My String Arrangements on the new Susanna Hoffs Album!
Creating String Arrangements for Susanna Hoffs' Album The Deep End
Published: March 14, 2023I had the privilege of writing 10 string arrangements for The Bangles’ Susanna Hoffs’ new album, The Deep End (release date: April 7, 2023). Produced by Peter Asher, with whom I have worked in various capacities for over 15 years, the album features the playing of some really incredible session players (and members of The Immediate Family) including Lee Sklar, Russ Kunkel and Waddy Wachtel. Besides these great session players, a number of very cool guest artists (whose names I cannot yet reveal!) appear on the album.
I created the string arrangements for The Deep End album back in the winter of 2021. After a normal amount of back-and-forth with Peter Asher tweaking the arrangements a bit, the strings were recorded at The Village Studios in Los Angeles. Since I was not able to be there for the sessions, I listened in late at night on Zoom from my studio here in Graz, Austria. In addition to creating string arrangements, I later recorded a few drum and percussion overdubs.
Here is a little excerpt from one of my scores for Susanna Hoff’s cover of the Rolling Stones’ “Under My Thumb”.
This project first materialized back in the summer of 2021, when Peter asked me if I might be able to write a couple of string arrangements for Ms. Hoffs’ 4th of July Special performance on CNN of the Bangles’ hit songs: “Eternal Flame” and “Manic Monday”. Since both of these songs already had pretty iconic synth-string arrangements in their original versions, coming up with something new yet still paying homage to the original arrangements proved to be a bigger challenge than I had thought.
Now, back to the new album. Here are a few nerdy fun facts:
I arrange with a score, not with a sequencer.
When arranging strings / horns etc. to go on top of an existing recording, I meticulously transcribe the lead vocal into the score to help me hear and see how my arrangement might interact with it.
My go-to scoring app is Dorico.
My go-to DAW is Reaper.
The other string arrangements on the album were done by Matthew Sheeran–an extremely talented arranger and super nice guy (yes, he’s also Ed Sheeran’s brother!).
Enjoy Susanna Hoff’s version of the Rolling Stones’ “Under My Thumb” from the her album (video below)!