We were booked to record 'River' at British Grove immediately afterwards. Photo: Martin Luke Brown Work on 'River' took place over a few days in October, starting with the recording of Goulding's vocals at Angelic Studios in Banbury near Oxford, followed by a day of recording the piano and shooting the song's Behind The Scenes video at British Grove, where Elliott also started the mix, which he completed on the 10th at The Gallery, a project studio in West London run by Kearns and he.Įlliott: "I think British Grove is Ellie's studio of choice, but for several reasons we went to Angelic Studios for a few days to finalise her new album.
'River' was co-produced by Joe Kearns (above) and Max Cooke (below, pictured during an Ellie Goulding orchestral session at British Grove). All three have spent much of the last few years working on Goulding's fourth studio album, to be released early in 2020. Cooke is a producer, songwriter and musical director, who played in Goulding's band for four years. Elliott started work at British Grove 10 years ago, and continues to be a staff engineer. Now an independent producer and songwriter, Kearns' credits include Florence + the Machine, Little Mix and Kasabian. Kearns worked at the studio for eight years, and met Goulding there. All four share a close connection with Mark Knopfler's British Grove Studios in London. Video of Ellie Goulding - River Angelic VocalsĬooke, Kearns and Elliott are regular collaborators with Goulding, and were therefore well placed to record, mix and produce a simple piano-vocal song quickly and effectively. Promotion and opportunity aren't everything, however, and Amazon's efforts would have fallen on deaf ears if the company did not also have a high-quality product to promote. Amazon promoted the song heavily on their Christmas playlists, and it was given an edge over the endless Christmas re-releases by the fact that the UK chart weightings favour releases less than three years old. The number one position of 'River' was remarkable for another reason as well: the song was only released on Amazon and YouTube, and was not available on other streaming websites. Then we got a text from Ellie saying it looked to be going to number one!"
"When it started catching on, early December," continues Cooke, "our reaction was, 'Huh, that's a bit surprising!' A couple of weeks before Christmas it went to number eight, and we were like, 'Great!' thinking that this would be it. After it was released mid-November, we did not think much more about it."
We were in the middle of working on her forthcoming album, and the song was to be just a one-off, nothing to do with the album. She asked Max and myself to produce it, and Jason came in to record and mix it. "It was chosen by Ellie, because she's a huge Joni Mitchell fan. Produced by Joe Kearns & Max Cooke."Last October we were asked by Ellie's management to record an exclusive song for Amazon, a Joni Mitchell cover," recalls the song's co-producer Joe Kearns. A piano-and-vocal cover of an old album track about a relationship split does not sound like a red-hot commercial proposition, so the number one position came as a surprise to almost everyone involved. The minimal arrangement of Ellie Goulding's unlikely New Year number one was underpinned by a rather less minimal mix.Īs the old decade gave way to the 2020s, Ellie Goulding topped the UK singles chart with her version of 'River', a Joni Mitchell song which first appeared on Mitchell's Blue album in 1971. Jason Elliott mixed Ellie Goulding's version of the Joni Mitchell Christmas classic 'River'.
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