Music Production and Mixing Tips Podcast for DIY Producers and Artists | Inside The Mix
If you're searching for answers on topics such as: How do I make my mixes sound professional? What equipment do I need to start producing music at home? What is the difference between mixing and mastering? What are some of your favourite production tools and techniques? How do I get my music noticed by record labels? Or what are the key elements of an effective music marketing strategy? Either way, you’re my kind of person, and there's something in this podcast for you!
I'm Marc Matthews, and I host the Inside The Mix Podcast. It's the ultimate serial podcast for music production and mixing enthusiasts. Say goodbye to generic interviews and tutorials, because I'm taking things to the next level. Join me as I feature listeners in round table music critiques and offer exclusive one-to-one coaching sessions to kickstart your music production and mixing journey. Prepare for cutting-edge music production tutorials and insightful interviews with Grammy Award-winning audio professionals like Dom Morley (Adele) and Mike Exeter (Black Sabbath). If you're passionate about music production and mixing like me, Inside The Mix is the podcast you can't afford to miss!
Start with this audience-favourite episode: #175: What's the Secret to Mixing Without Muddiness? Achieving Clarity and Dynamics in a Mix
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Music Production and Mixing Tips Podcast for DIY Producers and Artists | Inside The Mix
#211: Creating Authentic Remote Vocal Collaborations When Miles Apart (feat. INDIGO)
Ever wondered how singers record vocals remotely and make them sound professional? In this episode of Inside The Mix, Marc Matthews is joined by New Zealand synthwave vocalist INDIGO to explore the art of remote vocal collaboration and the songwriting process behind her unique sound.
From her unexpected start in the synthwave scene to collaborations with artists like Wolf Club and Turbo Knight, INDIGO shares how she records vocals from home while working with producers across the world. We dive into her vocal recording techniques—including why she double-tracks every vocal and prefers recording in the evenings for her best takes.
You’ll also learn how Indigo adapts her lyrics to fit electronic music, moving between dreamy love songs and darker themes, and how she overcomes songwriter’s block with practical strategies like listening to instrumentals on long drives or stepping away from projects overnight.
For the tech-minded, Indigo reveals her setup, using the Aston Origin microphone, basic vocal processing, and clear communication with producers to make remote collaborations successful. She also opens up about the challenges of online music partnerships and why trust and reliability matter as much as technical skill.
Whether you’re a producer looking to collaborate with vocalists or a singer wanting to deliver better takes from home, this episode is packed with actionable tips for remote recording, lyric writing, and collaboration in the digital age.
Links mentioned in this episode:
Follow INDIGO
Listen to Darklight (feat. INDIGO)
Listen to Engraved Disillusion
Ways to connect with Marc:
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Writing powerful lyrics and recording vocals that connect with the listener is tough enough when you're in the same room, but what if your collaborator is on the other side of the world? Can you really capture that same magic from thousands of miles away, and what tricks make it sound like you were in the same room all along? Let's find out in this episode.
INDIGO:You're listening to the Inside the Mix podcast with your host, Mark.
Marc Matthews:Matthews, welcome to Inside the Mix, your go-to podcast for music creation and production. Whether you're crafting your first track or refining your mixing skills, join me each week for expert interviews, practical tutorials and insights to help you level up your music and smash it in the music industry. Let's dive in. Hey folks, welcome back, or welcome to Inside the Mix, if you are new. I'm joined today by New Zealand's own global synthwave voice, who has collaborated with artists like Wolf Club, turbo Night 1086, dualarity and, yes, even me. I think we've done three songs or today, and I think there's a fourth that I'm working on at the moment. So please welcome, indigo. How are you? And welcome.
INDIGO:Hi, I'm doing well. How are you?
Marc Matthews:I'm good. I'm good For the audience listening. We are at the opposite ends of the day recording this, so it's 8 am where Indigo is and it's 9 pm here in the UK.
INDIGO:Yeah, bright and and early. I think I got about three hours sleep as well, so bear with me if I say some crazy stuff today yeah, yeah, I appreciate you getting up if you got three hours sleep.
Marc Matthews:This, I think, is the biggest time difference for an interview on the podcast. It was Australia previously. I don't know if that's the same actually. Is that? I suppose it depends where you are in Australia. I do a disservice to Australia. It was Australia previously. I don't know if that's the same actually, I suppose it depends where you are in Australia. I do a disservice to Australia there because Australia is a very, very big country.
