So now the papers are inked. We have names signed and a deal sealed. Well actually Chuck still hasn't put his name under, but I don't think that's going to be a problem. First info to the world will be sent this week, so I'm expecting an increase in the readers of this blog. Dunno if anything's gonna happen, but I'm hoping atleast...
Let's see, where did we leave off last time. We had one final rehearsal with the guys before Tero left for his honeymoon. The guys played through Kutteri, did a few version, pondered about the ideas Sami had thrown at them and came to a conclusion. The cuts in the middle of the song were very much justified. The intro was maybe cut a little short, but just a tiny bit and same with the outro, they're now shorter then before but maybe not as short as Sami would have hoped for. We'll try them out when we get to that.
Two more songs were also discussed. Terra Fungus had almost no big moves made on it, and the song Hats and Ratchets had nothing done to it structure-wise, so those are the three we're going to start with. As Tero is out of the country for three weeks, we hope to get a session in even before he returns, so we could have the basic drums, bass and guitars done for those tracks. It's not looking too good though, considering everyones busy as hell.
On another note, there was a small guess on the album name on the headline here, but I kind of erased it as it seems to have changed. Currently we're working under the title Communicating with Submarines, but nothing is final yet. (I like Commenting on Submarines more though, hah!)
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Moving on to the recordings
So the worst is behind us. The boys heard the songs after Sami went wild on them. A no-holds-barred situation between Sarhamaa and the tunes had taken some of them a little far from the original idea, and not everything was agreed upon, but still no fist fights broke out and I think we will slowly but firmly achieve common ground.
The one with the most issues is probably going to be one of the oldest tunes, called Retreat, there was some major clipping done to it, and the guys felt it lacked the easygoing feeling it had before. The song just rolled over you, which is nice in some cases, but this time it might not be the right option to suit the song (Fuck, just lost my radiohit, hah!). As Retreat seems to be the one with the most opinions from everyone, we'll just leave it to simmer for now. Hopefully when we return to it during the summer, there's a compromise everyone can be satisfied with.
On the other hand a new tune called Kutteri was clipped from approx. 7:15 minutes to 5:20, and the bastard's working like never before! I've completely fallen in love with the song. If you ask me it's got a Jimi Hendrix vibe to it, that I dig wholeheartedly. And every cut was justified and almost immidiately approved, as the song now pushes forward like a train!
The only thing that we discussed after Sami had left the premises, was that the intro was cut a bit short. If the song is in the middle of the album , the intro needs to be short if you ask me, as we don't want the listener to leave for the fridge during it. BUT the other thought was, that the track might be the starter for the whole album, as it truly is one of the stronger tunes, and as a starter we might even want to drag the intro a little bit. No ones going to leave during the first 20-30 second of an album anyhow, so what the fuck, I don't see a problem with the band messing around a bit on the beginning of the album, just to get the listener ready for anything, because I already know that this is going to be an album where anything can and propably will happen.
So hopefully we're recording this one first, so I can get me some material to start promotion with. I've naturally got big plans on which way to take this whole shenanigans. Contacting possible foreign partners is something I will want and need to do asap. I/we hope to get two or three songs ready already in June/July so I can start working foreigners over. And we might even try our luck with some radio stations, altough the expectations aren't too high concerning those.
I think that's about it for now. And that was just two songs... We went through all of the ten, but no one propably wants to hear me blabber details about every one of them. Next up is signing the official deal. Mr. Kairinen is a business genious of somesort, so he's been laughing at our gentlemen's agreement that has propably got a bunch of holes in it. It seems though that the holes are in the bands advantage, as Tero has been agreeing to sign also. (We've finally got the sucker bowing to the man, a.k.a me!)
So we'll see when we can arrange the first recording session and inform the world about the official stuff, as we sail forward in this sea of cheese. Later.
The one with the most issues is probably going to be one of the oldest tunes, called Retreat, there was some major clipping done to it, and the guys felt it lacked the easygoing feeling it had before. The song just rolled over you, which is nice in some cases, but this time it might not be the right option to suit the song (Fuck, just lost my radiohit, hah!). As Retreat seems to be the one with the most opinions from everyone, we'll just leave it to simmer for now. Hopefully when we return to it during the summer, there's a compromise everyone can be satisfied with.
On the other hand a new tune called Kutteri was clipped from approx. 7:15 minutes to 5:20, and the bastard's working like never before! I've completely fallen in love with the song. If you ask me it's got a Jimi Hendrix vibe to it, that I dig wholeheartedly. And every cut was justified and almost immidiately approved, as the song now pushes forward like a train!
