Girls Twiddling Knobs
The #1 feminist music tech podcast, featuring deep-diving episodes into all things music production and home recording and fascinating guest episodes with women making music with technology, hosted by Isobel Anderson.
Girls Twiddling Knobs
Ep#105: Looping, Improv & Breaking The Classical Rulebook with Rebekah Reid
🎙️ What if classical music wasn’t meant to stay in its box?
In this episode of Girls Twiddling Knobs, we meet violinist, composer and loop pedal artist Rebekah Reid, who’s pushing the boundaries of what classical performance can be.
Blending classical, jazz and electronic music, Rebekah uses live looping and improvisation to create layered, genre-defying performances that feel both ancient and futuristic.
🎻 We explore how she carved out her own artistic identity, the joy and vulnerability of solo performance, and how to stay creatively free in a world that often expects musicians to stay in their lane.
✨ If you’re a musician, composer or creative who’s felt the pressure to “stick to the rules,” this episode will inspire you to start breaking them—with intention.
🔗 LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE 🔗
Connect with Rebekah:
🎛️ Beginner-Friendly Gear Links
- Boss RC-1 Loop Station >>
- TC Electronic Flashback 2 Delay Pedal >>
- Roland SPD::ONE Percussion Pad >>
- Korg microKORG Synthesizer/Vocoder >>
- Yamaha P-45 Digital Piano >>
- Logic Pro (Mac DAW) >>
- Valhalla Supermassive (Free Delay/Reverb Plugin) >>
- TAL Reverb 4 (Free Plugin) >>
If you loved listening to this week's episode of the podcast, leave a review wherever you're listening now and let me know 💜💜💜
Loved this week's episode? Share it with a friend 👯♀️
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Girls Twiddling Knobs is hosted by Isobel Anderson and produced by Isobel Anderson and Jade Bailey.
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00:00:00.75
Isobel Anderson
So welcome to Girls' Twiddling Knobs for Wrecker. It's wonderful to have you here.
00:00:05.35
Beka
Hi, thank you for having me.
00:00:07.55
Isobel Anderson
Yes, it's my pleasure and I'm really excited to get into today's conversation, which is going to be sort of largely about live looping in the classical sphere, but I'm sure we're going to, you know, get into lots of different sort of topics as well around that. So firstly, just it would be great if you could introduce yourself to the listeners. Who are you? What do you do?
00:00:29.41
Isobel Anderson
And I know it's difficult sometimes to pin it down, but if you can, just for anyone that may not have come across you before.
00:00:35.51
Beka
Yes, ah so my name is Rebecca Reed, I'm a violinist, ah composer and loop pedal artist and um yeah I specialize in classical and jazz performance um mixed with like improvisation and um I take those formats and mix them with electronics and like um electronic dance music and yeah kind of create sound worlds and I just create me i okay new music in a different way that's how I'd say.
00:01:15.24
Isobel Anderson
Mm hmm. Yeah. And so for anyone that's not aware, um new music in itself is is a genre, isn't it? Right. And so some people might hear that and be like, OK, new music. But I take it you mean new music in terms of the genre of new music, which is kind of like, well, I'm probably going to butcher this myself anyway, but I i was wondering if you could just define it for us. It's a bit difficult, but new contemporary classical music, right?
00:01:42.69
Beka
Yes so yeah I mean you know new as in I mean you know is any music new that's something that really can always question but I would say yeah in the sphere of the contemporary classical world this the music that I create is new not only in content but just the way it's and created and the influences behind it you wouldn't usually
00:01:48.81
Isobel Anderson
Yeah.
00:02:04.18
Beka
kind of combine those things together in that particular world. um So I'm all about like blending the genres together and breaking down the boundaries that are often placed um between the genres genres and also as performers and as artists you kind of feel that you have to fit in a box you know especially when you're marketing yourself and telling yourself um And so for me, i I've been drawn to kind of break those down and to question why they're there and if we need them and to, I hope, showcase that they can be merged together in different cultures, can be merged together to create new music, um you know, that just kind of stir emotions and and engage really.
00:02:50.38
Isobel Anderson
Yeah. And so you were saying that, you know, um the the genres that you're working with are generally not kind of combined that often.
00:03:00.07
Beka
Yeah.
00:03:00.03
Isobel Anderson
and Can you just sort of reiterate or expand on what are the genres that you generally kind of pull together and why are they not combined very often?
00:03:05.43
Beka
you
00:03:10.41
Beka
Yeah, so for me, I would say I explore obviously classical jazz, electronic dance, music, um as well, world and folk, um as well as kind of more like ah sub jo genres like bassline, drum and bass, things that yeah like you don't really hear drum and bass and classical mix together um and even with jazz and classical you know the the language is basically the same you know you know whether it's scored whether it's charts or chords it's the music's the same just it's kind of how it's structured is different or how it's placed on the score is different um but for me I don't see there being a ah difference you know and when I was learning the or from the greats like Bach and stuff like that you know you can hear although he's a classical composer you can hear these jazz you know these these things that are there and obviously you know jazz wasn't around them but it just shows that like this music these the way that you put the music together
00:04:15.44
Beka
it's it's um It's a tapestry that we can tap into as composers and there's no limits and there's there's no like, oh well you're this box and you do this and you were written at this time so therefore it should go like this. You know it's all music at the end of the day and um yeah like I love you know writing something that's very harmonically straight and then kind of ending it in you know really bluesy jazzy way for me that's kind of just breaking the boundaries a bit because most contemporary pieces now and you know even if you're breaking down the heart like the heart harmony and stuff like that it might be more looking at it in like an atonal struck you know way or things like that and actually you know adding in a few jazz chords I think works just just as well as writing something that's not got a key or or anything like that or like doesn't really follow any scales or anything um yeah
00:05:10.65
Isobel Anderson
Yes it sounds like almost what you're saying is you know there's been a lot of um deconstruction of tone and harmony and rhythm within contemporary classical music and you know you you trace that all the way back to really the early 20th century of that really starting to unfold but what hasn't necessarily happened is
00:05:26.38
Beka
Yes, I think that's there exactly.
00:05:31.97
Isobel Anderson
a genuine kind of melding of genres outside of the classical canon. And that's something Yeah and you and you but but you are and I would say bravely bravely doing so because I imagine that you have experienced or you've been on the receiving end of at the very least sort of some dis people who are a bit displeased by that if not a bit disparaging sometimes maybe I don't know because because that I think the classical world can be particularly rigid and traditional you know
00:06:07.53
Beka
Yeah. Yes, yeah. yeah i mean I think it's a very polite way of saying it. Like, yeah, I've had quite a lot of pushback.
00:06:13.83
Isobel Anderson
but
00:06:16.70
Beka
I think, not like for me, it's that I write music that isn't atonal, you know, like it mixes thoughts lots of different things, but it's I find it's very easy to listen to.
00:06:26.72
Beka
and i'm it's not necessarily mathematical, I know sometimes contemporary music can go down that path and for me I just want the listener to enjoy and have a ah pleasant sonic experience.
00:06:39.98
Beka
um So in that way I feel like I think maybe that way there's been some pushback because it's like oh you're contemporary but you know you know it doesn't sound crazy and like wild so like is it too traditional is it well not traditional but is it too
00:06:50.18
Isobel Anderson
one know
00:06:54.87
Beka
isn't not complex complex enough. um But I also just think myself being a Black woman, like it's, I'm not, there's not really many people like me in the classical world in that sphere. And I just think me writing music in in itself is like an act of rebellion and it is breaking the status quo and I have had pushback from that just because people aren't expecting that from me.
00:07:14.84
Isobel Anderson
Um,
00:07:18.37
Beka
They normally expect me to be a singer if I'm you know if I tell them I do music it like oh you're a singer if I say I do the violin it's like whoa and then you add the composition on top but it's just like mind-blowing they need some time to think and yeah
00:07:20.10
Isobel Anderson
um,
00:07:32.70
Beka
Yeah, they need to leave leave the space.
00:07:32.79
Isobel Anderson
but
00:07:34.64
Beka
Honestly, people just cut a conversation with me because they're just like, it's just too much.
00:07:39.63
Isobel Anderson
Wow, yeah.
00:07:39.81
Beka
their egos to take so um so yeah I've had I've had pushback I think for me the main thing is kind of having to defend my music in the classical world in the jazz world you know they've been more welcoming and open to the fact that you know jazz violin doesn't have to necessarily sound like Grappelli or you know has to be a certain way because for me I love that stat style but I also I love Brahms and Shostakovich and I have to bring those elements into my
00:07:56.64
Isobel Anderson
Mm.
00:08:06.52
Beka
my composition is, it's just how I've been trained and how I play. um But they've been really welcoming in that world. Same with the folk world, you know you know it's a bit more of a community vibe. In the classical world, it is, even now I'm struggling to kind of take a seat properly in the and the classical space as a composer. I've managed to get on to the long list for the Grammy nominations. It's my second year in a row and I'll find out soon whether I get food for the next round so you know that's an amazing acknowledgement and but even then I've never been put into the classical sphere it's always been in a different sphere this year I'm in production composition and arrangement so it's great I feel I've been valued as as a composer but I'm still not being seen as a classical composer and I'm not quite sure why I have my reasons but I think
00:08:54.62
Isobel Anderson
Oh, wow.
00:09:01.73
Beka
partly maybe it's because of the way that the music's created and things like that, that it's so kind of forward that that world hasn't yet quite caught up. um But I also just think it's people just aren't expecting me to be in this space.
