Colin Lazzerini

Together with his song-writing collaborator, Pat Coleman, Colin Lazzerini is the owner of ‘Hip Pocket Music’, and two small independent specialist labels – first the decidedly jazzed ‘RoadHouse’ and later a little singer-songwriter imprint called ‘Root Cellar’.  While Colin admits he fantasized some about the idea when he was younger, like lots of other kids, he never really seriously expected to have any career in music at all  – but just sort of drifted into it.  Almost as if dreams were magnetic. Except for the occasional mistaken spotty teen-aged outing – it was actually not until he was approaching my thirtieth birthday in foreign parts that he embarked upon performance with earnest commitment and real intent.   Even then, a couple of busy decades slipped by between his first stumbling attempts at making original songs and his happy arrival at a truly satisfying level of craft confidence and the ability to deliver professional goods.

Blog Posts

Author Insights

From the Studio

Too Much Reverb

Less experienced recording engineers and music producers tend to use too much reverb and to use it inappropriately. Using reverb in the wrong way can create very muddy mixes with vocals that lack punch. You have several options to help you avoid these issues.

From the Studio

Info About Reverb

You can find out about reverb here: Reverb – Reverb, Delay and Echo – Reverb (Definition)

From the Studio

Patch Bays Multiply Your Cables!

Be aware, at a minimum, for each socket you connect via your patch bay, you will use 2 cables, where it is the default connection. You will use 3 cables if you change it from a default to make a different connection.

From the Studio

Patch Bays Save your Sockets

Before I used patch bays at home, the sockets of more than one expensive item of gear were damaged. It’s an issue that no longer happens.

From the Studio

The Three Instruments

Working musicians carry three different relationships with instruments. Mostly, we never separate them out. There are the ones you play – where you’ve played an instrument long enough that we don’t need to think of technique. There are the ones you can fake – where retakes and the forgiveness of a DAW let you get a passable part down that holds up in a mix. Live, you’d be exposed inside eight bars. Lastly, are the ones you understand well enough to write for – instruments you might never play, but you understand them, the register breaks, the voicings a player would actually choose. That last category is often underrated.

Songwriter's Notebook

On Writing Chord Progressions

I find the circle of fifths useful, but also chord_files “Progressions” and “Dark Harmony”, for both piano and guitar, are very useful. Both can help take you in quite interesting directions, by opening up your available palate, no matter where you find yourself when you go down an arrangement rabbit hole.