Bec Sykes has earned her success.
Wowing crowds at this year’s Bigsound showcases, earning supports from Telenova and Jem Cassar-Daley, her debut record Pepperpot Magic captures the magic of her music succinctly. It’s s layered, textured, folky and deep, shifting between articulating her feelings in her lyrics and augmenting them in the chords and arrangement. Early success in singles like “Edithvale” had Bec Sykes in the spotlight, but her hard work sees Pepperpot Magic become a really special body of work.
Bec, first of all congrats on Pepperpot Magic! This is a broad question, but besides the amount of work – how did the workflow of making an LP compare to singles?
We made this album incredibly efficiently, which is not how I usually do anything, ever. [Producer] Rob Muiños gets shit done. Within like three weeks of chatting to him about recording, we were in the studio, and after two days we’d finished the band beds for eight tracks. The fast pace helped me snap out of my usual perfectionism. When it came to mixing, it felt pretty overwhelming making decisions about so many songs, but at the same time it meant that I couldn’t spend as much time overthinking any one particular song. “Do You Dream in Colour”, “Six”, “Sculpture” and “Joan of Arc” were all written after we’d recorded the rest of the songs, so I was writing those songs for the album, whereas the other songs were just the strongest songs I’d written over the past couple of years. I really wanted there to be a solo piano song on the record and a spacious acoustic guitar song because when I listen to records they’re often my favourite moments, they feel like taking a deep breath. After everything was mixed, Rob and I spent half a day working on the track order and transitions between songs.
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Pepperpot Magic
How was the album recorded overall? Did you record basics with a band and then add overdubs or was each song treated like its own session?
The band beds for most of the songs were recorded live over two days in June last year. Then over a few more sessions we added overdubs which included vocals, acoustic and electric guitar, synth and tambourine. The rest of the recording was more spaced out and it was just Rob, Ronan and me in the studio for those sessions. “Six” was recorded more like a stand alone track sometime in September, then “Do You Dream in Colour”, “Sculpture” and “Joan of Arc” were recorded over a couple of days in December. For “Six” we used a drum machine to create a loop, and for “Do You Dream in Colour” Rob played live drums and created a loop from that, but we wanted it to kinda sound like a drum machine. “Paint the House Grey”, “Sculpture” and “Joan of Arc” all have live vocals.
Why did you choose Matt Dixon, Sam Raines, Brad Ellis and Ronan Nicholson for the record?
I’ve been friends with Brad Ellis for years and always been a fan of his project The Hunter Express, which Matt Dixon plays pedal steel for. Brad’s approach to guitar is really creative and he has such interesting ideas. He has such an enthusiasm for life and music which makes him a fun person to have in the room. Matt’s pedal steel and guitar playing is so emotive and expressive, and his melodic choices cut me straight to my core. He’s always been on my wish list of people to play with. Ronan and Brad played in my band for about a year before we recorded the album. Ronan has such a good sonic palate and I love his bass tone. I feel like he understands my vision as an artist while having the technical knowledge to articulate things, so there were times when he acted as a bit of an interpreter between me and the band. Sam Raines was recommended by Rob and I’m so glad I got to work with him because he nailed all the grooves and played in such a beautifully restrained way. All of them are such genuine people and it was lovely to have such a relaxed and supportive energy in the studio when we were recording.
What made Robert Muiños the right choice for Pepperpot Magic?
Rob produced a bunch of The Hunter Express’ music, so he was always on my radar because I love the production on those albums. Around the time I was looking for a producer, I listened to Didirri’s album and the vocals were so striking. They were intimate yet so full-bodied, so I was confident Rob could capture my voice in a real special way. I told Rob I wanted to work with him because the stuff I’d heard him produce sounded a bit weird. He took it as a compliment, so I knew he was the right person to work with.
Rob Muiños
Was there any specific piece of equipment that brought something special to the table?
When we recorded “Six”, Rob recorded the nylon string guitar using a pair of studio headphones as the mic. I’m still not entirely sure what I witnessed. The acoustic guitar on “Joan of Arc” was recorded with five different mics, all blended together. One fun instrument we used was this little vintage synth thing that you sing into and then it creates a synth version of your voice. We used that for the synth sound on “I Know What You Like”, which features a blend of both Rob’s voice and mine. “Do You Dream in Colour” has a harmonium on it. Most of my background vocals were recorded with me sitting on the couch singing into an SM58.
While there’s definitely a few layers on singles like 2020’s “Edithvale”, songs like “Joshua” feel more dense, textured and layered. Was this a sonic vision you had from the start or is it just how things came together?
I knew I wanted these songs to feature a band and have more complex arrangements than my earlier songs. I’ve always loved electric guitar and pedal steel, so I wanted to explore how they could add texture to the songs. It was important to me that the band supported rather than distracted from the vocals and the lyrics, and I felt like my songs were in safe hands with Rob and the band. Surprisingly, the vocals were the main thing that changed from my initial vision. In the past I’ve recorded a lot of overdubbed vocals to create layers and harmonies. There’s still a bit of that in songs like “Caroline”, but most of the songs are single track vocals with pretty minimal, if any, harmonies. “Joshua” has no harmonies at all. When we recorded the vocals I wasn’t wearing any headphones, and I was singing softly. Once I heard how well Rob had captured my voice, I realised that too many layers would take away from the intimacy of the recordings and the songs.
Is there much thought of performing the songs live while recording?
I didn’t think about that at all. Partly because the tracks all began as solo singer-songwriter songs, so I can always play them live like that. I do love playing with the band and having the fuller arrangements and feeding off their energy on stage. I’ve found it fun experimenting with elements of the band arrangements in my solo or duo set by incorporating a drum machine and having Ronan play electric guitar.
Making an album would surely yield some stories, as well as studio magic and happy accidents. Have you got some stories of fleeting moments of inspiration or mistakes that ended up on the record?
I didn’t actually go into the studio planning to make a record, so the whole album is kind of a happy accident. I initially booked two days with the band and just planned to record “Joshua”, “Caroline”, “I Know What You Like” and another song that I ended up canning. But after the first day in the studio, we’d finished the band beds for all the tracks, so Rob was like “Do you have any more songs?” I went home that night and searched my voice memos and old journals and came back the next day with four more songs which we recorded the band beds for. By then I was like ‘Holy shit I’m so close to an album’, so I was determined to keep writing. I also love the ambient sounds on the record. The Rat Shack is above The Gem which is a restaurant/live music venue. Throughout the record you can hear bird song, the house band sound checking downstairs, cars going past, and my personal favourite – a pot being scrubbed in the kitchen that serves as some perfectly-timed percussion on “Joan of Arc”.
Buy or listen to Pepperpot Magic here, and keep up with Bec Sykes here.
