Louis Tomlinson’s hit album How Did I Get Here? is a showcase for the many talents of Nicolas Rebscher.
How Did I Get Here? is the third solo album by Louis Tomlinson, and Nicolas Rebscher’s credits include keyboards, guitars, bass, backing vocals, percussion and drums, as well as songwriting, engineering, mixing and production. He co‑produced five and was sole producer of seven of the 12 songs of the standard edition of the album.
Rebscher and Tomlinson had previously collaborated on the One Direction star’s second solo album Faith In The Future. That album hit number one in the UK, so when it came to album number three, the idea was to build on this success. However, whereas the 14‑track standard edition of Faith In The Future features 10 producers in total, this time around, “They were looking for one producer who is at the heart of everything, to make it more of a continuous story, so they asked me.”
House Music
By this point, several of the writers who had worked on Faith In The Future — Tomlinson himself, Theo Hutchcraft of synthpop duo Hurts, David Sneddon, Rob Harvey, Dave Gibson and Joe Cross — were already involved, along with Matthias Wang. “The team actually had already done two weeks of sessions before I joined, finding sounds and a new direction. Three songs on the album, ‘On Fire’, ‘Lucid’ and a bonus track called ‘The Observer’, came from those early sessions.”
Work on the new album took place in multiple locations, with Rebscher holding it all together. “We started in April 2024 with writing sessions at Wendyhouse Studios in Shepherd’s Bush in West London, which has a beautiful small control room. It’s close to a railway, and you can hear the sounds in some places on the record, for example on the guitars on ‘Broken Bones’. I love that vibe. When I came into the project, I decided to continue the alternative independent rock sound of the second album, and in particular of ‘Out Of My System’, which was pretty intense and bass‑riff heavy. I was like, ‘OK, let’s stay in this slightly dark vibe, with the low guitar.’ During the sessions at Wendyhouse, ‘Broken Bones’ and ‘Last Night’ were written.
Nicolas Rebscher: "During writing, I do the engineering myself. It’s all very simple. It’s not about equipment. It’s about creating a vibe."
“Writing sessions usually involved three to four people. There’s the artist, the producer and one or two topliners. I came in with my Mac M1 laptop with Cubase and UA Apollo x4 interface. I’m on Cubase, because for me it’s the perfect combination of being precise and being creative. I like how they implemented MIDI, and how you can modulate every knob. You can just drag and drop into every bit of the DAW. During writing, I do the engineering myself. It’s all very simple. It’s not about equipment. It’s about creating a vibe.
“Before doing writing sessions I tend to prepare some drum loops and synth sounds, mostly from Splice, and guitar sounds, so there’s an instant vibe. If needed, I can press a key and people go, ‘Oh, that’s a cool sound.’ With ‘Broken Bones’ I found the synth samples that open the track, and some loops for the beat. People in the room got excited and we built a song from these seeds, with Louis’ lyrics referring to him breaking his shoulder when celebrating his last number one record. I played my electric guitar parts through the DI of the Apollo. I always crank it up to 11, or whatever the maximum is, and then I take off some highs to get this really roaring guitar sound. A couple of times during the sessions I tuned the guitar an octave down to make it sound like a bass.”
Getting Away From It All
The next stop took the team to the residential Angelic Studios, an hour north‑west of London, to get away from the big city and write in a “safe space”. The same approach informed a week of writing at Peter Gabriel’s Real World Studios, for which Rebscher was not present. “One of the most important things for the album happened in Real World, with Mathi Wang writing and producing, and Theo and Jamie present. They wrote ‘Sunflowers’, ‘Lazy’ and ‘Sanity’, which are a little bit of a different to the other songs on the album. Mathi brought in this dreamy, trippy, more electronic sound. It was amazing to me and at first I was puzzled, but then I understood: ‘OK, this is a very fresh side of Louis.’ I was really happy about that, and these tracks ended up being co‑produced by Mathi and I. This merger of Mathi’s sonic vision and mine ended up influencing the whole album.
