New York's Stacy Sullivan on how to record an album

In this, the second and final part of my interview with New Yorker Stacey Sullivan, we discuss what it's like to record an album. Stacy has recorded five albums. They all sounds terrific but as she admits, non have yet made money. She's not alone in that fact but we singers record albums for much more than financial gain. They are our calling cards, our way to show the world what we can do. A good album can give exposure, critical acclaim and lead to new work.

After five albums she is really finding her voice and understanding what works best for her. Looking back on her early recording she says, “You can't be ashamed of what you've learned”.

We talk about whether it's necessary to give an album a theme, the merits of recording a Christmas album and the importance of working with a good team of musicians and technicians. Where as I feel I need a dedicated sound engineer as well as producer, Stacy has found great success with her engineer also acting as producer.

We discuss the process of recording: the studio set-up, how many takes we like to do, and how we edit everything together. We cover our reservations with auto-tune, the pros and cons of making live albums, and the beauty that can be found in imperfection.

Distribution – getting our music “our there” used to be the major issue but thanks to the Internet and digital downloads our albums are instantly easily accessible everywhere. Stacy shares the thrill of knowing that people all over the world are listening to her music and the excitement that some of our work could be found on a movie soundtrack and reach a much wider audience.

Recorded in London 1st August 2014