously injured my knee? Glamorous stuff, huh?

I love doing what we do, making music and getting to know new people so why not add us on twitter (@robandkal) or on facebook (www.facebook.com/robandkal), and if you’re there with us already, drop me a line, say whatever you want, because from now on, it won’t just be Rob and Kal the musicians – meet Rob and Kal the human beings!

Stay tuned for the fruits of our inspiration! x

Preview: Studio Day 9

March 28th, 2010 | By Kal

Tomorrow – Monday 29 March – Rob and I will be heading to Riverway Studios for our ninth studio day. It looks as if the development of our five songs, which you can listen to here in our song section, is coming to a natural conclusion and tomorrow we will most likely be concentrating on mixing the tracks. That’s why it is so important that you tell us what changes you’d like on these songs before it’s too late.

All I Ever Wanted

Tell us what you’d like to see done to All I Ever Wanted.  Our plans right now other than just mixing it more cleverly are to redo the acoustic guitar (thanks Jon for your suggestion). With regards to the mixing, we are going to heed April’s warning and make sure that the vocals are more audible in the bridge, whilst also letter Dave’s beautiful violin part stay in the foreground.  What else could we do?

Can’t Help Me Now

We’ve already had a comment from Adam, and we fully intend to bring the Piano back to the forefront – there might even be a remix in it as we agree that the piano/vocals had a “real charm” to them.  Martin Ross recently gave us a philosophy overhaul – he wanted music that demanded attention, rather than anything shy and retiring.  While we might not be able to totally pull that off with this song, we’ll definitely give it a go here and on the other tracks tomorrow.  Thanks for that Martin.  If anyone else has comments about Can’t Help Me Now, now is your time to air them, because come 6pm tomorrow night, we might have shut up shop – but then again, that’s for you to tell us!

I Wanna Know

I Wanna Know has always been my favourite song deep down, but as the other songs have developed, I’ve started to like all of them more and more.  Is there anything that we can do to this song to make it stand out from the pack again?  Russell The Armchair Critic suggested we turn up the heavy guitar towards the end, and that’s definitely something we will look at doing during the mixing tomorrow, and if it doesn’t work we might even bring another guitar into play.  We’ll see.  What else would you like to see on the track?  We’re making moves to follow up Marta’s suggestions of some Cello!

The Island Without a Name

Of  all the songs we have been working on as Rob and Kal, this one has received the most positive feedback.  Even when it was just a piano and vocals people voiced a preference for it and as it has developed, with some overdriven guitar and violins the comments have remained positive – there must be something about this song.  But with that said, is there anything you want to hear on the track?  Darius has suggested an Oboe part and Lani has suggested a flute or female vocal.  If anyone can woodwind, or is a female vocalist and you want to come in and collaborate with us, drop us an email at robandkal@gmail.com!

Vedere

And last, but certainly by no means least, Vedere.  Since the second version of this track with the soft electric guitar, this song has been the most polished of our song ideas, and with the addition of Dave’s Violin parts, it became almost untouchable!  We realise we need to sort out the levels on the drums, but what would we change.  We thank Alex for her comments – we are going to really work on getting a more dramatic sound particularly in the instrumental part tomorrow when we mix the track.  Apart from that, this track works well for me now, but then it always has done.  Give us your suggestions and we’ll be sure to give them a try tomorrow or possibly in Studio Day 10 if you really grab our attention.

And the same can be said for all of the tracks.  Thank you for all of your comments and contributions so for.  I’ve got a feeling that soon enough you’ll be able to hear a fully mastered version of all 5 tracks, which will sound about 100 times better than what’s here currently – until then, take it as read that you can comment and help us change these songs for the better.

Just click on the song titles or pictures, give the songs a listen, and tell us what you think!

I’ll get back to you after tomorrow,

Kal – over and out.

What Kal Does – Vocal Harmonies

March 27th, 2010 | By Kal

I thought I’d kick off this series of blogs about what I do with possibly my favourite ‘job’ within Rob and Kal – providing vocal harmonies.  Within our music, my harmonies range from something subtle on tracks like The Island Without a Name and Can’t Help Me Now to something very clear cut and almost separate on Vedere.

What is a vocal harmony?

Well as the name suggests, a vocal harmony occues when two or more voices, that compliment one another, sing simultaneously  – pedants, see wikipedia…

It’s something that’s not really talked about within mainstream music, but if you listen to nearly every track in the charts for example, it will have vocal harmonies – be they simply the same vocal sung by the same artists, or another member of the band chipping in on a different set of notes.

