Jacob Collier, vocals, instruments, engineering, production<\/p>\n
I grew up as one of the YouTube generation, with the idea that you could create your own fanbase by making videos. So when I was about 17, I filmed myself in our family back room doing Stevie Wonder covers like Isn\u2019t She Lovely<\/a>, made up of six layered vocal parts sung by different versions of me, or Don\u2019t You Worry \u2019Bout a Thing<\/a>, where I played various instruments.<\/p>\n When I uploaded these videos, somehow one found its way to Quincy Jones<\/a>, Michael Jackson\u2019s producer, who sent an email: \u201cHey man, what\u2019s going on with these chords? I need to have a word with you.\u201d I was absolutely amazed, but we started talking on Skype and having incredible conversations. He signed me to his label and became a sort of mentor.<\/p>\n As a child, I used to listen to artists such as Joni Mitchell, Michael Jackson or Stevie Wonder and try to count the instruments or analyse what worked, which was really useful when I started creating my own music. I\u2019d had some formal education and sung classical music as a boy, but I wasn\u2019t a brilliant multi-instrumentalist. I played piano, would have a go at playing anything else, and had a Casio keyboard full of percussion or bassoons, which meant I could produce sounds on it that I loved, such as the harp in Ravel\u2019s piano concertos.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n I made In My Room in three months. Stevie Wonder and Prince had played all the instruments on their albums in recording studios, but there wasn\u2019t an instruction manual for doing it all at home. I did it on my laptop, looping instruments and layering vocal harmonies manually. Covers of Stevie Wonder\u2019s You and I and Brian Wilson\u2019s In My Room acknowledged my influences and I loved the Flintstones theme so I thought it would be fun to take it for a drive. The rest of the songs are mine. In the Real Early Morning<\/a> started as a poem. I wanted each track to be different so I used everything from gentle piano or guitar to fuller orchestration.<\/p>\n Ben Bloomberg did all this amazing tweaking and mixing in LA, then Quincy and Herbie Hancock swung by the studio until 5am for the final mix, so they were the first people to hear the finished record. In My Room won two Grammys. You don\u2019t think things like that are possible, but I didn\u2019t make it to be a big star or for the money. It was just a snapshot of me aged 21: these are the things I cared about.<\/p>\n Ben Bloomberg, balance engineer<\/p>\n I first came across Jacob when Michael League from Snarky Puppy posted the video of his rearrangement of Don\u2019t You Worry \u2019Bout a Thing on Facebook. I think that was also the video Quincy saw. Then I watched them all \u2013 Fascinating Rhythm, Georgia On My Mind and so on \u2013 and started asking everyone: \u201cHave you seen this?\u201d<\/p>\n I\u2019d just started my PhD at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and we were doing crazy music tech mashups like robot opera and global city-to-city orchestral collaborations, so I messaged Jacob on Facebook saying: \u201cIf you ever want to build something live on stage \u2026 ?\u201d When Quincy got him a show supporting Chick Corea at Montreux jazz festival, Jacob asked me if there was any way of performing the album without cloning himself into 12 people.<\/p>\n \u2018Total chaos, but in a good way\u2019 \u2026 Collier with, from left, Herbie Hancock, Quincy Jones and Chick Corea at Montreux<\/p>\n We were thousands of miles apart, so we worked remotely, using loops to build the music. Then I created this thing called a vocal harmoniser which meant he could sing something live and instantly become his own backing choir. Friends at MIT created some custom software so he had this big mash-mash of sounds crammed into one box. We pulled four all-nighters before the show, and did a test gig at Ronnie Scott\u2019s in London for 200 people, but Montreux was great. Quincy turned up with [Thriller songwriter] Rod Temperton and gave a really left-field opening speech: total chaos, but in a good way. Then we had projections of 12 Jacobs, playing different instruments.<\/p>\n After that, Jacob brought his finished album over, but there were far too many tracks to mix it on a standard desk. I found out Hans Zimmer\u2019s studio in LA had an old cinema console which had enough inputs \u2013 512! \u2013 so we mixed it on that. Jacob had had so many ideas and knew what he wanted: it was just about finding a way to capture the spirit of his room. We\u2019ve worked together ever since and are great friends. I\u2019m credited as \u201cbalance engineer\u201d because I\u2019d just read about Geoff Emerick<\/a>, the balance engineer for the Beatles. I liked the term so much I used it.<\/p>\n