Judge with Your Ears

“I used to be in the Kane Gang and did a couple of albums and had a couple of hits,” says Martin Brammer, looking back at a career spanning more than 20 years. “I’ve now ‘progressed’ to be a songwriter and producer. I suppose one of my high profile cuts as a songwriter was with the Lighthouse Family.”

High profile, indeed. Martin helped write Lifted, the band’s most recognisable (and played) song, and a track so catchy that it’s still doing the rounds today…

“Obviously it’s wonderful to have something like that. I also wrote the single Open Arms for Tina Turner which is always a good one when you’re talking to someone at a party and they ask: ‘have you written any for anybody I’d know?’!”

Most recently, Martin’s been enjoying success as one of James Morrison’s co-writers. The album Undiscovered (on which Martin helped write the title track plus the single The Pieces Don’t Fit Anymore) has hit no 1 in the UK and is well on its way to selling a million copies, which Martin predicted right from the start…

“A friend brought a James Morrison demo CD in about three years ago. Within 30 seconds I thought: ‘if you can’t sell a million albums with that guy’s voice then you don’t know what you’re doing.’ Ultimately I guess I’ve been right!”

Martin has his own studio in which he writes and records, packed with the latest sE gear…

“I was looking for a stereo pair of mics to record acoustic guitars, so researched it and looked on a website to check the forums and saw a post from James from sE. I sent him a message and an hour later he rang up and said he’d send us the stuff [check mics with James] to try. I thought they were fantastic.”

“I’ve got the Gemini which is what I use most of the time and also the Reflexion Filter. I have a vocal booth at my studio but was thinking about recording vocals in the control room as friends have done it and there’s been a lot easier communication and a vibe when you’re all sitting in the same room. So I bought the Reflexion Filter and it’s been great. It’s technically effective and now my vocal booth has loads of boxes in it as I never use it!”

“The main thing I’ve used the RF and Gemini on were four songs on the forthcoming Beverley Knight album. That was a good test because Bev certainly lets it rip so if they can cope with that…! The Gemini is really good.”

“I think the sE range is phenomenal value for money. If you’re looking for a mic that’s going to give you a great performance and are judging it on what it sounds like rather than if it has a famous name or not, then sE mics are always going to be a fantastic brand to investigate. Judge with your ears rather than what’s on the label – they’re really amazing mics in that sense.”

So what’s Martin got planned for the future?

“I’ve been doing some stuff for Craig Wiseman who is always winnng Country Songwriter Of The Year. Then there’s the Bev stuff and a singer called Jack McManus. He’s going to do well – he sings, plays the piano and drums. That’s a project with Steve Robson who’s amazing and who I did the James Morrison stuff with. Hopefully there will be more James Morrison stuff next year.”

“I just want to write more great songs. I don’t know if it’s a kind of crazy ego or something, but there’s something inside me saying ‘I’m sure I haven’t written my best song yet’.”

Further information at: www.seelectronics.com

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