Over the past few months, I have been working with General Fuzz in his studio to track some violin parts for his upcoming untitled album.

This is not the first time that the Chance’s End violin has been heard on a General Fuzz track, however. A couple of years ago, I recorded violin parts for two tracks on his Soulful Filling album (Comfort Zone and Second Thoughts. It’s been a real pleasure working with him over these past years, as we have a very compatible way of working.

Usually, James will call me to let me know he has a few tracks he needs violin parts for. I’ll come over, and he’s got scores printed up ready for me to play. He doesn’t print out scores very often (he’s an electronica musician, after all), so he uses an entry-level version of Finale. The only problem is that the software won’t let him do key signatures! I find it musically humorous when I run through a piece and some of the notes are written as their enharmonic equivalents – it makes it a bit of a mystery what the phrases are actually going to sound like. 🙂

After we get a few good takes of the pre-scored melody lines he has prepared (of which there are usually multiple), he’ll give me free reign to improvise as I see fit. Sometimes the improvs just aren’t working well, but others (like in the case of Second Thoughts) turn into a major portion of the track!

So far, I think we’ve recorded 3 parts for his new album. He says he has even more planned, so we’ll see how many we end up with good violin parts for…