|
RECORDING THE DEBUT ALBUM IN 8 DAYS
Day 1:
To get four rockers out of bed early in the morning to pack their gear into the recording studio was surprisingly easy. The plan was to record on the brand new macintosh computer but since it had been malfunctioning for the previous band, we were looking forward to record on the good old PC-system. First lucky event was that while miking up the drums, studio owner Dan suggested we'd record using his old Sonor bass drum, something that really showed to be a great idea. A few miles of cables and wires later we were ready to put down the first track "Enslaved".
At midnight Gus had recorded drums on 13 songs and was somewhat tired but happy with the result and the band decided to resume activity the morning after.
Day 2 :
 Gus showed up early to check whether his drumming from yesterday was good enough of if he wanted to re-record any of them. He decided to do "Little Angel" once again since he felt it didn't have the right punch... A bit later Klaus turned up with his bass and a new set of strings and by midday he had finished his tracks. Surprised that we've worked even quicker than we could imagine, we were almost a full day ahead schedule, and decided to start tracking the rhythm guitars. This was specially exciting for Q, since he never recorded before with his brand new Peavey amp. Along with an old Shure microphone and a DBX mic-amplifier it sure sounded like a million dollars.
Day 3 :
 Putting down guitars on 13 songs isn't done on a coffeybreak so... more and more guitars... finally we had no option but to crank up an old Marshall amp from the late 60's, slightly modified by Tommy Folkesson, a swedish guy who is famous for wiring up old amps... this was exactly what we needed bringing some body and soul to the rhythm guitars. After 12 hours of listening to a distorted Gibson guitar through some stompboxes and what have you, Q was finally happy.
You might think that this was the end of the day... no way. Mike called studio owner Dan to get some help with the microphones and preamps and all and started to record "Misery". Since time just flies when you're having fun, it was soon early in the morning and 7 out of 13 songs now had vocals and backing vocals attached to them. Time to get some rest.
Day 4:
 Lazy day. Didn't start to record until noon. Everybody grabbed some headphones to do the backing vocals for "Let's Go" - 4 adult men doing music together... After that, the rest of the band was serving coffey and sausages to Mike who still had 6 songs to go. Feeling a bit sore after breaking his 5-songs-in-a-day-record from last night, he found himself leaving the studio at 4 o'clock in the morning, tired but reasonably happy with the result. It's a glamorous life being a rock star.
Day 5 :
 The most frustrating day of our lives. The studio was occupied by another band and we had to wai until 7 in the evening before we could start the tedious work that is editing all the extra noise from the bass and guitars, all coughings and mysterious noise from the vocalist, as well as the noise that comes from a drummer hitting an expensive microphone as hard as possible...
Day 6 :
 Continuing to edit out noise... boring... but at middday it was time to start the mixing process. luckily this is done quite easily using modern technique and if you just mix one of the songs with a good result, you simply apply the same settings to the rest of the songs. Easier said then done and left Mike sitting at the computer along with studio owners Dan and Stefan until 4 o'clock in the morning once again.
Day 7 :
 The band is drinking their millionth cup of coffee while review the result from the night before. Only small adjustments are necessary and surprisingly Q thinks the guitar is too loud on "malfunction". AN odd request from a guitarplayer. Minor adjustments are made and the band awaits next day when Dan is going to apply the mastering process.
Day 8:
Mastering - this mysterious process that breathes a bit of extra life into a recording. Since everything is recorded it's not too hard to find that little extra punch, so most of the day turns out to be about making back-ups and just hang around drinking even more coffee. You don't record an album over this short period of time - you just don't. But it's lots of fun.
|