Sponsored Content - In Association With Audi

In a brand new TMR feature, we go behind the scenes of some of music’s most wonderful projects and collaborations.

First up, we speak to Mercury-nominated vocalist Lisa Hannigan and producer and musician David Kosten, about their new Audi project - a re-imagining of Steven Sondheim’s classic ‘Send In The Clowns’.

Originally written and recorded for 1973 musical A Little Night Music, the gentle, wilting melodies of ‘Send In The Clowns’ have since become cultural mainstays, appearing on stage, cinema screen and even in an episode of The Simpsons. This time around, Lisa Hannigan donated her formidable talents to the iconic track. Teaming up with David Kosten - a renowned record producer for artists including Bat For Lashes, Enter Shikari and Everything Everything, and producer in his own right under his Faultline guise - the result is another timeless, rich version of the heartbreaking track; one which perfectly matches up to the elegant clip it accompanies.

Riding the wave of her critically-acclaimed latest album At Swim, the Irish lilt of Lisa Hannigan’s voice feels perfectly suited to the sombre reflections on irony and misfortune around which ‘Send In The Clowns’ centres. When paired up with David Kosten’s keen ear for a confident voice and strong persona in each and every artist he works with, it makes for a captivating combination.

Below, we dig into the Audi ‘Clowns’ project with Lisa and David themselves, discussing the magic of musicals, performing for Paul Simon, and how it feels to make the beauty of ‘Send In The Clowns’ your own.

Check out Faultline and Lisa Hannigan's 'Send In The Clowns' on Spotify and iTunes. 

***

TMR: So how did you guys meet?

Lisa Hannigan: It must be over ten years ago now. I had never done any recording of my own up until that point and wasn’t brave enough to play one of my own songs for anyone, so we spent a day recording a version of one of my favourite songs - John Martyn’s 'Couldn’t Love You More’. We had fun layering up vocals and messing about with mad reverb drums. Is still one of my favourite days recording.

TMR: What are some of your earliest musical memories? How did you get into music yourself?

David Kosten: I remember drawing pictures of pop stars playing on Top Of The Pops when I was four, and making little art books of all the different artists I liked. I think even then I'd already made the assumption that music was what I was going to do - it wasn't ever discussed, it was just how it was going to be. I played the recorder and clarinet - I wasn't bad, but nowhere near good enough to be a 'proper' musician. It was only in my teens when I started recording sounds on my father's ancient reel-to-reel recorder that I felt like I'd found 'it' though; the thing that I would do.

LH: I also spent many years under the tyranny of the recorder. My earliest memory is of being in my car seat, singing the backing vocals to my mother’s Joni Mitchell. I’ve pretty much sang along to everything ever since.

TMR: Who were your earliest musical idols? The ones who really grabbed you, above all else.

DK: I look back so fondly at my musical innocence then: the thrill of listening to music in stereo on headphones; of looking at album sleeve artwork; the excitement of going to a record shop or big concert. Early on for me it was ABBA, The Beatles, ELO - the melodies and layered sounds are deeply embedded in my DNA - and later came the synths and obsession with electronic sounds: The Human League, Kraftwerk, John Foxx. Foxx was probably my idol - I had a poster and dreamed of meeting him. Age 15 I saw him on the underground and didn't have the courage to tell him I was a fan, I was rooted to the spot and rendered mute. A few years ago I literally bumped into him outside a supermarket in Ealing. We chatted for nearly an hour - he was lovely and easy to speak with - and I was able to tell him what a profound effect he'd had upon me.

LH: I felt just the same about album artwork and pored over lyrics, credits and photographs. Joni Mitchell was my mother’s favourite, as I mentioned, and her music had a profound effect on me, particularly ‘Ladies of the Canyon’. It was one of a few tapes that were on constant rotation in the family car. Paul Simon’s 'Graceland’ and a 'best of’ Nina Simone were the other well worn favourites. As a child I zeroed in on imagery and storytelling in songs, and the sound of the voice, and these records in particular are built from these things. I would always sing harmonies alongside which helped develop that part of my musical brain.

TMR: Lisa, you’ve been Mercury nommed and have collaborated with such a huge range of other artists - what have been your most ‘pinch yourself’ moments?