00:09:11.64
Isobel Anderson
and
00:09:15.83
Beka
And I think maybe they're still a little a bit confused. and Yeah.
00:09:19.49
Isobel Anderson
So yeah, so it feels like that the combination of being not just a woman, but also a black woman is is kind of, it doesn't tally up with their expectations of what a classical composer is.
00:09:26.94
Beka
Yeah.
00:09:32.39
Isobel Anderson
And that's part of what might be going on.
00:09:32.53
Beka
Exactly yeah because I think that I think so and I think they're expecting the music that I create to be like all really black then you know whatever that means all really urban you know and obviously I do that I'm brought up in that way I'm from the southeast like it's a big part of my life like that kind of music and I do create music in that way but I also like to write in the style of Bach or you know um Sibelius or you know other kind of traditional classical composers and I've created music that's chamber of music for strings and
00:10:09.00
Beka
Yeah, I feel like I do fit into that sphere. I've even worked with the Rangers on creating scores so that people can play my music. And I think because it's not a box of like, well, it's not really African and it's not really urban and and you know and it's old, but it's kind of it's classical, but it's con contempt contemporary.
00:10:26.56
Beka
I'm kind of in the middle and it just hasn't evolved enough yet to kind of allow me to be in the space. um Yeah.
00:10:33.86
Isobel Anderson
Yeah, so so I know that therefore you have you have used music technology to allow you to build out the sound worlds that
00:10:41.72
Beka
Yes.
00:10:44.46
Isobel Anderson
are, you know, your voice, this very unique voice of bringing these different worlds together. So can you talk a little bit about that? What role has music technology played in you being able to actually realise your ideas, but even, you know, have a voice, have a seat, not a seat at the table, because I know that probably it doesn't feel like that you have that, but to be able to play shows and be able to kind of
00:10:54.64
Beka
young
00:11:12.31
Beka
mmm express myself
00:11:13.05
Isobel Anderson
express yeah express who you are, you know, what role does has music technology played in that against these sort of the rigidity and the shut doors that you've maybe come across in other areas?
00:11:24.00
Beka
Yeah. um I mean, it really has changed my my life. You know, it's changed the trajectory of what I'm doing as a musician and an artist. And I, you know, i before doing, I didn't do it at college, so I never really even thought or considered that it would be part of my my journey. But I'm very grateful and glad that it is. um I first started out using a loop pedal. and It was me and another friend. She's jealous. We, and she had a loop pedal and we kind of came together and I learnt from her and we kind of helped each other because no one else was really doing it in our world. and all wo and um through that, I then started to dabble with um delay pedals and um SPDs, which are like electronic drum pads. And then I got a synth. I mean, when I first was starting, I had this massive Yamaha keyboard that I would drag around to gigs. The one that had like the, hey, button on it.
00:12:21.13
Isobel Anderson
ah Yeah.
00:12:22.20
Beka
Because I didn't i didn't didn't know, I wasn't really know any jazz, there's all like people that are producers, so I was just like, I want to make beats, but how do I do this?
00:12:30.14
Isobel Anderson
yeah
00:12:30.26
Beka
And and then obviously once I knew, realized what I was doing, I then I got about a better synth. But yeah, that's how it started in the live sphere. And then moving into production, that was in 2020 when there was lockdown and I'd had done some live recordings and I wanted to release this music as an EP.
00:12:47.84
Beka
and um but it wasn't kind of the right time to do that and so I had all this time free and so I then started to get in into recording at home and then that evolved into producing and mixing um and so for my setup I use Logic Pro to record in and to um yeah to mix and to produce um and then through that I really love you know play experimenting with some plugins mainly with delay and reverb um and Similarly to what I do with the delay pedal in my live setup, um using that delay and reverb to really kind of change the sound, so to either make it richer, you know, to create more of like an orchestral um texture.
00:13:32.35
Beka
and or to really kind of mess around with time and like have silly delays stuff that my engineers are like what are you doing this is this is not right but for me ah I just use my ears it's all about the sound and the feeling and so experimenting in that way and kind of um especially with vocals when I i started singing in 2020 and um really yeah like kind of just experimenting with a reverb delay and just kind of c creating these like otherworldly sounds and like sound palettes, which for me kind of, I just love kind of having that washy kind of back gloss, you know you know, at least to kind of ground a piece with. So whether it's, you know, um
00:14:19.27
Beka
are they using ah a Moog synth to kind of like have a grounding note or as I said to kind of put a ton of delay on on on a line and then have that in the back and then kind of layer from there.
00:14:30.39
Beka
and Yeah that's how I experimented and it's just e evolved from there really um and I find now they kind of go hand in hand so the techniques that I use in live playing so
00:14:36.06
Isobel Anderson
Mm.
00:14:44.97
Beka
If someone's like, write me a piece, I'll literally write, OK, write, get STEM 1, get a key, get a story in mind, and then just play, and go for as long as I can until I run out of ideas, and then do violin 2 on top, um have that. And then I might, depending how the STEM 1 has ended, I then might be able to like transition into the next part of the piece. So I i always try to write in a linear, I think that's right, linear way, and like through com composed music.
00:15:11.28
Beka
um when I'm producing and which is easy to do when you're on logic and you've got the time to kind of sit down and you know kind of shape and massage everything together um and yeah kind of layer and layer and then you can add harmonies rhythms and it's just amazing it's kind of like elevating what you do with live looping because you you know with live looping um if I'm doing an improv set then it is very free whatever happens happens but when I'm doing like my own set
00:15:26.42
Isobel Anderson
Oh,
00:15:32.08
Isobel Anderson
yeah.
00:15:38.59
Beka
pieces that you know I've practiced and written um they are they have there's obviously improvisation linked in there but they have a structure you know there'll be 18 sick or 16 bars long sometimes a longer phrase and you're able to on a loop had you were able to um to explain it uh you're able to change the loop lengths of each track so one could be 16 bars the other could be 52 bars something like that so then you can really experiment and have a bit more development in your piece but sometimes it can just be like an eight bar riff you know and from then you've got a stack so it's harder because it's as's harder to kind of keep the interest on it's harder to change key or change um feeling or emotion but I love doing it that's what
00:16:28.28
Beka
I do.
00:16:28.52
Isobel Anderson
but Yeah.
00:16:29.21
Beka
I've worked quite hard to like perfect that. And there's different ways of doing it. But yeah, they kind of just like feed into each other now.
00:16:36.82
Isobel Anderson
But it sounds like, so what I'm getting, and let let me know if I've got this wrong, but it sounds like looping was the thing that really brought you into using music technology with your violin and starting to compose with it too.
00:16:45.30
Beka
Yeah.
00:16:48.58
Beka
Yeah.
00:16:48.76
Isobel Anderson
and Was that the first time you had composed or had you been composing before that within a more traditional sense, note notes on a page?
00:16:56.20
Beka
No, I think when I was like 12 maybe I like wrote wrote a piece, you know, it was very basic um and I would score it down and but you know for so many years I saw myself just as a violinist and for many years just as a classical player um and it was somewhat sometimes quite a painful journey to go through and realise that like there's other sides of me you know and
00:17:01.70
Isobel Anderson
Yeah. Yeah.
00:17:10.28
Isobel Anderson
Mm hmm.
00:17:23.14
Beka
I think it's that fear of like, will they be accepted? Or like, you know, does it mean that I'm stupid or whatever? I'm different. and But you know, now I love it. I love the fact that i I sing and the fact that I have looping and, you know, there's so many different things going on.
00:17:36.65
Beka
And and yeah, I forgot the rest of the question.
00:17:41.66
Isobel Anderson
Yeah, no, no, I was i was interested in, no, it's fine, I was interested in like how looping seemed to open up composition for you in general.
00:17:42.88
Beka
sorry
00:17:46.90
Beka
Yeah. yeah
00:17:49.22
Isobel Anderson
It being that starting point of like being able to actually build ideas out from just that one violin line, you can start building out all these ideas that interlock and and create a kind of a tapestry almost like that becomes a piece.
00:17:53.44
Beka
Yes. Yeah. yeah
00:17:59.03
Beka
a Yes.
00:18:03.69
Isobel Anderson
So that must have been a big sort of change in your practice.
00:18:07.12
Beka
Yeah I would say it first started with I actually went to so I said I was a classical violinist was like want to play in orchestras if I'm lucky get to play as a soloist you know that was the goal and then I graduated and from the northern and I went to a jam my friend who's not a musician but she loves music and her stepdad had a jam and that was the first time I'd been to a a jam really, shame to say and um the first time I'd actually played in one as well and I didn't know what I was doing but everyone's like yeah go on give it a go and that was the moment that I was like this is what I'm good at like this is what this is me like completely free I didn't know the music sometimes I didn't know the song but it just you know I could just let it out and having everyone around you singing and be like yeah it was just such a good feeling because often when you do a concert in the classical world you're met with silence you know after you perform a ah movement or something it's only at the end that you get the gratification and so
00:18:42.33
Isobel Anderson
and Yeah.
00:19:05.78
Beka
a jam it's just straight away like oh yeah this is the ride the wave.
00:19:08.83
Isobel Anderson
Yeah.
