Recordings done!

Kaboom!! Now my work is done and damn it feels like a relief after couple of months prepairing, writing lyrics and everything! I'm pretty satisfied with the result so far, the songs sound killer already. Now we just have to wait for those mixed versions to penetrate our ear system. Yesterday was quite long and hard working day: I arrived to Sound Supreme Studios at 10.30 in the morning and we started to nail vocals about 11.00.. so the day went by and approximately at 19.00 our featuring star, Jules came with Eve. Finally we had everything ready at 22.30. The rest of the day went quite smoothly. Damn, the relief is huge! So, now I'm gonna vanish somewhere to have a relaxing couple of days off... ..."Signs of Existence" is waiting to encroach your minds and take your mortal souls hahaaa, sind Sie fehrtig? -with lööv, T-

Touché, it's grande finale!

Skepp ohoj!

Friday past by with a loads of singing and growling, we also had one featuring session to "The Final Frontier" which turned out to sound quite brutal. The whole day actually went by filling some missing parts of the vocal tracks, additional growls, speaks and clean stuff.. Also I managed to nail one new song "Erilainen Matti" ;) ..okay, we're a little bit late from the planned schedual but no panic. On tuesday which is going to be the last day of recordings, we'll take some extra hours to complete two songs and rest of the fill-in stuff, then my work is done!
More news on tuesday... so stay tuneeed!

-T-

Wir haben eine fotze partyyy, supaaaa! Sind sie fehrtig?

Halloo alles mänschen!

The day is done! Only two more days to go with the vocal stuff, tomorrow and next week's tuesday..the final countdown. Today we also had some fine featuring support from two people (to be announced later..;), and man those songs sound killer! The actual result is about 7 songs completed, 2 more songs tomorrow and the final piece of work on tuesday...can't wait to hear the whole album recorded, mixed & mastered. Feels like a little child waiting to have the christmas presents open..
Skibedihey & rock tha fuck on!

-T-

versatile vox

Today we recorded "ampiainen" and some missing parts and additional vocals to "tekno", "rässi" and "paras biisi". So now we've done little bit over half album. Go Johnny go!
Tomorrow we will have some guest stars to do some vocal parts. We will let you know on which songs they'll appear and who! Hold your horses amigos, the tension will soon be over!

Matthew and Tommy

Kotikatua ja Transkuteknoa

Howdyhooo buddies!

Today I managed to nail about one and half songs, completing the "Kotikatu's" growls and additional clean vocals, and one of the oldest song from the newies: "Tekno". Tomorrow we're gonna continue only with vocal stuff and the aim is to have two more songs done.

Also we witnessed some really crazy thing with Eve, when Mathew "the Eye" performed an eye trick.. he pushed his fingers into his eyes and they started to make noise that sounded like someone wiping glasses or window with a wet towel! Hmm how can eye make a noise?

That's all that now, 'till tomorrow then!

-Tömmy-

Keyboards finished!

So it's a start of a new week again. This should be the last week of the actual recordings - we have done our best reserving two weeks for the mixing cause there's a lot of stuff that has to be turned from shit into a piece of art. ;-) Me, Tommy and Matthew arrived here yesterday morning by Toni's car (cause "someone" from Spinefarm stood us up again!! :D). First I recorded "Tekno" (which is now renamed as "Transluscent Dreams" or "Transutekno 180") and it went really fluently. You can tell that it's the oldest song: actually I came up with the lead melody two years ago in this very same place as I was jamming by myself one night. We've played that song many times live too, so it has got its form ages ago. There's also gonna be a cool intro in the beginning of the song (or actually it's the intro for the whole album), so we emailed the keyboard parts of it to a friend of ours who will make the intro. I also finished "Erilainen Matti" and it turned out to sound quite cool too. Tommy also sang some parts for "Kotikatu" and it sounded REALLY good.

In the evening we visited our nearest grocery store to get some beer and food and got a lecture from the lady working on the shop, how clueless today's youth is in the kitchen. Oh, my. We tried to tell her we didn't have a stove here in the studio so the only option was to buy some prepared food and heat it in the microwave oven. She wasn't interested.