INDIGO:They're huge. I think they're at least two hours difference from us, depends where you are.
Marc Matthews:Yeah, yeah, yeah. But again I appreciate you getting up super early to join me on the podcast I appreciate you staying up for me no, no, it's, it's my pleasure.
Marc Matthews:It's uh, I've been looking forward to this one. We've uh, we've obviously been back and forth working on tunes for a while, so I've been eager to get you on the podcast to chat about all things sort of vocals and also vocal recording and songwriting today. So in this episode it is inspired by listener Connor who asks the question, I think well, rather statement, I guess you could call it. I think lyrics are one of my biggest struggles, and second to that would be recording vocals. So if that sounds familiar to you, you're going to enjoy this conversation. We're going to unpack the creative and technical steps that make the difference between a rough demo and a song that's ready for playlists. Before we actually dive into the discussion, though, maybe if you could just give us sort of like a whistle-stop tour to how you got to where you are now with regards to sort of singing and featuring and collaborating with other artists.
INDIGO:Yeah, I guess music's been a part of my life since forever, but I really started taking it seriously in around 2014, 2015, and I started a bachelor's degree in popular music performance and through there I was really trying to find every avenue of collaboration I could to really find my niche and what I wanted to do, and through that I signed up for a website called Star Now and applied for a few what is that called? Applied for a few jobs to get my music out there, and one of them was Wolf Club, so I recorded not knowing who they were at all, recorded some songs for them and they introduced me to Synthwave and I've just been in this genre ever since.
Marc Matthews:Nice, nice. That's a good way to start, a good place to start with Wolf Club isn't?
INDIGO:it. I know it's not a bad place to start.
Marc Matthews:A good place to start with wolf glow, isn't it? And in terms of like vocals, it's not.
INDIGO:It's not a bad place to start star now. Is that like a gigging platform? Yeah, yeah, pretty much. I've. I've had some really great jobs on star now and also some really bad ones that have made me hide from the world.
Marc Matthews:So it's it's risky business working online with people overseas yeah, I suppose if with those ones that aren't so good and then they release it and then your name is attached to it, it's you can get a bit tricky. I can imagine it's kind of one of those ones where, in hindsight, you'd want to be like. I wish I'd said like I want to be a ghost sort of performer or just use an alias, so to speak when I've definitely had some learnings from my yeah yeah, I, I've done the same.
Marc Matthews:I have done the same and I've been in a similar situation. I've also worked with other artists as well where they've requested. I don't know if that's a an indictment on me at the time, but they requested to be to be a ghost. They hadn't the song yet, so I'm going to say it's because it was part of their practice rather than me in particular, but it could have been. Now that I think about it. But thanks for sharing that. It's always interesting to get just a quick how you got to where you are now and, in particular, synthwave, so slight tangent here. Had you been a listener, had you been involved in the sort of synthwave community because it is a very big community prior to sort of like working with wolf club, or was that like your first introduction to it?
INDIGO:no. Wolf club was my first introduction. I was very pop and rock um yeah, no synthwave.
Marc Matthews:Wolf club was definitely my first interaction, which is incredible yeah, it's like you say, it's a good place to start and it kind of gives you, I guess, like a step up immediately to say, okay, well, I've worked with these artists or this artist, and then you can use that as a bit of sort of like kudos.
INDIGO:So yeah, exactly, although I didn't get other jobs I don't think I had social media at the time. It took me until about three years ago to really uh four, five, five years ago, 2020, um, to kick off uh social media. So, yeah, I'm still still growing my following that I could have gotten 10 years ago.
Marc Matthews:Yeah yeah, yeah, well, it's one of those ones, isn't it? Social media, you kind of, I know, I do it with a podcast and with my own music production as well, and it's I don't know I call it like a necessary evil. You kind of need to do it to get your music out there. It's just part and parcel of what we have to do now, you know, um, but no, it's cool, cool to get a nice bit of background there.
Marc Matthews:So I think we we start diving in to the collaborative process of recording vocals remotely. So maybe we start a bit with regards to delivering of a backing track, because this is how we work, right. So for the audience listening generally, I'll have a tune and then I'll send it over to Indigo and say what do you think? And then within usually about 48 hours, you come back with an amazing idea, which is incredible. But that's generally how we work. So maybe, if you could talk a bit about what makes a good sort of backing track for you to record a vocal to, what would you expect to receive from the producer, from the artist, to record two? Basically?
