Making Worlds For Their Memories - TS Autopilot
During the first Trans Creative Collective social in early February, the organisers held an audio workshop hosted by four industry professionals. During this session they would be reviewing music submitted by six artists, some of which were in the room. As the engineer pressed play on the first song, I locked eyes with a friend and mouthed one word: ‘Wow.’ That artist is TS Autopilot.
TS Autopilot. Make-Up Artist: Kiloh Falby Clark. Image Credit: Sahalya Parry.
TS Autopilot is the name chosen by musician, engineer and producer Anna-Clare Chappell. Anna has previously studied with the Abbey Road Institute and is currently an intern with Miloco Studios in London. They began studying piano at the age of seven and was a part of her school orchestra playing clarinet. Though they weren’t the most committed member, it was a vital part of her musical journey:
‘I think being around classical music, having a seat in the orchestra and feeling the music around me, I really enjoyed that sensation. I’m a very sensory person I think.’
With a friend assuring their talent as a singer, Anna began taking lessons with jazz vocalist Emilia Mårtensson from the age of fourteen. During their time at university, Anna started learning to compose on guitar and though she was in a band performing samba music, it wasn’t the kind of music they wanted to make.
The sound of TS Autopilot is influenced by the works of composer Hans Zimmer, Jeff Buckley and Pink Floyd. Anna also takes great inspiration from Hope Sandoval’s work with Massive Attack and Mazzy Star, plus The Lord Of The Rings scores by Howard Shore and John Barry’s James Bond work.
With their music, Anna has said they make worlds for their memories, ‘I spent a lot of my childhood in pretend worlds and I like music where you feel in different places at one time.’ This new artistic chapter has evolved over several years, but begins in earnest with the release of their single, ‘Want To Stay’.
‘I am burning on a lake of flames, I am hurting, I don’t feel the same. Do you hear me cry your name to carry me from this place? Make me willing, cos I don’t feel okay.’
The mood in ‘Want To Stay’ is immediately set with a modest introduction of drums, bass, piano and a swirling of electronica. The drum sound is open and natural, with steady playing from Max Reece, who also co-engineered the track. The bass guitar performance from Marko Mihaljević dances around TS Autopilot’s piano playing, which was recorded at Abbey Road. As well as mixing and producing the track, Autopilot co-engineers Want To Stay with Daniela Sicilia and Gal Tevet, wrapped up in mastering by Jasper Ward.
‘Do you hear me cry your name? Cos you can take it all away. If I let you hold my pain, can I hold my dreams today?’
But the real star here is TS’ writing and vocal performance. Their vocal delivery is hypnotising, and was the main subject of discussion during the TCC’s dissection of the piece. The way the words are woven through the melody are alluring, helped by Autopilot’s production prowess with interstellar reverb expanding the words, making them larger than life.
Their addition of string programming goes hand in hand with their vocal, as if one is chasing the other, violin and viola stabs arriving out from the shadows of their wall of sound birthplace. The breakdown sees Autopilot’s piano cascading down a hill, followed by twinkling percussion, ‘Hold me, love me…’ As Max Reece builds his drums up to the end, sticking to the toms and avoiding the snare, TS creates tension in their string arrangement over the final verse:
‘Hold me to the ground, oh there’s love and then there’s shame. Love me in your arms, you help me Want To Stay. You help me Want To Stay.’
‘I can hear you and your friends Outside, you’re calling, asking to come upstairs but it is four in the morning. I don’t care if I’m staying at yours, if it’s raining it’s pouring - you’ll stay Outside.’
Released in early March, TS Autopilot co-wrote and featured on French speaking artist Stan.Doe’s single ‘Outside’. With Stan at the production helm, the track is co-produced by Autopilot who also contributes additional arrangement ideas with Morten Bergholt.
The music here is more electronic, driven by programmed drums, bass and pad keyboard, but isn’t exempt from more natural elements such as piano, strings and vocal harmonies. Stan.Doe sings in both French and English, occasionally utilising auto-tune as an artistic tool to give his delivery a different flavour.
And while Autopilot’s opening verse is more reminiscent of their own music, their vocal soon becomes assertive and dominant, showing a different side to their artistry. An exciting production moment happens early on, with Autopilot accompanying themselves on backing vocals. Their lead vocal is, ‘this conversation’s over’, while the backing repeats the word ‘over’, over and over, going from left to right and then centre.
Between the two artists, they tell a story of two perspectives, an argument where Autopilot’s character shuts out Stan.Doe’s, both venting their frustration across the track. Stan.Doe’s self-produced music video helpfully translates his side of the story both lyrically and visually, but the viewer is left wondering, how would a video from TS’ point of view look?
‘I never want to be wrong, I never want to be afraid, I never knew you could change your mind from day to day. Without resentment I feel strange.’