00:19:11.31
Beka
So for me that that jam really opened my mind and then I was like ah okay so I can write music for my for my mind like I'd already had that skill I would always be making up songs and singing and winding up all my friends making up silly songs but I didn't really know what it what it was and like what I could do with that because I was a classical violinist And then I met ah my friend and then discovered the loop head. And I was like, ah, this is something that like all those ideas I have in my head, I can put them down and I can hear them straight away on the loop head. I can hear it back going round and round. I can work out what's working, what isn't working. And yeah, like honestly, that moment I have not looked back. I haven't looked back at all. It's just it completely enhanced my career. It changed my journey. um It inspired me to keep going, you know, at times when
00:20:03.13
Beka
I just wasn't sure whether it was worth you know keep doing this music thing anymore but just having something that was very special and it's um idiomatic I think that's the right word to to what to use as a player like every person they get to a loop pedal will approach in a different way and you make it work for you you know it doesn't control you you control it and that it's nice I think you know to feel sometimes in being an artist you feel so out of control you know you do you know so different reasons why you feel out of control and so I think when you get to write music that's commandeering a little bit of that control back and that autonomy and then as I said with the loop pedal first of all not everyone can do it so that's already a nice position to be in um and then as I said you know you get to have you have something that's there
00:20:46.68
Isobel Anderson
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
00:20:56.71
Beka
I think the fact that it's recorded in the moment and you can hear it back straight away I think that's really important you know um because again even when I'm recording on Logic I don't know really what's going on I'm just gonna keep playing until I've run out of ideas but to have something like that where it's just you can really go inside and just understand not only yourself as a writer but also you know what you're creating and and how it fits together it's like another way it's like creating a mental score I think you know because when i'm I don't really write I'm trying to do moral school writing because I want people to play my music but it doesn't come as naturally to me because I wasn't trained in that way you know I can use the baliest to write but um
00:21:37.84
Beka
there's people that are much quicker on it than I am but when I'm doing loop pedal stuff I can see like track ones here and I can see the music and I you know if something goes wrong like I can and I'm like right underneath that or I need to like swap this move this down up I can see it and it's like it's it's an out-of-body experience it's a bit like when you're improvising you know you're not really consciously thinking at least, you know, once you've done it a few times, you know, when you're really, it's a flow state, you're just in it, you're just giving he yourself to the moment. And it's, I sometimes surprise myself of what comes out, you you know, you're like, oh, yeah, and then you hear it back and you're like,
00:22:18.78
Beka
wow like I didn't even realise that and again it's the simplicity of music I think I love classical music I love the fact that it's complex and I think when you're trained in it you really believe that like music has to literally be like hours and hours long and it has to be this huge complicated thing that tells the story but goes on tangents And I think why popular music, like, you know, things like jazz, pop music, all that stuff, it's people love it and they connect with it maybe a bit more than classical music.
00:22:47.59
Beka
think It's because it's simple ideas that go around and around, but you hear different things each time and it makes you feel different things each time.
00:22:52.75
Isobel Anderson
Mm-hmm.
00:22:55.56
Beka
And I think that's what loop pedal music, that's what's so cool about it because, you know, a riff that's just like four bars long.
00:22:58.67
Isobel Anderson
All right.
00:23:03.14
Beka
But then when you add all these layers and, you know, when you're kind of mixing live in your own way, you there are there are things that like just happen there there were like chord progressions that happen that change and you're not doing it the loop is doing it or someone's doing it but you know it's not always intentional but it happens and it's it's just incredible it's so incredible
00:23:16.11
Isobel Anderson
then
00:23:24.24
Isobel Anderson
a Yeah, that's wonderful. I mean, that's really inspiring to hear you talk about it, Rebecca, like you're so passionate about it. It feels like it's almost become a companion, almost like a kind of collaborator throughout your career, this loop pedal.
00:23:36.51
Isobel Anderson
And I'm sure that there'll be people listening who are really eager to to kind of learn more about how they can get started, which we can talk about later on.
00:23:43.74
Beka
Yes.
00:23:43.96
Isobel Anderson
I would love to now actually just hear some of your music. So You have um picked a couple of tracks for us to hear. what The first one we're going to listen to is Sarabanda for four, number one, op one.
00:23:56.09
Isobel Anderson
um Can you we'll hear a little bit of that now? And then we'll talk a little bit about it in a minute. So we'll have about 20 seconds of this.
00:24:05.99
Isobel Anderson
So I'm just listening to this now.
00:24:07.99
Beka
which
00:24:09.04
Isobel Anderson
OK, so we'll edit this out. So I'm just going to take a little listen.
00:24:12.34
Beka
Yes.
00:24:13.47
Isobel Anderson
It's not a long track, so I'll listen the whole way through.
00:24:15.85
Beka
Okay, yeah, sure.
00:24:16.54
Isobel Anderson
Yeah.
00:24:17.97
Beka
This is, yeah, this is very like traditional, I would say, for Becker.
00:24:20.50
Isobel Anderson
Cool. Cool. Okay.
00:25:31.06
Isobel Anderson
Oh, beautiful.
00:25:31.36
Beka
Thank you.
00:25:31.73
Isobel Anderson
Thank you so much for sharing that with us. um So that was a section of Sarabande. Oh, that was, um yeah, that was a section of Sarabande for for number one op. I'm gonna just do that again.
00:25:43.60
Beka
Yeah. Also just say it's Sarabande.
00:25:44.36
Isobel Anderson
Fluff that up.
00:25:47.08
Isobel Anderson
Sarabande, sorry. Okay, well, that's good.
00:25:48.05
Beka
Yeah. And it's Opus 1. Sorry.
00:25:50.72
Isobel Anderson
Opus 1.
00:25:51.00
Beka
It's very classical.
00:25:51.28
Isobel Anderson
Yeah, yeah. No, no, that's all good. That's all good. So that was a section of Sarabande for 4, number 1, Opus 1.
00:25:55.61
Beka
Thank you.
00:26:00.40
Isobel Anderson
And that was absolutely beautiful. Thank you so much for sharing that with us, Rebecca. um So with that but that piece, was that written using Logic? Was it written with you playing around with ideas with the loop pedal?
00:26:13.93
Isobel Anderson
How did you go about putting that piece together at the beginning?
00:26:17.91
Beka
So that was actually written at Strong Room Studios and it was me, my engineer, basically it would be like kind of how I do it at home where she just is like right you ready let's press record and I go. um So it's built on layers and that way um but as I said this is this is more of a through composed piece so um no some some some motifs come back around but it's it's not like the same kind of ah eight bar phrase is repeated it's kind of has a journey and it kind of goes from the beginning to end and but yeah it's my interpretation or my response to chamber music and so people don't know chamber music is basically ensemble
00:27:01.93
Beka
music um in the classical world so for strings you normally get string quartet maybe quintet or sometimes you have like piano trios and things like that um and it's a very big part of the classical world, it's a very special part of the world um of the of that scene um and For me, this was my response. I wanted to create something of the Baroque style. um So kind of definitely influenced by composers by like Purcell and Bach always.
00:27:31.61
Isobel Anderson
Okay.
00:27:31.76
Beka
um and And so, yes, I wanted that was the kind of story in my mind I had. um And yeah, I think For me, as I said, I have always felt like a bit of an outsider in the classical world, and my own personal feelings and ah unfortunately being told that I don't belong in that world. And so I have struggled at times to find the confidence to play with other players or even to be seen by the players to be like, oh, considered like let's have fun. Let's Play with Becca. And so I think that piece was part of like a rebellion for me to be like, I can write and perform chamber music on my own. And I think, especially now in the world that we live in, where everything's, well, not everything, but you know we're getting more tight and remote working. ah you know At that point, that was just coming out of the lockdown as well, the first or second one. So I think that was also my response to that of being like, we're now moving into ah an existence where
00:28:31.78
Beka
you have to maybe do things more on your own um and you know I'm an independent artist as well I'm so used to kind of managing myself just kind of doing my own thing and so this was kind of my my love letter to that and to be like you're not on your own.
00:28:33.97
Isobel Anderson
Uh-huh.
00:28:43.82
Isobel Anderson
Is that it?
00:28:47.46
Beka
You've got like all these other other voices and other things that you know that I can connect with and tap into and share and create music. And there's also the the space, though, that if there are quartets out there that want to play it, that the music's there. And it's not overly complicated you know with like electronics and stuff where it's like, oh, this is going to be hard to get together. Can we arrange it? This is very simple for four. and you know for my engineer is probably one of the easier pieces to for her to mix and so yeah so for me it's it was a way of yeah like stretching my compositional skills I guess you know like it's really great you know kind of just playing until you run out of ideas but it does also
00:29:17.00
Isobel Anderson
Yeah.
00:29:32.11
Beka
You can create issues, you know, when you're trying to connect two things, I call it sometimes a Frankenstein. You're like, right, I've got Section A, and then I've got to go to Section B.
00:29:36.77
Isobel Anderson
yeah
00:29:39.61
Beka
How do I do that when I've stopped halfway through? And, you know, it's just being creative and artistic about it and, yeah, be clever about it. And so I love, I'd love being able to work on that, but also create something that, as a whole, can be shared and people can play together in a chamber music setting if they want to.
00:29:59.93
Isobel Anderson
Yeah, but you play that on your own as well. Do you perform that piece on your own?
00:30:03.81
Beka
though I haven't performed that piece on my own yet. I feel there are thumb pieces that I've written that I think we'd be able to translate to live on Luke Pedal, and but we'd need like some proper R and&D workshop days. And you know, that's one of my goals would be to to do a show where, because that Sarah Band is from my debut sobo solo album, um which I would love to be able to tour that, but you know, there's so many moving parts in there. So it would need
00:30:35.67
Beka
some, yeah we'd need some time to kind of R and&D it and work it out and work out to see whether some of it would be a mix of backing tracks and then live playing and see how much could be done on the loop pedal. um Yeah.
