Growing up, Natalie Inga listened to artists like Joni Mitchell and Bruce Cockburn to feel understood. Now as a YYC Music Award-nominated singer-songwriter, she hopes that others can have the same experience listening to her music.
Her process changes between songs; sometimes she begins with lyrics and other times a piano melody or a guitar riff gets her started.
“I have, like, three different notebooks on the go at any time,” Inga says. “Sometimes, I’ll just jot some words down and I’ll come back to it, and start to kind of find what that sounds like.”
After writing lyrics and chord progressions, Inga records with a producer to help make her vision a reality. However, the production process for a song varies between genres and different artists.
For Joel Pearson, a music producer who owns Bucket Brigade Recording Studio, capturing the feeling of a song takes precedence over the technical aspects.
His studio, a large one-room space, allows for a band to record live together and create a sound that cannot be matched when isolating instruments.
“You get a really way better vibe,” says Pearson.