Having a band in mind when writing these songs has been very helpful and has sped up the process. A lot of decisions are made for me, for example since the majority of musicians have a rock/pop background this is the avenue I will explore in depth. The EP should hopefully sound very math-rock inspired with improvised sax solos and room for dynamic pop vocals. This is all still with my initial raw and garage-rock aesthetic in mind.
I have now finished writing the songs, and made demos for the band to learn from.
In order to perform live I contacted every venue in Sheffield but received few responses, likely due to the fact that we had no music released or much attention on social media. However we did get a gig booked in Sidney and Matilda on the 9th June which is very exciting for all of us.
I decided to avoid my tendency to micro-manage and allow each player to make up a lot of their own part, giving them a leadsheet with only when to come in written as opposed to the exact notes. This is helpful as they know their instrument and strengths better than I do and means that they can bring their personality to the instrument, meaning the EP will have more influences than just mine, but everyone else’s as well. I also wanted to give minimal instructions so the whole band can feel like it's our EP and not just Alfie's EP.
Below - The structure sheets that were handed to the band. Along with the demos (which they learnt more specifics like chord progressions from) this is
what they worked from.