00:30:49.37
Isobel Anderson
Yeah, great. um I'd love to hear some more of your music, Rebecca. um I know that you've got a piece that you have um recently released
00:30:55.00
Beka
you
00:30:59.28
Isobel Anderson
I'm actually thinking, is there anything from the album that Sarah Band is on that displays more of that kind of electronic sound that you described? Because we could listen to another piece and then the last piece would be your net your new piece.
00:31:11.83
Beka
Yeah, sure.
00:31:14.36
Isobel Anderson
Yeah.
00:31:14.72
Beka
Yes, yeah.
00:31:14.72
Isobel Anderson
Is that okay?
00:31:15.82
Beka
Yeah, so yes, I band's more like traditional. And then, I mean, the first track, What Life Gifts, that's like when you're saying about the electronics, you mean like literally mixing like the electronic things with the classical kind of sounding bits like style as well?
00:31:30.48
Isobel Anderson
yeah sort of what you've described to us already in the in the chat so far um i've got i've got the album up in front of me yeah so i can listen so um yeah so i could take a little listen to that and then we could discuss that a little bit just to give people a sense of the breadth of your work yeah yeah
00:31:31.46
Beka
Yeah.
00:31:35.69
Beka
Yeah, so the first track, What Life Gifts, so should I send that in an email? We've got the album up now, amazing, yeah. Hmm.
00:31:53.38
Beka
Yes, yeah. There's maybe just, sorry, just because, just to make sure that I'm covering the right basis. So there's that, what,
00:31:59.93
Isobel Anderson
yeah it doesn't have to be that album either so so yeah definitely
00:32:03.29
Beka
yeah Oh no, I would love it to be this album because it's just only a year old, so it's still not a promotion. But so What Life Gifts, or there's also Into the Deep. So I gave Into the Deep because that is, again, it's it's mainly... it's So with Into the Deep, there's this Moog synth that, as I said, kind of there's just this ah ah grounding drone, like low drone that goes throughout the whole piece. So for me, it's like replacing the cellos on the basses, but also kind of...
00:32:31.58
Beka
you don't know it's electronic but it definitely gives it a bit of a twist you know a bit of a there's something going on here um and then there's a mix of completely acoustic live playing no effects nothing and then some of it is but ah where there's delay and reverb so it's all mixed in that way um and then What Life Gifts it I mean it starts with this motif which is done with a delay pedal and and but violin and then it moves straight into like very acoustic again like pure string lines and then that that kind of evolves into more like fast-paced melody which is created through um putting myself through a delay pedal and like I call it scrubbies that's that's my
00:33:17.57
Beka
my technical term for it and that's very um idiomatic to what I do in live playing like it will be me my delay pedal and I'll have that sort of scrubby like fast fast delay, fast playing and then sometimes a technique called soulpont which is where you play on the bridge and when you do it with delay it just with the delay effect it just as it just creates like an other wildly sound like very atmospheric you know it's kind of hard to pinpoint exactly like what sound world it is.
00:33:48.37
Beka
um So that's definitely my technique as well, something that I definitely do a lot in all play, even when I'm doing improv or jazz, you know, it's something that I will use as a technique.
00:33:59.22
Beka
So for me, those two pieces, it's like a mix of delays and the like electronics, but also traditional lines and stuff like that. So but yeah, whatever, whatever you think would be.
00:34:08.82
Isobel Anderson
Great, okay.
00:34:12.86
Isobel Anderson
Yeah, I'm like, well, because I'm also thinking like something like Brixton Babe is just so different to, yeah.
00:34:13.34
Beka
and we Yeah,
00:34:20.37
Beka
Yeah that exactly because that's more like trap inspired, um more gritty and that I use some samples, I use some sampling of that and um obviously we made beats with ultra beat and then you've got like the kind of more, then you've got the violin playing on top which Not really that electronic, but it's quite jazzy in style.
00:34:44.50
Beka
You know, it's definitely quite funky. It's quite ah sassy sound.
00:34:48.04
Isobel Anderson
Yeah.
00:34:50.82
Beka
Also, just to let you know that this album is from the podcast 28 Just Days Later. So I don't know if I told you i I was commissioned to write the music for the podcast. And then I released the soundtrack as an album like a year after.
00:35:01.65
Isobel Anderson
Yeah.
00:35:05.64
Beka
um So the a lot of the pieces were written following specific themes like you know organs in the body or like female hormones because it's like about periods and all of that stuff in your cycle so i have had a lot of feedback from people saying you know that they really feel that like it's like in their body or that you know they really feel this like kind of innate connection with it and I was like well that's funny because it was literally written descriptively about body so um there yeah okay okay yeah yeah
00:35:34.78
Isobel Anderson
Yeah.
00:35:37.79
Isobel Anderson
Okay, well, I would love to talk to that, talk to you about that properly. So let's, why don't we, I think let's listen to a bit of Brixton Babe, just because it just is so different to what we heard before.
00:35:52.15
Isobel Anderson
And it just gives that difference. So we're gonna, so we're now going to listen to a little section of Brixton Babe, we're going to go into the middle.
00:35:55.38
Beka
one
00:36:01.01
Isobel Anderson
So when lots of things are happening, and then we will come back and discuss that.
00:36:03.19
Beka
Yeah. Okay.
00:36:42.37
Isobel Anderson
Wonderful, thank you so much and Rebecca that was really cool and so different to the other track that you shared from the album. um in In that section of Brixton Bay we could hear your voice, we could hear the violin, we could hear sort of like a trap beat, I could even hear like um S sounds that you've made with your voice and you kind of panned either side. So loads going on there and I can really hear what you're talking about combining these different genres with that classical tradition.
00:37:08.93
Isobel Anderson
and to make it something that I agree is is really distinctively you and so it's really nice to kind of hear that that range and your compositional voice and your violin playing as well of course so so thanks for sharing that and and i I know that um this was an album that was actually
00:37:09.21
Beka
yeah
00:37:27.04
Isobel Anderson
the music written for the podcast series 28 Days Later, which was on Radio 4 and i I listened to that, I thought it was wonderful. um So could you tell us a little bit about um how you went about producing this and writing this to to fit with that brief?
00:37:44.58
Beka
Yes so yeah I got the the brief was to write 15 tracks, 10 of them were to be incidental tracks to kind of provide a backing um for the material that was going to be spoken about on the podcast. Some of them so some of them would be like you know a happy track or a sad track or you know, a thinking track and then um I had five longer tracks which were prescriptive, and but which were to be prescriptively written to
00:38:19.35
Beka
ah to highlight different parts of the female body. So, for example, the womb, there's a track called Born New, that's about the womb. um And Brixton Bay, for example, is about estrogen, which is meant to be the sassy hormone, which is why it's quite funky.
00:38:35.83
Isobel Anderson
Yeah. and We should say, I just realised it didn't say that 28 Days Later is actually a podcast about the menstrual cycle.
00:38:37.55
Beka
i yeah
00:38:42.67
Beka
Yes, yes.
00:38:43.19
Isobel Anderson
Yes. so So that's why it's about these different body parts, these different sort of anatomy, but also the hormones and the experiences of having a period.
00:38:49.58
Beka
Yeah.
00:38:52.80
Beka
Exactly, exactly.
00:38:53.49
Isobel Anderson
Yeah.
00:38:54.80
Beka
Definitely the experiences. So that was what on my job was to convey those experiences, those feelings, emotions, everything that every woman has ever felt ever.
00:39:04.11
Beka
Put it into 15 tracks and um so that it could be like a nice setting and like kind of help the listener engage with sometimes, you know, it's the topics which at times could be quite difficult, you know, and um to understand or to just kind of listen to I think you know um so yeah it's a great podcast and I'm so proud and so grateful to be part have been a part of it and yeah like they did an amazing job and it's just it was very educational you know I learned so much from listening to it um
00:39:36.74
Beka
And yeah, I think when I was writing for it as well, it really helped me push the boundaries of my composing, of I did some of it at home um remotely. I think I did the main writing at home and then very lucky, strong room, an amazing studio. They gave me some studio time and me and my engineer, Fi Robert, we went in and I think in like maybe three days max or everything.
00:40:02.22
Isobel Anderson
wow yeah that's impressive yeah now
00:40:03.08
Beka
done so yeah so some of it some of it was like written in the moment but for me that's kind of i actually prefer that i think there's less pressure which sounds insane but um yeah i think yeah yeah okay
00:40:14.95
Isobel Anderson
i get that i think sometimes you can really get in your head too much and it takes a lot longer because you're constantly trying to come up with this amazing idea whereas if you let you allow yourself to let it pour out then you then kind of look at the scraps on the floor and just bring it together and it it yeah it's and and it obviously it's something that is beautiful and you know it comes together yeah but yeah
00:40:32.72
Beka
yeah okay yeah yeah um so yeah so with Brixton and Babe that is that was a mix of like using samples so the uh the horn lines are sampled um i definitely was inspired by Beyonce single ladies if you can hear it you can you can hear the the um in the Yeah, they're kind of the motifs are similar in the track because, for yeah, they said that in the brief they're like estrogen.
