Why Location Mattered When Recording FRIDA

For FRIDA, location was not just a backdrop to the recording process - it became part of the emotional language of the album itself. 
When Fieke and I started talking about making this album we came to the conclusion that we didn’t want to hire a studio but have the freedom to incorporate the places where I had lived with and without Frida - where I had grieved her and where I had felt the love that gave me the courage and energy to make this music. Places with texture. Places with history. Places where silence already says something. Rather than recording everything in a traditional studio setting, FRIDA could benefit from being created across a collection of meaningful and emotionally resonant places.

So we recorded the first instruments in my little studio at The Basis, a place that feels like a base for my creativity and development as an artist. We also recorded vocals at Heidepol, the place where Frida is buried. I cannot put in words how special it felt to sing the first song of the album close to Frida and at a place that feels like it belongs to her.

Another place where we recorded a lot of instruments and worked on the arrangements was at Fieke’s place. This for me felt like a place a little further from home and where I could feel and listen to everything we made from a nessecary and comfortable distance. A place that felt save and open at then same time.

The rest of the lead vocals I recorded at home; a lot of times in the late evening and in dimly lit rooms of my home. Having good friends sing on the album as a women’s choir which we recorded in my livingroom gave the songs the emotional extra layer I had hoped it would get.

We also did two evenings of vocal recordings in De Kurk with a little audience. To give the performer in me the room she likes and enjoys.

There’s also a lot of silence recorded. We placed microfones at Frida’s place. The recordings of this silence are placed under the whole album.

I’m sure that these environments subtly shape the emotional experience of you as a listener.

Want to know more about the making of FRIDA? You can listen to our (dutch) conversation about how FRIDA written and recorded down here below