Later we watched Godfather DVD (the film is evergreen!) and as we constantly started to fall asleep with Tommy, we decided to go to sleep. That worked well until Matthew came to his bed bunk. It was a couple of minutes and the worst snoring I've ever heard, started. He sounded like a huge bear in his winter sleep! For an hour I just tried to ignore the sound, then I tried to listen to some doom metal in my iPod but that didn't help either. I also poked him so that he would turn in some different position in his bed but he's so special that he can snore even lying on his side! But then something happened: Matthew went to take a leak (of course he put the lights on that pointed straight to my eyes) and I thought I could fall asleep before the snoring started again. WRONG! He came back and restarted the growling in 30 seconds. Unbelievable!! I still tried to get some sleep but at 5:30 am or so I got tired of trying and went to sleep on the living room's sofa. I know by experience that the guy usually does snore, but this was the worst night ever.

So as my alarm clock rang at 9 am to finish the last songs I had left, I didn't understand anything. Miraculously I still got up and finished "Yhden sormen syna" and "Ampiainen". The last-mentioned finally sounded really good although I was totally clueless with the song cause they made some guitar harmonies on the chorus that weren't there before - so I had to rearrange all the keyboard parts. I actually came up with the chorus' keyboard lead last night. It seems that sometimes it's does good to work under pressure, I'm quite pleased to the song now.

My job is done now! I'll leave home tonight cause tomorrow I have to go to work (fuck!), so Tommy and Matthew will continue the reporting from here. So long, suckers!

-E-

Salatut laiffit!

Hilipati hey!

A little report from the studio. Today some of us woke up early & started to record some shit on the tape. Some of us slept " a little bit" longer, because of the partying until 05:00. The result for todays work was 2 songs with keyboards & 1,5 songs with the vocals.

Jonas left today back home to Pietarsaari, so there is just me, Eve & Tommy here.
We just got back from the center of Hämeenlinna, where we were eating some delicious pizzas & kebabs at Izmir. We also bought some snacks & beer for the evening...

This is probably my last report from here, because next week I'll have to be back at work.

...suppo suppo!


-Resistor-

Fäkkelifäkkfäkk

Alright !! The bass tracks are done and now the partying begins:)
I would like to thank Tom Stenback for the great bass he made for me!
We also did some vocals for "Taikahuilu" and it sounds killer!!
Tomorrow we're going to continue with synths and vocals!
Fäkk the shait!!!
-Jurrde

Monkey business

Ugh. What an annoying evening last night! Cause today was a day off for Jonas and everybody else than me and Tommy, all the guys decided to have a party. Also Tommy participated: he was making excuses how he would do better with the growls if he drank some beer and whiskey the night before the recordings. Yeah, right! ;-) An alcoholic always makes excuses. Nothing new under the sun...

Matthew, being the fastest drinker of the band, decided to buy twice as much beverages as he's bought before, so the booze wouldn't run out this time. BIG MISTAKE, at least as it comes to me, the only one who was sober that night (one glass of whiskey and coke doesn't count). As hours went by, he got louder and louder, more and more annoying and extremely gay. To protect the last tiny parts of his remaining reputation, we won't reveal all the things he did.

All hell broke loose when he insisted of listening to Led Zeppelin's "Babe, I'm Gonna Leave You" (did I mention already that it had to be LOUD?!) and the guys came up with the idea that he had to take a sip of his bottle of "Valdemar" (it's strong, cheap and disgusting "wine" that bums tend to drink in Finland) every time Robert Plant sang the word "baby" (the word is repeated like hundreds of times, you know). The legendary singer would have turned in his grave if he had heard Matthew's perfomance that wasn't singing but mainly howling - and the bottle was emptied in a blink of an eye. At midnight the guys - including Toni "ElDiablo" Salminen, who has survived from the chicken pox he got the last time he visited us in the studio - finally left to check out the nightlife in Hämeenlinna. They had experienced various... adventures in Hannibal and Night Life and I got informed of all the incidents as they came back at 5 am and woke me up, of course.