INDIGO:Yeah, it really depends on the artist and who I'm working with, but I appreciate when the backing track is fully fledged out. It has all of the parts and it's mixed ready to go. That's always awesome because you can just write, knowing what it's going to sound like. Um, and then there's other artists who might have some vocal ideas for me or some lyrics, and they'll um send a vocal guide along with the instrumental, which is awesome yeah.
Marc Matthews:So with regards to when they're submitting those tracks, because I'm sorry, if I'm looking to the right it's because I'm making notes. I should have told you that off air.
INDIGO:You're good, you're good.
Marc Matthews:Yeah, so when they're submitting those tracks right, do you find because I remember this when I was doing my degree and whatnot that the majority of artists leave space for the vocal? Because I know where I've worked with artists before, when I've done production and stuff, where they aren't necessarily working with the vocal at the time of recording the track and they just fill the space and there's no room for you to sort of breathe as a vocalist. Does that happen often, or is that not something you encounter often?
INDIGO:no, it really depends on the artist. Sometimes there's obvious spaces for the vocals and it's so easy you can just pop it in there and away you go. But other times it is really instrumental heavy and you need to figure out where. Like where's the verse, where's the chorus? Where should I put these vocals? How much vocal should I put in it?
Marc Matthews:yeah, sometimes that can be a bit tricky yeah, and with regards to that like because this is where, like, the diplomacy and being diplomatic comes in and that collaboration, and if you've not sort of worked with that artist before, how do you approach that? If you, when you talk to an artist and they send you a track across and you say, actually I think you should move this, this and this around, is that quite an easy thing to do? Do you have any sort of tips on how to approach that situation? Because, again, I guess it depends on the artist. Some artists might be a bit more precious when it comes to their arrangement than others. Have you got any tips on that?
INDIGO:Yeah, I often try not to change people's instrumentals and instead I'd make my vocals work for their song. But I will ask sometimes, hey, do you want a vocal heavy track or a light track? And sometimes I'm like, hey, I'm not quite sure where the chorus is. Could you point that out for me? And then go from there.
Marc Matthews:Yeah, that makes sense. Another question I've got here with regards to that, because you mentioned about a vocal guide track, which makes perfect sense, right? Have you experienced anybody using or submitting a track where they've used an AI vocal as a guide, because this is something I was considering using.
INDIGO:I don't think so. There's been some vocals that have been heavily FXed, but I'm not sure on AI.
Marc Matthews:Yeah, yeah, it's just because I cannot sing at all. Well, after a few beers I might be able to think I can sing, but in general life I think I cannot sing, and I think for the music I produce as well. My voice is quite low, so I don't know if it's suited. Anyway, either way, I was considering using something like that just to convey the idea I had, and then getting someone like yourself to say okay, well, that's AI. I wonder if you could take that forward and put like a human spin on it. But I was just wondering if it's something that you might have experienced, because I think it's going to happen more.
INDIGO:Yeah, I think that's awesome that people are utilizing AI for that kind of stuff. Yeah, I think that would be great to do.
Marc Matthews:Yeah, because I suppose you could think like, okay, I'm working on this tune and I want a vocalist in the style of x, and then you're thinking, okay, and then there are platforms where you can mirror that particular style and then submit it to someone I suppose it makes it easier for you as well as an artist, like if they're, if they're giving you context, okay, well, this is, this is the theme, lyrical content, and this is the kind of vocalist or vocal that I hear over the top of it.
INDIGO:That can only make your, your job easier, right oh, totally, and sometimes the vocal tracks I get they may not necessarily be the best singer, so using ai could could really help that out yeah, that's where I would be.
Marc Matthews:To be fair, I might try it. You know, I might try it. I've never actually um, like sung and auto-tuned. I tell a lot have I? No, I haven't. I did. I did some spoken word on an album when I was in the metal band, uh, and I was incredibly hung over so my voice was like even lower than it usually is. It's out there somewhere, it's on spotify somewhere oh, I'll yeah.