“During these UK sessions, the idea was growing in Louis’ head of being far away to really write the album. He saw the UK sessions a bit like foreplay, though several of the songs ended up on the album. But he had this vision of going somewhere exotic and warm, to create a new sound. In the end, we booked three weeks of sessions in May 2025 in elstudio in Santa Teresa, on the west coast of Costa Rica. It’s an amazing place, with views of the ocean and the jungle, an ocean bathtub, swimming pool, and cool areas to hang out, and so on. It was rainy season, and we had thunderstorms every night, with the power sometimes going, but we had beautiful sunshine during the days.
“The studio has a very well‑equipped recording room and a cool control room, and people were writing there. We wanted to have the choice of the professional setup in elstudio and a more homely, chill environment, so I also set up in a huge, 80 square metre room in the studio’s residential villa. I brought my Mac M1 and an Apollo Twin X interface and from elstudio a pair of Mackie HR824 monitors and a guitar and a small synthesizer. The Mackie monitors have a low‑mid bump, and the villa room tons of reverb, so no way could we do a professional recording there, but it was interesting how the different rooms affected the writing and the production styles. When I listened back later in my Berlin studio, I noticed that I had subconsciously gone for different sounds and frequencies in the villa than in the studio.
“The song ‘Imposter’ was written in the villa. I had cranked up the volume, so the low‑mid bump of the Mackies and the space inspired this reverb‑y and big‑sounding bass line. I also noticed afterwards that I had placed the bass slightly higher than I would normally do. I also managed to sneak in some spicy chords into the arrangement, with harmonies you would not normally have in a pop song. This of course goes back to my jazz education in Maastricht, where I learned about harmony and did a lot of ear training, which helps me hear how harmonies and melodies interact. Improvising on the saxophone also helped me with writing melody lines.”
Both Directions
In addition to ‘Imposter’, tracks like ‘Dark To Light’, ‘Jumped The Gun’ and ‘Lemonade’ were also written in Costa Rica. “‘Lemonade’ was written in the first couple of days, and it combines both the earlier and newer directions of Louis. It has the big indie guitar riff and the synth‑based things. That song gave us a creative direction and it became the template for the album. At elstudio we recorded the instruments for the demos, and also Louis’ vocals. Normally I’m not obsessive about microphones and happy to use whatever is in the studio. But in this case we tried out the many microphones they have at elstudio, and we found that the Neumann U87 works really well on Louis.
“Later on we re‑recorded some of his vocals in Los Angeles at Nightbird Recording Studios. I wasn’t there in person, but insisted that they again used a U87. The chain included a [Universal Audio] 1176 going into a [Teletronix] LA‑2A, to take off rough edges, and I asked them to use compression gently. By contrast, the many gang vocals on the album were always recorded during the writing sessions with the writing team. We go into the writing room and just sing, sometimes with the sound blasting from the monitors. Not everyone’s on cans, because I don’t want to kill the vibe. We tend to be two metres away from the mic, so I capture a lot of room sound. I then distort the mids with the Cableguys ShaperBox and add Antares Vocal Verb, and the end result is a very midrange sound with lots of presence and room sound. I pan these vocals wide so they do not get in the way of Louis’ vocal.”
Feel Factor
With the writing phase of the project complete, Rebscher opted to replace and overdub many of Tomlinson’s vocals, as well as drums, bass and guitars. The latter were recorded at the Kinks’ Konk Studio in London, with drummer Jamie Houghton, bassist Alexander Grube and guitarist Michael Blackwell.
“Konk has an amazing drum room. I’ve always wanted to record there. We had four days to do all 14 songs, so it was mental. They played live together in the studio most of the time, which is why you can hear some drums on some of the guitar parts sometimes. We sometimes overdubbed guitars or a bass if we felt it could be improved. I wanted to bring the energy and feel of live musicians, but I’d say that 50 percent of the guitars and some of the basses remained from the writing sessions, mostly played by me, but also some of the writers. In a few songs there are two basses, which is the first time I double‑tracked bass, but I loved it. When I tried muting one, it didn’t fill the space any more, and when I muted the other, it was the same thing, so I left in both.”
