Simon is the recordist and producer who founded Soup Studio and is currently setting up Soup’s new studio in Ramsgate. From his love of playing and recording music he has grown the studio organically over 20 years creating a comfortable and inspiring space for artists to explore the creative aspects of music and sound
He has a wealth of experience, rooted from writing and producing music on 4-track tape machines in the 1980s through to current Hi-Fi commercial recordings and productions.
Alfa Mist - Organic Rust
Recent work includes Lola Wild’s new single Mirabella
Alfa Mist’s Confliction, a collaboration with the London Contemporary Orchestra and Spitfire Audio on a track Alfa wrote after a moving conversation with a taxi driver!
The recording of Queen Bee, a song for the 2020 Autumn de Wilde film, Emma. with Johnny Flynn and the recording and mixing of songs from his album’s Country Mile and Sillion
To contact Simon regarding production, recording, mixing and mastering, get in touch via email at:
simon@soupstudio.co.uk
During the recording sessions for Sillion, Johnny brought in a flexi-disk of a wax cylinder recording of Heart Sunk Hank he'd recorded the night before to be digitised. I loved the recording and cajoled the band into tracking parts over it with the intention of having the mix phase in between the old and new. The finished result reminds me of The Beatles 'Across The Universe', dreamy and psychedelic, like drifting in and out of a lucid dream.
Below are some tracks i recorded for Holly Holden’s beautiful tropical inspired album Green Guava!
The Wave Pictures. Just an incredible band. The sessions for the City Forgiveness album were so much fun and we ended up with a great sounding record. Lots of guest musicians gave the record a lovely party feel. This one's a real Velvet's chugger and even Lou Reed himself would be proud of those guitar tones i'm sure.
I'll always have a soft spot for a grimy indie garage band. Goldblooms certainly scratch that itch for me when they come in. I love the grainy sound we got on the vocals and the impact of the drums when they thunder in gets me every time.
A Clay Hammond cover and the result of a long standing urge to record some proper old school soul - Otis style. Some friends from Cowbell and Treetop Flyers got together and worked up the song and we went for it. Reid (Treetop Flyers) sang this killer vocal live with the band playing around him in the room. Totally insane!
From the album 'Babe Please Set your Alarm' which was recently awarded IBBA's album of the month. Well deserved as it's a cracking record.
One of our intentions during the recording was to constantly monitor just the room mics to make sure they we're capturing a well balanced representation of the song and adjusting amps and band members accordingly. This method results in a very naturalistic sound and lets you mix the close mics into the room mics rather than the other way around. I really feel like I'm in the room with them when i listen to it. Again, the vocals were tracked live with the band in the same room so what was coming out of my speakers as it went to tape is exactly what you hear on the record. As a recordist this is one of those occasions when you sit there and feel honoured to witness insanely good music being captured.
