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.