7.10.2007 Studio diary

A greater insanity!

Today on September 7th, 2007 at 13:00 it began. The studio sessions for Lovex's second album - or actually we were just departing for studio. We guys packed up all the instrument and amplifier equipment at the rehearsal place and then we headed again towards Helsinki and Inkfish studio. When packing, we were somewhat wondering how much more equipment we now have to take with us compared to our situation sometime more than two years ago when we left for the Inkfish studio to record songs for the first album. When it comes to me, at least, most of the money we have gained with our first album, has been spent directly on instruments and amplifiers and hopefully it can be heard on the next album in the form of improved sounds. I'm no longer contended with the sounds of Divine Insanity because of its clinically clean sounds even though it's otherwise a nice album.

The preparations for these studio sessions began already a year ago when we started writing new material - while still playing gigs. At first we didn't have enough time to write music and the work actually begun only during the summer when we sat down to decide when to go to studio and when to release the next album. Since that day this orchestra has been rehearsing and sitting in our home studios writing new music every day, except for those days when we've been on tour. The song-writing still continues because with this album we'll be in the studio for a month, then there will be gigs here and there and we'll try to record as many demos as possible before the second - and last - studio session, which will take place sometime in January-February 2008. At the moment we don't know yet the general style of the album because we've only made decisions on less than half of the songs and we have many different kinds of songs. At least I can say that our second album will be considerably different from the first one and stylistically it will present several different genres.

The writing of songs has been occasionally very difficult because there have been so many gigs and because of them we haven't have enough time to concentrate on the composing work. Only during the last couple of months the amount of gig has been cut down at our own request and it has clearly made the song-writing a lot easier. Touring is great, of course, but we've played altogether at least 170 gigs before and after the release of our debut album and it may be that there will be in total 200 of them before we can really start playing the songs from our second album. In my opinion that's far too many gigs after the release of just one album - even if we had had a tour around the world. I don't know if there is any other band in Finland with as many gigs under its belt with just one album released. Of course, we've tested some new material on gigs but we all agree that unless we now start recording a new album and refresh our setlist, we'll soon be pretty much pissed off.

9.10.2007
Back to basics: to the studio session itself. Now there's no more stress, this is absolutely fabulous. When writing music I've been under such amount of stress that I've sometimes felt self-destructive and I have had some other pretty sick ideas going on in my head. That's been quite hard for both myself and for others. The life hasn't been as smooth as it might have been and at times all the stress has made me feel so gloomy that now, when thinking back to those moments I wouldn't like to remember some of those minutes and I don't have the guts to share those moments with anyone. On the other hand, it may be that all the pain and suffering may inspire some great music but at times the price has seemed far too high. After all those dark moments it feels great and relaxing to finally be able to start recording those songs, which remind me of those obscure moments. When playing those songs I can say that I survived those bad times and now I can again enjoy the life to the fullest and I'm also stronger and a bit wiser than before.

This time it feels that the studio sessions will be more relaxed than the previous ones. Back then I sometimes felt like crying because all the anxiety involved. This time the phase of agony took place fortunately before entering the studio and now it seems that this process will lead us towards something splendid and the anxiety has been left far behind. The songs represent new and different Lovex but they still sound like us. I'm feeling great and I'm here at the studio waiting for my turn. Meanwhile Julian is banging his new, good-looking Julian Drain Custom drums, made by Kumu. The drumming sounds great and he plays well. The producer for this record is Erno Laitinen, who was the assistant producer of Divine Insanity. Now he's alone responsible for the production of this album and it seems that he nicely agrees with the band about the music. Because of that the songs are easier to record, because the band's own production-related ideas pass his filter quite easily. And yes, those 170 gigs and all those numerous hours spent in our rehearsal place have maybe made us better song-writers.

11.10.2007
Everything seems good, still. Today we should finish with the drums and then we'll start polishing the guitar and bass arrangements. We're feeling really calm compared to the times of Divine Insanity. There's no more messing around and the songs seem to be in better shape. I must admit that making music is great at those times when everything is running this smoothly. To be continued... Vivian Sin'amor

And out of the ashes it rises to a new splendor.

So it happened that the Eurovision Song Contest didn't turn out to be the success we had planned it to be. When we were there on the stage together with Hanna and Thunderstone, I was pretty sure that we had won because our performance in the “super final” had been pretty good and because we really believed in our song. When the hosts told the fact that we're only third, it was quite a shock. We were pissed off. Really.

