Inside Track: Loyle Carner 'hopefully!'

Aviram Barath: “Technology is often used to mitigate risk and to try and make things perfect. This creates situations where everything is fully homogenised and we lose individual expression and restrict human creativity."Photo: Morgan Sinclair

Aviram Barath’s musical direction inspired rapper Loyle Carner to work with a live band for his hit album hopefully!

“There are many ways in which technology can facilitate human expression,” says Aviram Barath. “We just need to find more ways that open doors for human creativity. Instead, technology is often used to mitigate risk and to try and make things perfect. This creates situations where everything is fully homogenised and we lose individual expression and restrict human creativity. The challenge is to tame technology, to use it in a way where we don’t become slaves to it.”

Loyle Carner’s fourth album hopefully! was co‑produced by Aviram Barath.A large part of Barath’s job consists of supporting artists and musicians in maintaining their freedom of human expression, and helping them learn how to avoid control freakery. Barath has been doing this behind the scenes as a musical director for a number of years, but recently stepped into the limelight as the executive producer and one of the main songwriters on Loyle Carner’s third album hopefully!, and also while directing and performing with him on stage at Glastonbury this year.

Loose Directions

A multi‑instrumentalist who started out playing trumpet in orchestras, Barath graduated from Goldsmiths College in London in 2015 with a degree in Popular Music. Not long afterwards, he joined the live band of singer/songwriter Rae Morris, who asked him to become musical director for her live shows. While Barath always had a parallel practice working in studios as a songwriter and producer, his initial recognition and success came as a musical director for live performances.

“Electronic sound walls and technologies have become a big part of recorded music, and there is this tension as to how we carry the sonic identity of recorded music into a live performance. One danger is to lose some of that sonic identity, the other is to be so dependent on technology that it doesn’t really feel like a performance, because musicians are working with rigid elements that don’t allow for free expression in the moment. The art of balancing these two is at the core of my musical direction practice. How to maintain the vision that the artists have created for a record, and yet make sure that the technology is in a supportive role on stage, rather than becoming a hindrance. There are various ways to do this, and over the years I was lucky enough for artists to ask me help them achieve that for their shows.”

Barath’s credits as musical director include Jai Paul, Pa Salieu, Girl In Red, Arlo Parks, Glass Animals, Obongjayar, Rachel Chinouriri, Lola Young and Loyle Carner. Unlike many musical directors, he often does not tour with the artists any more, other than currently with Jai Paul and Loyle Carner. In the latter case, Barath’s musical direction ended up informing much of how hopefully! came into being.

World Building

“Usually I spend around two or three weeks creating a show,” explains Barath. “This could involve anything to do with arrangements and the use of technology, creating sounds and patches, and building a few alternative set list options. Many times, we leave room for decisions to be made during the performances. For instance, there may be songs with an open‑ended outro, and it’s undecided exactly how to get to the next song. The keyboard player or guitarist or someone else can improvise a transition. I try to help musicians create moments that are unique to each show. I want them to go on stage every time disregarding the fact that this is the 100th time they’re playing this show.

“I’m aware that having moments where you don’t know exactly what you’re going to do, in an arena in front of tens of thousands of people, sounds risky. But when something is purely safe, we run the risk of it not communicating emotionally. For example, many performers depend on in‑ear monitors. The initial technical idea was that they make it easier to hear things and to control anything that risks feedbacking. But because they are there, it’s also very convenient to add in what are called ‘cues’. In a lot of shows, you have a voice in the musicians’ ear saying, ‘Chorus coming in in one, two, three, four.’ This is pretty common. But I try and avoid that.

“Technology allows us to mitigate risks and make things supposedly more perfect. But that’s completely missing the point of what we’re trying to do. The structures of the songs need to be so internalised by the performers that they’re able to bring the vision that we worked on for those songs to life. They don’t need me, or an electronic version of me, in their ears saying, ‘Now we go to the chorus.’ Not doing that changes the whole mindset of the show. Otherwise people effectively start a show with 100 points, and from there can only lose points every time that they do something that is supposedly a mistake. Instead I want them to go on stage thinking ‘I’m going to be listening to what my fellow musicians on stage are playing, as we’re together working towards the same vision. And I have such a deep understanding of this music that I can focus on that, rather than worry about doing something wrong.’”

Aviram Barath (left, background) worked with Loyle Carner (centre, with guitarist Tom Misch) on his third album Hugo, and then became musical director for his touring show.

Across The Universe

Barath says that playing with freedom is a particular challenge for younger musicians. “It can be very overwhelming for them. They’re surrounded by people who constantly tell them how things are meant to be done. So I have conversations suggesting that there’s more than one way to approach a performance, and sometimes that’s enough for someone’s mind to be set free. But this doesn’t mean that shows are completely improvised, far from it.

“I’m trying to put things in place that define the universe of the artists’ art and vision. In our universe there are laws of physics, and we can operate in them as our own individual character. This is how I want a guitarist or drummer to feel on stage: they know the boundaries of the vision of this show, and within these boundaries, they can be themselves. That’s where there is a chance for us to create something with human expression that leads to real engagement with the audience. We all want to feel a part of a community with other humans, but if a person in the audience experiences a laptop playing the show, they haven’t interacted with real humans.

“Lola Young is a good example. Part of her vision is to communicate...