00:41:04.04
Beka
They kind of gave me some background of like what the hormone does and like which part of your cycle it comes into. um So for me, I was like, right, I need to kind of show this, like emboy embody this kind of powerful, womanly, sassy, sexy, you know, just like feeling yourself, basically, kind of vibes.
00:41:23.37
Beka
And that's also why I call it Brixton Bay. as well I thought, I thought it worked well.
00:41:25.95
Isobel Anderson
yeah
00:41:28.20
Beka
um So yeah, so it was a mix of that. I think that one I think i wrote in the studio with, yeah, Fi was there. She was like, right, I've got everything ready. What are you going to do? And I was like, I don't know.
00:41:40.07
Beka
oh So we found some samples, put them into the synth, and then I was kind of just like playing around with chords and just, I was like, right. So that's looped. that and ah trump ah The horn line kind of just keeps going round and round and round. That's the same. And then we started working on like a trap beat for it, like kind of trap slash drill-esque. It was at that time when like drill was really, really, really kind of like ah cool kind of at the forefront of music and I was like right this news I had an idea of what I wanted it to sound like um and then part of the brief from the podcast was they wanted some vocals in there and they wanted um they also wanted ah like um
00:42:23.26
Beka
and of sounds so like sss and um those things so I think because there was talking in it as well they they think they thought they would be quite nice to kind of write it to pop out the texture.
00:42:24.44
Isobel Anderson
Mm.
00:42:33.06
Beka
um So for me that was really fun because I i love singing, I can sing and only recently have I been really bringing it into my music, and mainly because I've never been even taught how to write songs and lyrics.
00:42:48.48
Isobel Anderson
Mm.
00:42:48.81
Beka
I find that's actually quite difficult, absolute respect for songwriters.
00:42:49.86
Isobel Anderson
Yeah. and yeah yeah
00:42:53.32
Beka
It's very personal as well, you know, I feel like you give everything, write a song.
00:42:56.39
Isobel Anderson
Yeah, yeah.
00:42:58.37
Beka
It's very different to like music, you know, yeah, it can be interpreted in different ways, but with lyrics it's very um Yeah, words don't lie. So I, for me, it was like a good start to kind of get into writing for my voice, but not necessarily having to write words.
00:43:13.74
Beka
um So yeah, I just kind of experimented with the O's and R's and adding little bits of delay and stuff like that to kind of create more of like a coral texture. um And then yeah, kind of adding in these like sars and like kind of just clicks and just making it I know just a bit more sappy.
00:43:33.46
Beka
Yeah, and then yeah,
00:43:33.64
Isobel Anderson
yeah Yeah, well there's like a there's a physiness to it isn't there that makes me think of that sort of hormone things going around your body moving through and I think when you do feel that hormone flux as you know month to month
00:43:39.22
Beka
Yeah.
00:43:42.43
Beka
Yeah.
00:43:47.33
Beka
and Yeah.
00:43:47.80
Isobel Anderson
it it does feel like all of a sudden you've got energy again out of nowhere or all of a sudden like the world is horrible and you hate everyone and you hate yourself but and you know so that these hormone fluctuations if you are someone that has periods they they can really kind of just take over and and there's this almost like a fizzy like fizziness to that track of just whoom here i am you know yeah
00:43:54.93
Beka
um Yeah. Yeah.
00:44:08.65
Beka
o Yeah, i I love that. I'm so glad that you could hear that because, you know, it's it's it's hard to get all of those ideas through music without any lyrics and then it's like a soundtrack so it's not even kind of at the forefront.
00:44:19.42
Isobel Anderson
Yeah.
00:44:22.88
Beka
um But yeah, that was that was the brief and that was what I had in mind of kind of, you know, this fizzing and moving around the body and just, yeah, one minute you're like, woohoo, next minute you're crying.
00:44:31.55
Isobel Anderson
yeah yeah no
00:44:33.57
Beka
And that's fine. That's totally fine. and elephant but I wanted to create that in yeah like I want to know how long the songs make like a couple of minutes three minutes long um so for me that was my yeah my way of doing it um and yeah as I said I felt really pushed I felt really but in a good way I really enjoyed the process it was such an amazing experience and it really made me be like yeah this is what I want to do for a living like really truly
00:45:00.20
Isobel Anderson
Yeah.
00:45:01.19
Beka
But I was really pushed as a composer to just really think outside the box and to kind of create these sound worlds so that you could literally see, you could see like, you know, these things in your mind, um and things like the womb, the womb track, ah born born new, like, that was me just kind of like tapping the mic and making kind of weird sounds like with my throat.
00:45:24.41
Beka
and stuff and then playing around with delay and different plugins and creating something which sounds like an ultrasound and sounds like what I would imagine what it's like as a baby when you're in your mother's womb and you're kind of like the hearing the heartbeat and stuff like that um and yeah it was it was it was amazing it was such a good good experience it's amazing
00:45:25.44
Isobel Anderson
a
00:45:44.62
Isobel Anderson
Yeah, I imagine that it's quite liberating writing tracks that are quite short like that because some of the tracks on the album, and I should say that the album is called Selective Works Volume 1, some of the tracks are like under a minute.
00:46:00.90
Isobel Anderson
you one that's 55 seconds that's dancing in the light and then none of them are more than i think the longest track is three minutes 14 for joy
00:46:10.22
Beka
Yes.
00:46:11.61
Isobel Anderson
And, ah you know, when I look at that, immediately what I think is, God, that is so liberating because, so you know, as a someone with a background as a songwriter and also, ah like, Sonic Arts composer, soundscape composer, which is sort of much, much longer than the songs.
00:46:28.49
Isobel Anderson
It's like three minutes, 30 is that classic, but, you know, sometimes it's four minutes, five minutes, sometimes even six minutes if you're being indulgent.
00:46:32.89
Beka
you Yeah.
00:46:37.87
Isobel Anderson
So to make, I love the idea of making an album that just has loads of tracks, but they're small and they just feel so liberating. It's like you're not having to constantly develop your ideas and make it into this kind of form and the structure of like, how does that feel for you? Because when when you when and when you first describe going to the studio for three days,
00:46:58.41
Isobel Anderson
with your engineer. And I do want to talk about that relationship because it's very um female engineer that you work with.
00:47:03.88
Beka
Yeah.
00:47:04.20
Isobel Anderson
But when, when you go in for three days, I can now see thinking about how it's 15 tracks, but they're short and their ideas and there's like, get some, get an idea together.
00:47:15.51
Isobel Anderson
That's for a very specific, either part of the body or hormone or time of the cycle.
00:47:20.57
Beka
Yeah.
00:47:21.56
Isobel Anderson
Like it's, it's like quite liberating for you.
00:47:24.44
Beka
Yes it was, I think that's probably why I could i could write it quite quickly because um yeah that was first of all what you're saying about the timing, I mean especially as a classically trained performer, like where you know the shortest piece you're lucky is about 10 minutes, you've got concertos that are like half an hour, symphonies that are hours was long,
00:47:25.22
Isobel Anderson
Yeah.
00:47:28.71
Isobel Anderson
Yeah. Yeah.
00:47:46.23
Beka
And again, you're trained to be like, that's good music, that's what we're supposed to be like.
00:47:49.72
Isobel Anderson
Yeah.
00:47:50.58
Beka
And then, you know, when I got into kind of ah writing with the loop pedal, start with our pieces were like literally 15 minutes long.
00:47:58.91
Isobel Anderson
Yeah.
00:47:59.27
Beka
We'd just be like, oh, yes, it's so cool. And then you listen back and you're just like, wait, it's just the same thing going round and round, but we're figuring out how to like mix it together.
00:48:07.01
Isobel Anderson
Yeah.
00:48:08.01
Beka
When I realised that, I was like, oh okay, that's great, but it's quite self-indulgent. I ah think our job as musicians and artists is to really keep capturing the audience's imagination. um And so for me, it was like a test to be like, how short can you make this?
00:48:25.64
Beka
because I can't you know especially live you can just play forever like that's how I'm trained but um this was more like right how succinct can you be how can you get the message across in like the first second which I think is a really as a composer that's a good skill to be working on and as it's you know going into songwriting and commercial writing that's important you know want to come up with a really quick hook that people can get and even in the classical world some of the best music or
00:48:29.22
Isobel Anderson
Yeah. Yeah. Hmm.
00:48:52.18
Beka
But some of the music that people remember, it's just that bar, like, you know, Beethoven 5.
00:48:55.37
Isobel Anderson
Yeah.
00:48:57.70
Beka
That's all you need to know.
00:48:58.87
Isobel Anderson
Yeah!
00:48:59.92
Beka
Forget the rest of so yeah I mean, it's amazing symphony, but, you know, something so simple, but it's hard to do that.
00:49:02.96
Isobel Anderson
Yeah.
00:49:06.29
Beka
And I think, again, with those the way classical music, like the history of it, it went from really writing very formulaic, structured, simple, not simple, but like, you know, very balanced and you know, well put together to then this epic nurse, you know, people like Chopin and all that stuff where it's just like emotion, emotion, emotion. And like, I don't know if you had like to play this number two, the symphony, you know, it's just this rolling, rolling tapestry of sound, you know, the third and fourth movements, they on, if you play it live, there's no break. It just goes from one to the next. So it's just this magic, this massive journey and magic journey that you go on.
00:49:46.02
Beka
ah and And that's amazing. But yeah, I kind of, I wanted to test myself and be like, can I create a hook that's, you know, a second long or a few bars long and that people that can listen to. And I think in this day and age now it really that is kind of what's needed because with TikTok and Instagram, people's attention span, myself included, is very short.