LH: I had a strange and unforgettable moment when I was singing at a Seamus Heaney tribute concert in Dublin a couple of years ago. Paul Simon was also playing, and I kept scurrying by his dressing room during the day, knowing I wouldn’t be able to string a sentence together if I met him. I was in my little dressing room practicing with two other singers  - we were performing Seamus Heaney’s poem ‘Anahorish’ which I had set to music - and we heard a polite knock on the door. I opened it and there was Paul Simon asking if he could sit in and listen to us rehearse. So I had to sing acappella for Paul Simon in a room the size of a Twister mat. He was very kind and encouraging. Since then, anytime I feel nervous I think back to that moment to calm myself, as nothing will ever be as terrifying as that.

TMR: And David, you’ve worked with such a broad range of artists, producing multiple Mercury nommed albums - what brings those acts together, in your mind? What inspires you to work with such a wide range of artists?

DK: Early on in my production career, I found myself being asked by labels or managers to help transform artists - help make them something they weren't, to give them a sound, or to upend where they'd been before and find a new direction for them. This seemed exciting at first, and as a newcomer I was grateful to be asked to do anything in music, but I began to realise the basic flaw here. If they needed someone to give them a sound, or find a direction, then they probably weren't going to make the great music I wanted to be involved with making, or music that would connect with people in any substantial kind of way, emotionally or otherwise. I did have a lightbulb moment after working with an act who despised me for altering their music, and swore off any kind of project that involved a confrontational approach. I have no idea why I'd never understood this before! Within weeks Bat For Lashes was introduced to me - there was an artist who knew exactly how she wanted to sound, or what feeling she wanted people to get from her music. And with almost no input from anyone else, the two of us made a record [Fur and Gold] that felt powerful, creative and unique and was at a level that I'd always aspired to working at. So to answer the question, I realise now that the artists I've worked with in the last ten years who have made music people have responded to, there is a common thread. They're listeners, they have ideas, they know what they want to achieve, and even if they don't know how to get there, they have the focus and creative ambition to find a way to make it happen. As a producer, there can be few things more wonderful than being presented with an idea for an amazing new song, or watching a vocal performance and thinking, ‘Wow, what's happening right now, right this second, is going on a song and people will hear it, and it will be somebody's favourite song.’

TMR: David, you’ve also created the soundtracks for several recent Audi campaigns which featured a diverse collection of recording artists (memorably with Enter Shikari frontman Rou Reynolds on the Audi React campaign). What drew you to this project and how did it differ from your previous work for Audi?

DK: I was in the process of finishing the album The Spark by Enter Shikari, and Rou and I were spending a lot of time together in my studio, recording vocals, playing with synths, trying to add the final touches to the album. The opportunity to record a true classic song for Audi came up with ‘If I Only Had A Brain’, and I started thinking about the kind of voices that might work, and who I could approach. Rou and I were recording some very quiet singing on the Shikari album - this is a band known for being bold and loud and often shouty - so it was a complete departure for Rou to sing so softly on so much of a record. We were experimenting with how quiet it was possible to sing before one lost the melody or essence of a song - and I realised, hearing this fantastic, intimate sound he was creating, that actually he would be perfect for the song. No one would expect a screaming post-punk rockstar to take on a song from The Wizard Of Oz, with just a filtered piano and some echo alongside him. I think he thought it was unlikely to work out, but humoured me, and even when I was exclaiming ‘That's it!’ and how great I thought he sounded on the track, he imagined someone else would end up doing it. But everyone fell in love with his recording and that was that. All my work with Audi so far has been recording new versions of very different classic songs - but I feel with these recordings, there's a common sound developing - an organic, but manipulated, slightly otherworldly and ethereal take on the originals. Of course that could change if a film demands a particular style - but it feels like there's a family style appearing now, albeit with radically different songs and voices.

TMR: How did you go about re-recording ‘Send In The Clowns’?

