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When we sit down to talk to Seattle-based singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Brian Fennell, he’s gearing up for the release of ‘Infinity’, the new album from his solo project SYML. Brian’s musical journey has taken him from his early days studying classical piano, to finding success as part of the indie band Barcelona, and now performing as SYML, with hits like the platinum-certified single ‘Where’s My Love’, and the much-Shazamed ‘Mr. Sandman’, which was featured in the outstanding Netflix thriller series ‘Behind Her Eyes’.
Read on to learn about Brian’s cinematic new release; the tools he uses to record his dynamic and expressive voice; his favorite outboard gear; how he used the AEA R88 mk2 stereo ribbon microphone during a live performance in an old airplane hangar; and the most valuable lessons he’s learned in the studio.
How did you get started making records?
I had no plan to go into music in the sense of making albums and becoming an artist – I went to school to be a music teacher. My first rock band started in college and that's when I split off from the education path.
Growing up, I got to be around studios because my best friend was a recording artist and an engineer at a local studio. They let him use the gear when he wasn't making records for other people, so that was my first experience in a studio – just kind of hanging out and being a fly on the wall. It wasn't until I started making my own music in college with him that I learned Pro Tools sort of through osmosis, really.
Throughout our band’s history, we did a lot of self-recording in different studios around Seattle, which has so many historic studios where a lot of great records were made. Slowly, I got to be in more professional settings and studios as we grew. It was all mostly DIY and that's the inspiration for how I still make records today.
Can you share some of your favorite moments from the studio during the making of your new album ‘Infinity’?
This is a really fun release because the scale is really wide. A lot of the record was made here in my studio, but then we have moments on the album that are really grand, for which we used scoring orchestras from across the world. So there is this really light, intimate feel as well as a really wide soundstage feel, and that's helpful because this album is very cinematic.
It was inspired by old spaghetti Westerns, which have these very tall, aspirational types of sounds and really gritty, transistor-like, amplified types of sounds as well. As a singer/songwriter, it was a great exercise to remember that there are no rules for how you record and what type of songs you create. It was a fun exercise in stretching sounds.
It's really interesting that you used a live orchestra instead of a sample library, which is often the norm these days.
My theory is, whether it's using a sample library or hiring a symphony orchestra at Abbey Road – whatever inspires you to capture the thing in your head is fair game. We used the Budapest Scoring Orchestra, but there's also a well-known symphony orchestra in Prague that you can hire by the hour, essentially, to record. A lot of people don't realize that.
If your reality is that you don't have the budget to use the symphony orchestra at Abbey Road or in LA, and maybe you don't even have the budget for the nice sample libraries, you can hire real-life humans from around the world and use Zoom to have them record the parts that you wrote. Again – no rules; and if it's important to you to have humans on the song then there are ways that you can make it happen.
That being said, I've used what I consider to be very fake-sounding strings, and choirs even, on some really high-end productions. So again, it's what you're trying to convey from your original inspiration that really matters.
Let’s talk about recording your vocals, which are very dynamic. Tell us about the tools you use to best capture the texture and nuance of your voice while recording.
When I was just starting out, I pretty much only used a Shure SM7B. You can throw anything at an SM7B and it will handle it, whether it's yelling or a really soft falsetto. As my gear collection has grown, I like to have options.
When you're really breathy and doing an intimate vocal, the risk is that it can come off very harsh, because you're throwing a lot of high-end information at a mic. Of course, this comes with the caveat that every voice is different, and every microphone is different. My 251 sounds different from my neighbor’s 251, and it's like a dating game of figuring out what sounds best with your voice for the needs of the song.
So if I'm doing something very pop that needs to be sibilant and really hit, then a Manley Reference mic is really great. I’m just finishing a full-length album (different from ‘Infinity’), and all the vocals were pretty much done on the new Tonelux JC37 because it has a very warm, not overly information-giving type of tone, which is what we wanted.
So if you're trying to be intimate and not overwhelm a mic with the high-end stuff, it's great to do that with a JC37 or a Neumann U 67. For my voice, that’s what is able to give it that warm, cozy tone, and it lets you get away with the breathy stuff without it being too harsh.