The obscure nature of vocal harmonies means it’s fun to cite influences.  It allows me to mention major artists and bring you another talent that these guys have, that you may not have associated with them, or their image.

I remember the first time I really noticed or cared about a vocal harmony.  I was at Rob’s house with a few friends and it was the night before our last ever day of school.  We were waiting for the early hours of the morning to come so we could go to the school and set up some pranks for the next day.  To pass the time we found ourselves watching an Oasis tour DVD.  Listening to a rendition of Stand By Me, at first I wondered why Liam Gallagher’s voice suddenly had this extra power and sounded so much better at certain times during the chorus and second verse.  Then as I listened more closely I realised that Noel was singing a harmony, to great effect.  I have tracked down an acoustic version of the song on Youtube to illustrate that more clearly.  Give it a listen:

As well as add power to a vocal, a harmony will also emphasise a line for a songwriter, Noel has also used vocal harmonies here in the second voice to create a bit of variation.  The verses, one with just Liam singing and one softened by a Noel harmony are now different, giving the song a dynamic, as it is building from start to final chorus, even with just a guitar, two vocals…and a man sitting by a swimming pool on tambourine!

The way I see it, the other use of vocal harmonies or should I say the main use of them, is when they are the focal point.  Perhaps Rob and Kal doesn”t have a song like this yet, although I’d say the closest we have is in the chorus if All I Ever Wanted. A tight harmony is one of the most beautiful things on the ear, and that’s why we all enjoy a barbershop quartet.  Don’t think you do? Well each generation has had it’s edition of a vocal quartet or group. Motown fans need look no further than the Supremes, while those raised on 90s teen pop may enjoy listening to The Backstreet Boys – every genre has them, or I assume they do – I have yet to scope out death metal!!

My personal iteration of the vocal group is Boyz II men.  Listen to this completely acapella version of their biggest hit End of the Road.  I say totally because if I didn’t know it myself, I’d swear they were singing with a full band – they’re not:

Who are the biggest band in the world?  I’ll leave you all to argue that, but one of the front running contenders (at least), who are gracing the Glastonbury stage this summer when I go are U2.  And leaving religious beliefs aside, if God does exist, the gospel choir and the beautiful harmonies it creates would be his music.  Listen here to Bono belt out U2‘s classic I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For with The New Voices of Freedom gospel choir from their Rattle and Hum tour:

To wrap up, I urge you to listen closely to any of the music in your ‘record collection’; to any of the artists you particularly like; to even those who you don’t care for so much.  They’re all at it – vocal harmonies give music an added dimension, they give it a polish and more emotion at the same time.

Leaving all of these possibly pretentious adjectives aside, to me, vocal harmonies make music sound good.

Studio Day 7

February 26th, 2010 | By Kal

Collaboration rules.

When we first embarked on Mubla 2.0, we didn’t realised just how powerful the idea of getting people out there to comment on our music was.  As time has gone on, and you’ve posted your thoughts on our songs, it has been amazing as to how useful it’s all been.  I’m not just saying that.

And it’s been the same with collaboration.  I couldn’t have predicted just how much the people we’ve worked with would have contributed to the songs.  Just look at how much Dave added with his Violin last time we were in the studio.  And the same can be said for Matt.

It seems obvious.  Songs need drums.  But at the very very start of this process, we thought we could do without, with our instrumentation coming to the fore.  It’s safe to say we snapped out of it – OK, so every song doesn’t need drums, but some do, and today that’s what we achieved.

Matt added drums (or percussion to give it it’s posh title) to all 5 songs, and while we knew what we wanted going into the session, he was able to lay down his own ideas that made us sit up and say, actually, that’s better than I could ever have imagined, let alone played.  So thanks Matt!

If you want to hear some of Matt’s handy-work, we’ve uploaded today’s version of I Wanna Know, complete with drums, already.  I really like the way he compliments the violins, but tell us what you think!

Oh and if you play an instrument, and have ideas for our music, at least get in contact.  I can assure you, the pleasure will be all ours!

The Island Without A Name – Writing Music to Poetry

February 21st, 2010 | By Kal

In this blog I’ll be discussing what happens when you already have the lyrics before you’ve written the music. It may seem like something usual, trivial even, but as I mentioned in All I Ever Wanted – The Story So Far, lyrics are something I consider once I have a large chunk of the music sorted.  To do it the other way around produces something different.