All the respect to the winners but we still strongly believe in our song. But you can't always win and that's something we obviously can't tolerate. Consequently, six deeply depressed and gloomy-looking guys ran to our monitor technician Mike's room to grieve together over the defeat. There were also people from the record company, technicians, loved ones and friends. You might think that such a company would be a noisy one but there was a silence of a grave until we started searching for a special bottle, which Mike had prepared for us - be it for victory or loss. To give you an idea about the contents of the bottle I could say that a huge amount of Fisherman's Friend breath mints had been needed.

We sipped that delicious drink and little by little everyone started to relax. People started to make little jokes about the defeat and sarcastic comments on the overall competition, with an appropriately bitter tone. And as always, we survive even the most difficult circumstances with self-irony and humor. We spent the rest of the night at Hotel Caribia partying, getting to know all kinds of people and during the night many more or less confusing things took place. As an example of confusing things I could mention the 60's-styled rock dance movements on the dance floor, which I and Sammy so perfectly mastered... It was such an outrageous act that there were people as well as other obstacles falling over... Well, the rest of the things are such that they can't be mentioned in public and those "less confusing" facts aren't of interest to anyone.

We celebrated like winners through the night and even in the morning some of us were sitting in a taxi together with a legendary character of Finnish music business searching for some illegal underground pub. It was a night to remember and definitely lots of fun. Thanks to all those people, who partied with us and especially to Thunderstone guys, who were very funny and nice to party with.

In the morning, that is around 14:00, we climbed into the bus and started slowly driving back home. It had been quite a journey, because we had arrived at Turku directly from the student cruise, which wasn't the easiest one. The morning was quite hard. Because of what happened the night before, we weren't in the best possible mood. We felt depressed and definitely still pissed off. The drive back home was spent in a gloomy mood eating junk food and swearing because of the voting results. The fact is that rockstars just can't understand, why their song doesn't win even though it's definitely the best. Well, of course the reason is that everybody doesn't have so good a taste when it comes to music, as we do…

Then it was Wednesday and 16.2. and I was to travel to Germany with Theon to promote our Divine Insanity album, which was released there on the very same day. We had our promoter Inka from EMI Finland with us. She shot plenty of video material during the trip to be used for all kinds of purposes in the future. We flew to Berlin in the morning, visited Sony/BMG office to make a couple of phone interviews and a few other interviews as well. I can say about the German interviewers that they want to know a lot more about one's private issues than the Finnish reporters. It's really annoying when they cross that certain border of politeness and start asking too personal questions. Sometimes they get so personal that I can't help laughing at certain questions and I’m, like, "how can anybody ask such a thing?". For example, "What's your favorite thing when having sex?". Is there really somebody who wants to know that? I do like interviews and they're usually lots of fun but sometimes I just can't understand why some people are so curious about my private life.

There were lots going on in Berlin. We went to visit a show of StarFM, which is one of the biggest rock radio stations in Germany. In front of the door there was a horde of German fans and it was nice to see them there. We went upstairs to the studio and while walking in the corridor we heard a rumor that Stone Sour would also be interviewed in the program, just prior to us. Stone Sour, that’s the new band of Slipknot's leading man, Corey Taylor. We were, like, "What?". "Are they really here?".

Once we entered the studio there was Corey Taylor himself standing right in front of us. We really respect him for his vocal talent. I didn't know what to do. Theon casually introduced himself shaking hands and when it was my turn, I just said hi. He patted my shoulder and told us to have fun, before exiting the studio. It felt quite unreal to meet such a famous star like that, completely by accident.

The best was yet to come. While we were talking to the host of the radio show, it turned out that Stone Sour would play a gig in Berlin the very night. We asked our record company for help and they managed to get our names on the guestlist of the gig. We were really excited, had a huge smile on our faces and had a very relaxed and nice interview session with StarFM and really enjoyed ourselves. Thank you, StarFM.

After the radio interview we heard that never before StarFM had hosted a guest with such a huge amount of fans waiting in the lobby as we did have. That was very nice to hear because they have been visited by lots of famous artists. In the lobby we wrote autographs and chatted with the fans. It was nice to see that we really have German fans and now we’re even more eager to start our tour in Germany.

