Sister Judy On the Making Of ‘Spent’
How did everything come together?
Most of my writing is done only when I’m currently recording, I never really write anything away from my microphone. It’s all usually just very sudden and trying to stay away from over-thinking. This record I had a much more raw approach to how everything was put together. Working with less instrumentation and more layering of what instruments were used. My nephew and brother stepped in to play a little on this record. My brother played the piano at the end of “Cyanide” and some drums on “Winner.” My nephew played the trumpet on “CD’s.” I have a small home studio in an extra bedroom that I produce everything in, that makes the whole process for me a lot easier haha.
Can you share any interesting or unique musical elements or production techniques used in 'Spent?'
There’s a lot of double tracking and panning, about 90% of the album I would say. Everything is recorded on an sm58 except drums and vocals. Those were done on an AKG P420. Quite a few of the songs I double tracked drums and panned those. For me, I’ve always wanted some horn in a song so it’s nice to finally have gotten the chance to record some on “CD’s.” I don’t get the opportunity to have new instruments in my music very often haha.
Can you talk about any standout tracks on the album and what makes them special to you?
“Bug n Maze” is a pretty important song to me, the acoustic guitar was a recording I did to test the tone of that guitar and afterwards threw in a trash folder, but pulled it out later on and layered some instruments and vocals over it. The intro sound is an electric guitar chopped up and reversed with the pitch being messed with. The lyrics are pretty all over the place but it’s about addiction and dissociation.
Can you tell us a bit about yourself and how you got started in music?
Well behind Sister Judy I’m Adam Gregory Reid, I’m from Alabaster, AL, and born in August of 1997. I got into playing music around 15. I had several music phases until I landed into alternative/indie rock and suddenly got inspired and wanted to learn how to play. I had a group of friends who I knew that played around my area so we all got together and started a small band and played some local shows around Birmingham. We were a band for about 2 years then dropped it haha. I mostly played acoustic guitars only for about 5 years then when I got more involved in home recording I picked up several other instruments and figured I could do what I could with what I knew. Most of my family are all musically inclined and started playing at very early ages so that definitely inspired me to learn having them around to look up to.
Where do you find inspiration for your songs or musical ideas?
I’ve always looked up to a lot bands like Modest Mouse and Bob Dylan, those being the two earliest inspirations and still some of my two favorite artists today. Life changes and situations play massive roles, I usually don’t go through many things without writing music about it. It’s therapeutic and my main source of expressing those feelings. All of my musical ideas and techniques are based pretty subconsciously on how I’m feeling too, or how I felt in the past about whatever I’m writing. I’m sure that’s the case for most artists. I’ll write a song, feeling not too sure what it means and then later on being like “oh, that makes sense now.”