Marc Matthews:I'll send you a link to it. I'll put it in the link for the, a link in the show notes as well, for the audience listening. If you want to hear my spoken word on a track, I'll share that with you. But no, I had an idea for an episode which was to compare free auto-tune plugins and then do a blind not a blind test, a test whereby I've never used them before, and then just dive in and see what they sound like. And I thought you know what, maybe I'll use my own voice and really stress, test these plugins. So I might do that. So look out for that, or listen out for that one audience. You might get to hear my singing in that respect. Cool. So maybe we move on to workflow. So maybe if you could talk a bit about your step-by-step process from receiving a demo and to that final take so let's imagine you are, uh, recording the vocal and also lyrics as well- really depends on the day.
INDIGO:Everything depends on the day. But I can't record vocals until night time because it just takes a while for my voice to wake up and get to that strength that I need for vocal takes, especially when I'm doing those high vocals. So everything has to wait until the evening. But sometimes if I'm going for a drive and I'm driving alone, I'll throw the instrumental track on in the car and just see what kind of ideas I can come up with while I'm driving. But most of the time I will just set aside maybe two hours in the evening and just sit in this room with the song playing until I come up with an idea and then start building on that idea and then record it. Add harmonies go crazy, yeah yeah, um, total tangent hip.
Marc Matthews:Is that a in the background? It is. Yeah, well, you were talking there. I was just like I'm sure that's a keytar. Um, no, I, I totally get what you mean there. I suppose you've got to be in the right frame of mind to record and where every I I guess everybody like works differently. People prefer different times of day and are more productive, I suppose with your voice as well. Like you need to properly warm up and I I fell foul of this. I'm actually going through vocal therapy right now because the amount of talking that I do with the podcast and just in general, and I've got these exercises that I now have to do to strengthen and sort out my vocal folds basically I had like granulomas on either side of them.
INDIGO:Oh, my god yeah.
Marc Matthews:I know, I know I make it sound quite. I had to have the the ent put a camera down my nose and had a look at the back of my throat. Um, which is not pleasant, but it was quite interesting.
INDIGO:Did you get to watch?
Marc Matthews:I did well, not while he was not. While he was doing it, he showed me it afterwards okay which was quite cool at the time.
Marc Matthews:Um, it's a very old sensation. This doesn't hurt, but it's just unpleasant, like something going through your nose and, um, but yeah, yeah, so I know, tell you what you mean. You've got to have your voice in the right place and it's something that I albeit not being a singer, I still use my voice a lot in terms of delivery, like talking now and having to make sure I warm up, which I didn't actually do before this episode, which I should have done. Maybe I'll warm down afterwards, but yeah, I totally get that. I totally get it. What microphone do you use, by the way, to record your vocals?
INDIGO:I'm using an Eston Origin at the moment. I've got it Hang on this one here.
Marc Matthews:Oh nice, you know what?
INDIGO:I don't think I've ever used uh said microphone. No, there's a um producer in new zealand who I used to work with in my rock days and he suggested that I use that. I used to have a. It's over there somewhere uh, 80, 2020 something.
Marc Matthews:Yeah, I don't know yeah, I know the one. I think I used to record the podcast with that, with that okay yeah, the 80 2020 right audio yeah, I think so yeah so it's a black microphone yeah, if I remember looking yeah, I've got one knocking around here somewhere.
Marc Matthews:It's around here somewhere, uh. But yeah, I used to do that to to record the podcast. It's good, good little microphone um lyrics. So this is an interesting topic of conversation because, uh, if I were writing metal lyrics, I can write metal lyrics all day. I'm a big horror fan and I can go down that avenue quite easily. But when it comes to writing lyrics for, let's say, synth pop, synth wave and I've been working on the, the electronic stuff with you of late as well I struggle in that respect. Can you talk a bit about how you start writing lyrics? What is the sort of catalyst to get you going to write lyrics?
INDIGO:I like to know the vibe of the song. Do we want something light, lovey-dovey or real heavy and dark? And also what's the genre of the song, because sometimes we'll be working on EDM together, but then others we're doing dream pop or dark wave. There's there's all this, these different elements that you need to consider. Like, if I'm working with 1086, for example, he's much more synth pop, dreamy, lovey, lovey on a beach, so doing a lot of those soft love vocals. But then maybe with you, with the stuff that we've done in the past, it's more electronic, sometimes a bit dark, like our Darklight song. Yeah, it really depends on the song.
Marc Matthews:And with regards to the song with lyrics, is it quite a quick process for you? Do you find it quite easy to sort of for want of a better way of putting it knock out a song in terms of lyric, or is it quite a lengthy process?
