It was a new experience for me after 58 years on the planet, most of which have been spent as an avid music fan. This month I went into a recording studio to, ahem, lay down the tracks for my first single.

As anyone who regularly visits this site, or who has spoken to me at all in the last few months, is doubtless aware, my next book Imogen Imagine revolves around a song. Main character Immy’s life is derailed when her ex-boyfriend has a massive hit single with a song about their breakup. On Saturday, we were recording that song.

‘We’ in this case is a cast of talented local musicians gathered together under the auspices of my good friend Olly Hopper-Pay. He put my lyrics for Imogen Imagine to music, and then offered to be musical director as we brought the song to life. I’m writing this between two recording sessions, with all the instrumental tracks completed, and all the vocals to be done in a separate session next weekend.

On the day itself, there was little for me to do other than enjoy the ride. I offered opinions where I could, but on some of the discussions – which snare drum would give us quite the right tone for the track, whether or not to use a particular effects pedal on the lead guitar – I felt out of my depth to even go as far as that. I knew that the others in the discussion were far better qualified to make the call and I trusted the expertise of the team we had brought together.

Reflecting on the experience afterwards, I realised that there are parallels between writing a novel and putting a song together. Both seem relatively simple from the outside – it’s just stringing together words/playing a few notes, right? – but both involve a level of complexity that make them seem insurmountable to anyone who hasn’t done it before. I saw the amount of work Olly had put into the project as part after part was added, taking its turn to enhance the overall effect.

My favourite part in writing a novel is what I describe as the layering up. Once the first draft is complete I make multiple passes at the text, drawing out the themes of the book, tightening character development and so on. The day in the studio felt like the musical equivalent of that: Olly had already produced a guide track, but what was emerging as we added piano, drums, bass and finally Olly’s acoustic and electric guitar tracks, was a fully-realised version of that (admittedly, already fabulous) scribbled first draft. I saw the craft, not only of how the different instrumental tracks fitted together, but of the design involved in making sure that each was adding something distinctive and vital to the final mix.

As a result of the experience, I think I’ll have a new appreciation of some of my favourite songs. Even the ones that seem effortlessly simple are the result of a similar, careful process of deliberate choices, balancing different elements and bringing the whole together to be so much more than the sum of those parts. The musical vision required is completely beyond me, even if it mirrors what I do with a novel. I’ll admit to being in awe of the talent that I got to see at work, and it was a thrill to see them bringing all that to bear on something that I had written.

It will be a few weeks before the completed track has been mixed and mastered, but the plan is to have it available on all the usual steaming sites before the book is published on 28th September. People who contributed to the crowdfunder will be the first to hear it, but everyone else will eventually have the chance to enjoy it at their leisure. On the basis of what I witnessed on Saturday, it will be worth waiting for (not that I’m biased or anything). If you really can't wait, you can still hear the stripped down acoustic version here.

For the record, the team on duty at the weekend were as follows:

Keyboards: Chris Payn (his part already recorded in advance and used as the spine for everyone else to add their contributions around)
Drums: Mic Harrison
Bass: Duncan Petrus
Acoustic and electric guitars: Olly Hopper-Pay
Producer: Ben Jones

Next weekend’s vocalists:

Lead vocals: Lee Rasdall-Dove
Backing vocals: Olly Hopper-Pay and Hannah Gadsby

One final thought. In the world of my book, the song Imogen Imagine is a massive hit single, which means that Olly and I can now claim to have written a massive hit single, and all of the above musicians* can all add ‘playing on a massive hit single’ to their CVs. It may not be a massive hit single in the real world, but as far as I’m concerned, it still counts.

*and Mic, the drummer.