00:50:02.74
Isobel Anderson
Hmm. Hmm.
00:50:11.04
Beka
And so it's is now a musician's job to write this little these little quick little funny songs and you know things that like will catch your imagination, things that can be looped around.
00:50:11.03
Isobel Anderson
yeah
00:50:16.94
Isobel Anderson
Yeah. Mm-hmm.
00:50:21.08
Beka
If you watch any TikTok videos now and with creators, they'll have the same loop going around and around. But you don't know it's going around around because, you know, you get lost in it because it's it's just written well. You know, or like if it's to be taken from a song, it's like the just the right bit that's been taken from that's like so catchy, like this is cool. And so for me, I think writing this album has now led into kind of that being the next step for me, you know, writing. I've been working with digital artists.
00:50:51.92
Beka
collaborating, like making reels and stuff online. And that's something that I would like to take my music to, you know, kind of give it to content creators and be like, you've got, you know, this is 15 seconds, but, you know, have fun with that.
00:51:05.33
Isobel Anderson
Yeah.
00:51:06.15
Beka
And and as a content creator myself, that's how i um ah that's how I promoted my album.
00:51:06.52
Isobel Anderson
and
00:51:12.64
Beka
just finding like seven seconds from a piece of from one of my pieces I thought really embodied everything that I was trying to say and said it against either normally a video of my myself doing something mundane and people got it they really did get it and it went viral online and that's how my album got seen like it wasn't it's not I don't have a label I don't have a manager I had a little bit of PR but like it's basically come from me and it's, as I said, like I'm grateful for that time, the the the time that we live in now, that that's how you can create art and create, get attention because um I think otherwise it would have been harder for me to have sold my album as much across the world, you know, like being able to have these little snapshots and snippets
00:51:59.69
Beka
that really capture people's attention and people can listen to just around and around and they're, you know, they're feeling this emotion and it's like six seconds long. I feel like I've done my job really.
00:52:09.37
Isobel Anderson
Yeah, yeah. Yeah. and um And there's a couple of things that I'd love to kind of dig into a little bit as well. So the first one is, um can you tell me a bit about this relationship with the engineer that you mentioned?
00:52:21.35
Isobel Anderson
I can't remember the name you said.
00:52:23.52
Beka
yeah fee robert
00:52:25.09
Isobel Anderson
Fi Roberts. So you've you've been working with Fi Roberts.
00:52:28.48
Beka
yeah
00:52:28.77
Isobel Anderson
And have you worked with Fi Roberts before um this album?
00:52:33.14
Beka
um but So yes, ge we we met over 2020. 2020 is definitely a big year for me. She was part of the whole like London jazz scene, but I hadn't really met her before. um And my mentor from the Middie Music School um in Deptford, she was like, right,
00:52:49.78
Beka
red balls doing this collab thing with like artists and at that time Fi was working with red balls one of their engineers and she was like put you guys together and see what can happen because at that point i just discovered recording i was like oh my god this is amazing and i was like mixing quite badly but mixing and um yeah when i met Fi she was like taught me how to automate which is how i do a lot of writing actually should i should have said that before once i've recorded the stuff in as i said like a lot of it is just like in the moment so I'll have to automate stuff. So that means like taking stuff out, bringing stuff up um or just balancing levels and you know basically telling things up and down um to yeah to bring certain things out, certain chords out. It's just amazing. I call it you can like sculpt the sound really. That's how I see it. and But yeah, I kind of learned that from her. um So yeah, we met in 2020 and then I she i released a single April 2020 and she helped me kind of
00:53:49.60
Beka
No, she didn't help me with that, but no, no, so sorry, scrap that. So Meri 2020, after I'd released the single from with Tack Collective, and then as I said, I had all this music that I'd recorded in Manchester 2019, and I wanted to release an the EP, then it was locked down, and I was like, okay, and then I was like, right.
00:54:06.13
Beka
discovered recording at home so i was like right i'm going to do those overdubs and just make this stuff instead of just just being one violin and a loop pedal you know a few lines but limited now i can just add loads of lines and do loads of stuff and um yeah so we then ended up connecting and then he helped me bring together the TAP Collective album, you know, it was it was amazing was when everything was shut down but strong room which again he used to do a big up for strong room because they were amazing they helped so many independent artists and they've had that people like the Spice Girls and Little Sims record there so they're just like legends but they basically gave me the space for free really and I could just go in and
00:54:51.06
Beka
just record, I did overdubs myself, it was my first time recording in a proper studio and then I got in other friends, new friends I'd met in London because I just moved down from Manchester and got them on the album so we both called that, it was like the Frankenstein album because it was literally stuff from 2019, stuff that I'd done in my room on my own, stuff I'd done in a strong room and then stuff I'd bought new people in and we just basically kind of stitched it all together and she helped me yeah put it together and that was the tactful album that came out. um Yeah from then since then
00:55:25.05
Beka
I wouldn't use anyone else to work with.
00:55:26.93
Isobel Anderson
Yeah.
00:55:28.89
Beka
Fi is an incredible musician, she's very sensitive ears and she's very supportive. As an artist you're constantly having breakdowns and life's not always going the way you want it to go.
00:55:42.72
Beka
It's a lot of stress and so she was always very grounded and very calm and stable in those times and um she listened to me you know like if I was like I wanted to sound like that she got me and she was like okay we'll do that and even if I did things that were a bit unorthodox she wouldn't ever be like dismiss me or be like that's not how you do it what are you doing she'd be like okay that's new that's different but we can work with it and I really really respect that from home I'm really grateful for that because I think I taught her stuff and she taught me stuff as well because obviously I'm coming at it from like string ears. So how i'm I'm mixing and creating, I'm thinking about chamber music, orchestra, being a so soloist. I know what I'm expecting to hear because I've had decades of experience in it. um And then for Fi, she has the side of like producing and like what is, you know, the level that's expected on that, on that side of things. And so I think together we just made a really strong
00:56:36.31
Beka
strong team and a lot of it was done remotely you know a lot of times we weren't able to see each other because of lockdown and she also had a baby like when I was doing my solo album so there was a lot of time when she went around and we just did things remotely you know just be again she just had patience so I would just literally I'm very detailed with the person so I could just go through time stamps and write down exactly be like oh this needs to come up here or this blah blah and she just did it and she just got she just got me and
00:56:48.50
Isobel Anderson
yeah
00:57:04.42
Beka
Yeah, I'm really grateful for all of that as an experience. and Just because it tells you it makes me know that I can do whatever situation that I'm in, I can like i can do it.
00:57:14.63
Beka
i don't you know i do You don't need thousands of pounds.
00:57:15.12
Isobel Anderson
Yeah.
00:57:16.99
Beka
You don't need you know all this groovy, amazing state of the art stuff. It would be amazing to have that. But you can just do it grassroots, at home, as long as you've just got the right people bus beside you.
00:57:27.48
Beka
And you know it's really important to learn that and then also to have that. I'm so grateful.
00:57:32.58
Isobel Anderson
Yeah it's really wonderful to hear because I think um you know still we often traditionally think of going into studio environment and we will just be surrounded by men and particularly engineers we presume there'll be men.
00:57:33.41
Beka
So yeah.
00:57:46.30
Isobel Anderson
I think it's really helpful on the podcast for people to hear stories like yours where you've been able to work with the women and there are lots of wonderful men and lots of people have you know lots of different genders in the industry but
00:57:51.42
Beka
Yes, yes of course. a
00:57:58.52
Isobel Anderson
um I think it's really encouraging. I think, I hope that that's encouraging for people listening and empowering for people listening out there to know that you can go into that studio environment, select cherry pick the people you want to work with and have a really positive experience.
00:58:13.36
Isobel Anderson
And an experience that enriches your practice doesn't just feel depleting because I think a lot, there's a lot of women that have stories of those studios, especially recording studio experiences that deplete them in terms of confidence, energy.
00:58:14.29
Beka
um
00:58:24.26
Beka
me Yes.
00:58:27.13
Isobel Anderson
and not credited for the you know the contribution they made etc e etc etc but your story that you've just described there sounds like it was really enriching so thank you for sharing that Rebecca I think that's really important to hear.
00:58:35.18
Beka
Oh. Yeah, no i yeah i i so I'm happy to share my to share my story and my experiences.
00:58:40.29
Isobel Anderson
yeah
00:58:45.17
Beka
i said I do feel very grateful for it because I've heard of them you know upsetting stories of you know so you know women ah artists that don't own their mixes anymore.
00:58:58.50
Beka
you know The producers have run off with them. They they kind of kind of it's it's just a sense of control, I guess, being like, well, this is my thing, like, and all day not being credited.
00:59:04.77
Isobel Anderson
Yeah.
00:59:09.35
Beka
And I think for me, like, when I started on this journey, releasing music, I was like, bum that, like, I will credit everyone, like, everyone, like, you know, often people do it if you're the artist, you don't need to put like, who's in your band or whatever.
00:59:21.69
Beka
But for me, I was like, no, I'm putting everyone there. And so when it's my own stuff, like my solo album, it's all me. So I can be like, it is all me. But with Tap Collective, everyone is credited, all the engineers, all, you know, everyone involved who helped me put it together is is there because they deserve to be honored.
00:59:38.67
Beka
I could not have got here and done it without them. um And I'm very lucky because, you know, I could have easily could have just been a different journey. I hadn't met those people at that right time. And I could be not sat here and, you know, be like, oh, I don't know where my masters are.
