The SONGS - Psycho Dad & I Wanna Be Found

Sung by Tory Gervay

Youtube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ess-R0dHtX8
My Space: www.myspace.com/thatswhyiwrotethissong

Tory: Getting the Songs Produced

I was nervous but excited about my first meeting with Tony Buchen, the producer.

Tony's studio is on the top floor of an old terrace in Surry Hills, Sydney. Surry Hills is full of hotels that play bands. The Gaelic Club, Beresford Hotel, The Excelsior, The Hopetoun, The Bat & Ball, Strawberry Hotel, Macquarie Hotel … There're music schools, studios, stores that sell music gear. BILLY HYDE the drum specialists are in Surry Hills. It's the muso part of Sydney.

No one knows that there's a studio in the terrace. It's got heavy iron gates, no signs and no windows to look inside. Tony opened the bars, then led me up the narrow stairs. The studio is in the roof top with a sloping ceiling and it's amazing. Synthesizers, drum machines, sample players, effects, mixing table, sequencer, guitars... everything.

I gave him the music and lyrics for my songs. He knew how to play just from ear. There was lots of talking. Tony wanted to understand the book. The meaning of the songs. Who the songs were written for, the sound, the motivation.

Tony Buchen

The process was long and complicated with heaps of pitfalls, stops and starts, discussions about sounds, tone, pacing. Lots of try-outs. Different versions, different sounds.

Then there was my singing. I'd never trained to be a singer, although I've always sung. I didn't know if I should sing the songs and was scared to do it.

'Gotchya. You'll be fine,' Tony was really positive. 'You've got the right sound.'
'Have I?' My stomach was a knot. He made me believe I could do it.

Then I got a cold. No, not just a cold. The worst case of laryngitis, sore throat, temperature and it lasted for weeks and weeks. It got better, then I'd book for a recording session. Then the laryngitis returned. It went on and on...

Delay, delay, delay. Would I ever get better? Maybe it was a mistake to do the recording.

Then Tony went to LA taking a singer he was working with. Delay, delay, delay. I thought he would never come back to Australia. I was wrong. Eventually he arrived home and he called. 'Let's get going.'

Tony booked the recording studio. The drummer, guitarists recorded all day. 'The recording for the drums was booked at Electric Avenue Studios, Gibbens St. Camperdown.'

I was breathless when he played the instrumental tracks. Sounded good. Now I had to sing the songs. I was so scared. What if I was hopeless? Couldn't do it? Failed? Tony looked at me. I put on my head phones on and the music began. I closed my eyes singing in front of a blank wall, but I heard the words, the music inside me.

I sang for hours making the sounds better, slower, faster and it was amazing.

Tony edited, changed mixes, there were days of working on the songs as we moved towards that final production. Recording, re-recording, re-recording.:-

'The segment in the middle of I Want to be Found is too repetitive.' It's cut down.

'The instrumentals overpower Tory's voice/lyrics.' The instrumentals are adjusted.

'The end of the song should fade out.' The songs are edited to fade out.

'There shouldn't be instrumentals at the end. Just Tory's voice.' Tory sings without instruments.

Finally it was ready.'

I was in a panic as I held the demo in my hot hands. Mum and I couldn't speak as we listened. We looked each other, then starting screaming and jumping around the room.

Pyscho Dad and I Wanna Be Found really existed. We sang with the CD like we were mad and it was amazing. And it was.

The Producer: Tony Buchen aka Buchman