“… a melancholic symphonic rock piece of music where Celtic and folk metal melodies weave through harder and heavier riffing for a dynamic and expressive sound”
I have produced this song for talented singer-songwriter Talia Hoit from Colorado Springs.
Talia has sent me a basic demo tracks consisting of lead vocals and piano.
I have been bringing some fresh new music arrangement ideas for the whole song, I have performed and recorded all instruments (excluding the original piano).
Talia has recorded the final vocal tracks by herself and then I have done full audio production of the song (Audio editing, mixing and mastering).
My goal was to keep Talia's original piano track and add the full orchestra arrangements with metal drums, bass and guitars and also some elements of cinematic music to bring the original demo into the whole new level full of emotions, energy and adventurous sounds.
On this song I have done
► Drums & percussion writing & programming
► Orchestra writing & programming
► Synths writing & performing
► Guitars and Bass writing & performing
► Guitars re-amping
► Vocals Editing
► Audio Mixing
► Audio Mastering
Check out a little guitar playthrough
What is the song about
Working with producer Jarek Musil, Talia Hoit‘s “Angel” is a symphonic rock ballad that truly touches the heart of all who hear it. About the loss of someone who died way too soon in life that was personally close to Hoit.
Talia explains:
“This is a very special song to me personally and I hope it will resonate with everyone. I wrote it just as an attempt to process my own feelings after I had experienced the loss of my childhood friend from a rare and aggressive cancer, and then over time and after experiencing more losses in my life, the song has become a really emotional expression of my heart and soul, and I hope that it will be moving to a lot of other people too.”
Check out song reaction video by Power Metal Ranger
How I met Talia
I have heard about Talia for the first time thanks to Richard Marcus, guitarist for Symphonic Metal band Beyond Forgiveness from Colorado Springs.
It was back in 2015.
Talia was already the lead singer for the band.
I have done audio editing, mixing and mastering on the debut EP and 2 full-length albums of the band.
I have also recorded the single Never Before with the band in Brno (Czech Republic) while the band was on European Tour back in 2017.
In 2019 Talia asked me to produce a song for her.
Angel.
And then we started working on Talia's full-length solo album along with other talented musicians Todd Morrison (drums), Tom Davis (bass) and Dave Zahara (guitar).
I have fully produced 2 songs from start to finish for the album, I have been co-writting orchestra arrangements and mixed and mastered the whole album.
The second single of the album will be released later this year, so stay tuned!
See how I write orchestra for another Talia's song (for nerds)
More about Talia
Talia Hoit is an American singer-songwriter from Colorado. Classically trained, she begin playing the piano at the age of 5. Now she writes original songs, performs on vocals and keyboards, and composes orchestra scores for symphonic metal.
She was the keyboardist and a co-songwriter for the hard rock band Anadies for 5 years, releasing an album, Formamentum (2004), and an EP, Catalyst (2006), before branching out to write her own solo songs and sing classical music. She performed as a Soprano with the Colorado Springs Chorale for 10 years, and as the Chamber Singers of the Colorado Springs Chorale for 5 years. As a solo artist, she wrote and independently recorded two original albums of songs, Fate’s Too Small (2007) and A Little Longer (2012) which had a limited physical cd release only.
In 2014, she recorded ambient vocal backing tracks as a guest musician for a symphonic power metal band, Psycodrama. After this studio experience, she decided to pursue her passion for singing symphonic metal. That same year, she joined the band Beyond Forgiveness and is currently the lead singer, orchestral composer, co-lyricist, and co-songwriter for the band. They have released an EP: The Ferryman’s Shore (2015), two albums: The Great Wall (2017) and Live to Tell the Story (2019), and are currently in the studio working on their third full-length album, Cold as Winter’s Ice.
In the fall of 2019, she worked with producer Jarek Musil to record a single, Angel, for personal purposes, which had a soft release in early 2020 on Soundcloud only. Since the Covid pandemic, she has been working remotely with a talented group of producers and musicians to bring more of her most personal and intimate solo songs to life.
In November 2022, she released a single and music video for the song, Until It’s Forgotten, recorded at the Colorado Sound Studios with producer Steve Avedis. In March 2023, she released a single, Abandon, with producer Mane Cabrales, along with another music video. Her next single and music video is a newly mastered version and new music video for the song Angel, which never had a proper public release until now!
Fans can expect a lot more music coming from Talia in the future, she has many songs that she looks forward to releasing in the future. Dark, introspective, and metaphorical, Talia’s symphonic metal gives new life to the genre. It is recommended for those who enjoy Nightwish, Within Temptation, and Evanescence.
Digital pre-save “Angel” at earache.lnk.to/Angel
Previous Music Video – Abandon – youtu.be/cb3K8fldW6U
Talia Hoit merch line at taliahoit.indiemerch.com
For more info: Taliahoit.com | Facebook.com/taliahoitmusic | Twitter.com/taliahoit | Instagram.com/talia_hoit
WOULD YOU LIKE TO HAVE A SONG OF YOURS TOO?
WOULD YOU LIKE TO WORK ON YOUR MUSIC WITH ME?
This is how it works:
Customer typically sends me some basic music wishes (or an amateur demo of the song), some commercial references (customers favorite music) and the lyrics (or at least some parts).
Then I start writing and/or arranging the music, I do adapt lyrics and even add some lyrics for chorus or other parts of the song if needed. I send demos (including my guide-vocals recorded) during the songwriting process to the customer and we discuss everything, doing revisions and building the demo until we both are 100% satisfied.
Some customers (like Oceanwide) are asking me only for some fresh new ideas and perspective for already composed song so I do some music arrangements, additional parts and programmings only. No lyrics writing, no music from scratch. Only arrangements, enhancing the music parts and bringing some new colors and sounds.
Once the demo is finished, we plan the final vocals recording session.
Customer rehearses the vocal parts and is sending some work-demos to me and we do some remote revisions before we meet to record the final vocals.
During the vocals recording session I coach the customer/singer to get the most out of him.
There are always some things to correct such as phrasing, accents, melody and the last but not least, the vocal emotions.
Sometimes, there are even 2 or 3 vocals recording sessions needed to get the final results on all song parts. The final vocals recording session is usually 3-4 hours long.
Once the final vocals are recorded, I do audio editing on all vocal tracks.
This means I do some audio quantization and tuning improvements if needed (always needed).
Then I do the final audio mixing and mastering. During this stage we discuss all the sound quality aspects, the final sound design of the song.
NOTE: When songwriting or co-writing for a client, I do not ask for any rights. The client always owns 100% of the song's royalties.
HOW I WRITE:
HOW TO START THE COLLABORATION WITH ME?
You can contact me via email or you can fill the contact form on my website.
It's great to send me:
The demo of the song we could work on together (if you have one - if not we can create one from scratch)
Some commercial references (YouTube links of the music you like, feel free to send me a lot of music you like)
Epic Story and lyrics for the song (if you already have them)
DO YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS?
Feel free to contact me and ask me anything!
We can discuss for 1 hour, for free.
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