Music
This is where it starts, Eric Eckhart's new
album, is now on sale in stores across Germany, Switzerland, Austria,
Luxembourg, Belgium and the Netherlands on the independent artist
collective label, A Headful of Bees. You can also buy the CD online in Europe at Amazon.
If you live in America, you can buy the CD from CD Baby.
You can also buy the album as a download from iTunes Europe or from iTunes America.
The behind the scenes story of This is where it starts
Have you ever wondered how people write music, how the creative process works or how a song goes from being a simple idea into a full blown produced record?
Using audio clips and journal notes that show the progression of each song on his new album, This is where it starts, from the moment they were written through to the finished track, Eric takes us on a unique behind the scenes look into the creative process showing us how each song was written, arranged, recorded and produced.
Writing
In April 2008, Eric relocated to Berlin to begin writing and recording his new album. By January 2009, Eric had nearly twenty songs partially written but very few completed. He decided to rent rehearsal space to focus more intensively on writing.
Eric began cycling 45 minutes each way out to his new rehearsal space in Marzahn deep in old East Berlin that he was sharing with the Irish rock band Humanzi. Working from 10am-1pm five days a week, the space proved to be a hugely helpful place to write.
Recording
With Fab Leseure (Nina Hynes and the Husbands, the Frames touring band) co-producing, recording commenced in June 2009 at Studio East, Fabien’s studio in old East Berlin. The building, known as the Funkhaus, used to be communist East Germany's main radio station. The rooms in the place are virtually untouched from the 1950s with amazing sound having been designed for in studio performances.
The ethos for This is where it starts was to record the basic tracks live in the studio including Eric's lead vocal and guitar, drums and bass all playing live together and going for the best performance and trying to capture the spark and unique performance of the songs instead of tracking each instrument one by one. Under Fab's direction, they went for an organic, emotional style, wanting to create new and interesting sounds and challenged the preconceived notion of a “singer-songwriter’ album, all without the aid of digital synthesizers or digital gadgets and wizardry. Only real instruments were allowed.
Mixing
Fab mixed the album on and off September - December 2009. Fab would mix on his own until he got the tracks sounding in good shape, then Eric would come in and work with him on shaping the final blend of the tracks. This was done both in Fabien's apartment using Pro Tools LE and in Studio East using an analogue TOFT mixing board and Pro Tools HD.
Mastering
After doing test masters of one song with at least five different mastering houses, we choose to have the album mastered at the Exchange in London by Simon Davey, who has vast experience having mastered music by Björk, Depeche Mode, Amy Winehouse, Moby, Scissor Sisters.
Musicians
Eric was thrilled to have a stellar backing band come to Berlin from Ireland for the album with Dave Hingerty (The Frames, Josh Ritter) playing drums and Peter Cheevers (another Husband member and recently toured with Damien Dempsey) on bass. After one day rehearsal in the studio, the team recorded eight songs in three days. The final three songs and overdubs were recorded with Eric and Fab over the following two weeks.
The amazing Nina Hynes graciously sings harmony on "Running" and one of Germany's best kept secrets, Tom Fanore added wonderful percussion on a number of tracks. Benoît Leseure spent one of his holiday days in Berlin kindly playing beautiful violin on two tracks. Eric was also very pleased to have Jan Gropper play trumpet on two songs.
Photos & Design
The exceptional photos used for the CD were taken by Dave Hingerty. The graphic design was done by Eric's friend and designer god, Mark Joyce.
This is where it starts - Track listing
- From Whence I Came - 4:00
- Bring Me Down - 3:06
- Happy - 2:55
- Lost - 3:47
- I'm Gone - 4:03
- Better Way - 5:45
- All My Life - 2:51
- Running - 4:12
- Open Up - 2:43
- Big Lie - 4:28
- I Saw A Light - 3:41