Do you have a go-to signal chain for recording, or do you use something different every time?
I have a variety of 1073s, all 500 Series racks, from Neve and BAE, because that's what I like on my voice. Then they all go through Distressors or an LA-2A.
I'm also waiting on a Tube-Tech CL 1B which…I mean, everyone’s waiting on those. [Laughs] Those are perfect, at least for modern recording, and I consider myself a modern recording artist, so I can't wait to get one of those.
You used the AEA R88 mk2 Stereo Ribbon Microphone during the Live At Hangar 30 sessions. Tell us about that performance and how the R88 was used.
During the pandemic, we did something similar in a cathedral here in Seattle. It was just meant to be a live-streamed concert – it wasn't really meant to be a high-end recording experience – but when we got the recordings back, we realized they really captured not only the spirit of performing for an empty room, but had a really interesting room feel as well.
I learned about the AEA R88 from Kyle Hunt at Vintage King, and it was specifically for this performance in the hangar because it’s this big, cavernous space and we wanted to make sure that we were able to capture some of that instead of just adding it in the mix with plug-ins.
The important thing for me is speed, ease of use, and an honest perspective. Those things are sometimes hard to find because if you have a microphone with a set stereo image, there's not a lot of flexibility – you can't spread it wider, you have to change the casing to get what some might call a more “honest” perspective on the instrument that you're capturing. Also, if you’re doing a live capture, you can't spend hours trying to capture the perfect version of the thing you're trying to record.
For the Hangar 30 sessions, we chose to use the R88 on the percussionist because he was covering this wide footprint and rather than individually mic everything like a drum set – although we did mic the kick separately – this gave us the perfect overhead perspective in a circular ensemble.
It sounds beautiful and detailed – you can really feel the thump of the kick and the more delicate timbre of something like the woodblock as well.
Yeah, the woodblock in a space like that, which has this crazy reflection…we wanted to make sure we caught some of that as well. So the R88 was used mostly for percussion, but it was also a bit of a room capture mic. It ended up catching some of the piano and strings on it as well, so it was a bit strategic and a bit of luck. [Laughs]
Have you used any other AEA mics?
I've never owned any but I have sung on the A440 at a couple of studios in LA – studios love that one. Outside of synthesizers, though, I'm not a producer or artist that is into the vintage thing very much. With studio gear, it matters to me that that side of things is very clean, and usually, with vintage gear, it's harder to make sure that it's very clean. [Laughs] With old guitars and old synths – I do have an old Space Echo that's really great – that's kind of the only way I prefer to go vintage.
Tell us something about miking technique that you’ve learned the hard way in the studio.
So much of it has been trial and error, like miking drums, for example. In the beginning, I wasn't paying attention to whether overheads were in or out of phase, or the snare, or anything with two mics on it. That knowledge has come over time, from not being afraid to listen actively and really move mics around to see where the sweet spot is instead of being like, “This is where the book says they should go”. Again, this goes back to there being no rules. There are rules of physics for sure, but outside of that, you can just move the mic around to where you want it.
I think that singing technique on a mic is probably the most trial and error that I've had. With singing, depending on the mic, you can't get too close to it because you're going to blow it out, and, depending on your signal chain, you're going to overwhelm it. But, that could be the sound that you want for the recording.
I use many plug-ins, but since they are essentially robots changing the sound you give them, I'm still trying to learn about how you capture something in anticipation of using a plug-in on it. Like, what are you giving the plug-in, and what will the robot side of it do with all that information.
Speaking of plug-ins – how do you feel about them?
I don't have anything against plug-ins. When I was starting out, I had a pirated version of the Waves bundle and a pirated 8Dio Steinway piano plug-in. Some of my highest-streamed songs were made on rickety, broken, pirated plug-ins, so I can't say anything bad about them.
Plug-ins work for me. If I have the time and space to be creative on a real piano or real drums and real percussion, that's great, but if I treat this like a 9 to 5 job, plug-ins make that possible because it's about ease of use and speed, and for me, that's all that matters. At the end of the day, how fast can I get my idea out into the world?
