Patrick Thompson, Author at Munich Sessions

The Fortress of Solitude

Patrick Thompson — Fri, 26 Jan 2024 09:42:48 +0000

It should be common knowledge at this point that the music industry is at best, unkind to the psyche, at worst, straight up soul destroying. The saving grace is really the people and those little magic moments on stage or in the studio when everything comes perfectly together. The problem lies in the freelance work lifestyle, from the outside the public will only see you performing with people, or highlight reels of studio time where you’re surrounded by musicians who look like they’re having the time of their lives. Unfortunately, this is not the norm. More often than not, you’re alone planning, practising, mixing, preparing projects, or any number of other tasks that have to be ticked off in order to maintain some semblance of a functioning life.

I had a friend in the studio last night for a cup of tea, like any proper Englishman should. We chatted about the industry and life in general, the choices we made to get to the point where we are today. The main thing that i took away from his visit, is that we may certainly work alone most of the time, we are most definitely, not alone in our problems. The weight of the work and lifestyle we choose isn’t an isolated problem resting only upon your shoulders. It’s a double edged sword that I live by, when I say “You can’t rely on anyone’, it’s not a put down of colleagues or friends, it’s to say that nobody is going to do the work for you, you have to pull up your socks and do the grind, get s**t done. The other side of that sword, if you don’t have friends and colleagues around you, you are almost certainly going to fail. You are both solely responsible and completely dependent.

So as i sit in my studio, after a day of working by myself, feeling like the studio is my Fortress of Solitude, I have to take a moment to appreciate that I most certainly am not alone, that if the shit hits the fan, I have a solid and reliable base that at the very worse, are going to have an open ear to listen to me bitch and moan for an hour. So please, next time you’re feeling like the industry has chewed you up and spat you out, remember, you are most certainly not alone and you’re only a text message away from somebody who’ll help.

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Phillip Bracken – Munich Sessions Artist Series #003 – Music & Interview

Patrick Thompson — Mon, 20 Nov 2023 13:22:13 +0000

Long time Session’s friend Phillip Bracken joined us as our third guest for the Artist Series. His music has a beautiful dream like yet grounded quality about it, much the same shines through his personalilty. We’re proud to share the time we spent in the studio with him.

Video – Joel Moser
Audio – P.R Thompson
Interviewer – P.R Thompson

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Modern Music Production

Patrick Thompson — Mon, 06 Nov 2023 14:02:22 +0000

Within the modern age of music production, you may well find yourself sitting alone for long periods, hunched over the computer trying to find the perfect sounds to fit your mix.

Working alone has undoubtedly brought about some world class music, people with a single minded devotion to create something beautiful can bring to life a track that can change the game. But, more often than not, working alone brings more problems than perks, you become trapped in the same routines of song writing and production, you have no one telling you that that was the killer take, you have no reference outside of your own ears.

This is where the beauty of collaboration comes in, working with others that you trust brings a chemistry to studio time that is unbeatable in almost all aspects of music. Having someone to battle down the imposter syndrome, having a second set of ears to reference the mix, having someone to encourage you and guide you when you’re about to throw in the towel on what you thought was 9th symphony.

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Self Built is Best Built

Patrick Thompson — Mon, 06 Nov 2023 13:57:23 +0000

When I first started getting the studio together, hiring someone to design and build it was never really an option.

Firstly, we simply didn’t have the budget for it, we refused to get ourselves in debt, instead working with what we had available.

Secondly, and maybe more importantly, when you build something yourself, you have an absolute and intimate knowledge of every aspect of it.

Of course, you can spend a lifetime researching the physics of sound waves and fluid dynamics to try and make the room sound the best it can possibly sound but as soon as you open that door and start reading, you find out pretty quickly that no room will ever be perfect, no matter how much time and money you invest in it.

This leads on to why self built is best built, because more important than anything in the studio world, is that you know how your room sounds. You know it’s strengths and it’s weaknesses, you know which microphone to use in which situation for the best possible outcome.

When I was designing the room, I had pure workflow in mind. It’s not a huge room that requires several assistants to help me mic up the drum kit, I don’t need to explain to people that the Lewitts work best as overheads or the baby Neumann does a killer job as a shoulder mono mic when I’m tracking drums because I’m there and ready to put them in place. I know that the Audient preamps I have set up will give the cleanest sound for the whole band and I’ve set them up so with the smallest of movements, they’re ready to go. All these get patched neatly and simply into Pro Tools which gives me the fastest recording and editing I’m capable of.

All these small decisions along the way of design have help me create a space that I know intimately and can work on my own with the best possible workflow. All these decisions have been made so that the final product is of the highest quality available.

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Loriia – Munich Sessions Artist Series #001 – Music & Interview

Patrick Thompson — Mon, 10 Jul 2023 03:51:46 +0000

We had the pleasure of having Munich artist Loriia in the studio for a couple of songs and a good chat over what it means to be a contemporary artist.

Video – Joel Moser
Audio – Alex Keogh
Interviewer – Patrick Thompson

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Imposter Syndrome/The Existential Dread

Patrick Thompson — Fri, 16 Jun 2023 03:56:26 +0000

When your entire career is built on subjective matters, when a matter of taste can get you paid or not, it’s not surprising that we are all plagued at some point or other by imposter syndrome.

Imposter syndrome gets us all, the overwhelming dread that we’ve been hired for a job that we can’t possibly do, that at any minute we’re going to be busted and put on show for the fake we are. The real kicker comes when you even completed the work, been paid and congratulated and still, that little voice creeps in and tells you, “someone else could have done it better”.

I was at a dinner once before a show, sat with the owners of the company that we were playing for that night. We knew them well, and were all on a friendly basis. But I was clearly showing that I believed I was out of my depth amongst them, as one of them leaned over with a reassuring smile and said, “You’re always supposed to be somewhere, if someone asked you to be there.” This sentence has become my entire career’s mantra.

The industry is built on word of mouth advertisement, that means that you’re booked for a job based on someone’s opinion of your previous work. So if you’re booked, someone, somewhere has good things to say about you. These are the thought patterns that you have to keep in mind, it’s easy to become overwhelmed but I would bet all the things I own that nearly everyone in any arts based industry is going through exactly the same thing.

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