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Multi-instrumentalist Caroline Jones offers some ideas for balancing multiple elements and textures without obscuring the main impact of a song.
Multi-Instrumentalist Caroline Jones—who plays everything on her records except bass and drums—recently released Bare Feet [Faction], a six-song EP that showcases her talents on acoustic and electric guitars, banjo, lap-steel, keyboards, and harmonica. She’s also a “big production” nerd, and she offers some excellent ideas for balancing multiple elements and textures without obscuring the main impact of a song.
As you play a lot of instruments, is it a challenge casting which ones will serve a particular song?
I typically write on piano or guitar, and those instruments provide the basic harmony. Then, I start to hear the different sonic textures that can make a song greater than the sum of its parts. I also have fun figuring out the rhythmic components, because a syncopated electric guitar or synth hook adds so much to the overall production. I love how all those elements work together, but, honestly, it’s a big process of trial and error. Luckily, I have a very patient producer in Ric Wake, because we’ll often spend an entire day finding the right guitar sound or guitar part for a chorus.
So would you say that your songs are not really complete until you lock them down in the studio?
I’m very much into the science of building the production brick by brick, and I consider production elements as an extension of the songwriting process. For example, “The Difference” is driven by my 5-string banjo riff, but what makes the song really exciting is the syncopated synth bass in the choruses, and that came to me in the studio. Obviously, you want the lyrics and the melody to stand on their own, but if other parts