Hi, so as you’ve already noticed the album, at this stage of proceedings, is called Divine Insanity.
In our case it won’t necessarily be the final name, because it may be that we might change our minds many times before the finishing tape. Divine Insanity is though at the moment the most suitable name. In Finnish it’s Taivaallinen Hulluus. The level incorporates all our craziness and youthful enthusiasm and after these recording sessions we’ve felt that the final step into madness wasn’t so far away. And Divine Insanity to us, means love. Heavenly craziness, that’s love. And we all love this record like it was our own baby. It is after all our first born, and we’ve all been working for it for years, even if it does sound like a cliché.
Let’s talk about the final recording sessions. For our part they started on week 43. Tuesday 25.10, when we were working of the finishing touches of the work we’d done in the previous sessions. That is some backing vocals and guitars. The songs were Bullet for the pain, Remorse, Divine insanity and Die a little more...The last used to be Lovex Story. They came out well and we’re satisfied.
We started on the last songs during week 44, 31.10.2005. They were; Wounds, Halfway, O how the mighty fall, On the Sidelines and Sleeptight. We also recorded a special version of Guardian Angel Christian worked the recording equipment for this one and it should be an add-on for the Guardian Angel single.
Of these song only Wounds has been played at the earlier gigs. The others are all new songs and might, for some people, prove to have some surprising content for Lovex songs but we wanted the album to be varied and for that reason all these new songs have been included.
These sessions went pretty much the same as the last. First drums and bass and then the rest. This time we noticed that we’ve developed a bit, as the work went in the can noticeably more smoothly than in previous sessions. The drums and bass took three days and then it was time for me to lay down my guitar sounds. This time the drums and bass went so quickly that it brought problems when we started on the guitars. We hadn’t expected to be starting the guitars that week and we hadn’t brought the amplifiers. Luckily there was a solution. In the studios at the same time were Suburban Tribe and their guitarist Roope had rented a Mesaboogie rectifier and Marshal MF amps and speakers. Well, I thought I’d try my luck and called Roope asking him if I could borrow the equipment. He’s a cool guy and his answer was yes, providing I also got permission from the rental company. Backline rentals agreed and by now I was really excited.because these Marshal and Megaboogie amps have never been bad.
So on Thursday morning I was twiddling knobs and testing the amps. The end result was that I was missing my own Line 6 amp and Marshall Special speaker cabinet and disappointed in this really expensive rental gear. Both amps had, at least for my taste, too metallic sounds, which I’m sure suits down tuned heavy metal like a duck to water but I like a rockier sound. In the end we recorded using the Mesaboogie, my own Esp LTD ec-1000 Deluxe guitar and some pedals that our producer Tertsi had scraped up from somewhere. The end result came out ok but a lot of time got wasted in the process.
Suburban’s singer, Ville Tuomi was here that week recording a lot of vocal parts and we shared a lot of jokes with him. We really dug him and thought that he was a terrific guy. You’ve got to be impressed that every day when he came into the dtudio, he had a pack of beers with him. The real rock credibiltythat the big boys talk about I guess. I, on the other hand, stayed dry every day…. At least until the sun went down
Friday was mixing day and we had a gig at the Turku Palace. It was fun and we managed to clear our heads a bit. At this stage in the album recording process the whole gang was feeling spiritually drained and so tired that our heads were in danger of splitting. So it was good that for the last three weeks, studio time was limited to four days per week due to gigs and video shoots.
Week.45.7.-11.11.2005
All the days started early and finnished late. This week we did Sammy’s and my guitar parts, Christian's synths and Theon’s vocals….nothing special, hard graft and concentration on the songs. On Wednesday we were all in the studio deciding what clothes we should wear for next Wednesday’s video-shoot. So we were arranging/planning the video and recording the album at the same time. Heavy going. There wasn’t a day, when after the studio I felt like going out.. I went straight back to the hotel and watched TV. while lying in bed. Even Dead or Alive 3 had lost its edge and there was no joy playing it. I practised with the axe a bit and the sauna got used a lot but I was tired and the bed’s warmth was more and more tempting.
The weeks most relieving moment was perhaps when Production Chief Gabi Hakanen dropped by the studio and said”damn, but it looks as if we’re going to get the album out nearly on time.” This sounded especially good because there had been (to our minds perhaps excessive) pressure from the record company to get the album finished and at least a couple of songs had been a bit rushed. Now it seems that the record will be released on schedule…. That is 15.2.2006.
On Friday we played the Sokos Hotel in Lahti and we really relaxed and had fun.
Vko.46. 14-.18.11.2005
Jep, this was an interesting week. Monday and Tuesday we recorded vocals, synths and crowning the cake was Sammy and Christians’ joint solo for Halfway. They’d been putting this together for a long time and had it so that we were all happy with it. I don’t know why but all week I’d been close to tears. Any time things didn’t go right I’d had wet cheeks. It felt strange and a bit stupid when my own psyche was in such poor shape that if I put too many sweeteners in my coffee by mistake then I’d burst into tears. It was frustrating and embarrasing. The stress had made me over-sensitive. I tend to stress out when things go badly and now, going through by far the most important experience in my musical career, it felt like I might flip out.
Well anyway...We were recording for three days this week and then there was the video shoot and on Friday the pix for Mix magazine, updating this diary and promotion pictures and then back to Helsinki for the sound check and a gig.
The week was full of action and it was refreshing to do the video, because for us it was new and interesting. Bloody tough day it was and Friday my neck was still stiff after the amount of hair shaking we had to do but it was totally different from the recording and was interesting. Months had been spent on planning the video and it felt good to be eventually filming it. Theon still needed to be filmed but even so. Fortunately, the recordings were just about a day short of being ready. On Thursday we listened through the songs and we were able to say that we’d made a damn good record and that we were really satisfied. We’re still a little nervous thinking about the finished article and how it will come out and have we managed to get the tracks in the right order and how will people react to it and I mean the fans not the critics because we can already guess what they’re going to say.
Week.47.23.11.2005
So this is our last week recording and there was just Wednesday left in Inkfish. We recorded Sleeptight completely and the backing vocals for some other songs. We’ll still have to do a lit of guitar work for Sleeptight because we feel it needs some more grit. The day was relaxed and went fast and Sleeptight came out as it should. We’ve decided that it will be the final song on the album. It sort of brings together the whole package and the backing vocals for all the other songs and then says goodnight. And the sound gives it all. It’s just acoustics and vocals. I hope that it’s the last song on the album and that the song brings some sort of closure. The song brings a great sense of peace and contentment and after hearing it it’s good to put your head on the pillow and go to sleep. But yeah, pulling the album together has been tough, mind numbing and time consuming but also great fun and above all extremely rewarding. .
We’ve come a long way since we first set foot in Inkfish. With Christian and had a meeting with the producers and the recording company but it now feels as if the road has been well worth taking. We’re really very pleased with the record. Hopefully you will like it and enjoy it for a long time into the future. See ya!!!
Sleeptight
Vivian Sin’amor
