Tuesday 13.09.05, 17:25
Hi. Monday, yesterday that is, we started recording a long play piece in the familiar Inkfish studio with our producer duo Tertsi and Erno. The alarm clock woke me in Tampere at 05:45. After a quick breakfast and loading the gear in the car, we got moving. Vivian and I on the way to Helsinki again. About 8:30 we were in the Inkfish yard and carted the equipment into the sound studio. Then it was setting up the drums, tuning them and getting the microphones in place before lunch. Then we got down to recording the demo. The time was then around 1:0. During this session we’d planned to record 4 songs: Divine insanity, Bullet for the pain, Remorse and Lovex story. Then we thought about how to improve the songs. I’ve got to warn you that they’ve changed a bit, but definitely in a better direction. Now, sit down and listen. I’ve come to the conclusion that Lovex Story should be renamed. (Think about it…Lovex Story..Not good!) Apologies to those of you who had already got used to the name. (I’ll reveal the new name when it’s been confirmed.) So, when the the songs had been jointly arranged we finnished the day there. Recording the drums tomorrow.
Hi. Tuesday, today, the alarm rang at 07:45. We awoke in the Ava Hotel and went down for breakfast in time to be at Inkfish for at 9:00. Pretty quickly we got started recording Divine Insanity. At the start we tried out a few different ride (cymbal) variations. This took some time but when we were satisfied, the recording got well under way. When Divine. Was done we listened to Bullet for the press demo and thought the drum arrangements through. Then it was time to eat. Right after lunch we finished recording Bullet and went through more of the “previously known as” Lovex Story arrangements and then ended the day there. I’ve got to say that I really dig some of the new progressive drum arrangements for Bullet! You’ll see! Tomorrow we’ve planned to record Love story and Remorse. After that I’m out of here and headed for home. Bye!
T: Julian
Wed.14.09.05 13:00
Hi. Today I woke, after a lousy night, at 07:50. Brushed my teeth, had breakfast and went to Inkfish. We recoded the drums for Remorse and then put the finishing touches on the arrangement for Love Story. It came out well! Then I played the song’s drum part. It came really easily and quickly. So now the drums for all the songs are ready and my job is done. Everybody’s eating now and I’m leaving as soon as this diary is ready. They’ve planned to start recording the bass for one song today and continue them tomorrow. Then the guitar parts etc. this time around it’s been ok here. More peaceful than the last time around. Sammy got his guitar demo done and left already yesterday to get back to school. I’ll do the same today. The guys are wrecked:D Jup. Time to eat and then to go. Maybe one of us will continue this. Tsau.
T: Julian
28.9.2005
I thought I too would tell you something about the 12-23.9.2005 studio sessions. After the drums had been recorded and edited, we started recording the bass. Our usual style is to get Jason and Julian, to put down the beat and rhythm. When that’s ok we start on the trimmings. That for us means the guitars, keyboards and singing.
The mornings started nearly every day at 8:00. Really disgustingly fucking early. Normal musicians can’t live at that time in the morning. Or at least I can’t. .. The days were long and hard but otherwise quite rewarding. Fortunately our producers, Erska and Terska have a good sense of humour,(they need it with us) and are easy to get along with. They understand our really bad gay jokes and other types of comedy. Erska (Erno Laitinen), had, since our last time here, grown this great 70’s John Holmes style moustache and the first time we saw him none of us could keep a straight face. The facial growth kept us in jokes for whole two weeks. Shame none of us thought to take a photo of him. Tertsi (Teropekka Virtanen,).was full of strange terms and his delivery of these always came out of the blue and had us laughing so hard that we cried. A good example is when we were recording Remorse and Sammy was playing the solo. Right in the middle, Sammy played a great screech and Tertsi immediately, “that sounds just like the mewl of a small, janteva, feline of some kind.” All we could do was be amazed at his verbal gifts
Well, that’s enough about the producers. For the second recording session, I Theon and Christian were there the whole time and Sammy for Monday and Tuesday. So Sammy recorded the guitar at the beginning of the week and Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday was when we spent the whole days on the guitars, synthesizers and vocals. Before playing anything we went through together who would be playing what and when and also any new ideas which came up. Then we each in turn played the sounds through and when we had them right they went into the can. Nothing is in its final form yet but in November we’ll put the finishing touches to it all and get the album finally in the can.
The days in the studio passed in listening, playing, and at least for myself, in continually running new ideas through my head and wondering if we were always doing things in the best way etc. It’s heavy going when your brain’s working in overtime all the time. We were also telling a lot of jokes, smoking a lot of ciggies, enjoying the fare from lunch restaurant 91.1 or the mudflap pizzas from the local Alepa shop. A lot of coffee went down as well. Last Thursday, at the end of the day, Theon and I gave an interview to STT. We were pretty tired but it must have gone ok because the interview was published in a few local papers, Metro among others. On Friday at midday we did the Favourite interview and photo session. Fortunately it didn’t interrupt the recording as Christian kept busy with the keyboards. In the smaller recording area on the other side of the studios, were A.W.Yrjänä and their producer Rake, wrapping up CMX’s new record. When he hadn’t talked to us for the first couple of days, I wondered if things had gone to his head but after a while we got chatting at the coffee table and he turned out to be a fun and laid back guy. It was probably just that he’s Finnish and Finnish guys are often a little shy and quiet. Things are going well for CMX and their “difficult” 11th album=D.
The studio days ended at about half past five and then we headed off to the shops and from there back to the hotel, which was close to the studio. For the first week we had a great six person suite, with its own kitchen and two bathrooms. The second week we moved to a far more crowded place for four. The evenings went playing x-box, watching movies, drinking, going to the sauna and relaxing. One evening we spent with our producers and our manager/boss/ father figure, Jakke Lindberg, at an Indian restaurant enjoying the delicious food and drinks…. Usually we were so tired that we didn’t go out at all. Watching the Life for Children concert on the TV. When Uniplug received a platinum award for their album and Crazy Frog excited the kids, I lost all my faith in the music business. I nearly cried. But then I’m like that, so damn serious about the music world. Sad huh? . Sorry, I didn’t mean any disrespect to Uniplug. I believe they really deserve their success.
Well, that’s about it then. I can’t keep up this bullshit for ever. More about the next studio sessions when they happen, probably November. See ya!!!
Yours: Vivian Sin’amor
