It's pre-production time! Or is that pre-pre...?

Welcome back!

In another d'Blog special, album producer Sunim Koria spills the beans on life at the planning stage of TESS - The Album. We now have a production team!

​So take it away, Mr Producer.

"As I write this, it has virtually been a year to the day we produced our very first recording for TESS – a demo of the leading character’s song ‘In My Hand’, sung by the magnificent Joanna Strand. Roll on another twelve months and here I am with the producing gig of the century!
 
It was not long after all three demo recordings were successfully completed when Michael Blore got in touch with me again to enquire as to whether I would now be interested in producing a concept album of the entire show. I was flattered to say the least! And it’s always been an ambition of mine to produce something as “epic” as TESS. However, currently having almost no concept of a work-life balance - working 40 hours a week as a gameplay designer for Guitar Hero in Leamington Spa during the day and spending a lot of my evenings playing bass in a theatre pit somewhere around the region – most unfortunately the answer had to be no. Also on top of this was a pending house move to Lutterworth; I simply couldn’t commit to a project of this magnitude, as much as I’d wanted to!

Now, it must be said, our composer Mr Blore is a very persistent fellow indeed. I lost count at what may have been about four or five different e-mails over the course of a few months where Michael tried his utmost to unabashedly “seduce” me into becoming part of this project! I resisted the temptation all I could, but alas, he always gets his way...

...and today I have to say I’m very glad he does; how could I be so foolish to throw away an opportunity as good as this! In order to give myself enough time to get my head around making this project fit around my already busy lifestyle we agreed that April 2016 would be an appropriate time to commence with pre-production of the album and I’d be in a much better position by then to completely lend my focus towards the project. “But wait!” you may proclaim, “Didn’t the last blog mention that work for the TESS concept album was already well under way?” Yes it is! It just so happens that I have managed to shoehorn in an arbitrary stage that we have dubbed the “pre-pre phase”...

So what is this “pre-pre phase” we speak of? Well, primarily, it came about around the beginning of this year when I simply couldn’t wait until April to get stuck in to TESS! Secondly, it seemed like a very good idea to do everything in the time we had leading up to the start of the project to avoid the inevitable “damn, I really should have thought about this before, Michael...” The main difference between the “pre-pre” and pre-production phases is most probably in the mindset; at the moment my role has a more organisational aspect, as I’m setting into motion a variety of methods to effectively split the potential workload into comprehensible “chunks” (management speak), and, furthermore, endeavouring to make scheduling the vast number of cast members we will be recording come July as straightforward and efficient as possible. For pre-production I am anticipating a greater focus on the technical side of things – making sure everything runs as smoothly as possible in the forthcoming recording sessions, maximising the use of the time and resources we have available during the production phase, and making sure everything’s in place for us to get the material we need to finally put the album together. I have also enlisted the talent and expertise of two fellow recording engineers (one in Stratford-on-Avon and the other in London) and very recently acquired a trusty and enthusiastic production assistant to help manage any organisational duties once my role in the project becomes more technical! ​

So, how am I feeling less than a month before we hit pre-production? Nervous? Quite a bit. Excited? Hell, yes! Even though I am almost drowning in an array of spreadsheets as I write this, I can’t say I’ve ever been as enthusiastic and determined about my involvement in a production as much as this one. In some ways, I half expect the Michaels to tell me to “calm down” when I find myself, once again, impulsively e-mailing a long "babble" of

inspiration that just happens to strike me about the project at any given moment. But every idea I’ve had so far they have welcomed with open arms. ​
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What can I say? It’s the collaboration of dreams! It really is an honour to be “the chosen one” in helping something as majestic and beautiful as TESS to finally come to life."
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Thank you for reading and following the progress of the show. Please feel free to leave a comment. We'd love to hear from you.

Next time on d'Blog... Audition time! We take you behind the scenes as casting for the album recording of TESS is concluded.  ​