Is That the Best Thing I've Ever Made?

"I would get very anxious about, like, whether it was okay and stuff," he said. "So I find it very hard to just kind of start to go into the state of play." The singer has been working with Brian McKnight on a new album for U2 called 'The xx'

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In this episode, John reunites with Fred Gibson, a.k.a. Fred Again.., at his house, to talk about how he wrote, recorded and produced the album ‘Actual Life 3 (January

1 - September 9 2022)’.

Reflecting on what’s been a very busy 18 months, Fred discusses how the success of the Actual Life series has had an impact on how and why he writes music. From the tricks he uses to keep his writing process fast and fun, to the moments his creativity was lost and the advice that came from Brian Eno to focus it.

As well as sharing demos written with The 1975 and sampling songs by his brother, Fred gets hands on with his explanations of the plugins and process he uses, treating us to live beat builds, piano demonstrations and examples of compression demonstrated through table drumming.

Listen to find out what Fred’s reaction to switching DAWs was, why you should put off any technical aspects of a track until the end, and why some people may call the harmonic modulations in his music ‘the work of the devil’.

Tracks discussed: Delilah (pull me out of this), Berwyn (all that I got is you), Kelly (end of a nightmare)

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Listen to ‘Actual Life 3 (January

1 - September 9 2022)’.