00:59:52.98
Beka
like yeah
00:59:53.57
Isobel Anderson
Yeah, yeah.
00:59:54.16
Beka
and a like So I'm lucky that wasn't my story.
00:59:55.09
Isobel Anderson
no But it sounds like you made, you in some ways as well, though, you made quite a concerted decision to not let that be your story, to find other ways around.
00:59:58.57
Beka
Yeah. Like, yeah.
01:00:10.97
Beka
i think so i Yeah, I think now with hindsight, yes. I think at the time I didn't really know what I was getting myself into, if I'm being honest.
01:00:15.90
Isobel Anderson
Yeah.
01:00:16.77
Beka
you know I ah said 2020 was a big year because I was like ready to take over the world doing my live bloop pedaling thing. 2019 had gone so well. I was in a new city, joined all these different bands, which is loving life.
01:00:29.67
Beka
And then literally, like, everything disappeared and stopped. Everything, like, I can't tell you just how empty the diary was.
01:00:32.75
Isobel Anderson
Yeah.
01:00:36.41
Isobel Anderson
Yeah.
01:00:37.04
Beka
And I was like, I'm going to have to literally change my career and come up with something completely new.
01:00:41.27
Isobel Anderson
Yeah.
01:00:42.60
Beka
And, you know, it was like, great, I love writing music, so this is going to be a new step. But it was quite daunting and I didn't realise what it was going to entail. So I think Now at the hindsight I'm like yeah I'm glad that I had obviously had some boundaries where I was like if something wasn't right or if I wasn't feeling it I was like no I'm not doing that I'll find something else and just lucky as well that at that point I just be connected with the right women as well say because I'm like you know my mentor she's a woman um and she kind of connected me and she's a black woman as well so she connected me And she could see what maybe what I couldn't see, what I'm letting myself in for, and what was needed.
01:01:18.53
Beka
Because I think for for her, it's like you need to own everything. And I was like, why? I want to be signed. I want to imagine. I want put i don't want to do anything. I just want to play and make it easy. And she was like, basically, no, Han, you need to do it yourself.
01:01:33.14
Beka
And now I understand, because as RuPaul does, she owns everything. like i I own everything. that I write, all my masters, even with the BBC thing, you know, it was like that there was that respect of like, you take your album and you do what you want with it, like, you know, and I'm really grateful for that freedom as well.
01:01:39.67
Isobel Anderson
Yeah.
01:01:53.61
Beka
I think that's what it is, it's just having artistic freedom, um which I've always been searching for, you know, just to be myself and to just be allowed to be in the room, I guess, and sit at the table, whatever that means, and to have the freedom to do that.
01:02:04.92
Isobel Anderson
and
01:02:08.28
Beka
I haven't was felt like I've had that. And so maybe, yeah, that's been the driving spirit and force in this journey of the past like four years. But yeah.
01:02:19.19
Isobel Anderson
Yeah.
01:02:20.04
Beka
Yeah.
01:02:20.72
Isobel Anderson
Yeah. And um I also wanted to ask, we've we've mentioned the TAP Collective project quite a lot. And I just thought, could you tell us what is TAP Collective? and because um Because it also kind of brings us back to live looping, doesn't it?
01:02:30.20
Beka
Yes.
01:02:33.83
Beka
Yes it does.
01:02:34.35
Isobel Anderson
Yeah.
01:02:35.73
Beka
So TAP Collective um is a collective of musicians from Manchester and from London because that's where I've lived in my life and um it's mixing violin and loop pedal with instruments that you would normally see in a band.
01:02:51.55
Beka
So it's again it's like mixing these genres and different worlds together. So traditional strings with like saxophone, drum kit, fender roads, whatever, the more out there, the better, really. um And a yeah, it's... it's um and i So we've done quite a few gigs together as a band. like I had a little bit of hiatus just to like a focus on some solo stuff, but and we played in the Elgar Room in 2021 at Royal Albert Hall. um We'd done Pizza Express ah last year. um Yeah, didn like just some amazing gigs with that band and it's mixing the singers in there as well, as spoken word poets. And it's basically, I think at that time,
01:03:43.96
Beka
it was It was a way of me kind of being part of that contemporary commercial world as a violinist because I wasn't quite sure how to yet get into that world, you know, so being able to work with rappers or singers, you know, I didn't know where to start with, but having TAP kind of like helped me get into that scene and basically write the music that I love um Yeah, but basically what I love, which is classical with and kind of more modern in and influences. So yeah, that's that collective.
01:04:19.19
Isobel Anderson
Oh, brilliant. Amazing. Well, um Rebecca, it's been wonderful to chat. I wonder, before we finish up, I want to listen to one more of your tracks.
01:04:28.59
Beka
Yes.
01:04:28.77
Isobel Anderson
So this is a new release called Tide.
01:04:29.12
Beka
Yeah. yeah
01:04:32.06
Isobel Anderson
Can you tell us a bit about this and and especially how does it differ to what we've already heard before in Selected Works, Volume 1?
01:04:38.83
Beka
your Yes, um so Tides was a lockdown creation, as I see a lot of things are. ah um It was commissioned by a yoga instructor that she'd come to see one of my gigs before everything shut down and then afterwards she kind of contacted me and she was like I loved what you did and she felt so bad that like everything had just disappeared, all the work was gone. I think that herself she was struggling you know, she was teaching yoga online, and it was just this whole new world that we're living in. And so she commissioned me to write a piece of music for her online yoga class. um So already it's different to selected works because um I guess the content is different, you know, the themes behind it are different. um I wanted to write something really ambient focused, really kind of, for me, it was at the end of, you know, Shabbatina, any yogis out there?
01:05:35.57
Beka
So when you're really in a like relaxed, deep state, or almost meditat meditative state, I wanted to write some music that could complement that, but also be exploring violin and traditional string playing. um So for me, I guess say another difference is this was me at like my very beginning of my career as a producer and recording um artist. um I literally was at my mum's house in my tiny room just singing really quietly in her mic at like two in the morning because I just got in inspiration and that was when I first was like oh I can start writing
01:06:18.20
Beka
stuff that's more through-composed, you know, because that stuff, it was through-composed, but that's because I'd done it with the band, you know, I'd had like the drum kit and everything there. It was me and another, it was, for each track, it was me and another artist involved.
01:06:30.22
Beka
So this was me on my own, but I wanted to create that through-composed feeling and not have everything kind of looping all the time.
01:06:33.28
Isobel Anderson
Uh huh. Uh huh.
01:06:35.96
Beka
So that, this was the first step into it. And so that's why it does kind of go through different stages and worlds. Like the first one, and at first it was called streams, like a trickling stream, but I didn't think that would work.
01:06:48.68
Beka
with marketing just streams and streaming just yeah they would yeah and so i put ti yes yes yeah
01:06:51.39
Isobel Anderson
Okay, yeah. Well, let's um let's take a little listen and then we can um hear a bit more about the process. So this is a section from Tides.
01:07:24.39
Isobel Anderson
OK, so thank you so much for and sharing that with us, Rebecca. That's a little section from Tides, which is a single that was released in August 2024. So that's the most recent release.
01:07:37.03
Isobel Anderson
And um I can really feel that sense of things kind of currents interlocking with each other a little bit. I can hear the the voice and the violin again, but the voice is very sort of in the background.
01:07:45.45
Beka
Yeah.
01:07:50.00
Isobel Anderson
It's very subtle.
01:07:51.73
Beka
a
01:07:51.75
Isobel Anderson
It's just a kind of yeah It just sometimes comes in and and then drifts back into the distance again.
01:07:58.52
Beka
Yes, yeah. and I was kind of going for like a shamanic sort of vibe, by gas I Yeah, I kind of wanted it to help mesh the texture, and but not necessarily like be at the forefront, I think. I think, you know, I think it's only now that I'm kind of being more confident in like singing actual songs and stuff like that. I think that then I still was just like, as I said, quietly singing into a mic.
01:08:23.80
Beka
at two o'clock in the morning. So I was still maybe a little bit hidden in in some some in some ways with fact the but the with the voice. um But yeah, it started off as kind of a sense trickling stream and I was you know playing around with like the pits at the beginning. I don't know which section you played from, but there's this kind of pizzicato bouncing line that is the main rhythm. like that piece basically has that line and then it goes into this kind of free time state where you're like, I imagine you're like underwater um and time is kind of, it's just a concept, it's no longer there.
01:08:55.40
Isobel Anderson
Remember.
01:09:01.84
Beka
and But at the beginning there is this kind of red rhythmic groove that goes through and that's with the delay pedal set it on I think like think it's like quarter delay and so it just bounces back and forth and I love that you can just create like whole lines and again it's like someone else is playing but it's just you. So it's built on that and then um yeah like my imagining or kind of like being up and mounting and just like kind of watching the water trickling down and making its way down down to the river and stuff like that and then as i said like once the vocals come in i also sorry i also experimented with percussion so i use quite a lot of world percussion in this quite simple like shakers a club clubbers um and again not really done in like your orthodox
01:09:45.28
Beka
percussion way, because I'm not percussionist, but again, it's all about the sound. So I really wanted to create this kind of fizzing, like frothy sound, like water um to create the running, the running trickling of water and the spray that you get when you kind of get to the sea. gets um So I did that basically with shakers and adding a ton of delay. And that was a fee was like, what are you doing?