We returned to the hotel and then headed for the nearby steak restaurant to enjoy delicious food and some wine. With our stomachs full, it was time to move on to see the show. Stone Sour gave quite a performance and even though the sounds were a bit trashy, I was very happy to see the gig. Corey was a real showman even though he wasn’t in perfect health. Thank you, Stone Sour. After the gig we went back to the hotel, had a little nightcap and then we went to bed.

After a nice night the next morning rarely is too good. Especially, when you must wake up at six o’clock. We had a shower, enjoyed the breakfast and felt ready to continue the promotional work. Our next stop was the airport because we were to fly to Munich. This time there were no problems at the security check and we soon landed in Munich and took a taxi to our hotel. The taxi drove past the home arena of FC Bayern München. The stadium is enormous and a really amazing sight because of its massive structures. If you visit Munich, I recommend that you check out that building.

We visited another radio station, NRJ München, did an interview and then it was time to visit the headquarters of Bravo music magazine. It’s the biggest European magazine for youngsters with emphasis on music and entertainment. They sell an amazing number of copies and naturally their office is enormous, too. Bravo magazine has existed around 50 years and has a central role when it comes to promoting fresh names in Central Europe. It happened with the Beatles and it happened with HIM.

At the Bravo headquarters we had a photo shoot and did some interviews but the best thing was when the editor-in-chief spent time with us, offered refreshments and introduced us to all those 50 employees. He also showed us pictures where he’s posing together with “small” stars like Michael Jackson, Bon Jovi, Tina Turner, Slash etc. And he also told us very interesting anecdotes about the meetings he had had with Michael Jackson. I must admit that I was a bit jealous, when he kept on talking about Jackson, Oasis - and especially when I was looking at the photo where he’s together with Slash. After all, Slash is my biggest idol ever. It was a real compliment that a man in such an important position was flexible with his agenda and had both time and interest to entertain us during our visit. Thank you, all people at Bravo magazine.

We spent the rest of the day at the hotel doing interviews for different magazines, Metal Hammer, for example. In between the interviews we had dinner and after the last interview we remained in the restaurant and enjoyed those quality drinks, which Munich region offers. The evening just fled and we were naturally pretty tired after a working day of thirteen hours.

In the morning, it was again wake-up at six, a fast drive (200km/h) to the airport and boarding on our flight to Helsinki. We had some hours of rest at Helsinki airport before taking the plane to Oulu, reaching the bus and starting the journey towards Kemi and Levi, where we were to perform next but that’s a different story.

Vivian Sin'amor

Hello everybody

I decided to update this diary so that you'd know, what has happened lately and what we are thinking about it as there's been a lot going on.

The songs for the Eurovision Song Contest are ready and they'll soon be broadcasted for everyone to hear at Radio Suomi. The names of our songs are Anyone Anymore and Wild and Violent. I hope that you like them. Anyone Anymore is my personal favourite and it would be great to win the whole contest with that song. Still, we still have a long way to go and therefore we will need your help, dear fans, for a few times still.

In addition to finishing the contest songs we've been in Germany for a couple of times. The first trip was a three-day promotional visit during which we gave interviews for several magazines and had some photo sessions as well. The most exciting thing was to visit music channel VIVA's very popular talk show called "Live!", which was naturally sent out live. It was the first time when we had to try to speak English instead of our dear native Finnish in a live broadcast. Eventually it went quite nicely although at first it really felt tedious. The host only spoke German and we got a simultaneous translation - with some delay - from the interpreter into our ear monitors. Because of that delay, it always took us five seconds after the host has finished his question before we were able to answer. As you know, we only know a couple of words in German. As a whole, that trip went very nicely with no extraordinary incidents. I think that a more exact diary about that trip will be published in the next issue of Suosikki magazine, most probably with some photos.

The next trip was a five-day visit to The Principal Studios, located near Munster. That place is an enormous mansion in the middle of peaceful countryside. It was so cosy a place that we could easily think of recording a whole album there. This time we only recorded one song and it was an extremely soohting experience. The mansion was so nice that it might have become our new home. For example, there's a private movie theatre with a selection of 350 movies and the music archives contained tens of thousands of songs. Of course, it was possible for us to have a jam session whenever we felt like it. The living room was about 300 square meters and it was equipped with silver screen, pool table, computers and other nice things to keep us in good mood. The recording equipment was of top quality and the crew there was very friendly. Still, I must admit that I missed our regular producer-recorder Erno Laitinen and his moustache a bit.

