Pat O’Grady: production, songwriting, vocals, guitars, keyboards

Sam Newton: guitars

Cameron James Henderson: guitars

Eric Fortaleza: bass

Liam Hogan: drums

Nick O’Neil: mastering

Elliott Kramer: photography

In Plain Sight is a contemporary take on the West Coast sound of the 1970s. With its catchy melodies and reflective lyrics, the album strives to follow the traditions of classic pop songwriting pioneered by artists such as Fleetwood Mac, Elton John, Carole King and the Bee Gees. I aim to bring together the scale of large studio production with the honesty of DIY traditions – think where Sound City Studios and Criteria Studios meets a humble bedroom studio in Hornsby Heights.

Pat O’Grady: production, songwriting, vocals, guitars, keyboards

Cameron James Henderson: guitars

Eric Fortaleza: bass

Tim Parsons: drums

Zane Banks: banjo

Nick O’Neil: mastering

 Into My Own (Album) was submitted as a creative work for Pat O’Grady’s PhD thesis

“Because Only Begun was largely made by myself, I wanted to explore studio-based songwriting practices with the presence of session players. Into My Own is, as a result, includes both demos made by myself and final recordings tracked with a band. In order to explore more heterogeneous approaches to studio-based songwriting, I chose not to let the band hear the demos but, rather, I communicated my ideas verbally and with roughly written chord charts.”

Pat O’Grady, 2016 PhD Thesis: Studio Based Songwriting: Music Production and Shaping the Pop Song

Writing about the way that this album was more of a social experience to Only Begun, O’Grady writes:

Following discussions with those associated with the production process, I was credited as producer, songwriter, musician and audio engineer. However, there is no MIDI programming on this album: a drummer and bass guitarist perform those parts. I recorded keyboard parts as audio rather than MIDI. I chose to record it in this way for two reasons. First, there appeared to be noticeable MIDI latency within my studio setup. This impacted on the performance that I recorded. Second, I wanted the synthetic instruments to have a human-like “feel” to them. By not recording the MIID data, the editing possibilities for the parts significantly decreased. As noted in chapter 4, an objective of this album was to segment the songwriting and demo recording stages from the recording stage. This process aimed to outline how passive processes can work in studio-based songwriting. Into My Own was recorded live over two days. Acoustic guitars, vocals and some electronics, however, were re-recorded later. Musicological descriptions of what I wanted, along with detailed chord charts, were crucial in order to record the album so quickly. However, this had a number of implications on the relationships between production roles. The musicians had no prior experience with the songs, or playing with me.

During these sessions, I provided verbal instructions to each of the musicians in musicological terms. For example, I detailed the “vibe” I wanted, and how I believed they should approach it on their particular instrument. This approach resonates with the verbal interactions that Wilson had with the musicians. Prior to them entering the studio, he had an idea of how he wanted the songs to sound and the role each musician had in creating this sound. In my case, the studio-based songwriting approaches employed in constructing what were demo recordings shaped my descriptions for the musicians. I had greater perspective on Into My Own. I attribute this to the tight rhythm section that suited the “groove” that I sought from the outset. Through this process, much of the work was already completed.

Pat O’Grady, 2016 PhD Thesis: Studio Based Songwriting: Music Production and Shaping the Pop Song

Pat O’Grady: production, songwriting, vocals, guitars, keyboards

Brent Keogh: mandolin

Michael Carpenter: mastering

Amy Clarke: artwork

This album was submitted as a creative work for Pat O’Grady’s PhD thesis

“Only Begun is a collection of songs created in small production suite. On this album, I wanted to contain the personnel to myself, and produce an album using composite layers of sounds. My skills as a vocalist, guitarist and keyboardist were used to provide instruments, and my skills in sequencing were used to provide percussion. Throughout this process, there was no demo/final recording dichotomy in the creative process. Rather the songs evolved in one Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) session.”

Pat O’Grady, 2016 PhD Thesis: Studio Based Songwriting: Music Production and Shaping the Pop Song

As part of a discussion about the changing social practices of music production, O’Grady writes:

On Only Begun (2012), in order to reproduce the conventional roles associated with music production, I was credited as producer, songwriter, musician and audio engineer. In the roles, I provided vocals, guitar, keyboard and programming to reproduce a typical pop-style ensemble. Taking on these roles provided autonomy on the production decisions. However, similar to Gotye, I found the recording sessions lacked a social component. To counter this, I invited a musician to record mandolin and oud parts on two songs later in the recording sessions. Their contribution consisted of a two instrumental improvisations and chord accompaniment. These provided an additional depth to the production. However, the value of their contribution, for myself, was largely social. Further, the absence of other people during the production process resulted in a loss of perspective. With my use of the term “loss of perspective,” I want to suggest that my ability to access and carry out the broader aims of the project in terms of style and sound were reduced. Many of the processes that I undertook in attempts to achieve these aims were counterproductive. This manifested in the studio-based songwriting process. Because the instrumental had to be recorded in a linear manner, I often focused my attention on the more recently recorded instruments. In doing this, I lost perspective of how the instrumentations worked in relation to one another. Further, this was present in the mixing process. The more recent parts of the instrumentation were placed in front of the original instruments. This problem was addressed by taking breaks of a few days between sessions.

Pat O’Grady, 2016 PhD Thesis: Studio Based Songwriting: Music Production and Shaping the Pop Song