The reality of making 3 albums

Lauren Ray News

24 | That Kind Of Human | Crying Shame | Los Angeles

Hello! Firstly…thank you again for the lovely feedback on my latest single Los Angeles. Every download, stream and share makes such a difference 🙂

I wanted to update you that my 3rd album is ALMOST done. The final track on the album is getting mixed & mastered this week!

As I wrap it up, choose the artwork, the track order and decide on whether to still make CDs…I’ve been reflecting on the making of all my albums so far. I thought Id share here.

I don’t have kids but I’m going to use having children as an analogy throughout here

The first born

The first album is your first born child. As an independent artist in particular, you have lots of the same questions before making that big decision…such as “should i?” “can I afford it?” “is now the right time?” “who should I make it with?!?” “what if it totally sucks?!”

So much about your decision to make an album or not is dictated by your upbringing. I am a millenial which means I grew up before the internet, going to HMV to buy the latest Spice Girls & Eminem album, so it was always just ‘in my programming’ as an artist, this desire to have an album and see it on the shelves of HMV. I don’t know if the younger generations have the same “CD in stores” desires. let me know!

I was in my mid twenties when I finally decided to say “F It, I’ll be a single mum and make and raise this album baby ALONE..without the daddy of the music industry to support me”

The process of making the first album taught me a lot. There was so much I didn’t know! Which means there was so much value in the community I surrounded myself with. I had to quickly get comfortable leaning on people for guidance and favours. I had to get resourceful and scrappy. I learned just how much money it actually costs AND it really makes you realise that 5 sad songs about love in A Minor isn’t a great album…you need variety. It encouraged me to grow as a writer….to write a happy song at least one time 😉

The process of putting the first album out came with a big fan fair. I did a launch party and everything. I even got sponsors for the “event”

Like having a baby (I imagine), the first year was the hardest. After the initial fan fair, everyone else got on with their lives and I was left – alone – to raise it and try and keep it alive.

I paid (far too much) money to press and radio pluggers who I hired to try and get the album exposure and momentum. I got scrappy and partned with a coffee chain so I could tour around the UK, using their stores as free low-pressure locations to promote the album.

Key lessons from LP1

• It’s easy to spend a LOT of money in the wrong places – so be thoughtful about where your money goes.
• Managing your mindset is MOST of the game. You have to trust in your own decisions, own creativity, back yourself financiall…so master your mindset!
• Asking people for their help is ALWAYS a good idea! *thank you to everyone who helped me!
• Reach out to people you want to work with (producers, photographers) even if you think they’re out of your price range or assume they wouldn’t want to work with you…I was surprised at what I was able to make happen with incredible collaborators.

The second child

I survived the first as a solo parent and it eventually started to attract some attention, create momentum and I knew I wanted to make another.

When album 1 turned 1, I got some industry support, which got a lot of amazing touring opportunities, taking me around Europe and all over the UK about a million times – an absolute dream!

When it came time to record the second album I decided I wanted to collaborate more with other songwriters. I wanted to stretch myself as a writer and add some new energy into the process

I had my heart set on one particular producer and luckily – he said YES

After all the lessons from my 1st album, I went into this 2nd born with a completely new set of intentions.

getting the album into HMV was no longer a key priority for me as it costs far too money which is a lot to simply satisfy the spice girl loving 13 year old inside of me.

My focus was on increasing my chances of getting radio, synch and more touring opportunities (to sell the album)

I wanted the album to sound like a unique project – aka I didn’t want it to sound like “extra” songs from the 1st so I made choices accordingly.

I had a release plan…go on tour for 3 months supporting Paul Carrack to drum up interest and pre-orders and release the album towards the end of the tour mid March 2020. Like the saying goes “when you make plans, god laughs”.

The 2nd album was a pandemic baby. Born in the first 2 weeks of lockdown. It was weird but forced me to get resourceful and scrappy in new ways. I was doing gigs from home, using social media as best as I could to spread the word. I learned (in hindsight) that I wasn’t as comfortable or confident on social media as I could have been….and I realised that I had been heavily using in-person promo up until then.

Key lessons from LP2

• Where your focus goes, energy flows. My focus for the 2nd album was getting TV exposure for it – and so I managed to get songs on Love Island, UEFA Champions League Final, Eastenders and more…
• Get confident and competent utilising social media!! I wasn’t strong on social media at the time and it’s taken me a while to really acknowledge that. Hindsight is 2020 but I really didn’t take the time to use it to my advantage.
• Touring costs a lot of money – obvs! So when you’re gigging you HAVE to get good at selling your stuff (your socials, your email, your CDs and merch) in order to see any ROI on those efforts.

Baby no 3

Just like me (I’m no.3 in my sibling line up), my 3rd child has been a little chaotic so far and has stretched me in new ways..and she’s not even out yet.

I knew I wanted to finally make my 3rd but didn’t have the budget for the full 10 track project all at once so I paid for 4 tracks to be made so I could start building momentum (and reminding people I still existed as I had taken a hiatus from music for a while due to the pandemic and my other businesses)

This was the first time I hadn’t recorded the full album in one go. My first was recorded in Nashville, the 2nd was recorded in the UK over a 6 week period (roughly). Whereas this one was ‘whenever I had the time & resources I would add to it’.

I had always intended to hire the same producer to finish the album with BUT things took a sharp left turn when I was in LA on a writing trip this year.

One day I decided to try producing for myself. Whilst I had always been a co-producer (of sorts) on my albums (altho not doing any of the technical stuff) I had never produced something 100% alone. I didn’t think I could.

With that decision came a whole lot of learning and creative exploration. I wrote and produced a lot of new songs alone. No co-writers or collaborators. And I’ve been surprised at what I’ve created.

I was suddenly writing songs that – although are still pretty chill in energy – were emotionally more upbeat, hopeful and even playful. There’s a real mix of different versions of me on the album.

Because of the way this album has come together… with some songs that I wrote in 2019 at the piano, others I only wrote 6 weeks ago in a hotel room in portugal…5 songs were produced by other poeple and 5 produced by me…it feels different. It’s giving 1st album energy somehow…. except I don’t have quite the same level of delulu hope for it as I did my first…

although I am still delulu to a healthy degree (you have to be to keep going in this industry)

In the same breath I will think “This is SOOOO good, I’m so frickin proud of these songs and I think it could really DO something” and then “WTF, what if everyone else thinks this is total crap”

Showing what I’ve written and produced solo feels very exposing…like I’m about to walk out butt naked into Piccadilly circus

Key lessons (so far) from LP3

• Treating each album as their own unique entity and let them be whatever the need/want to be at the time. Don’t expect them to be ‘perfect’ but instead, a perfect representation of where you are at the time. Like my tattoos…the one I got at 18 isn’t something i’d choose now in my 30s but I LOVE it and when I look at it I remmeber exactly who I was at 18. I don’t regret anything that captures a moment in this way.
• Don’t be afraid to expand your creativity. Giving myself permission to produce and create in this new way has been scary but very rewarding.
• My expectations for this album are different. I just want to get it out. I expect nothing from it except to exist and I’ll take it one day at a time, do my best and see.

Oh and by the way…

The name of my 3rd album is…. q̶u̶a̶r̶t̶e̶r̶ life crisis

Album artwork and pre-order links will be shared ASAP but I can tell you that the release date is 29th November.

So watch this space

Thank you for being here!

Lauren xx