Looking back on 2021

It goes without saying that 2020 was a strange year, but for me personally, this past year has been even more odd. For one thing, it’s the first year in my post-college life when I haven’t worked as a singer AT ALL. Now, I hasten to add that this is by choice - the world opened up enough this year to allow auditions and performances, it’s just that I chose not to go back to what was, for me, a psychologically unsustainable merry-go-round of performance highs and rejection lows. 

Instead, I chose to focus on the recording side of things, to mindfully consolidate everything I learned over the course of 2020, which was the year of the crazy learning curve. If you can somehow disregard the soul-crushing and heart-breaking difficulties of the pandemic, it was in many ways a very exciting and creative year, full of experimentation and for me, growth born of saying ‘yes’ and figuring out how to do whatever it was as we go.

2021 has been a bit more settled in that regard. There’s been more of a return to the bread-and-butter of what I do - video demo recordings for classical singers, but with the benefit of bringing a lot of newly acquired skills and insight to the whole process. Apart from incremental improvements to the sound quality and workflow side of things, the big ‘innovation’ that has cemented itself as a regular feature of 2021 has been the drop-in recording day. It has been a great way for me to offer a lower cost alternative to individual recording sessions, and the feedback I’ve had has been fantastic. In a year where travel has been difficult and many auditions have been based solely on video submissions, hearing from people that they got jobs thanks to recordings made with me has made me feel like… Well, it’s hard to describe, but it makes me feel like I’m still very much a part of the opera singing world, and a positive one at that (and I mean that with the minimum amount of ego that phrase implies).

I got into the recording business because I felt the existing service providers at the time were charging way too much for a lacklustre product. I very much elbowed my way onto the market as the cheap option. That was about 10 years ago, and as I look around the demo scene, I can see that’s no longer the case. There are cheaper places to go, but the service I offer has evolved quite a bit over the years, and the results I achieve now are much closer to commercial releases than they were a few years ago (oh yes, must update the website!). In line with that, my prices have gone up, as I’ve invested in new tools and skills, and that presents me with a dilemma…

My favourite part of the job is working with up and coming singers, hearing new voices, seeing those singers then go on to join opera companies, or get onto young artist programmes, etc. With those singers, I sometimes manage to integrate a bit of coaching into my role as producer, and being able to help them navigate the process of recording is hugely rewarding for me. What I’m still trying to work out is how to be as accessible as I can for new cohorts of singers coming up. The barriers to entry into the profession are already big enough - low job security, huge cost of training and auditioning, etc. Looking forward into 2022, I’m hoping to address this as best I can (in my own little corner of the industry). There’s one project in particular I can’t wait to share with you, but alongside that, I’d love to engage in some partnerships with YAPs, music colleges and opera companies here in the UK to offer the upcoming cohort of singers an easy and affordable route to creating a video demo portfolio.

So that’s my big concern coming out of this year. There have been some exciting new developments that I’ll look back on fondly, though. For one thing, I recorded my first full album with commercial release in mind. It’s still in the post-production stage, so watch this space, but it’s definitely something I want to do more of! The experience of working with a team of artists over a few days, rather than hours, felt downright indulgent and luxurious, not to mention fun! 

I’ve also taken small steps outside classical music, doing a few small mixing and mastering projects in more contemporary genres (rock/folk/pop). That has been a fantastic return to my roots. My first musical pursuits were as a singer in a metal band and my first experiences with recording sound were producing demos for said band. The role of mix engineer in non-classical music is in many ways more creative than in pure classical. You get to take on some of what a conductor or MD does - making decisions about balance, colour, tone, and a host of other musical effects. I’d love to keep doing mixing and mastering on the side, so if anyone reading this has any non-classical side projects - hit me up!

Specific work highlights of this past year include recording, mixing, and operating the camera for ETO’s Aidan; VOPERA’s 2020 film of L’enfant et les sortilèges winning an RPS Award (being at the ceremony was great fun); getting a few emails to the tune of ‘the videos you made me got me a job’ (though I’m pretty sure the jobs were won on the merit of the singing, not production values… still, it really is nice to read those emails); recording a CD’s worth of Purcell music for Ben Williamson’s debut release… Oh, and being called ‘Gandalf’ in a Fiverr review for a children’s song mix.

In closing, 2021 has marked a huge gear change for me. Luckily, the car is still going forward, and the road ahead looks pretty exciting. I’m not one to rule anything out, so who knows, I may yet grace a stage in 2022 or beyond, but it’s more than likely that if you’re reading this, you’ll either next see me setting a microphone up for you, or you’ll see my name as a tiny credit in some online thing (or on a CD sleeve!). And that’s fine by me :)