DK: A few years ago I produced an album by The Guillemots, and their writer and singer Fyfe Dangerfield is an absurdly talented musician too. He and I have worked together on lots of my production projects, and I knew he would understand how to help create the orchestral parts and arrangement I wanted. This recording is a quite faithful rendition of the song, using my battered old upright piano, real cello, and lots of synthetic and organic keyboard sounds. Once I had the basis of the track recorded, I had to find the right voice for it. Everyone involved in the making of the film had lots of ideas about what kind of vocalist to try,but in the end the very first idea and recording is the one that's stuck. Lisa is a genuinely world-class vocalist, who has such a unique style, and as soon as I heard her voice singing the song, in my mind there was our answer.

LH: You’re very kind! For me, it’s always about finding the emotional impetus within the song. I always loved Judi Dench’s version best for this reason. It’s such a beautiful tune melodically that sometimes it’s tempting to overdo it, but she always keep the story at the forefront of the performance which I love. I had also recently seen a Sondheim masterclass on YouTube where he guides singers through the song and its meaning which was very helpful. I tried to keep these two things in mind before approaching the song, and then just forgot everything but the music when recording.

TMR: Were there any difficulties with reimagining such a classic track?

DK: This is such a winding and twisty song, and the lyric is so extraordinary, I didn't want to reinvent the wheel too much - if anything, I just wanted to create a beautiful and emotional backdrop to Lisa's voice. So, in fact, the toughest part was piecing together all the elements, and choosing all the keyboard sounds; working out where to make the music rise and fall. The easy bit was watching an incredible vocalist record her part - and then it was done! The tricky bit then is reassembling a full length piece of music to work perfectly with the images in the commercial - we've gone through many updates and edits to make this all fit together properly. The longest version of the film is still only 90 seconds, so there's a lot of music which doesn't make the cut. But the full length version is being made available too, which is great.

LH: I agree, the song itself is so perfect it didn’t need too much reimagining. All the tricky bits were down to David really - I just got to enjoy singing one of my favourite songs!

TMR: When did you first hear ‘Send In The Clowns’ - do you have any memories of that song, or of growing up around musicals in general?

LH: I absolutely loved musicals as a child. Again, the imagery and stories really appealed to me when I was little. Growing up in rural Ireland I didn’t have much opportunity to watch any live but I loved them on tape and on film. I think the first version of the song I heard was Frank Sinatra's - it was so intriguingly sad and blustering at the same time. I also have a vivid memory of Krusty singing the song (or some version of it) on The Simpsons and feeling like it was one of those tunes that had always existed. It was only when I heard Judi Dench sing it that I really understood where the pathos and longing were coming from.

TMR: How do you feel your version of the track matches up to the film? Is it nice to see the finished product and how it all works together?

DK: The impact a piece of music has when set to visuals always astounds me. And putting a classic song and emotional vocal against these images of course gives the film a surprise element and real power. When you work on a commercial like this, it's often a hugely complex process, and you get to see all the intermediate stages of what it'll look like. In this case we recorded the track before it had even been shot, and since then I've seen many edits and watched it being honed and sculpted into what everyone gets to see on TV. It's such a great moment when you're in the cinema and on comes the finished thing! This ad is clearly very complex - like a miniature feature film, with multiple characters and scenes, all telling a story. So it's really satisfying to witness the process and then see the final result, especially as it's been so well received in the press as well.

TMR: What’s next for you both?

DK: I've just finished making a Christmas album with another amazing vocalist - that's being announced in a few weeks, so I can't say who it's with yet. I've almost finished writing for and producing a Chinese vocalist - perhaps their equivalent of Florence Welch. She's incredible, and the tracks sound very odd, but so rhythmic and lyrically compelling. And then… I'm back working on my own Faultline material. Looking forward to having a blank page, and challenging myself again with that project.

LH: I’m also looking forward to having a blank page in front of me! After touring for the past year I’m excited about working on some new songs.

TMR: And finally - what are three emerging artists you’re really keen to shout about as the ‘next big thing’?

LH: I am obsessed with a young Irish band called Saint Sister. They make the most beautiful gothic synth pop that is also ferociously catchy, I think you would love them David! Rosie Carney also has a voice that I love. I look forward to hearing both of their debut albums. Finally, they are in no way a new band, but I’m loving the new The National record, 'Sleep Well Beast’.

-Tom Connick