lifeblood: songs: backgrounds: crying in the wilderness

2012-03-01: amy ray digs deep into the lung of love, glide magazine:

with someone like brandi, i've worked with her so much that if i've written a song and i want to sing her on it, once we're done with the rhythm tracks and such, i'm already working out in my mind what the vocal arrangement will be. i usually go to garageband and put in a rough mix of what we have already, and then i add the harmonies in with my own voice, just to see all things work. i know brandi's range, so i can kind of work out what's going to sound good coming from her.

so on a song like "bird in the hand," i'll go in with an idea of the vocal map, and i'll go to brandi and say, "this is what i have in mind, but do your own thing too and let's see what works." for the song "i didn't," though, i didn't know what notes i wanted her to sing on that at all. i just wanted her to interpret that any way that felt right to her, and felt honest to the song. i had written the background "answers" in the chorus, but in terms of the other stuff she did on the track, i had no idea how to make that work and she just came in and sang that from off the top of her head. with brandi, also, it's kind of like she can sing with anything and it's going to sound good and fleshed out. (laughs) she's got an amazing range and depth, and can just really get into the world of a song like that.

but on "crying in the wilderness," for example, i used a group called a fragile tomorrow, and those boys have a really specific way of singing harmony. so when i wrote that song, i immediately could hear their voices and i knew exactly what i wanted them to do.

it's really like having an instrument to me. vocals are just like a guitar, or bass, or whatever- sometimes you play around with arrangements and lines to see what works, and other times you know exactly how you want it to come out.