Studio Diaries: Seasonal - Bloom (2017)

With their debut’s title chosen to represent the new beginning for the quartet, vocalist/bassist of Seasonal, Matt Truseler gives an insight into it’s content: “Lyrically we take a very honest approach. The songs on this EP are all about personal experiences from our lives and feelings. We wanted to avoid having songs with generic lyrics that although anyone could relate to, do not have a personal connection to us: a balance between, what is relatable for the listener, without losing the meaning of each track for us.” Once happy with their repertoire, 9 months had passed and the band headed into the studio with the intention of recording just one track with Oz Craggs at Hidden Track in Folkestone. However, upon hearing the first mix, they were inspired to dive in, going on to lay down all of the songs that became ‘Bloom’. The result is an emotionally weathered offering of heartfelt pop rock, reminiscent of Jimmy Eat World, Deaf Havana and Taking Back Sunday. Following it’s recent release, the band are here to give an insight into the recording process…

When writing the tracks for the record, we had demoed and re written several tracks and cut them down to the tracks you hear on 'Bloom'. We considered a few different studios, and decided to record down in Folkestone at Hidden Track Studios with Oz Craggs. You can listen to any sample of Oz's work and it really shows he brings out the best of any style act, and works with some top bands as a result, so it was an easy decision to make.

We originally got in touch with Oz in April saying we wanted to come down and record a track we had written. He was fully booked, but luckily for us had a change of plans for a weekend in May. We snapped it up and went down and recorded 'These Games'. We had such a great time and were so happy with the recording process, and the sound of the mixes, we quickly got back in touch to check availability for later in the year. A testament to his studio, we couldn't get a spot that worked for us until November; but this worked well and gave us plenty of time to finish writing the EP and really scrutinize every track.

Back in for the full EP session, we kicked it off with breakfast... then drums. We set up and Alex knocked out 3 of the tracks. We were really focused on the mix so went on for the rest of the day playing with a variety of amplifier/guitar combos, marking out sections of different tone/effects etc. Once Oz had a feel for all the tracks, and an idea of what we wanted, it was just a matter of describing the tone for him to suggest a great pairing. At the end of the day just to hear our demo's along with some studio recorded drums was awesome. That night we ended up going out in Folkestone, hitting some of the local hotspots. It turned out to be a great night out.

Day 2 Alex tracked the last drum track, and then we had a listening and made sure all the fills were spot on. We were happy so grabbed lunch and packed down the kit. Then it was all about guitars. We had found all the sweet sounds available from tonehenge and started tracking systematically though all of the songs, matching the combinations we decided on. Max smashed through all of his rhythm that day for the record and Alex got started on his. Day 3 was pretty much the same, finishing up the rhythm and clean sections on the record. Now it was on to lead sections, and we went through all of the effects, reverb sounds etc we wanted to use. Nearing the end of the day we were sailing through the lead sections, having a bit of fun with a variety of sounds and choosing what we preferred.

Day 4 we finished up all the lead guitar lines and again had a listen through the tracks, as Oz had a rough mix through them. It sounded awesome and we pushed on with the bass guitar. Recording the bass, Oz takes three tracks of bass to mix through, so there's always the perfect sound for each section without having to go back over it again and again. Matt flew through the tracks on bass and by the morning of day 5 he was finishing up. After a quick mix it was time to set up for vocals. Matt threw 2 tracks down on day 5 and it was great to hear how it had all come together. We all went and grabbed a celebratory burger and a couple beers that evening with Oz before moving into the last day.

Day 6 was all vocals. By lunch, Matt had sung through all the lead vocals and we were ready to add in harmonies and backing vocals. Many of the harmonies were laid down by Matt, but Alex and Max also threw some call and response vocals into the mix. You can hear this is Certainty and Ranger mainly. We were happy we had more than enough for Oz to go with now, and it was getting quite late so we made our way home without listening to the tracks.

Oz got the first mix over to us the following week, and after craving to hear the songs for the week, we were all blown away. It was exactly what we wanted. After suggesting a couple tweaks and getting the tracks back again, we were happy and the tracks were mastered. We are extremely excited about the record and hope that everyone