INDIGO:I like to say I'm pretty quick with it. I really love to send my artists back vocals within that 48 hour time frame. Um, and maybe they're not the best vocals the first round, but we'll just try again. But sometimes I am stuck and that's just when I go for that drive and play the song in the car until something pops yeah, yeah, and I agree with what you said that I think I mentioned it earlier about the 48 hour turnaround.
Marc Matthews:It really is audience listening. It's a very quick turnaround, which is super impressive, because I've gone on other platforms like uh, I've used vocalizer in the past, which is a gigging platform, and I've gone on there and and uh, work with artists and you're paying them and they still take infinitely longer to come back with any lyrical ideas. They probably got loads of stuff. I don't know what they're doing, but they take a lot longer to get back to you. So your turnaround is incredibly impressive. I gotta say it really is a quick, uh sort of tangent, because in my head I'm thinking like because you mentioned earlier about recording background vocals, harmon harmonies, et cetera when it comes to sort of creating those vocal stacks, do you have like a template of, okay, I'm going to record the main vocal, I'm going to record some backing vocals, my ad-libs, ad-hocs or whatever, or does it really depend on the track? I suppose what I'm asking is track. Do you always deliver what? I suppose what I'm asking is do you always deliver the same deliverables when it comes to a vocal?
INDIGO:not necessarily. I'll always do a double of every single track. I think that's super important and really strengthens the song when you have a double of every vocal. Um, but sometimes a song doesn't need harmonies or doesn't need those ad libs, they just it just needs a simple one track, or one track and a double. Yeah, so it really does depend. But sometimes I just go crazy and send someone about 14, 16 tracks of vocals and just I think I did that with you actually, yeah yeah, I was going to say I think it's one of those ones where, like, more is better because you can always remove, right.
Marc Matthews:But when it comes to adding, that's when it gets tricky. Specifically, if you've got one vocal which I've worked with artists in the past and they send something across it's just one track you're thinking I could really do with the double of that. And it is so much better to have a human double versus a sort of digital plug-in double, which it does work, but having that human double just like I think I had this conversation with Tim online in an episode or two ago where we were talking about this and it's just so much easier if you just record everything twice. I think that's what we surmised in the end Probably not drums, that'd be a bit weird or bass guitar, but like everything else, just record it twice, because that way at least you can just take it away, at least you've got it there, you know. Another quick question I often go on tangency. I'm thinking about reverb, right, when it comes to your vocal, do you have a specific reverb that you use when you are, let's say, submitting a demo or just working on a project?
INDIGO:So I'm not the best technically in terms of producing, so I usually just throw on whatever reverb I feel sounds all right. I think I usually go throw on whatever reverb I feel sounds all right. I think I usually go for the that silver reverb one in Logic Pro um, I don't know yeah, I think I know the one you mean.
Marc Matthews:You're a Logic user yeah, yeah yeah, yeah, it's great, great platform.
Marc Matthews:I'm a Logic user myself. It's it's what I use. It's a fantastic piece of kit. I'm always interested just to know what uh artists are using, because I had this conversation on the podcast again I think it might have been with tim when we were talking about uh recording vocals and then reverb. When recording an artist and using reverb to put them in like a more comfortable space, like when it when it comes to when it comes to singing, because everything sounds better with reverb right.
INDIGO:So it's always interesting to know what people are using yeah, I usually when I'm recording just at home, I usually throw on a little bit of that reverb and then maybe some compression. Uh, there's also a free vocal preset that I found that I'll just throw on sometimes if I need some extra help. Do you still do any of the rock?
Marc Matthews:stuff.
INDIGO:I didn't, until a few weeks ago my old bandmate reached out to me and asked if I could redo the vocals on an old song. So that was a throwback. But yeah, not really. I've been pretty synthwave electronic recently.
Marc Matthews:Do you find it easy to jump, I suppose, if you are specifically in synthwave, dreamwave and whatnot, do you find it? Did you find it quite easy to put that hat back on again for rock?
INDIGO:yeah, I did. I don't know if I could like record a rock song and then immediately go into a synthwave song. I think it might be tricky to get my voice back there. But yeah, it's, it's all still all still in here yeah, it's in there somewhere.
