Released 10 May 2016, Last Updated 21 Mar 2022
With dust swirling through the daylight flood inside Philadelphia’s Miner Street studio, it becomes evident quickly that Volume 7, Ep. 1 of Weathervane Music’s Shaking Through new-artist series bottles some magic from Hemming (the musical identity of Candice Martello).
The new episode, now up on Weathervane’s site (and below), has two narratives running concurrently. The first is a personal history detailing Hemming’s unusual journey to here. Martello is a Philly native and, in 2014, as a member of punk band Omar she competed in VH1’s Make Or Break With Linda Perry, courting controversy when Perry insisted Martello compete on her own, using her own folkier material rather than Omar’s punk. She went on to win and record the debut album (Hemming), released last year on Perry’s Custard label. 'All I Want' is her first release since 2015.
“The weird VH1 reality TV thing – I didn’t really seek it out, it just kind of threw me into a rally nerve-racking, terrifying situation which I just kind of did,” Martello reveals with a wry laugh.
But Vol. 7 Ep. 1 also provides an incisive look at the production process: from arranging the singer/songwriter’s song for a newly assembled outfit (of talented muso friends), finding the right dynamic flow, microphones and effects principles, and ‘herding the cats’ of a group of creative souls into a tasty whole.
The result, single ‘All I Want’ (which you can download for free here)lands in an intriguing landscape between folk, indie, pop and cinematic noise.
It’s the first time RØDE has sponsored the series. It’s part of a push by Weathervane in this year’s season to use gear that, says producer Brian McTear, “Many of our members have access to. Those NTRs are great ribbons. We especially liked it on drums – toms... my God!” he later enthused to RØDE.
“RØDE equipped us with all of the mics we used for this session,” engineer Matt Poirier says in the ep. “Probably the most difficult thing was deciding which mics to use on the drums. Sometimes with microphones inside kick drums, they’ll start to break down, sound-wise, and you won’t always have good tone. The Procaster had no issues at all on the kick drum. It was really awesome.”
Hemming
Candice Martello Vocals, guitar
with
Allegra Anka (Cayetana) Bass
Pat Brier (Three Man Cannon) Drums
Augusta Koch (Cayetana) Vocals
Matt Schimelfenig (Three Man Cannon) Guitar
Hemmingmusic.com
‘All I Want’
Brian McTear Producer
Matt Poirier Engineer