Background

Fat is an as-yet-unfinished studio collaboration between Adam Milburn and Philip Brophy. Having been an admirer of Adam's hi-tech hyper-melodic compu-pop of Askii & Mink Engine (Adam's duo with visual artist Holly-Anne Buck), Philip approached Adam to compose some tracks in the studio. The project is unfinished: sadly, Adam passed away in 2022. Rest In Synths, Adam. Both Adam and Holly appear in Northern Void, and they contributed a scored animation to the Descore project.

Credits

Drums, synthesizers & keyboards - Philip Brophy
Synthesizers & keyboards - Adam Milburn

2011

Recording sessions - Gelatin, Melbourne

Overview

The Fat collaboration builds on Adam and Philip's shared interest in 80s aerobic VHS scores, all John Hughes movies, 70s Italo Disco, and American FM over-produced classic teen rock. The idea was to compose some melodic sparkling tracks - to orchestrate some synth pop that sounded plastic, hormonal, triumphant, and glistening.

Technical

For each track, Adam first brought in some chord ideas. Philip and Adam jammed with the chord sequences - Adam playing his Arp Quartet and Philip playing a drum kit. A day was spent on each track, slowly building up the intro/verse/chorus/outro parts of each track, and rehearsing them as played-live uninterrupted tracks. With the basic shape of the tracks composed, a recording was made of the live performance of keyboard and drum kit (playing to a click track). The idea was to stay completely away from computer tracking in the composition of the songs.

These live recordings were then taken away by Adam, who worked on embellishing sections with counter harmonies. He brought the sections back into the studio, and multi-tracked more parts using his other synthesizers. Philip did the same, adding some other parts using his synths. These non-quantized multi-tracks were then effected and mixed. With Philip based in Melbourne and Adam based in London, they await crossing paths to continue the project.