LDRU are four letters that seem to be popping up everywhere over the last few years. The man behind the acronym is Liveschool grad Drew Carmody and if his most recent release is anything to go by, you’ll be hearing a lot more from him in the future.
Following on from the massive success of his tunes Keeping Score and Next To You (over 20 million Spotify streams between them!), Drew is back with his new one Lay You Down. Featuring Liveschool’s Sam Sakr on co-production and our new trainer Tim Watt on mix engineer duties, its a real family affair.
We had a word with Drew about creativity, workflow and the creative potential of a few beers with mates
Were there Any pieces of gear that were crucial to the production of EP or that were common across the tracks?
To be honest, it’s been the same old gear for a while… serum, diva, synplant etc… nothing analog as I haven’t had the space for anything super awesome lately! I am building a studio atm and can’t wait to put some new stuff in there and start fresh with one of the Juno’s or prophets and get my fingers working on the keys!
Did you have any weird tricks / workflow ideas / processes (mental or technical) you used that might not be common knowledge?
Trying to replicate songs is always fun. Then you can put your own spin on it! I only do this if I get stuck creatively. Otherwise a couple of beers, good company and a nice space will make any producers music flourish
Your tunes have quite a maximal aesthetic, do you have any tips for getting these very up front sounds without overwhelming to cluttering the mix?
Flatten EVERYTHING once you’ve finished producing… then cut all unwanted tails.Try and keep all reverbs to a minimal and just take lots of breaks and keep coming back with fresh ears. Referencing other songs is also key. And find an awesome mix engineer like Tim Watt!
Did you have any specific or unexpected references in mind when making these? Cant Drive especially feels like it veers towards guitar based bands that do lots of hectic post processing on sounds to head into more electronic territory – is there some connection there?
Can’t drive was mammals and I, two guitars and a few to many beers… no referencing, just good friendship and good vibes we just wanted to make a song to jam along to. This one came out real quick.