During the summer we hosted a workshop to give our students a chance to write and record original material to make an EP. Josh and I spent the week working with the students, planning, writing and recording the songs and the students gained experience in using recording software and an audio interface.
We spent the beginning of the week planning the project and after some debate, we decided to write a concept album about the recent London riots. The idea of a concept album is that you use metaphors and comparisons to write songs in the format of a story; in this case we discussed the concept further and we came up of the idea of using the effects of a storm to describe the events in London.


The EP consists of 3 songs all titled "The Ripple Effect" (parts 1, 2 and 3). The basic story starts in a calm relaxing place in a carefree world but after a tiny change in atmosphere a horrific unexpected disaster strikes leaving nothing but a desolate wasteland. Part 1 describes the calm ocean, Part 2 describes the chaotic storm and Part 3 describes the aftermath. Using some clever techniques and sound effects, the EP mentally puts you in that situation, we used various sounds such as whales, waves, Gulls, wind chimes and much more to help the listener get into the story plot.

I am extremely happy with the way the EP came together, the students put a lot of input into writing the songs as well as the recording and I'm very proud of them all, we look forward to doing something similar next summer.

The Ripple Effect Pt.1

The Ripple Effect Pt.2

The Ripple Effect Pt.3