The 2010 NewSong contest was full of incredibly talented and dedicated artists, so it was no surprise to us to learn that the winner was someone as phenomenal as Amber Rubarth. To understand what sort of music she's writing, you need only understand what sort of person she is. She's soft spoken with a great sense of humor and genuinely cares about the people around her. She's not self-centered, but still manages to focus on the things that we all need as individuals; love, companionship, understanding, empathy, healing... To sum it all up, Amber is a wonderful person to be around and the songs she writes are a direct reflection of her.
It was announced months ago that the winner of the contest would get to work with famed producer Jacquire King (Kings of Leon, Norah Jones, Tom Waits, etc.). No one could have predicted that he would have been such a perfect match for the winner, though. Amber's simple songs were treated with a degree of integrity and honesty that we've rarely seen here at our studio.
Together, Jacquire and Amber spent the first two days demoing and tweaking her material, changing only a few words and slightly altering the structures to make them flow easier but keeping as much of the original content as possible. The third day brought some incredible musicians to begin the bulk of the actual recording. Adam Levy (Norah Jones) came in for guitar duty, Marco Giovino (Robert Plant) filled the roll of drummer, and Frank Swart (Patty Griffin) held down the bass. For a band assembled in the studio, they sounded as though they'd been playing the material together for years. Amber's voice melted into the arrangements and everything was easily paired down to around 16 tracks on the console. Watching them work was a real lesson in choosing quality over quantity and emotional response over precise playing. In the end, everyone was so jazzed about playing the material that they wound up cutting two songs more than what they had set out to do. The rough mixes already show what an organic, honest collection of songs this is going to be. Everything went so smoothly that they were able to wrap up a couple of days earlier than they'd planed.
The session was a constant atmosphere of relaxed pace, tea, flowers, and candles. It's always a blessing to us to be given the chance to work with such talented and delightfully kind individuals. All of us here at Saint Claire want to wish Amber the very best in what lies ahead and we know that her EP will be an early highlight in her career.
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