In the Studio with Samantha Margret's "Emotional"
Early in 2020, before the world stood still, I had the supreme pleasure of bringing my dear friend Samantha Margret to Dreamrack Studios to record the vocals for her latest single, “Emotional”.
Samantha is one of the most gifted songwriters I’ve had the privilege of learning from, and I truly feel incredibly lucky that she and I crossed paths. We met in class pursuing our Level 1 Certificate from the Women’s Audio Mission, and I’ve glommed onto her ever since, following her to numerous songwriters’ circles, shows, and into the Nashville Songwriter’s Association. A huge fan of the Enneagram system, and a true Type 3, she’s also been instrumental in helping this Type 4 find structure and tangible achievement in my artistry. What a gal. Find yourself a Samantha if you can (or just join the orbit of this one).
When it came time for her to come into the studio to record “Emotional”, the scheduled session she had in LA fell through, and we both had the lightbulb moment driving back up North to the Bay Area from the 2020 NAMM Show of “Wait a minute; why don’t WE record these together!”. A few weeks later, a lovely few sessions at Hyde Street Studio B (the home of Dreamrack) were born.
To record “Emotional”, after shooting out the wealth of delicious mics on her lovely, pop-friendly voice, and with input from my mentor and Dreamrack’s Co-Founder/Senior Producer Trent Berry, we ended up pairing the Mojave MA-200 with the Heritage Audio Elite HA73 preamp, a modern recreation of the vintage Neve.
In the studio, Samantha is a consummate professional, and over the course of a few sessions, and with reinforcements like her frequent co-writer, the brilliant Eva Snyder, we honed her vision for the vocals, leading to the crisp, clear gorgeousness you hear on the finished track. One point of reflection Samantha and I found from this process together was the special beauty that comes from true trust between an engineer and an artist; the difference in experience (and therefore the finished performance) is night and day when there is deep respect, when the engineer has a clear picture of the artist’s vision, and when it’s enforced that this is about THE ARTIST, and about creating a creative and positive environment for them to make some magic.
Samantha’s done an incredible job of building out a synergistic creative team, and I count myself a very Lucky Lamond indeed to have been part of this latest track.
