From the Bedroom to the Studio

The first scene of “Soul Mates – the musical” takes place with the girls rehearsing in their bedroom, and as I was thinking about how the Soul Mates soundtrack evolved, I was struck by the fact that my creative process starts in a similar way – in a room on my own.

Writing songs for the musical’s concept recording

For “Soul Mates – the musical” I knew I wanted to achieve two goals – a) to write pop songs that would stand alone outside the musical, and b) the songs should progress the story within the musical.

As a songwriter, people often ask me “Which comes first, the music or the lyrics?”. When I’m drafting a song for a musical, it’s neither! My process starts with a gut feeling for where a song should appear in the script. And the question I ask myself is “Why does the character need to sing at this moment?” Do they have a key decision to make? Do they need to express some inner feelings? Is it a moment where they just need to let loose and have fun? Do they need to reveal something to us, the audience, or to their fellow characters? How is this going to serve the story? Once I have the characters’ motivation for the song then my instincts take over!

Sitting at my keyboard I’ll draft a melodic and harmonic structure for the song and record the first version of the lyrics. Then a long period of experimentation begins. What if change this word? What if I use a different chord sequence here? What if I abandon all my previous ideas for the tune and try something different over that section?

Home Studio Demoing Process

I record my ideas using my trusty laptop connected to a Focusrite Scarlett Solo interface (for vocals) and a midi connection (to connect my Yamaha keyboard). As I’ve mentioned before in a previous blog post, I’m not afraid to use all the modern tools available to me – I record in Bandlab’s powerful Cakewalk Sonar DAW – but I steer clear of using AI in this part of the process because I want to feel that my music is an expression of me (but also just because writing in this way is such fun!) I often use Little Alterboy pitch-shifting software by Soundtoys to help put the song in an appropriate key if I’m writing for women’s voices. As of course I was for Soul Mates!

Handing the demo over

During this phase of production, no-one listens to it but me until I am happy enough to share it with my main musical collaborator. I’ll send Pete Ware the bare bones of the track, perhaps with some production ideas. At this point, everything regarding the song remains fluid, so if he has some feedback about lyrics or structure, I take myself back to the drawing board and re-write, re-write, re-write until I’ve created something that we’re both happy with!

Pete then goes to work to create the “faux nostalgia” sound we’re after. He uses a mixture of original 80’s hardware (yes, that old Yamaha DX7 gets dusted off!) and simulations of 80’s drum and synthesiser sounds, topped off with some live funky guitars and other instruments. He painstakingly creates the arrangements that hark back to a previous era while mastering them so that they sound ready for 2026!

Capturing the characters in song

It’s about now that we get the cast involved! Kate, Joanne and Rochelle get sent my pitch-shifted vocal demos (and, yes, my vocal alter ego has been dubbed “chippy the chipmunk”!) and they listen, listen, listen to embed the songs exactly as I’ve sung them. Then, when they’re in the studio, they can take the brakes off, let it all loose and inject their own character and personality into the recordings. Musical theatre is always collaboration and I love to hear the extra dimension that performers bring to my work when they interpret it (another reason why I choose not to use AI in the process).

The sound of 80s Romford soul

The work now becomes iterative. Once Pete has vocals to work with he will work and rework the songs, each time introducing a new element that is designed to capture the soulful energy of the time. Clubs like the Lacy Lady in Seven Kings, Flicks in Dartford and Fifth Avenue in Ilford had become the centre of all things soulful, with regular all-nighters. Some DJs harkened back to the original acoustic sounds of the 70’s and early 80s, whereas others embraced the latest synth sounds and played music from artists such as Cherelle and Change. Although our musical concept album pays homage to classic soul, we decided early on to base the “Soul Mates” sound on the gated snare, four on the floor, synth driven arrangements that are still so popular today, and scream “80s” when you hear them!

I am writing this just three days away from our first funky single release on the Expansion Records Select label! “Break the Rules” featuring Rochelle Sherona will be available to stream and download from July 1^st 2026.