TS Autopilot’s latest single, ‘Until Today’ has more of a jazz influence than their debut and is partly inspired by Massive Attack’s ‘Paradise Circus’ and ‘Beneath The Southern Cross’ by Patti Smith. Autopilot’s personal favourite element of Until Today is the bass guitar arrangement she wrote, performed again by Marko Mihaljević.
This track was largely recorded at Abbey Road through a custom Neve 32 channel desk, with drums by Tom Alford, co-engineering from Max Reece and vocal engineering by Daniela Sicilia. TS explains their approach to recording her vocals, where their preference is a Neumann U87 microphone:
‘I tend to record things as full takes and then pick what I like rather than go section by section.’
This method allows an important continuation in emotional execution of the track. Whereby a piecemeal way of working would break up the momentum, Autopilot leaves the integrity of the lyric intact. With time in the studio limited, TS continued composing and recording vocal parts at home, where they also added guitar, the instrument on which this song was originally conceived. Instead of mixing Until Today themselves, TS sent the track to mix engineer Carlos Bricio to complete the process, with uniformity held by Jasper Ward’s mastering.
‘I would never show my face, I didn’t know how to be honest, Until Today.’
TS Autopilot’s vocal control on Until Today is simply superb, elevating notes, holding them with ease and without strain. This reaches a peak with layered operatic parts in addition to their lead, soaring and floating above the band. During the chorus, their voice is backed up with additional brass and string arrangements, combining their various influences to make Until Today a monumental track. With such colossal writing, producing and vocal talent, TS Autopilot should be recording and performing with orchestras in sold-out theatres.
TS Autopilot. Make-Up Artist: Kiloh Falby Clark. Image Credit: Sahalya Parry.
Despite being the second song to be released by this artist, Until Today is actually the sixth song they began writing in this series of music. Autopilot’s plan is to continue putting out a new song every six weeks to two months, amounting to an album of music upon completion. Some of this music was recently debuted live in TS Autopilot’s first performance at The Amersham Arms in New Cross, London for live promoter Queer Off. The ensemble for this set included both Max Reece on drums and Daniela Sicilia on keyboards as well as Paolo Violi on bass and Kyle DM on guitar. As far as describing the sound of their music, TS Autopilot had this to say:
‘I liked that it is big, I like that I feel held in those admissions by the instrumentation, and these sounds, I don’t think they come from me, per se. I think that I just happen to be receiving them and able to gratefully put them down on paper. So, whatever it is and whatever that is, that’s my understanding of it. But, yeah, it’s not for me to describe it for anyone else, so take what they like and leave the rest.’
Continue reading for our Q&A with TS Autopilot. Anna discusses the singles presented here, plus the origins of their artist name, their intern experiences and creation of the artwork for these tracks. All this and more below!
TS Autopilot. Make-Up Artist: Kiloh Falby Clark. Image Credit: Sahalya Parry.
1. Your latest single 'Until Today' has a big sound with a band and beautiful string and brass arrangements. How did this piece start out? How different is the original demo from the released version?
Thank you! It started as an acoustic guitar and vocal melody. After having added drums, the demo initially was very long with none of the orchestral parts. I started adding organs and lil riffs that push the song forwards, and then the brass and string call and response part coming together was a big breakthrough! On the released version 4 mins 25 secs in, there’s a big vocal moment with lots of opera ish backing vocals - I added those on the day I sent the song for mixing! It was missing something and I got really excited after having added those, it made the song feel ready.
2. I wouldn't usually ask about an artist's name, but where did TS Autopilot come from?
Aha well Autopilot came from my singing teacher who’d say I was on autopilot when she saw me zone out in a lesson, she’s known me since I was 14 and it stuck and was a reminder of what I didn’t want to do when singing cos I do dissociate a lot! I think I was being pretty self critical when I picked that name but it came full circle when I recently read something really beautiful about autopilot. On a plane, the autopilot setting doesn’t lock onto one course and cruise along, it’s on course 5-10% of the time and 90-95% of the time its correcting its deviation. I think it’s beautiful the idea of constantly making adjustments and not expecting to be perfectly on course, welcoming mistakes, change, and being human, so that’s what autopilot means to me now. The TS part started out as something else too but now by coincidence it means something very special to me which I keep a secret!
3. Part of your vocal training comes from Emilia Mårtensson, what's been the most challenging part of receiving singing lessons from Emilia?
Oo I think it’s the mental barriers to letting go when I’m singing that are hardest, just believing in myself and being present in my voice. Emilia is an incredible viking queen, she helps me move sound around and find lots of different pockets to open up/use my voice in incredible ways I didn’t imagine were there and doing that, I need to stay focused but also relaxed and effortless at the same time. It feels the closest to learning magic like the dragon books I read aha. We’ll find a placement where I am really in my body and it can bring a lot of vulnerability, and I’ll want to cry because when I sing from there it is a very honest pure place and allowing that is hard but a beautiful moment in our lessons. I really feel it when I haven’t seen Emilia in a while, our lessons are a weekly necessity <3
4. Your debut single, 'Want To Stay' was in the pipeline for some time before you decided to fully flesh the idea out. What changed to make you work on the idea again after so long?
