Remembering the Capital FM Session in Seattle with IQBeats.
Updated: Dec 21, 2020
Steven Scalfati one of the worlds most talented writers and producers.
It was just about the last thing I expected, a call from Richard Park's office. "Mark can you pop in Richard wants to see you" . Now many people know that Richard can be very direct and that is how he gets stuff done. This was no exception. Door open, I walk in, 'Mark, now we need to get a strong new jingle package for Capital, the budget is XX and you need to sort it, come back with ideas". Leaving not quite sure what that meant. Very quickly I found out. The job was to lease with then programme director Paul Jackson, Head of Production Arden Hanley and the team at IQBeats at Seattle, get demos written and report back directly to Richard and Ashely Tabor, founder and CEO of Global. These guys are into radio as well as the business, they want a big sound and cutting corners is not an option. That is a strong position to be in for a creative team.
Over the next few months we built tracks, developed vocal sounds and chose singers. Then it became apparent this was to be a MONSTER. Lets also sing it for Red Dragon FM and several other stations in the network. Very quickly it becomes clear that this would be tricky to manage from London, typical Global though, no problem, go to Seattle - two weeks should sort it. So off I went accompanied by Arden with more vocal sheets than imaginable, xl documents of required mix outs and a great deal of excitement.
Over the course of the next two weeks we both learned a lot, how to blend vocals perfectly, how to make five singers sound like 20, how, if you have a great vocal take but in the wrong key, just transpose it!
We recorded solos, groups, duos, long mixes, short mixes, beds, transitions, news, travel, weather.
The package was a great success - it took a further two months to get all the mixes perfectly balanced and on the air but, as the brief required, it brought back a big and bold sound to Capital, Richard was happy, thanked us and announced "well after that let's do something for Gold" I'll tell you about that another day!
Blogging from Your Published Site
Did you know that you can blog right from your published website? After you publish your site, go to your website’s URL and login with your Wix account. There you can write and edit posts, manage comments, pin posts and more! Just click on the 3 dot icon ( ⠇) to see all the things you can do.