So, as the alarm clock started ringing at 9 am, I was the only one who was lively and excited about the recordings. The others didn't even turn sides in their beds. We got straight to work with Janne and managed to record almost three songs with the keyboards: Taikahuilu, Rässi and about 80 percent of Final Frontier. The recordings proceeded really fluently, to my astonishment. Many parts were accepted after one take and Janne came up with good, fresh ideas. Amazingly, Tommy could sing a bit too. ;-) They recorded some growls into Taikahuilu (that seems to be named officially as "Killing Time"). Tomorrow's my day off and they'll finish the two songs left without bass and Tommy will continue with the vocals. Now I will drink some beer and shout my lungs out! As a revenge.

-Eve-

TJUUUDILIIDIDUUU

Today I recorded 4 songs! Taikahuilu ,1 sormen syna, ampiainen and Final frontier!
2 more to go! Tomorrow we will record some synths and some vocals! I will finish the bass recordings on Wednesday!
Fäkk the Zistem:)
-Jonas

Hangover stories part 3

Yesterday Tommy and I arrived here in Hämeenlinna by train and Janne came to pick us up from the railway station. Jonas had arrived here already in the morning and he was getting ready to start his part of the recordings. Resistor had finished all his guitar parts early in the morning so there were only a couple of Matthew's parts left. Jonas couldn't get to work though, cause Matthew was in a deep sleep (again)! It seems that there just isn't an amount of sleep that would be enough for him. Finally he woke up and finished his parts quickly. After that Jonas and Janne started to record the bass. The result was two songs: "Tekno" and "Turre". (All the good songs start with the letter T. Look at "Take on Me" for example!) I have to say that now the songs really start to sound HEAVY, as the low frequencies roar side by side with the guitars. And there is also some serious bass porn included. ;-)

It was quite obvious from the beginning that as we finished the guitars, we would have to celebrate the occasion. And is there any other way to celebrate, Finns as we are, than by drinking alcohol? A stupid question indeed. Joy without booze is pretending. So, we drank, listened to muzak and tried to watch tv at the same time. Matthew was handling the commentary and dubbing on K-18 films and he got so deep (and loud) into it that Janne, who was working late with the mastering of the Rotten Sound album, asked in the morning if he ever shuts up. Well, he doesn't, especially if there's booze involved.

Jonas tried to go to sleep early, because of the bass recordings that would continue in the morning but he couldn't sleep because of Matthew's performance in the adult entertainment and imitation of Atria tv-ad. "Tässä on Rauno, joka keksi reseptin, johon kuuluu curry, joka maustaa kastikkeen, joka kuuluu broileriin, jonka paistoi äiti!" Now, in the morning, Matthew is really silent.



-Eve-

Guitars, guitars, guitars...

Hey!

Today we recorded 2 songs, with the guitars. We have one more left "Taikahuilu", for tomorrow.
It should be a piece of cake, because we have played that tune a thousand times.
The songs we recorded today was "Paras biisi & Rässi". Our album producer Janne Saksa, played some acoustic licks on Paras biisi & fuckkkk, that it sounded awesome!
"Paras biisi's" one part would work with romantic evenings. Bottle of well aged red wine with cheese and grapes and not to forget candles warm dripping stearine!

Now we hit to our local store MAnu to buy some snacks.
Tomorrow Eve, Tommy & Jonas arrives, so there might be some partying!

...se vaan on näin!

-Resistor & Matthew-

Guitars, guitars...

The time is now 13:10. We started to record the guitars at about 10:00 this morning.
The result is 2 finished songs. We got one more to go for today, so you could say that things are going pretty smoothly.
Now it's a luch break for us. We're eating some delicious microwave food & drinking coffee.

-Resistor & Matthew-

Guitars

Hejsan alla!

So today we continued where we left last friday. We have now recorded 4 songs with the guitars, "Turre, Yhden sormen syna, Erilainen Matti" and almost The Final Frontier.
Soon we hit the city of Hämeenlinna & get something to eat.