It was the vocal line idea I got so excited about coming up with when I was riding my bike a few years ago and the first time I made something sorta rocky sounding at the time. I ignored it because I put pressure on myself for it to be amazing and also I think at the time I didn’t find making accompanying chords easy! I used to write on my laptop without a keyboard. Then I revisited it while I was studying because a technician and great friend Bricio was like “Anna you are first and foremost a keys player, hook up your midi keyboard to your computer you won’t regret it!”. I am so grateful I listened cos then my song writing had a breakthrough. I wrote chords in logic and then can shift the notes around and not get worried I’ll forget it or not play the whole phrase right.
Every song is different but, want to stay I mapped out the chords for the original melody and then got excited and led away to different melodies and the song changed a lot! I finished Want to stay and 8 or so other songs got fleshed out around that time, I actually started finishing my ideas from then! I also was more comfortable doing things I enjoyed and able to hack having pressure on myself but still writing. The melody changing a lot for that song is unexpected and funny to me considering I thought it was so perfect initially and now it’s perfect for being able to change from that to what it was meant to be.
5. 'Want To Stay' was reviewed live by the TCC audio panel during their first social, how did you find receiving their feedback in person? What did you like most about the TCC social?
I felt safe and seen and more happy and comfortable in my body during that day, it was very special and I made new friends. Getting feedback in person I felt a bit shy and nervous, how much eye contact should I give while hearing it haha, but also very happy and enjoying feeling a bit sparkly, like the song was being celebrated and people I hadn’t met were hearing it for the first time and liking it. It’s good for me to practice getting constructive feedback in a safe place too - like it’s not rejection if it’s not all amazing, that’s my first thought sometimes to have SHAME - Should Have Already Mastered Everything – It’s good for me to practice that with others.
6. You've created the artworks for these singles yourself which are different styles from each other. Were the pieces directly inspired by the songs themselves?
Oo yes that’s true I have been thinking about how to link the cover art if I wanted but no they weren’t directly from the songs! Want To Stay Cover Art was an etching plate I did around the time that I wrote the song, I never pressed it, I just liked scratching on the metal aha but it felt right to use and it has cute animals and houses on the ends of the reeds next to the person (me) curled up by them. It felt like it was about finding home and being held and the song to me is about that too.
Until Today is a painting I made in the room I first wrote Until Today and both song and art feel about growing. I imagine having a little flower growing in me that I have to shelter and look after. The better I grow my own flower, the better I can share flowers with other people without it taking from my own. Animals have always been my silent keepers and spiritual guides, I really trust them and they teach me a lot. My cat and dog and horses in the painting are like a little flower growing angels. I don’t have horses but I grew up seeing them a lot in Kerry especially and I felt very beautiful presences around them and the person I knew who kept them.
7. In terms of your producing journey, you previously studied with the Abbey Road Institute - what did you take away from your time there?
It gave me great structure, deadlines, and learning Pro Tools there helped a lot with how I like to work now. I like writing the piano and vocals in logic then moving to Pro Tools once the vocals are tracked and adding my orchestration/synths, bass etc. in there and mixing in there too if I’m mixing!
8. You've also been doing an internship with Miloco Studios, what does a typical day look like in that environment?
Oo yes I get in at 10, I start off cleaning, doing bits about the kitchen and then if any studios are free I can go practice in them or I’ll be making teas and coffees for people coming in, or assistant engineers will let me help with their set ups. There’s a lot of great people to talk to, my favourite days are when an engineer/assistant needs a hand and then they get me learning things on the spot.
9. In addition to your own music, you've featured on Stan.Doe's track 'Outside' too, how did you become involved in the writing and performing of this song?
We were studying together and he heard something I wrote for someone else’s track, he sent me the beat and arrangement he had down and I sent him the hook bit and he liked it! We started writing together from there.
10. You played a gig at The Amersham Arms recently for Queer Off, what was that experience like? Are there more gigs in the pipeline?
Yes it is beyond my wildest dreams for that to happen! It was a special night, having a full band was very cool and the rehearsals before with the others too. Yes more gigs / open mics for the foreseeable, none confirmed yet but probably I’ll be with backing tracks and then a keys player to save the costs and show the cinematic stuff more!
11. You have an album's worth of songs which you plan to release gradually over the next year, what can you tell us about what's to come? Can fans expect these to be released as a collection eventually?
Oo there will definitely be a collection of work at some point, who knows which songs will be in that, I’ve been writing others! Until then, releasing a song every two months is working well and I think the songs to come get more personal to me, there’s a couple genre experiments too.
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The music of TS Autopilot is available to download and stream in all the usual places.
Follow TS Autopilot on Instagram and Facebook @tsautopilot.
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