The Making of Excursion

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The most common question I received about my album is where/how I recorded the songs. So here are some not so glamorous photos behind the scenes. 

Home in KL, where we worked on our first collaboration “Dear Stalker”; Apr 2017

Recordings were mostly done at home, as I didn’t have the skills and budget to record at a proper studio. I moved three times while producing the album, so all the vocals, nylon guitar and some of the acoustic guitar were recorded in my room at four different houses. Fortunately the areas I was living were pretty quiet at night.

First rented room in KK, Sabah. Pretty happy with this place but couldn’t afford long-term; Dec 2018
Second rented room in KK, Sabah. Didn’t like the colour of the wardrobe, so I attached removable marble stickers to cover it; There was a leaking problem too, that caused some noise. I’d to put a pot with soil on the roof to capture the droplets of water. Wonderful housemate, fun memories; Feb 2019
Third rented room in KK, Sabah. No air-con! I needed three fans to cool down during the day haha. Had to scale down since I left my full time job. Not so wonderful housemate……; May 2019

Dae composed the arrangement at a workspace he briefly had in KL, and majority of the work was done at both his home in KL and Seoul. I recorded “Bittersweet”’s electric guitar at his place in KL as well. We also composed and recorded the interlude “Announcement” and “Weather Forecast” together there. 

Halfway through the production, Dae had to move back to Seoul, while I relocated to Sabah. Thanks to technology (and much determination and perseverance from both sides), we managed to work remotely together to complete the album. 

Workspace in Zhongshan Building, KL; Jun 2018
Dae’s home in KL. Vocals was recorded in his wardrobe, so gutted that I forgot to take photo of it; Apr 2019

As depicted in the photos, my equipment is fairly basic, which I’ve been using since 2012. Dae on the other hand was way more experienced in gears and stuff. I didn’t take many photos because most of the recordings were done after a long day at work, time was precious, or I‘d forgotten, or didn’t see the need to (which I kinda regret now hehe). Also, I needed to dress comfortably iykwim haha. Home is a very personal space after all 😉