-Resistor-

The perfect guitar sound

We have spent the fifth day by searching the perfect guitar sound and we've found it! The first song that we've been working on is "Turre" (we have no idea what name has Tommy reserved for it) and it's almost finished. The guitar recordings have progressed quite smoothly. This is the final day for this week, soon we're leaving back to Helsinki to spend the weekend.

Btw, we have to thank Veriryhmä for giving us the biggest laughs in a long time! "Älkää kuten Jeesus Kristus, vaan kuten Gene Simmons".

Ok, that's it for now. Let's get back to business next week!

Hangover stories, part 2

We're slowly recovering from yesterday's madness. The toilets have been in active use because the intestines haven't recovered from the serious abuse of liquors. Luckily we didn't have any responsibilities today, cause there hasn't been any use for us. Janne spent the day behind the closed doors, working with the drum tracks. DJ played a couple of samples and left to spend some quality time with his family. No more rock n' roll lifestyle for him anymore, at least for now. Me, Matthew and Resistor are spending time by wathing the Finnish comedy series "Vintiöt". Tomorrow we'll continue with the guitars.

By-bye!!!

-Eve-

Other diseases

Oh. My. The time is 11:00 and we just woke up (not Matthew though, we're taking a bet when he's going to wake up - anyhow not during the first upcoming hours). Yesterday got out of our hands, which is not a surprise cause there was a lot of booze involved. Too much for some of us, I would say.

We started the party by drinking here at the studio, but suddenly the booze ran out!! There was no other choice than to head to the center of Hämeenlinna and find some ultra cool heavy metal oasis. Well, we didn't find that but on a kind assistance of a local native we found a bar called Hannibal! The price of the pint was really decent so we decided to stay there. Witnessed some fights by the natives, doomed attempts on approaching the opposite sex by our guitar hero Matthew and you know what? There was a stripper! The SILF Birgit performed quite a disturbing show and the guys in the bar were pleased. Our boys, being modest and nice young men, kept their eyes on their pints (at least that's what they want to tell their females), leaving Matthew firmly on the first row, his feet glued on the floor. The way back to the studio was quite funny, practical jokes involved and stuff. Matthew and Resistor didn't laugh, though but you know - someone has to be the target. Went to sleep around 5:00 am, after we had teased Matthew so much that he really seemed to be so pissed off that we had to stop for the sake of our health.

At the moment, Janne Saksa is listening to the drum tracks and after he's finished, our guitarists get to work. Exciting! We're making some progress here.

-Eve-

12.9. Drum tracks are finished (perhaps?)

Yo mamas!

Today me & Eve arrived to the studio, with Toni.
When we came to the studio at about 15:00, we found DJ Locomotive working on the last track "Ampiainen / Bumble Bee". Tomorrow we will make the final adjustments to the songs.

So now it's party time!We bought some beer & snacks for the night, from our local store MAnu.
Tomorrow we probably have a fucking hangover & some other diseases, but we'll manage.

...over and out!

-Resistor-

10.9. First drum tracks

The day began with fixing the drumkit ready for the soundcheck.
About 14:00 we started to record the drums. We finished the recording session at about 18:00.
The result was three finished drum tracks.
Way to go Johnny!!

-Matthew & DJ Locomotive-

9.9. Arrival to the studio

Hey Ho!

We arrived (DJ Locomotive & Matthew) to Hämeenlinna, the city of knights, at 21:00 with our dear friend Toni "El Diablo" Salminen. Then we quickly carried our gear into the studio & hit the nearest restaurant. The plan was to dine at the legendary Izmir restaurant, but unfortunately it was closed, but Behold! we found a saviour across the street, Mevlana!
After the delicious kebab, it was time to say goodbye to Toni.
But we were still hungry (WTF?), so we bought a couple of cheap burgers from McDonalds.

As we came back to the studio, we assembled the drumkit & changed the drum heads.
Later we just relaxed in our room & when the clock hit 02:00 we went to sleep.

Rock'n Roll biaaaatch!

-DJ Locomotive & Matthew-

Greetings friends!

Hell-o and welcome to myGRAIN's studio diary! It will be launched in 10th of September as we begin the recordings. Stay tuned...