Last week, producer Steve Lacy made headlines after it was publicized he made his contribution to Kendrick Lamar’s “Damn” album, a song called ”Pride”, fully on his iPhone. Hearing this story reminded me of my own debut single, “They’re Waiting 4 My Beat 2 Drop”. The version everyone can hear of this song actually features the vocal recording made on my phone (at that time a PDA, pre iPhone days). I had sent the quick recording over to a producer who made it work on a little test for us to work on. Even though the track wasn’t fully mixed, the track was released and featured on a soundtrack before we could perfect it with officially recorded vocals (and perhaps some other tweaks we would’ve wanted).
When I moved on to an iPhone, not so much later, I also quickly downloaded apps for Garage Band and other tools that would allow me to make music on my phone. I even spotted music stores selling audio interfaces that would work together with a phone or a tablet, but I’ve always considered them great for a moment when nothing else was available and then only to create a foundation for something to finish in the studio just for the basic fact that I would usually be using my earbud mic to record the vocals and you just want better, so If given a choice, I would prefer to work on a computer instead. Steve prefers his phone.
Steve, member of a band called The Internet, had written a few songs which he had hoped would find their way to the Kendrick album, but Kendrick only felt this one. The acoustic foundation was done on Steve’s phone and singer, Anna Wise, received a short little introduction to on-the-go or on-the-phone recording so she could add her vocals in the same way. Then, he created the beat around that as you can find it on the album.
Needless to say, Steve is very thankful for this opportunity, and it couldn’t have come at a better time. He has just released his own project as well. It’s called Demo and it was already getting some attention on its own, but with the release and the success of Kendrick’s album, and the few articles that followed about Steve’s iPhone creation, he’s getting a bit of a lift in his own career.