To explain how things work the ‘other way round’ (with the lyrics coming first), I wanted an example – a song where this had been the case – and here it is:  The Island Without a Name.

Rob wrote lyrics to a song of the same name, a long time ago – BRK (Before Rob and Kal) and I suppose it reinforces the idea that we usually write lyrics to music and not the other way around.  The song formerly known as Island was a completely different song might I add and the lyrics that we’ve ‘air lifted’ now form the verses of the song you see here, a song for which we didn’t come up with the basic musical idea until around a year ago.  Four simple chords.

When you write a song, on an acoustic guitar, piano or even with just bass notes, as in this case, you don’t know the direction the song will take.  What I mean by that is,  no matter what melodies or chords you start with you can go in any direction emotionally.  Do you want the song to sound cheerful? Eerie? Depressing (some people like that!)? It’s up to the the song writer, and in the case of our Mubla 2.0 project, it’s up to you.  :)

In my experience, when we’ve written songs, Rob and I have started with the music, developed it to a certain level and then added lyrics.  The words and the theme have been heavily influenced by the music we had to start with and while this might not be the case for other ‘artists’ out there, it’s how we do it!

So in the case of The Island Without a Name, Rob already had a set of lyrics, that he had used for a different song.  (Perhaps if we ask him nicely enough, he’ll post the midi version of the song formerly known as Island!)  With this set of lyrics came a set of emotions and a theme that we had to mirror when we developed the song.

The words refer to a break up.  An angry one at that.  ’You thought I’d be upset, but I’m not!’  And with that said, something that sums up my whole point is the ending of the song.  You know the bit I’m talking about, right?  Listen to version 4, and it’s where the electric guitar comes in.  Rob added that part to the structure of the song not long before we recorded version 1, to give it a resurgent feeling which really suits what the song is about.

We had some lyrics and a mood.  We then brought in a musical idea, and fleshed it out with the feeling of the lyrics.  You provide your comments that we work on, and Dave and Matt (soon!) come in and add their expertise. As I say it’s not the way we usually do it, but maybe with how well Island is turning out, it’s something we should do more often. ‘Writing lyrics to poetry’ has a nice ring to it. Let us know.

Update – 18 February

February 18th, 2010 | By Kal

I just thought I’d give you guys an update on what’s been happening with us.  It suddenly dawned on me that if you don’t have us on Twitter or Facebook, you wouldn’t have heard about the goings on over the last few weeks!

In music news, Rob and I have been working on some new songs.  In particular, we’ve now worked out a full song version of “my tune“.  To my surprise, Rob came up with the bridge, and further to my surprise, it was one of the best we have!

More recently, we’ve been rehearsing with Matt in preparation for some studio time next week.  This is the second person we will have collaborated with and judging by the session we had a couple of evenings ago at Riverway studios, it’s going to be as good as Studio day 6!

Speaking of collaboration, an update on that front is that we’ve added a brand new section to robandkal.com.  Click here, or on the cool looking guitar at the top of the screen to find out more about the people we are working with.  If you want your profile up there and think you could really add something to our songs, just do what Dave and Matt did and get in touch.  Details of how you can get involved are in the collaboration section too!

Before I sign off, I think another update would be to thank everyone who has commented on our music over the last few weeks.  Every piece of advice has had an impact on how we develop our songs – and every compliment has inflated my ego sufficiently! Thanks!

I look forward to hearing from more and more people, and the same old faces.  Until next time :)

Studio Day 6

February 1st, 2010 | By Kal

I think I’m running out of superlatives here – seriously!

“Studio Day 5! What a day.” Well I can top that, and you will totally understand when you hear the latest versions of our songs. But until they come out, this week, you will have to take my word for it!

It all started early this weekend. Dave Chase, aka Douvre, came over armed with a couple of ideas and a lot of talent and wowed us in rehearsals. I say he had a couple of ideas without exaggeration – Dave had prepared ideas for I Wanna Know and All I Ever Wanted. The rest was improvised between Sunday and the Monday recording sessions!

And that was the theme of the majority of the day. Dave managed to record violin tracks onto all of our songs, apart from Can’t Help Me Now, with the remainder of the day dedicated to recording new song ideas (Coming soon!).

We might go on about it a lot, but it truly struck me today. The whole collaborative part of this project is going to a) produce great tracks and b) be a LOT of fun for us!

The tracks will be uploaded over the next week, but until then, check the video below, which we filmed with Dave last night…