Perth Voice Interactive

YOU can do just about anything on your mobile phone these days, including it seems, record an album that leads to sell-out shows and rave radio reviews.

No-one was more surprised at the results than Rob Snarski (ex Chad’s Tree), who started recording songs on his phone as part of a crowd-funding project to raise money for his CD, Wounded Bird.

“People would request a song, I would record and send it back to them,” he tells the Voice.

“We thought we were entering a new frontier. Has anyone made a CD on an iPhone?

“Man walks on the moon, man records an album on a phone,” he jokes.

Strumming guitar with the phone propped in front of him Snarski records songs at home in Dandenong, Victoria. He’ll do it in the kitchen, bedroom or his office, anywhere he fancies.

A long-time fan of 4-track demos and lo-fi home recording, he was pretty stoked at the result when he played them back, but took a sanity check with old mate musician/producer, Shane O’Mara, who agreed they were too good to pass up.

“It had a quality that appealed to me,” he says. “Whether it was recoding that way, or whether the performance was more relaxed. It didn’t have the feel of being in a studio, which can be over-polished.”

Low Fidelity (Songs by Request Volume 1), is a mix of golden oldies, such as Joni Mitchell’s River and Willie Nelson’s The Way You See Me, but some came out of left field, and were completely unknown to Snarski, including Greg Oblivian’s Bad Man.

“I had to do a bit of research,” Snarski says. “It was a challenge and pushed and stretched my vocals.”

O’Mara admits to tweaking things here and there in his studio, “adding to the atmosphere of it all…a touch of extra reverb, adding an electric guitar or sitar”.

The most difficult part of the process was sequencing the track list “of the ungainly beast”, Snarski says.

“So I encourage the use of the ‘shuffle’ button and feel free to listen to the recording on the speaker on your phone or at a hushed volume on your stereo.”

In between recording his own songs and a national tour, Snarski is “in the middle” of making an album with the group he was a founding member of — the Black Eyed Susans.

You can catch the honey-voiced Snarski at the Astor Lounge, Mt Lawley, August 29, or at the Odd Fellow Bar, Fremantle August 28.

by JENNY D’ANGER