Wells (aka Alastair Cairns) has been a friend of Enmore Audio for the best part of a decade. Alastair is a singer-songwriting from Surry Hills whose sound ranges from solo, Americana-tinged folk to spacious and atmospheric rock. Al’s track record reflects an open and adventurous approach to sonic experimentation and he wanted to break new ground with his take on Lana Del Rey’s Born to Die.

Our friend Alastair Cairns (aka Wells) spent some time at Enmore Audio recording a haunting, atmospheric cover of Lana Del Ray’s Born To Die. Here’s how the sessions went down.

We wanted to take an uncluttered approach to building the sounds for this production. The harmony is simple, the chords move slowly, so it allowed for experimentation with reverb tails and delays. We tuned the acoustic guitar to the open chords in the pieces, so the guitar has a broken-down sound, with open strings rattling throughout.

The guitar also doubled as a percussion instrument. We hit the sound board with a soft mallet and let the strings ring out. Coupling it with the simple piano countermelody, and ably assisted with a liberal dose of reverb, the haunting atmosphere of the original was evoked.

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Al embraced the Electrovoice RE20 in this project. The song is a little “croony” in comparison to his original material and we thought the RE20 smooth, broadcast appeal would be the ideal match for this track. The chain was rounded off by the Universal Audio 6176.

Wells is a regular fixture at Enmore Audio. We love Al’s approach to experimentation in the studio and this cover marks a step in his growth as a producer.

Check out the original below:

Check out more from Wells and Monday Records here.

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