During that trip we greatly enjoyed all kinds of German delicacies. They do have better sausages there. Also the cheese selection was delicious as well as greasy and German wine and beer were both very tasty and nicely priced so now I believe in those stories I've heard from other travelers. At the studio they had this great service that we got to write a shopping list each day. Then Tony, who did a bit of everything at the studio, went to the store to get our groceries and we never saw any invoices. For example, we had fresh bread rolls every morning for breakfast. We thought that it was a bit too much for us because we would have been quite happy with normal bread but well, we might have gotten used to it. Still, I missed rye bread and Finnish cheese snacks. I'm a big friend of cheese snacks and I don't understand, why the German manufacturers ruin the product by adding some kind of nut flavoring.

The recording and production went really smoothly and, in our opinion, the material is very good. It was great that the producer accepted almost all of our ideas and we were allowed to adjust the guitar sounds by ourselves - and nobody had any negative comments. It felt like there wouldn't have been any producer but that we had done all the producing by ourselves.

The scariest thing took place on Thursday January 18, which was our last day in the studio. On that day there was a powerful storm going over Germany and 30 people perished. Four of them were killed on the same region, where our studio was located. R.I.P. We didn't suffer from the storm, save for one electricity shortage but still, the storm was scary enough. During daytime some of us went to the yard to watch the storm and I have never seen a storm like that in Finland. According to the news the wind occasionally reached the speed of 50m/s. In continental Finland, even the worst of the storms are in general just half of that. Anyways, it wasn't safe to stand on the yard too long, because the storm got worse all the time. In the evening when we were watching a movie together we felt the whole house shaking and there was a horrible noise because the wind extracted tiles from the roof. Sometimes it felt like there'd been a thunder just above us. Through the window we saw how the cars in the parking lot were swaying and shaking like toy cars. Fortunately, the storm calmed down for the night and just before we had to hit the road.

The day of our return was quite hard. We finished working in the studio at 1 am German time. Then we packed our personal items and went to bed. The alarms were set for 3 am. After a quick shower and getting dressed we entered the minibus and drove 1½ hours to the Düsseldorf airport. Once there, we headed for the security control and that was where my journey was about to end.

There wasn't too much time left to the departure when it was my turn to pass the metal detector. All coats, bags etc. went through the x-ray machine. The metal detector gate started beeping when I passed through it. After that, a man wearing a military-looking uniform asked me to spread my arms and examined me from head to toe with a smaller metal detector gadget. When he reached my shoes he started talking to me in German and I informed him that I only spoke English. He then asked me to remove my shoes. So I did and they put my shoes through the x-ray machine and then started examining them, all guys together. There were like 10 guys wearing uniforms - and inspecting my shoes. At one point one of them came to ask me when my flight would depart. I told him that it would be in fifteen minutes and then became a bit worried because the guy answered "Hopefully you can make it".

They had to call their boss and he came, took my shoes and carried them away. A bit later one of them came to inform me: "Come and see". Well, I followed them to watch the monitor of x-ray machine and they explained that there's something in the shoes, which they can't recognize and that's the reason why they can't allow me to pass. I looked at the picture and saw those little morsels they were talking about. At that point I realized that the sole of the shoe must be cracked and there is pebble inside the sole. It took them painfully long to check the shoes. They asked for my passport and the boarding card again and started making phone calls, every now and then checking my passport. It was only five minutes before the scheduled departure time when they returned my shoes and said "Only stones, only stones". Nothing else but little stones. Then I had to run. I was pissed off but of course relieved. Even though Germany is a nice country it's still great to return home.

When we arrived at Helsinki, our own crew was there to welcome us. We jumped into our bus and drove to the Hartwall Arena, because we were to play a gig there at NRJ Radio Awards happening. It was a nice party at the Arena and our gig went very nicely. I and Theon presented an Award for the first time in our lives so it was something nice and new. It was also our first time to participate a very official and well-organized press conference. We were sitting there behind a table with microphones in our hands and the group of reporters asked questions, one by one, and we answered them. It was nice as well and definitely the correct way to organize meetings with the press. In the end of the evening, after we had enjoyed the refreshments offered by NRJ, it was time to get back tobus and start our journey to Tampere. And then, eventually we were home, tired but happy and with lots of new experiences.

Vivian Sin'amor