It's Not Easy Being Green: A Musician's Path to Self-Producing an Album
- Nov 16, 2017
- 2 min read
Walsh cites Paul Simon as her biggest musical inspiration.
Maddy Walsh is a Junior music student at Converse College. She is well-versed musically, and can play a total of 12 instruments, including guitar, ukulele, and her very first and main instrument, flute. Her self-produced and self-written, debut album, Green was released earlier this year in October. Although Walsh produced her first EP in high school with the help of a teacher, doing a whole album was slightly more challenging.
"The entire album was a learning process for me. I went in knowing absolutely nothing, and I had never worked with any of the music programs I was using," said Walsh. "It was truly trial and error."
The music industry often proves itself to be quite the formidable opponent to fresh and aspiring musicians. It could either be friend or foe. Getting started in the music industry comes with an endless list of formalities.
First, the musician writes songs, practices them until perfected, and performs every chance they get. They network within the community and hope that they make connections that lead towards managers, agents, producers, and record labels.
Musicians are entrepreneurs advertising themselves as the product. The sheer enormity of the music industry makes it almost intangible, which is why some musicians choose to do it themselves without the help of major record labels.
With the advancement of audio technology, Digital Audio Workstations [DAWs] such as Reason, Logic, Pro Tools, Audacity, and GarageBand have freed musicians from the binds of professional recording studios and made it possible to make recordings in a bedroom on a laptop.
This DIY aspect gives artists the freedom to record wherever and whenever they want. They have full control over the sound, the production, the budget, the pricing and compensation, and even the marketing. All executive decisions are made by the artist.
However liberating this may seem, it can be overwhelming at times, according to Walsh. "A disadvantage of going through the process of making an album all by myself was that I was alone, and I didn't have anyone there to tell me, 'hey, it's going to be ok.' When something wasn't right, or I couldn't get some harmony right that day, I would just give up."
Recording in a traditional setting can offer the beneficial insights of experienced producers and the collaboration of seasoned musicians in the field, but often so many artists seem to lose their individuality in this process. Gradually over the years, consumers have shied away from the overproduced, generic sound that is sometimes the product of this. They want the unique, raw sound that the musician had to offer in the first place.
"I really loved doing this album alone because I got to make all of the decisions. I got to say, 'I want this to sound exactly like this,' and I could make that happen."
The album artwork for Green was created by Junior at Converse College and Studio Art Major, Carolyn Kerecman.
Walsh's album, Green is available to purchase and download on cdbaby.com and available to stream on Spotify.The album will be on iTunes and SoundCloud in the near future.
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