All the recorded material was collected in [Steinberg] Cubase sessions on Rebscher’s Mac laptop, in a surprisingly casual fashion. “I never take any notes. I guess I have a very good memory for those things. Most of the time during the recordings I already choose and comp the takes, apart from maybe tiny bits that I can’t be bothered to edit at that point.”
Rebscher then embarked on an extensive post‑production phase at his room in Funkhaus in Berlin. “Writing is very open and anything can happen. Then it was finishing, replacing, overdubbing. I double‑checked everything we recorded. I must have had over 100GB of sound files, because there were like four or five takes of each part that was played or sung. Louis is more interested in the creative process, and not in choosing takes, so I did the post‑production on my own and sent things to him and the team when I was happy with something, asking for feedback.
Nicola Rebscher: "Louis is more interested in the creative process, and not in choosing takes, so I did the post‑production on my own and sent things to him and the team when I was happy with something, asking for feedback."
“A lot of time was taken up by deciding whether my, or Mathi’s, guitar lines sounded better than those recorded in Konk by Michael. The same with the bass parts, and the live drums versus the programmed drums. The demo recordings often had a beautiful vibe and groove. And sometimes another producer, like Mathi, had added things and I tried to replace it or added to it changed the vibe too much. There were songs for which it took me 10 days to decide which parts to use, and just like with the doubled bass lines, I kept the two guitar solos at the end of ‘Jump The Gun’ because two sounded better than one.”
“I overdubbed synthesizers, for example often using a Yamaha CS‑60, and the Moog Voyager for some of the basses. Mathi introduced me to the [Critter & Gitarri] Organelle, which is a fun box to put your guitar or any other sound in and treat it. I also used loads of Roland Juno‑60. Plus, of course, tons of soft synths, like Xfer’s Serum, or the Native Instruments FM8. I also added some string arrangements, working with Tobie Tripp, a string arranger and violinist, who played everything, recorded himself, and sent it over to me and I picked and chose the best takes. I also recorded some more backing vocals, for example the huge choir on ‘Lucid’. There’s a large corridor outside my room in Funkhaus with a long reverb, and I recorded the choir there, using my Sontronics Apollo 2 stereo ribbon mic, which I adore.”
Rebscher’s own room is based around a vintage Neumann N20 console. His hybrid setup includes some unusual outboard processors like Washburn WD‑1400 and Yamaha E1010 delays, as well as an EMT 240 gold plate reverb. His monitors are ATC SMC Pro and Dutch & Dutch 8C. “The N20 is from the 1990s. It’s 16 channels with beautiful preamps and wonderful compressors and EQ. The outboard are things I collected over the years. I got the Washburn and the Yamaha when I was still in high school. I don’t know why, I just love these little things. I used the ATCs when working on Louis’ record, because my Dutch & Dutch monitors were broken. But I love my Dutch & Dutch, they’re digitally EQ’ed to my room, which has a lot of bass problems. For half the time I worked at my home on Louis’ album, using the Slate Digital VSX headphones. Sometimes I put things on a boombox and just played things loud, while my kids dance to it.”
Nicolas Rebscher: For half the time I worked at my home on Louis’ album, using the Slate Digital VSX headphones.
Shape Shifting
How Did I Get Here? was mixed by Dan Grech‑Marguerat and Charles Haydon Hicks, but not before Rebscher had introduced some fairly complex processing. “Automation is one of my most important tools. It makes the digital world come alive and you can use it to make things feel human again. I do loads of that in all of my productions. As for plug‑ins, ShaperBox is one of my favourites, both during production and mixing. It is very creative. I use lot of ShaperBox distortion on busses. On ‘Fire’ I added flanging on the entire instrument bus, which you can hear in the breakdown section. I also sometimes sent the vocals out to guitar amps, to get weird distortion and chorus and flanging effects. I bring them back in as a parallel, so I can blend these treated vocals in and out as I want.
