Studio sessions, October 2004
First studio day, Monday 4.10:
An early morning start. At the studio for 10 and started laying down the synth track. Then we started on the drums. When many snare, tom-tom and cymbal options had been tested and the set had been re-miked a couple of times we took a break. Then the drum recording began. We took the songs in turn; Heart of stone, Guardian angel, Lovex story and Wounds. After a few initial problems recording went pretty well. A few coffee and listening breaks broke up almost constant playing and by 2300 this drummer boy was utterly shattered…we nearly gave up for the day and left Wounds until Tuesday. A last wild push and we laid it down and it came out really well. The studio session which had caused the most apprehension was over. Actually, there was still more to do and the Ep recordings stretched over 2 more weeks because our producer, Jari Latomaa, wanted to take real care, as he thought the band had such potential.. There was so much material that we were unable to record it all with care in the time we had the studio reserved and the EP was a couple of weeks late. But then, good things are worth waiting for.
Second studio day, Tuesday 5.10:
Around 11 to12ish we were back in the studio and started to listen to the previous days drum recordings with wide-open ears and it still sounded really good. Then the bands singer, Theo, sang the demo songs, each recorded in one take. They sounded really good, even though it was just an hour after waking and without warming up. D Just like it made some difference in the end. DD.anyway,after a couple of hours and a coffee pot of setting up we started recording Vivian’s Les Paul riffs. All the songs got a really strong rocking rythm backing. After take-away pizzas Jason B started the bass sessions. The bass lines came off really well and the songs recordings went fast except for Guardian Angel where practically the whole bass score was re-written. The end result was a slew of earthshakin’ bass tracks! :) Around 9 we got Sammy Black set up and recorded another set of real kickin’ guitar backing tracks. Sammy’s tracks got done fast, with 1-3 takes per song! When all the rhythm tracks were in the can, we stared to record the lead and solos and nearly got them all ready. Only the clean acoustic guitar parts were still to do. We got out of the studio about 2am. I crashed over at Sammy’s for a whole 4 hrs before leaving on the 7:30 bus for home, a shower and fresh to my studies!:DD
So, that’s the school day over and from the text you can guess that I’m more than a little tired, but this got written as promised! The recording continues at the beginning of next week. I’ll keep you posted on the studio sessions and anything else of interest!
Peace & Love
Julian Drain
