Tape Notes · In The Woods

TN:164 Pomplamoose

September 16, 2025·1 hr 25 min·5 clips

Jack Conte calls it 'extreme self-honesty' — the brutal creative discipline that made Pomplamoose scrap a year of work.

Pomplamoose build texture from tiny vocal choices. One of the most useful parts of the conversation tracks the guest through stacked background parts, doubled syllables, and treated lead vocals. The strings drop out. Background vocals step in, copied onto chorus hits until they feel like a small arranged section. The details are nicely tactile. Two dry, close vocal pops cut against more distant layers, giving the mix a ping-pong sense of space. The host listens closely and asks whether those sections are rerecorded, reused, or shaped with processing after one take. Then the question narrows: what sits around Natalie's voice, and who decides how that voice should sound? Natalie answers without fuss. She is used to recording vocals on her own, and she likes the solitude when she is tracking. The setup is familiar too. She says she has used the same mic for a long time, the Neumann TLM-49. The process takes patience. Lead vocals can eat up half a day because she is particular about the performance. Then she comps. Later, she returns for doubles, triples, and several days of harmonies. The finished sound feels arranged, but not flashy. The lead stays straight down the middle while its copies add atmosphere, rhythm, and lift. The end turns practical again. The host moves toward playing "Felicitacion," notes that Philip produced it, and closes with the show's support and community notes.

As heard by us

A close studio listen on Pomplamoose's layered vocals and the small choices that make a pop mix move.

Tape Notes brings Pomplamoose into the studio as a conversation about how much pop detail can sit inside a vocal arrangement. The strongest passage has Natalie explaining her private, meticulous recording routine: hours alone with the same Neumann mic, half a day on the lead…

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Why you'd press play

For a detailed look at a studio vocal session built from the inside out.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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