“Of course I love the the FabFilter stuff, particularly their EQ and the Pro‑C 2 compressor, which I use for side‑chaining, because you can set the algorithm to ‘clean’ or ‘punch’. I side‑chained everything on Louis’ record, not only the bass, to make it sound very modern, like EDM. This cleans up the mix a lot and gives the kick a lot of space. On bass I love using the Pro‑C 2, again for side‑chaining, and the Unfiltered Audio Bass‑Mint, which is a bass enhancer plug‑in. For guitars, I use loads of the AmpliTube ToneX stuff and the Native Instruments Guitar Rig 7, even though many guitars were recorded using real amps. For compressors, I’m old‑school with an UAD 1176 going through a UAD LA‑2A, and then I have this amazing plug‑in from IK Multimedia on the vocals. It’s called the Joe Chicarelli Vocal Strip, and it is insanely cool. It adds such an instant vibe. It has parallel compression implemented. It has beautiful reverb and echo. It has nice and easy controls. I put it on everything. When I throw it on it instantly sounds great. I used it on Louis’ vocal, as well as the Quiet Art WaveRider volume automation plug‑in. I also use that all the time. I can’t be bothered to do it all by hand. For reverb, I often use the UAD AMS RMX 16, and also the Valhalla Vintage and Room.
“I also always use the iZotope Ozone AI on the master bus. After 10 hours of working on a session, I let it do its thing and then balance it a little bit if I don’t like it. But it gives me a little perspective of an outside person.”
YouTube playlist for 'How Did I Get Here?'
Nicolas Rebscher
Nicolas Rebscher grew up in the Black Forest, in south‑western Germany, and studied jazz at a conservatoire in the Dutch town of Maastricht before deciding that his future lay in production rather than performance. In 2011, Rebscher moved to Berlin and signed a publishing deal with BuddeMusic, and eventually enjoyed his first hit with Aurora’s song ‘Running With The Wolves’ in 2015.
Rebscher set up a studio in the Funkhaus studio complex [watch the SOS video tour], once a radio broadcasting and propaganda facility for the East German government, but now one of Berlin’s main cultural centres. “It has many world‑class rooms, with a floating concert hall and so on. It’s a huge building, and there are maybe 60 to 70 studios where producers and writers work. I started here in 2012 in a room on the first floor, which was very professional, with extensive acoustic treatment. I then went to the third floor, and I am now in the fifth floor, where my current room is more like a creative living room space, full of good recording equipment and many of my musical instruments. It doesn’t feel like a studio. It’s very cosy, which is why artists love it.”
The door to working with Louis Tomlinson opened thanks to Rebscher’s success with German‑Canadian artist Alice Merton, for whom he produced the 2016 smash hit ‘No Roots’. “Because ‘No Roots’ got so big in America, BuddeMusic arranged for me to spend two months in LA, writing and producing. Felix Howard was A&R at Budde, and in 2020 he moved to BMG, where he looked after Louis. He remembered me, and suggested I work with Louis. I didn’t know who Louis was, actually, but I trusted Felix. The idea was for Louis and I to make some indie alternative music, like I had done in Germany. It was great. We discovered we had the same taste in music. I came up with a bass riff, and we wrote a song called ‘Out Of My System’.
“The reason I play all these instruments came from my production of ‘No Roots.’ I was playing a little bit of bass on the demo for that track and thought, ‘I’ll later get a professional bass player in to play it properly.’ I had found this great bass line, and five or six top bass players came in to replace my part, but it never sounded right. I didn’t understand that what I had done was good enough. So my bass playing ended up on the final release, which became a huge success everywhere in the world. That was a big lesson for me. You can do things in your own way and you don’t have to care about techniques and stuff. That’s why I started to play other instruments on my productions as well.
“Since then, my process, normally, is that I program drums and play several instruments to get a basic feel, and then I record with a real drummer, if the budget allows it. I always try to get the budget for that. After that I go back and put electronics on top of the analogue playing. I take the feel of the drummer and trigger the electronics with it. It’s always very cool for me to mix those things together.”