The O My’s How To Dress Well Recording Session

Artist: The O My’s
Producer: How To Dress Well
Recording Engineer: Nick Breton

RECAP:

Day two with one of my favorite bands on the planet and what an interesting day it was! We started the session by hanging out and talking, Maceo and Nick (O My’s) arrived first. They went to the live room to jam on guitar and piano playing the song from yesterday. I told them how much I love that simple O My’s sound and how great that song sounds the way they’re playing it. Right after talking with them about that things took a radical turn in the other direction!

Tom (How To Dress Well) arrived. The guys played him two songs and on the second song he was ready to go. We pulled up the session and I sorted it out for us to be able to work on the track. These are some of the largest sessions I’ve ever dealt with. Over 15gb in file size, tens if not over a hundred tracks and tons of live instruments. Once I untangled the session and got it all routed Tom put on his producer hat and we got to work.

He asked me to mute all drums, mute the bass and Maceo wanted all vocals muted. Tom wanted a 4 on the floor drum pattern with 8th note high hats… My stomach knotted up a little… Less than 30 minutes ago I told the guys how much I love their music when it’s simple and soulful… But I went with it because that’s what he wanted. We dug through a few drum samples and found a kick and hat to work with. When we put them up we all felt a little awkward. It went from a retro R&B swing vibe to a straight modern EDM song in 5 minutes!

We slowly molded it away from four on the floor and put it into more of  a dub rhythm. Tom’s wheels were clicking and he was calling out ideas left and right. I did my best to help execute the programming and find decent sounds since I wasn’t prepared for things to go this route. We built the track out as far as the drum sequence and full track arrangement then started to add more instruments over the new sections we created.

Nick and Tom added sounds from the Juno-D synth and I fucked with them in Pro Tools to freak them out at Toms request. Upright piano came next, similar style to a Dr. Dre quarter note piano strike but we added a nice delay for added movement. Once we got the new parts in we started automating to give the production dynamics. We took a short break to eat some baked wings (tried a new food spot) and hung out for a few minutes.

After eating the guys started working out melodies for the first three sections (verse, pre, hook). As melodies started to come together they started to write lyrics. The verse came first, followed by the pre-hook. We recorded those parts and cleaned them up a little for listening sake. The guys sat with the hook for quite a while then finally took a stab at an idea. We recorded it, tried a few things but ultimately ended up deciding to leave it alone.

Very interesting and fun session, went out to left field to see what was out there and it’ll be up to the guys if they’re going to run with it. Bummed this is the last scheduled session with these guys but I hope we’ll work again soon!

 THE O MY’S PROFILE:

Soul band from Chicago.

TRUTH STUDIOS GEAR USED TODAY:

Soundelux U99
Purple Audio Sweet 10 500 Series Rack
Great River MP500NV Pre Amp
Purple Audio MC77 Compressor
Lynx Aurora 16
Burl B2
Dangerous D Box
Pro Tools HD3 PCIe
ADAM S3X

TRUTH STUDIOS PROFILE:

Truth Studios is a boutique recording studio located in the Fairfax district of Hollywood, California. The studio started in the bedroom of studio owner Nick Breton’s apartment making music with local Los Angeles buzzing artists. We have since grown into a beautiful loft where the studio currently operates. Truth offers studio rental, recording, mixing and mastering services to independent and major label clients from every corner of the globe. Truth Studios is affiliated with acts such as Chance The Rapper, Vic Mensa, Dom Kennedy, Asher Roth, Chuck Inglish, Alina Baraz, Anatii, Joey Bada$$, Boi 1da, Macy Gray, Mr Hudson, Walk The Moon, Martin Garrix and hundreds of other artists. This studio has become a landmark icon in Los Angeles and the music community worldwide.

SHORT DESCRIPTION:

The O My’s How To Dress Well Recording Session at Truth Studios Recording Studio Los Angeles with Engineer Nick Breton. The O My’s How To Dress Well Recording Session.