Marc Matthews:Yeah, muscle memory, I think they call it, don't they? I found out with guitar. I've got like two guitars to the left of me here on a bass guitar, and I probably picked them up twice this year, but it's one of those ones I pick it up and after a while it all comes flooding, flooding back to me. I don't think, though, I could probably play the stuff I was playing when I was in the metal band. That'll take me a while to get back up to that again. A lot of fast stuff.
Marc Matthews:Um, let's talk about writer's block. This is this is an interesting one. I had this conversation at length with with michael oakley, um, a couple weeks ago. Constraints do you find constraints lead to creativity? Is this something you use in your practice? Because, going back to what we said earlier, your turnaround is very fast, so is this something that you use to your advantage? Do you sort of set a deadline, I think, okay, well, I'm going to turn it around in 48 hours, regardless of sort of what. I suppose you've got to have a certain criteria you've got to hit, but do you set constraints to yourself, and does that help with creativity?
INDIGO:yeah, I mean, as I said, I do kind of just sit in this room for an hour or two and see what comes to me, but and there's always, if you send an artist a demo and they don't like it, you can always try again.
INDIGO:You don't have to go with version one, but sometimes there are times where I need a day and I just need to sleep on it and then come back to it the next day, and that's when I'll probably play it in the car to see what ideas I can get, when I'm probably play it in the car to see what ideas I can get when I'm preoccupied, and yeah, just find new ways to come up with ideas.
Marc Matthews:Do you have multiple projects on the go, so do you have the ability to? Okay, well, I'm not feeling this one right now, so I'll move on to this other one and come back to it. Or do you sort of do in a linear way Okay, well, I'm move on to this other one and come back to it. Or do you sort of do it in a linear way? Okay, well, I'm working on this one, I'll do that, and then I'll do the next one and do the next one.
INDIGO:Yeah, I have had a time in the past. I think I had three on the go and there was one that just was not clicking. I could not figure it out, so I focused on the other two first and then came back to it once those were done. Yeah, came back to it once those were done.
Marc Matthews:Yeah, so with regards to that one, that wasn't quite right. How did you sort of overcome that? I might be taxing your memory here, but how did you overcome that sort of obstacle that was stopping your progress?
INDIGO:I think I was just really determined and I just kept listening to it until something came from my brain and then I just kept building and building, also just communicating with the artist, asking a little bit more about what they're after for the song, kind of helps.
Marc Matthews:Have you ever been in a situation where you have, because I've done this myself where I've worked with an artist as a producer and then we agreed that it wasn't a good fit and we amicably said, OK, it's not a good fit, but I'll try and find you someone who is a good fit. Have you ever been in that situation?
INDIGO:I've been in a situation where someone has asked me to sing on a track and then they've, without telling me, gone with someone else and released it. Um yeah, so that that was fun. I won't name names, but but no, not really. But if I did whatever, that's totally fine.
Marc Matthews:We can work on a different track yeah yeah, if it's not for me, it's not for me yeah, that's mad that you're working with someone and they go with someone else and release the track that's incredibly rude.
Marc Matthews:I couldn't imagine doing that. It's like it's so weird I've experienced this, having been in music for so long now that you just have these weird situations where communication either the an individual drops off the radar or they like what happened, what you mentioned there they just go with someone else and you're thinking you're on the project and they just they tva and go with someone else. It's just like where's the communication, man? Like it doesn't take. At the very least you could just do a faceless email or like a dm and just let the other person know like hey, this isn't working out. I'm gonna go with x, y, z rather than um, rather than just leave you hanging and do it that way. But hey, not everybody thinks the same. I guess you know that's uh yeah, you know, there's life sometimes yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, this is true.
Marc Matthews:Um, we are approaching the 30 minute mark now, so I think this would be quite a good opportunity to maybe go through some projects that you're working on at the moment. Anything you've got coming up, any releases? Have you got any self-titled or specifically your releases coming up, because I know you released some music a while back.
INDIGO:Yeah, I hope so. We've had an album ready for quite a while, but we're just waiting on the label to be ready to release. So I've been told this year, but I don't know when this year.
Marc Matthews:And we're working on another tune as well. So Narcissist, it's an interesting one. I was inspired by a Calvin Harris tune, in particular for the chorus of that one there. It's an interesting one. I was inspired by a Calvin Harris tune, in particular for the chorus of that one there. It's like 130 BPM, which I think might be the fastest track that I've done to date. And yeah, I was inspired by that. So I'm looking forward to releasing that one and the audience listening to that as well.
