Last guitars and vocals.

So another session on its way a week ago during the first and second of August. Again Sami brought his gear to Turku and we camped out at Indigofloods practise room. The saturday was reserved for all possible basic stuff Perttu needed to get done. First of laying down the rhythm tracks, to ease the singing, to the couple of songs that still had no guitars. Fortunately both were older tunes, and Peb went through them with no apparent problems. Altough the PRS he was playing had just new strings put into it, and the G seemed to get fucked up tuning wise. Well, no solos to be laid down at this point, so it wasn't a major problem.

Vocals to all five songs left were our second agenda for Perttu. Tero was brought in to cover the rest of the rhythm guitars we didn't get done earlier, and he did a solid job once again. As continued P too, with the vocals. First take done, the man turned around, looked at me, "More pronounciation, aye?" Worded out what I'd been thinking. Nothing more to add after that, although Oceanfloor took two rounds to get right. So many words in it here and there, that Peb needed a breather in the form of Thistle Pillow Pt. II, to get the last licks of Oceanfloor right.

As Peb got through all the needed stuff, I left for a soundcheck of our own gig. Perttu, Tero and Sami were left to do some initial takes on backing vocals. We though Perttu would just need to hear what Tero was about to sing to see if they were right or not. One take or so, and then we'd nail them proper on sunday. Well while doing that, the guys actually managed to record complete and perfect versions of three songs without any problems. Tero had most of his stuff done on saturday also, although we had the whole sunday left.

That night the whole gang hit Rokkibaari. I was singing with 2x4 and Peb was handling the vocal duties with Uncle Foe. Sami and Tero took it easy, which is good considering they still had some serious work to do on sunday. Perttu had to leave sunday morning to some family thingmabo, but it didn't really slow us down, as the tradition has occured, that after each a gig heavy drinking is necessary.

So sunday morning Sami and Tero were up bright and early, and me, well, I got in the car, although not feeling too shabby. Tero had to do backing vocals for a couple of more songs, which was handled damn fast once again. A pronounciation difference between the two was corrected, to make the lines sound the same, but nothing really major that me or Sami had to take part in.
Last T laid down some of the remaining leads and solos, and we were actually done before two-o-clock. Starting at ten paid off, and we all got home suprisingly early.

May guitar session

So we got back to business on the 21st of May. We were supposed to start the wednesday evening before, but Sami got busy, so the plan was changed. We ended up cleaning the bands practise room on wednesday and kicking back a couple of brews. This time the original plan was to do the guitars at the bands practise room anyhow, so it was easier to just stay there for the night. Sami came from Vantaa bright and early, and we kicked ourselves up at about the time he arrived, so it was straight to business from the morning.

This was the first time we had recordings in the middle of the week, but as the thursday was a national holiday, we decided to use it for the project. Normally the guys would have had work on a thursday, but this was an exception. So our team consisted of Sami, me, Peb and Tero. As we only had one day, we decided to take care of as many guitar tracks as possible. The guys played really good like usual, and there actually isn't that much to tell about. Three songs, Riverhome, Thistle Pillow part II and Pouring Stairs from a Bottle, were handled if i remember correctly.

Again Peb amazed me atleast, by whipping out an old telecaster and a slide tube, and did a close to brilliant solo for Pouring Stairs. I had the initial though down, but didn't quite know how to end it yet, so we left that to simmer until next time. We used about 7 hours, for two guitars on three songs, so it was decent. And after that we needed to hurry, as we were leaving to see Lynyrd Skynyrd with P the same night at Helsinki.

The next meet is planned on 17.-19. of July, and hopefully we'll get the rest of the stuff done then. Two more songs are still lacking guitars and then there's the vocals. Knowing these guys though, me might not even need the whole weekend. Missing a note while singing doesn't seem to be something to worry about. Waiting eagerly for it.

Damn, it's been a while.

Due to logistic problems, the recordings have stood still for a long while. We've got two sessions behind us though and are slowly but firmly getting there. 14th of March was used to record the remaining drums and bass parts for the last five songs and the 21st of May we spent doing guitars for three more songs.

So first on the 14th of March.

Basic arrival at Vantaa, Sami's place when we got the crew together first at Turku. Little hung over as always and yours truly tired as hell from last nights work. So everything looked pretty basic. Drum tracks were first and there was a certain change in the atmosphere towards playing when Aki got started. We had only older songs left for recording, and it seemed like they just flowed out of the man. The guys have been playing those for so long, even second takes seemed trivial time to time. Aki pounded shit in with such efficiency, I don't know if it is supposed to be possible, considering we were doing a full lenght album.

Riverhome, Pouring Stairs from a Bottle, Oceanfloor and Rhinestone needed max three takes, so there's extra to pick from. Thistle Pillow (part II) took a little longer as it's the new song and has had some makeover done to it. Anycase, through out the drumsessions, the only thing Sami was doing was pushing record and yelling "Great, next!". So it was a blast to follow such a fluent work process.

For the whole session we had moved Peb and Tro to the next room, doing back-up guitars and vocs for A, so he remembers the song structures and every other needed detail. I was sitting with those two, and I have to admit it is always the coolest thing to watch them do their thing. Every note comes out virtually effortless, guitar or vocals, doesn't matter. And when you get to see the vocal harmonies happen right there next to you, it just blows you away.

Second matter on the list was bass for rest of the songs. I actually kind of stepped off at this point. I know Chuck too well to be acting like a producer towards him. He doesn't listen to my shit and I sure as hell don't listen to his, so we've got a mutual understanding, but it doesn't go well when working, heh hee. Perttu and Sami took over for the bass parts, as Peb is the one who knows the songs through and through, so he was there to see if all the notes fit. Sami acted as the official producer once again.

As the drums took for about 4-5 hours to record, we had either a couple of hours left of the saturday and more on sunday, or a long day on saturday and free time for sunday. Sami made the big decision, by announcing that he was up for a long day, so we could just go home after that. So they played bass for around 4 more hours and actually got everything basically done. Peb kept a watch on the notes, made small corrections and Chuck just kept slamming away. Afterward the poor bassist didn't even know if it was good or not, as he was so concentrated on playing. This far no big problems have shined through and Sami hasn't complained altough he too was a little bit iffy right after the recordings. But hey, we still have plenty of time before the release, as the albums official release date is "when it's ready". So if we encounter something someone is not happy with, we'll just plug C back in and get it right.

At this point though, seems like all the backgrounds are done, and we're a little bit closer to getting the album done. Tomorrow more on the guitar sessions on May.