I'm interested in doing a blind test with my audiophile friends to see if they can make out a real plate reverb versus the Soundtoys one. Up until this year, I only used sampled pianos and nobody could tell! [Laughs] I'm in love with them, like, for example, the Ólafur Arnalds Spitfire piano, which is insane. It’s so great! If you have the time to sift through and work with the quirks and not have the hiss buildup with the samples, then you could fool me any day of the week that it was real.
It's the same with microphones too. I don't really mess much with microphone emulation, but I'm sure it would be hard to tell the difference at times.
I guess for the casual listener it’s all about the emotion and what resonates with them about a piece of music.
Exactly. When people get my first SYML EP on vinyl, and they’re like, ‘Wow, it sounds so good!’, I’m thinking, “If you had any idea how poorly this was recorded…” [Laughs] But it's not about that, right? It's the spirit of the music that they're connecting to, not the barely-hanging-on version of Logic or the crappy tuning or something, you know.
What are some of your favorite pieces of outboard gear?
The BAE 1073D is really good because it's so capable in one little unit, with the EQ and the pre. It’s so versatile, I use it on everything. The Roland Space Echo is also really great and I use that on a lot of stuff too. Distressors don't need any more publicity, [laughs] but they are the perfect piece of gear, and literally sound good on everything.
I got the ATC SCM45A monitors a couple of years ago and that has been really great too. I work on a lot of different kinds of music and they're honest to the point of showing you what's there, but not bumming you out because they’re too honest.
So the ATC 45As with the JL Audio Fathom 12 sub has been a game changer in terms of sensitivity to dynamics and realizing what's really happening at the lowest lows and the highest highs, which I had no idea about when I started out. I would just throw the beefiest subs on something and the mastering engineer would be like, “Hey, you know I'm cutting everything out, right? You’re giving me way too much.” [Laughs]
Amidst all the acoustic instruments in the Hangar session, you had a Moog synth in the percussion setup – tell us about that choice.
Yeah, that’s a Sub Phatty, which is a really versatile synth that has a ton of massive low end, and it’s affordable, as synthesizers go. You could have a plug-in doing subby things, but the grittiness and warmth and roundness of that Moog for really low-end stuff is great. I use it a ton for percussion as well.
I'm playing a show with the Seattle Symphony, and we're using it there as well. We have a section of double bass players, but for the really subby kind of feel, the Moog is great; also, if you want to put some movement in there, it’s capable of that.
For the Hangar session, we didn't have an upright bass, so you can dial in the sub from the Moog to make it sound like that, with a bit of sustain as well. Our percussionist, Jesse, was down to play it, so we just threw it up for him and he was able to, technically, play upright bass with it.
Another example of no rules!
Yeah, and I like that sound. It works as a bass, but it can be synthy, or it can be subtle and you don't notice that it's there, but it helps round out a small ensemble for sure.
What is your philosophy on making and producing music?
My philosophy is more focused on the creation of something: so, finishing something, and honesty are the two things that I tell people when they ask for advice. You don't have to share a piece, but you should finish it because by doing that you learn that nothing's ever really done. It's one big process of trying, but if you do want to share it at some point, it has to be done.
Also, don’t try to chase trends; maintain honesty with how you're creating something. If you're honest with yourself, then you'll know and I think the listener will know that too. Start by emulating what you like and then you start to hear your own voice when you're doing that.
Being able to start and finish something repeatedly gets you closer to knowing what your actual voice is as a producer, a writer, or an instrumentalist. So, start and finish, and be honest with yourself. Beyond that, it's up for grabs.
What's a typical day like for you in the studio?
Most days for me are like a 9 to 5, now that I have a family and I'm not just living with roommates and being up at all hours of the night. [Laughs] I love to be home and I'm lucky to have my studio at my house. So I'm either working on an album of my own, or working with other artists remotely, or on ad, TV, or film briefs, and it's all from here for the most part; I feel really lucky. So it's a 9 to 5 job for me and I love it that way.
Are you working on any exciting projects right now that you're able to talk about?
Next year there'll be a new full-length SYML album that I'm just wrapping up this week, which has been really great, after which I can't wait to make more film and TV music.
I also want to start working on an electronic album because I love synthesizers and making beats and programming, and this last album that I just finished has none of that. [Laughs] So I'm excited to get back into it.
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