Recording
engineer Andrew O’Brien talks about his cover of ‘Hello’
“When I was given the opportunity to record
and produce a cover of this song for another artist, I was excited to see what
could be created.”
Adele: Who is she?
Adele has become a major phenomenon, and one of the most successful
artists of the 21st century. Over 100 million records sold across
the world in her ever growing career, her second album 21 became the fourth
best selling album in the UK of all time, going 16 times platinum. Her latest music triumph, 25, has seen her charge straight back to the top of the charts, going straight to number one across the world. The lead single “Hello” has led the “Rolling in the Deep” singer to new heights, smashing records across the world.
The Recording Process
Andrew O’Brien is
a music producer and sound engineer based in the Midlands. He has worked with
several bands and has re-mixed, sequenced and composed. He has just completed a series of covers of
Adele’s phenomenally successful global hits. With the help of a small team Andrew
recorded this cover in a local studio, which he hired out over a period of
time. “The reason Kate and I (The artist) picked this song to cover is because
of how relevant it is music lovers at the moment and from a business
perspective, we knew a cover of this popular song would help Kate gain
attention as an artist.” Kate is an upcoming singer songwriter, also from
Tamworth who approached O’Brien and asked him to help her record this cover.
“The recording
process was really simple because everyone knew exactly what they were doing
and were really professional” – Andrew
speaking about his team
From the studio
in Tamworth he provided some insights into the process. “Well…I suppose I like
to sit down with the artist first, to see what direction they want take the
song in”. Seems very relaxed, I then went to proceed to ask him about what
equipment he used.
“Obviously it depends on what I am recording. For instance for the vocals I used a Rode NT1, as this gave the best capture”. Although after a slight pause he then added, “Okay admittedly it was the only mic I had access too! I’m not that rich you know! But I’m still happy with the way the vocals turned out in the end, with some reverb added they were great!”
“Obviously it depends on what I am recording. For instance for the vocals I used a Rode NT1, as this gave the best capture”. Although after a slight pause he then added, “Okay admittedly it was the only mic I had access too! I’m not that rich you know! But I’m still happy with the way the vocals turned out in the end, with some reverb added they were great!”
“The
drums are were the most difficult and frustrating to record,” Andrew explains
as he clarifies how he recorded the drums. “I used two AKG C100s for the
hi-hats, Shure SM 58 for the snare and a AKG D112 for the kick”. Despite having difficulty recording the
drums, it seems that mixing them was a lot simpler than he had originally
thought. “As long as they don’t clip when they are recorded, they are not to
bad to mix. I adjusted the levels of the EQ and applied some compression to
make sure the drums were balanced.” 
With
regards to mixing and mastering I went to on to ask how O’Brien he approaches
this process, especially for this cover. “I think like anyone, the process is
different for everyone. For me I start by mixing the most complicated section,
in this case it was the drums”. He also likes the artist, who he is working
with to be present. “At the end of the day it is their song, well cover, and I
want them to be happy with it.” “For ‘Hello’ it was really simple to mix and
master, its quite a simple song to be fair, for me simplicity is the key!”
Gaining
Permission
For those who want to record a cover and
release it to commercial market it is essential that you have gained
permission. I questioned Andrew to see how he managed to gain permission to
record and release this cover. “It wasn’t easy,” laughed Andrew “As soon as
Kate told me the song, I was like ‘How the heck are we going to get permission
for this!’” But he did it “I applied for a mechanical license, which allows us to
release the cover, but all of the royalties go to the original artist”.
“It was never about making a lot of money,
Kate just wanted to establish herself 
as an artist and
gain attention from record labels” Since the release of their cover, Andrew
exclusively revealed that he is back in the studio with Kate working on more
music. “I’m super excited! We are working on some original material now, as a
producer I am starting to experiment more, for instance I just purchased my
first synth it’s a Moog Voyager. 
as an artist and
gain attention from record labels” Since the release of their cover, Andrew
exclusively revealed that he is back in the studio with Kate working on more
music. “I’m super excited! We are working on some original material now, as a
producer I am starting to experiment more, for instance I just purchased my
first synth it’s a Moog Voyager. 
44 key True analog Performance
Synthesizer with
3-dimensional
Touch Surface
and MIDI
Reflection
on Simplicity
To end this interview I asked O’Brien to
look back on his first major recording and production. I wanted to know if he
would do anything different knowing what he knows now. “Oh yeah completely” he
said, “I would defiently experiment more in the mixing and mastering stage. For
example I would experiment with reverb and delay more. However we only had a
short time frame before we had to release the cover, it was defiently a
learning process for both Kate and myself.”
But it wasn’t all bad for him. “Even though it was difficult I think the project went extremely well, the instruments that were recorded were great, there was no clipping and the capture was perfect”
But it wasn’t all bad for him. “Even though it was difficult I think the project went extremely well, the instruments that were recorded were great, there was no clipping and the capture was perfect”
“I guess now with more confidence, I would
go back and try different recording techniques, to see if there was a better
way to gain the capture of something, for instance the drums” and what has
overall learned from that time and experience. “I think going forward I am not going
to be as ‘simple’” he states laughing “ Being more confident and taking risks
to gain a new and better sound”.
Feedback from our Sound on Sound audience
has been really supportive and positive of this upcoming producer. One reader commented,
“I really enjoyed this cover because it was more stripped back than the original,
it was nice to hear”. Another added “This song is so popular at the moment, it
was very clever to release a cover of it now”. What about Adele herself? Well unfortunately
we couldn’t get a comment from her, but the fact this cover is being played on
local radios sure is a good sign. Let us hope Andrew’s and Kate’s success
continues.