01:10:08.87
Beka
Because once you took it off, I was like, it sounds so different. I was like, no, it has to be then. This is part of the composition. and um And so even now, I've worked with an arranger on a score and we've when we put it together, it was like that was part of the performance notes.
01:10:13.78
Isobel Anderson
and
01:10:21.37
Beka
It's like there has to if it's done live, it has to have this amount of delay and all that stuff just so that it's that ah that feeling is created. um and yeah and uh yeah same thing with the plavers it's kind of just like me playing it and then just tons of delay and that's kind of like to embody like like i don't know stones and you know in the water and yeah just kind of that kind of feeling um and then as i said it kind of goes into this there's a kind of crash and this i'm imagining something's like plummeting going into the water
01:10:42.68
Isobel Anderson
No. Oh.
01:10:54.85
Beka
and just a whole load of blue and like maybe the lights kind of coming through the depths but yeah you're kind of underwater and you're submerged and you're seeing all these like other worlds like real fishes maybe a mermaid who knows um but yeah it's really meant to take you instead take you to like a different planet like you're not it's not you're now no no longer on the earth somewhere else um and it does get a little bit dark at points um
01:11:08.17
Isobel Anderson
so
01:11:22.39
Beka
I think, again, just do like little changes of harm in harmony, adding in certain, just little, ja like glizzy notes or things like that, certain clashes, just for a moment, but with delay as well, it just, it just kind of adds a little frisson of friction.
01:11:35.50
Beka
And then you're like, Oh, okay, back to normal.
01:11:35.41
Isobel Anderson
Yeah. Mm hmm.
01:11:37.93
Beka
and then it ends when we kind of like come up we re-emerge from the water and yeah we add I think it's a D minor 9 chord with in the vocals which has been again tons of delay held on for like a ridiculously long amount of time all intentional um and yeah that was I don't know if anyone found out Jacob Collier, but like he definitely is inspiring and so has inspired me.
01:12:07.79
Beka
And I love what he does like with his with his vocals and stuff. And I think that ending bit was a bit of a homage to him. and ah And yes, I just love the stacking of it.
01:12:18.55
Beka
And to say it just kind of goes on. It's like it's meant to feel like a timeless, you know, it's meant to feel like it just will like a loop.
01:12:22.81
Isobel Anderson
yeah yeah hmm wonderful oh that's brilliant okay so we will definitely put a link in the show notes so that people can go and check out all of your releases including tides
01:12:25.01
Beka
It will just keep coming back around. um Yeah, that's That's tight.
01:12:38.71
Beka
Yes.
01:12:38.85
Isobel Anderson
and the other tracks that we listen to today. um Before we finish up, Rebecca, I just want to ask you, because I know there'll be people who are listening and they they will have been so inspired by how particularly, you know, using loop pedal seems to have really opened up composing, writing, but not just that, I think owning your own voice, your own unique sound and kind of for figuring out what that is if it isn't these more traditional kind of pathways or boxes.
01:13:06.69
Isobel Anderson
So if there's anyone listening who's thinking, well, I would love to start experimenting with loop pedals because it feels like a really nice kind of organic intuitive way to start doing all that stuff.
01:13:12.46
Beka
Hmm.
01:13:16.68
Isobel Anderson
What do you recommend people do to get started? Are there particular pieces of gear that you recommend? Are there particular um you know places that people go to get information or whatever it might be?
01:13:29.34
Isobel Anderson
Let's start with the gear. like What would you recommend as someone starting out?
01:13:30.50
Beka
Yes, yes. So I mean, there are loads of loop pedals out there. So, um you know, I could just give you my, my experience. I am a boss girl. So I've been using, I started off with the Boss RC 300 loop pedal, which I think is one of the best loop pedals out there. um Mainly because you get three tracks, you can do a lot of controlling, and you have faders on the outside, which Trust me, it's really helpful because then you can kind of mix and do all of that stuff live. um And then I had a partner who bought me a Boss RC30, which is like the smaller two pedal one. So I actually still, they've just continued that unfortunately, but I do take that out and for like ah workshops at school and stuff like that.
01:14:18.03
Beka
and because it's not too big and you can kind of demonstrate what to do you can record in two tracks but there are limitations because there's only two tracks but there's some cool effects on there that you can do stuff with and then la this year it was kindly gifted a new loop pedal from Boss um I've become like a Roland ambassador and um that is the RC600 so that's this has six tracks on it so it's you know it's double the the last one and there's a lot of scope of what you can do with it you can quantize um stuff on it which is great you know that's a big producer tool that people would use like Pro Tools and Logic and stuff like that so to have that live is amazing everything there's no faders on the outside
01:14:59.86
Isobel Anderson
Hmm.
01:15:03.37
Beka
So that's the one thing that's like, but apart from that, it's amazing.
01:15:03.68
Isobel Anderson
Hmm. but
01:15:07.00
Beka
So sorry, thank you boss. But yeah, so for me, those are the machines that I use and I've never tried anything else.
01:15:14.28
Isobel Anderson
Uh huh.
01:15:15.85
Beka
I, yeah, I mean, so the loop pedal people out there that want to sponsor me, I will try it. um
01:15:21.96
Isobel Anderson
Yeah.
01:15:22.46
Beka
But yeah, in my experience, they're some of the most competitive machines out there and they're really, really good. um and And the RC600, that's very light as well. So if you're gigging and on the go, it's perfect for that.
01:15:35.81
Beka
um I also use, well, quite a boss girly. So I use a boss delay pedal, sometimes use a harmonizer, but that does depend on like frequencies and stuff like that.
01:15:46.37
Isobel Anderson
No.
01:15:46.52
Beka
It doesn't always translate well. um And I also use a Roland JD-XI synth, I think that's what it's called. And that's incredible, it's a drum machine, um but it also has like so many different bass sounds, you know, you can do live drumming or you can program drums in, add, you know, they've got harpsichord sounds, and all sorts of things. So that's what I use. And then mics, so okay, so that's equipment wise, mic wise. Oh, when I first started out,
01:16:18.94
Beka
Oh gosh the terrible equipment that I had. and but if the One of the first things I got was a Fishman pickup so again this translates mainly for strings but I would say some sort of contact mic is best to use. and For me a pickup is really good if you want clean sound and if you're playing with like a band or if if you're for playing in like a jazz space or somewhere that's like maybe not like a concert hall it's perfect for that and because you just get great or you get a good sound straight away and there's no feedback but one thing it does make the instrument sound quite electronic especially for strings so um for me now that I've evolved and I know I play acoustic violin because I don't want
01:16:50.74
Isobel Anderson
Uh-huh. All right.
01:17:01.40
Beka
to just be in an electronic sphere. um And I want to keep the resonances of the the instrument. So I now use a DPA mic. And that, I mean, it's... quite expensive, but it's it's so worth it. um And I use that in like concert halls, or if I've got an engineer with me that note that can, that's my setup that can help because the one thing is that you'll get sometimes we'll get feedback with that because it's ah it's an open mic. But there's loads of of mics out there. um I would say if you're starting out, just buy something that's cheap.
01:17:35.68
Beka
you know because you're going to be upgrading and you're going to evolve.
01:17:35.65
Isobel Anderson
Uh huh.
01:17:38.66
Beka
The worst thing is to kind of just spend so much money on stuff that you don't know how to use or it's not quite right and then you kind of give up.
01:17:45.70
Isobel Anderson
Yeah.
01:17:46.52
Beka
I'd also say it's important to get a decent amp. and I think things actually have evolved a lot since even when I was doing like when I first started out like my one of my colleagues she has this really cute, I think it's Roland as well,
01:17:59.79
Beka
like really cute portable um amp which is you know a couple hundred quid and it's really good. um I would say for violin especially you want to be using either like a decent amp once it has like a woofers and stuff in it or a keyboard or bass amp because using a guitar amp you're going to have the worst sound ever it's going to sound like
01:18:18.90
Isobel Anderson
Uh-huh.
01:18:23.80
Beka
scratch you like nails on ah on a chalkboard it's just the frequencies and just the range of the violin and stuff like that so you want something that can accommodate the low bass and as well like the high frequencies so yeah you want a good um you want to ah good microphone um you can use just a normal stand-up mic but I would say get yourself a contact mic you know and and you can get ones that you stick on with putty that are quite affordable as well um Yeah.
01:18:52.27
Beka
Oh, and you need some cables, so some jack cables, maybe a couple of XLRs.
01:18:52.28
Isobel Anderson
Yeah, yeah.
01:18:57.12
Beka
Did that sit really?
01:18:58.05
Isobel Anderson
Yeah, excellent. Well, what I will do is I will put a little list together from everything you shared and we will put that list with links in the show notes to the equipment that you've mentioned, Rebecca.
01:19:07.16
Beka
Yeah.
01:19:07.68
Isobel Anderson
So if there is anyone listening and they're thinking, I'd love to get started, you know, maybe you're not a string player even, but if especially if you are a string player, you want to get started with loops, then that's a really good little gear list you've given us.
01:19:18.38
Beka
My pleasure.
01:19:18.85
Isobel Anderson
So thank you so much for that. and um And then all that's left to say is just thank you so much for sharing all of your experience, your techniques, your insights, your stories on the podcast. It's been fascinating and really, really appreciate you and just sharing that, and especially your music as well.
01:19:37.56
Beka
Isabelle, thank you so much for having me. like and It means a lot to be on your podcast. So yeah, yeah by thank you.
01:19:44.68
Isobel Anderson
Oh, pleasure.
