No Regrets: Production Insights

Now we're going to talk about "No Regrets" and how the production was put together.

The Recording Process

This is James; he's on Pro Tools, which is where the music has ended up. It was actually originally recorded on tape. This is how old it is now. It was recorded in 1998, and back then we still used tape machines.

Starting with Drums

We started with the drums, so I will play you what we started with. This was, I think, my concept for that, and maybe Rob's concept, I can't remember, was jungle music, which was a big thing in the 90s.

• I mean, I know it doesn't really sound anything like jungle, but that was our reference point because we both liked the energy of that music.
• That's like a slowed down jungle, maybe.

Adding Bass

After that, we might have added the bass.

• Now we hear the bass. The bass is quite funky.
• Why don't you play the bass on its own? Bass with a pick, it's driving the whole track along.

Put the drums back in.

Balancing Elements

As I was saying earlier, I was very keen that this song didn't sound sleepy because it was created as a ballad. But I didn't want it to have that ballady feel. I wanted it to have an uplifting feel.

• Then we probably put some keyboards on it.
• Maybe we put some piano. The piano is very simple, but it's playing the melody, doubling the melody almost quite minimal.
• The piano part is very simple, so it doesn't get in the way of the drums and the bass.

Also, the guitars are doing a lot of the rhythmic driving of the track. If you hear the guitars now:

• Acoustic guitars strumming along
• Backward guitar
• An electric strummy guitar (the chimey one)
• A wah-wah as well

So it's kind of a whole orchestra of guitars, and that, if you hear that with the bass and drums, works really well, I think. This is the basic track. All these combinations are the foundation of the song.

Adding the Orchestra

On top of that, I put a fake orchestra on it.

Do you want to get into the orchestra now?

This is the orchestra. For some reason, I can't remember why we didn't use a real orchestra. We normally did, but for some reason on this song, we didn't. I don't know why.

• Maybe because I did the fake orchestra, and everybody thought, "Oh, that sounded really good. Why should we spend money on a real one?"

I can't actually remember. So this is all orchestral samples, like the flute and the strings. If you go to the end, play the end section:

• There's more instruments here, including a zither (a Hungarian instrument). Again, a sample.
• Then there's a harp as well.

I'm a big lover of the harp. Again, that Pet Shop Boys always used harp a lot as a way of creating drama before going into a new section.

• You have the harp doing those glissandi, a very effective way of linking one section to another.

Vocal Harmonies

There's also a lot of girl harmonies in the chorus, which sound like this:

• Well, actually that's Claire, who sang that, singing the melody an octave higher than Rob. Play that, kid. Play that game.

That really pops out because the chorus isn't that high in Rob's range; it's sort of in the middle. I wanted the chorus to stand out, which is why you have that double that's higher to boost the melody.

• She's also doing harmonies, isn't she? Do you want to find the harmonies?

These are in the mix. They sound a bit odd on their own, but if you put them in the tracks, I think the girl vocals were trying to create a haunting, multi-layered effect, making the record special.

Just play those answer lines.

Closing Thoughts

This is a character called Neil Hannon. That's Neil Hannon and Rob singing those. You'll find:
Return the videos, they'll say goodbye.

And there's also a bit of electronic stuff at the beginning, isn't there?

• That just creates a dreamy, cold atmosphere, setting the mood of the track.

And that's "No Regrets."