The only thing that we discussed after Sami had left the premises, was that the intro was cut a bit short. If the song is in the middle of the album , the intro needs to be short if you ask me, as we don't want the listener to leave for the fridge during it. BUT the other thought was, that the track might be the starter for the whole album, as it truly is one of the stronger tunes, and as a starter we might even want to drag the intro a little bit. No ones going to leave during the first 20-30 second of an album anyhow, so what the fuck, I don't see a problem with the band messing around a bit on the beginning of the album, just to get the listener ready for anything, because I already know that this is going to be an album where anything can and propably will happen.
So hopefully we're recording this one first, so I can get me some material to start promotion with. I've naturally got big plans on which way to take this whole shenanigans. Contacting possible foreign partners is something I will want and need to do asap. I/we hope to get two or three songs ready already in June/July so I can start working foreigners over. And we might even try our luck with some radio stations, altough the expectations aren't too high concerning those.
I think that's about it for now. And that was just two songs... We went through all of the ten, but no one propably wants to hear me blabber details about every one of them. Next up is signing the official deal. Mr. Kairinen is a business genious of somesort, so he's been laughing at our gentlemen's agreement that has propably got a bunch of holes in it. It seems though that the holes are in the bands advantage, as Tero has been agreeing to sign also. (We've finally got the sucker bowing to the man, a.k.a me!)
So we'll see when we can arrange the first recording session and inform the world about the official stuff, as we sail forward in this sea of cheese. Later.
Monday, May 5, 2008
Before the last meet
Ok, so tomorow is the day. The pre prod is done to a certain degree and if you ask me it's sounding fuckin' great. I'm still a bit hesitant about tomorow though. Well actually more like scared shitless, to tell you the truth, heh hee. Sami has done some radical shit, but with excelent taste in my opinion. I just hope the guys have an open mind and like what's been done. And what the hell, we can always go backwards, so I'm not loosing sleep over this.
I do know though that some of them have had some disastrous pre-production session in the past, so there's propably going to be some tension in the air, but I think the modifications will speak for themselves. And if they don't, I know Sami well enough, that I can guarantee he's got some heavy justifications for everything he's done. So hopefully we can chat through the songs and get on the same level about everything through compromises and some re-arranging maybe.
Actually there were some parts clipped off that even I might end up fighting for. I've been listening to some of these tunes for half a decade already, so cutting off pieces feels even to me like taking limbs off a baby, so I can't even imagine how it has to be for the guys in the band. And I mean, I don't mind loosing a few fingers and toes here and there, if it makes the bigger picture solid, but everyone needs two arms, two legs and some genitalia.
And I have to add, as I said before, Sami is truely the man for the job, he's got excellent ideas, a seemsless vision of the whole package and he even seems to be enjoying every minute he spends working on this stuff. There's going to be some seriously twisted shit in a really good way of course. We hope to add stuff like accordeon, harmonica, hammond, tamburine, maybe even some moog-type stuff, I'm talking all the works to make everything top notch. And Sami seems to have adopted everyone of these tunes already, as he has effortlessly made solid organ tracks, acoustic guitars and even little ideas for possible vibes of the lead parts here and there. So hats off to the man.
I actually just realized, I'm not only scared shitless, I'm also eagerly awaiting for tomorow! I have a good vibe about the whole project, there might be something great in the making here. I'll give you the new bearings after the session, so we'll see how this goes.
I do know though that some of them have had some disastrous pre-production session in the past, so there's propably going to be some tension in the air, but I think the modifications will speak for themselves. And if they don't, I know Sami well enough, that I can guarantee he's got some heavy justifications for everything he's done. So hopefully we can chat through the songs and get on the same level about everything through compromises and some re-arranging maybe.
Actually there were some parts clipped off that even I might end up fighting for. I've been listening to some of these tunes for half a decade already, so cutting off pieces feels even to me like taking limbs off a baby, so I can't even imagine how it has to be for the guys in the band. And I mean, I don't mind loosing a few fingers and toes here and there, if it makes the bigger picture solid, but everyone needs two arms, two legs and some genitalia.
And I have to add, as I said before, Sami is truely the man for the job, he's got excellent ideas, a seemsless vision of the whole package and he even seems to be enjoying every minute he spends working on this stuff. There's going to be some seriously twisted shit in a really good way of course. We hope to add stuff like accordeon, harmonica, hammond, tamburine, maybe even some moog-type stuff, I'm talking all the works to make everything top notch. And Sami seems to have adopted everyone of these tunes already, as he has effortlessly made solid organ tracks, acoustic guitars and even little ideas for possible vibes of the lead parts here and there. So hats off to the man.
I actually just realized, I'm not only scared shitless, I'm also eagerly awaiting for tomorow! I have a good vibe about the whole project, there might be something great in the making here. I'll give you the new bearings after the session, so we'll see how this goes.
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