About the album

“Unlucky in love” is a collection of fifteen original dance songs. The tracks feature unusually thoughtful lyrics and imaginative arrangements. You can read both the song lyrics and song backgrounds by clicking the “Lyrics” tab on this website’s toolbar. You will then see a track listing. By clicking on any track title, the lyrics and song background information are revealed.

Songwriter Seán Silke writes: I started working with Chris on a number of dance tracks in the autumn of 2016 but postponed these sessions when Chris agreed to work full-time on the  “Unexamined Emotions” project (an album featuring the unique talent of Ellen Cosgrove).

Upon completing Ellen’s album, I suggested to Chris that we develop a dance album project along David Guetta or Calvin Harris lines – fifteen tracks featuring a variety of female singers. The keynote concept was dance songs with psychologically intelligent lyrics. I wanted to create melodic catchy dance music which also covered a range of ideas and emotions not often covered by this genre.

While I could easily come up with the original songs – I have a “back catalogue” of over 500 songs – I knew I lacked the necessary arrangement and production skills. The  major plus of working with Chris is what he brings to my demo material.

Chris has a great talent for working up the initial intro/rhythm track, and then adding extra melody lines or riffs (as intros or middle eights) – and sometimes piano or trumpet solos. He combines the gifts of being tremendously musical with that of being a very fast worker on his music production software (he uses CuBase).

We developed a smooth working method for putting the album together. I first assembled the track listing. I put all my existing demo’s for the 15 selected songs on a USB. I printed out 3 copies of each set of lyrics for studio reference.

Corresponding to each individual song, I usually prepare a page containing recording tips, key notation information, etc. This page (put together at the demo stage) is a vital tool to have to hand when recording. In addition, I check out You-Tube and identify at least three different “sound reference” videos for Chris’s consideration. He likes to be able to home in on one of these videos and use his interpretation of the “reference soundscape” as a creative spark; this helps him put together his own initial ideas about how to arrange and record my compositions.

When working on the Ellen Cosgrove album, we had the luxury of dedicating two full months of studio time – working five days a week, for six hours per day. However, “Unlucky in Love” was a much more drawn out process as Chris had gone back to his day job and all our work had to be done at night. It took us the best part of a year to complete fifteen tracks.

Chris doesn’t like to have two tracks “on the go” in parallel. He likes to finish one recording and start the next one afresh. As regards the contribution of the vocalist, Chris will sometimes call in the singer early in the process, right after preparing the backing rhythm track and basic instrumentation (he will finish layering the recording once the studio session with the singer is completed).

On other occasions, the early studio work may go so well that the arrangement is quite detailed when the singer arrives. We tend to record four complete vocal takes of the song (just to have the luxury of choice when determining the final vocal). We usually  select one complete take and then made a few “line substitutions” where a specific phrase is not quite perfect.

We were lucky to be able to avail of an extensive team of singers, six in all. These were Darien Chase, Trez Gallagher, Toni Caffrey, Heather Lawrie, Lydia Sheils and Ellen Cosgrove. The lion’s share of the recordings were handled by HeatheR, Darien and Ellen.

The recordings were made in three different studios (Lombard Street, Blackrock and Balgriffin), illustrating the unpredictable evolution of a music producer’s  career.

 

“Unlucky in love” is a collection of fifteen original dance songs. The tracks feature unusually thoughtful lyrics and imaginative arrangements. You can read both the song lyrics and song backgrounds by clicking the “Lyrics” tab on this website’s toolbar. You will then see a track listing. By clicking on any track title, the lyrics and song background information are revealed.

Songwriter Seán Silke writes: I started working with Chris on a number of dance tracks in the autumn of 2016 but postponed these sessions when Chris agreed to work full-time on the  “Unexamined Emotions” project (an album featuring the unique talent of Ellen Cosgrove).

Upon completing Ellen’s album, I suggested to Chris that we develop a dance album project along David Guetta or Calvin Harris lines – fifteen tracks featuring a variety of female singers. The keynote concept was dance songs with psychologically intelligent lyrics. I wanted to create melodic catchy dance music which also covered a range of ideas and emotions not often covered by this genre.

While I could easily come up with the original songs – I have a “back catalogue” of over 500 songs – I knew I lacked the necessary arrangement and production skills. The  major plus of working with Chris is what he brings to my demo material.

Chris has a great talent for working up the initial intro/rhythm track, and then adding extra melody lines or riffs (as intros or middle eights) – and sometimes piano or trumpet solos. He combines the gifts of being tremendously musical with that of being a very fast worker on his music production software (he uses CuBase).

We developed a smooth working method for putting the album together. I first assembled the track listing. I put all my existing demo’s for the 15 selected songs on a USB. I printed out 3 copies of each set of lyrics for studio reference.

Corresponding to each individual song, I usually prepare a page containing recording tips, key notation information, etc. This page (put together at the demo stage) is a vital tool to have to hand when recording. In addition, I check out You-Tube and identify at least three different “sound reference” videos for Chris’s consideration. He likes to be able to home in on one of these videos and use his interpretation of the “reference soundscape” as a creative spark; this helps him put together his own initial ideas about how to arrange and record my compositions.

When working on the Ellen Cosgrove album, we had the luxury of dedicating two full months of studio time – working five days a week, for six hours per day. However, “Unlucky in Love” was a much more drawn out process as Chris had gone back to his day job and all our work had to be done at night. It took us the best part of a year to complete fifteen tracks.

Chris doesn’t like to have two tracks “on the go” in parallel. He likes to finish one recording and start the next one afresh. As regards the contribution of the vocalist, Chris will sometimes call in the singer early in the process, right after preparing the backing rhythm track and basic instrumentation (he will finish layering the recording once the studio session with the singer is completed).

On other occasions, the early studio work may go so well that the arrangement is quite detailed when the singer arrives. We tend to record four complete vocal takes of the song (just to have the luxury of choice when determining the final vocal). We usually  select one complete take and then made a few “line substitutions” where a specific phrase is not quite perfect.

We were lucky to be able to avail of an extensive team of singers, six in all. These were Darien Chase, Trez Gallagher, Toni Caffrey, Heather Lawrie, Lydia Sheils and Ellen Cosgrove. The lion’s share of the recordings were handled by HeatheR, Darien and Ellen.

The recordings were made in three different studios (Lombard Street, Blackrock and Balgriffin), illustrating the unpredictable evolution of a music producer’s  career.

 

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