INDIGO:Yeah, Narcissus was super fun to record.
Marc Matthews:Yeah, you know what? It didn't take me long to put it together as a tune either, which is which is really nice. And it's one of those ones where I've decided, okay, I'm not going to throw anything else into it, I'm just going to leave it quite open and then just have a really hard hitting, kicking bass and then the vocal and then all the other like ear candy around it as well. Um, and did you I say this to everybody I send the demo to did you hear the crow that I put in there? Did?
Marc Matthews:you, yeah, I did, yeah, yeah, you did somebody heard it, like I send it to other people and be like did you hear the crow? And they're like what? And I was like yeah, there's a crow in, like the breakdown. Uh, yeah, I was just wondering if anybody else heard it.
INDIGO:Uh, but no, it's good, somebody did yeah, well, you should hear some of the songs with like turbo knight, he's got a a hawk screaming and horses and ah, so good I love that stuff.
Marc Matthews:You know what that is the blessing like. When I was in the band there was five of us it was, so it was a lot harder to put an idea across like that, like, oh, should we just throw a crow in there? Or like a a hawk, and you've got to get it past that committee of other band members. But when you're doing it on your own I'm just like, yeah, I'll throw that in there. It sounds good. You know, I think I did one track on the ep and there's some like is it rainfall? I know I think it was. I think it was jungle bird song I put in there which had no relation to the song whatsoever, but the view beauty of it was. I thought you know what. I quite like that, so I'm going to put it in the beauty of being a solo artist, I guess I love it.
INDIGO:I used to live near a tram and sometimes it would go off as I'm recording. So one time I was just like ah, I'll just record it. And so there's a tram in one of my songs Nice.
Marc Matthews:I love found sounds. It's something I want to do more of. When I was living in, uh, in cardiff in in south wales, I it's this really nerdy thing. I still, I think I've still got it. Yeah, I do. I still have the field recorder here with me and I would just be like out and about and just like start recording random sounds.
Marc Matthews:And I built this whole bank and there was there's the website what is it called where you can upload them, and every now again, I'll get a random comment on somebody who's downloaded one of these random sounds I recorded about 10 years ago and the idea was I was going to use all these in songs. Maybe I'll go back and do it, but there's like waterfalls and all sorts of like snow crunching and all those sorts of sounds. It's quite, it's quite fun at the time. It might time it might be quite weird for anybody watching seeing this guy with just a a fail recorder like like recording some sounds, but it was good. Um, another thing to talk about before we go uh, where can the audience find you online? Where's?
INDIGO:the best place to go find me. I'm mainly on instagram, but you can search me anywhere indigo, synth wave and you'll find me. I'm sorry, I was just gonna say I've got a few more collaborations coming out soon. We've got a remix with rogue fx on it on um 1086. Is can't stop thinking of you also starting a duo duo with 1086, called spring break of 1983, and then just so, so many collaborations coming out at some point would be awesome.
Marc Matthews:That's the way to do it. The way way to do it Before we go. Actually, I think a quick tip. Here is what would be your top tip for collaborations, for striking up a collaboration with another artist.
INDIGO:I think just don't be afraid to reach out to everyone. The worst they can do is ignore you or say no. You may as well try you or say no you. You may as well try um, yeah, and just find. Find how you're comfortable communicating with these artists and figure out how you feel safe with them, because it can be tricky online sometimes figuring out who's who's actually good to work with.
Marc Matthews:Um, yeah and I think, uh, the only way you're going to learn that is through experience exactly it goes back to what you said earlier.
Marc Matthews:Wasn't it about experience and you learn as you go along? And audience listening the podcast is kind of testament to that. Like when I've had artists on the podcast, uh, like tyler lar from the midnight, for example, it was just a case of I'll just ask. Like, if you don't ask you, you never know. Like you say, the worst they can do is just ignore you, which thankfully Tyler didn't, and we had him on the podcast and it was a great episode. So, audience listening, yeah, just get out there and start talking to people. Um, folks, if you've found this uh useful, uh, before you go, do click the link in the episode description and grab my free weekly production and mixing tips so you can level up your tracks. No spam or fluff or anything like that. You just get an email once a week from me with tips and tricks on how to progress your music. And until next time, stay inspired, keep creating and don't be afraid to experiment inside the mix.
