Saturday morning at noon me and Eemeli met at our rehersalroom and loaded the car with two tomtoms with wornout heads, couple of snare drums and some empty paint cans kindly provided by Tikkurila Oy, and drove straight into the studio with the latest Freedom Call album blasting out of the car stereo! Our aim was to be there at 12.30 but as written in the wind our beloved engineer & co-producer John Stamos Huikka was not in the premises yet, so we chose to start the day with fresh coffee and "kanapekoniparilapatonki" at Cafe Picnic.
Ricky Tournee joined us with his brand new haircut anxious to start recording the vocals for the album. After finishing our breakfast Huikka showed up and led us down to the basement and we got down to business. Ricky started with the song called OMG which will soon be found among the greatest songs in the book of Power-Metal. After few warm-up takes Rickys famous cutting voice was hot and ready to record. He nailed the tune in no time with myself, Eemeli and Huikka acting as producers helping him out with the vocal arangements and sharing our views and ideas to get the best possible performance out of him. It seemed to work really smoothly.
After Ricky had finished his parts, the rest of us started to set up the percussion arsenal in order to record some tribal drum parts for the song known as "Kebab-Ahtisaari-Turkish". Of course you cannot do tribal drums with out some company, so I called my friend and fellow drummer Letku to help me out and stomp some cans with me. After having lunch at the famous restaurant Vega, we grabbed some beers and started to bang the shit out of the percussion set we had set up. It was amazingly fun and it seemed to fit into the song really well. A few beers later we had it and we were ready to head downtown for a wild night out!
- Jake Rattlesnake
Taking the Lead
A lot has happened since the last update. We've been busy (read: too lazy) to update this blog every time something happens in the studio. Sorry bout that but better later than never, huh?
As I'm writing this, only few lead guitar licks are missing. We've played rest of the leads in several evenings during the this month. There's parts with four lead guitar tracks running at the same time (2 in unison but from different positions and 2 in harmony) so this pretty much more than triples the work. But hey, the effort can be heard from the end result. There's also some new stuff coming up we've never recorded before, eg. the double guitar solo (= two different solos simultaneously) in one song.
True posing
E lays down a lick of the century
John Huikka produces, E sweeps
Smile! You're on candid studio cam!
In addition, we've recorded already some keyboards played again by JR and John Huikka. We have also recorded demo vocals for all tracks in order to fine tune the vocal arrangements to the max. The vocal sessions will start this week so everything's proceeding and we're getting... to somewhere :)
We also did a "break-out-from-studio-type-of-a-gig". Here's some evidence of that... Thanks to Joelpeer, Tapio and Toni.
Metalscope's pics
As I'm writing this, only few lead guitar licks are missing. We've played rest of the leads in several evenings during the this month. There's parts with four lead guitar tracks running at the same time (2 in unison but from different positions and 2 in harmony) so this pretty much more than triples the work. But hey, the effort can be heard from the end result. There's also some new stuff coming up we've never recorded before, eg. the double guitar solo (= two different solos simultaneously) in one song.
True posing
E lays down a lick of the century
John Huikka produces, E sweeps
Smile! You're on candid studio cam!
In addition, we've recorded already some keyboards played again by JR and John Huikka. We have also recorded demo vocals for all tracks in order to fine tune the vocal arrangements to the max. The vocal sessions will start this week so everything's proceeding and we're getting... to somewhere :)
We also did a "break-out-from-studio-type-of-a-gig". Here's some evidence of that... Thanks to Joelpeer, Tapio and Toni.
Metalscope's pics
Papa, I'm Coming Home
Wednesday 20.1.2010
After a month break we're back at the studio. The first day after the break was an easy one. It lasted only 1h. The aim was to record a guest starring vocal thingie from Mr. Wilska and so we did.
It's always nice to see pro people at work. Wilska did his part in less than 30 minutes and he sounded as cool as always.
Next we'll continue with the rest of the lead guitars and vocals. Yea!
After a month break we're back at the studio. The first day after the break was an easy one. It lasted only 1h. The aim was to record a guest starring vocal thingie from Mr. Wilska and so we did.
It's always nice to see pro people at work. Wilska did his part in less than 30 minutes and he sounded as cool as always.
Next we'll continue with the rest of the lead guitars and vocals. Yea!
CLEANing out the closet
Day 1 - Clean guitars Tuesday 15th of December
Alrighty then folks, we got a day spared for clean guitars that will be featured in couple of songs on the album. Usually we have done clean guitars in a haste when there's only few hours of studio time left. But this time we really wanted to focus on finding the best possible sound that will suit each song. After some heavy knob turning, we were ready to record and got what we wanted: cold sounding clean tone that will send shivers down to your spine :)
Tuomas was also present and we decided to goof around a bit by recording some sound effect like bass licks by plugging bass into guitar amp. The results can be heard from the album.
Setting the Sound
Adding the finishing touch to the sound
Cleaning the Tone
Huikka producing, Tuomas demolishing Cheeseballs
Listening to take
The Statement :)
Rap artist Kuivaliha from the ghetto of Salla
Alrighty then folks, we got a day spared for clean guitars that will be featured in couple of songs on the album. Usually we have done clean guitars in a haste when there's only few hours of studio time left. But this time we really wanted to focus on finding the best possible sound that will suit each song. After some heavy knob turning, we were ready to record and got what we wanted: cold sounding clean tone that will send shivers down to your spine :)
Tuomas was also present and we decided to goof around a bit by recording some sound effect like bass licks by plugging bass into guitar amp. The results can be heard from the album.
Setting the Sound
Adding the finishing touch to the sound
Cleaning the Tone
Huikka producing, Tuomas demolishing Cheeseballs
Listening to take
The Statement :)
Rap artist Kuivaliha from the ghetto of Salla
Hungarian Moussaka
Day 4 - Bass Thursday 10th of December
Thursday was the last day for the bass recordings. Among the songs that were recorded is already previously mentioned Ilokaasu metal track. This one has much space for some groovy bass licks - thus Tuomas had much fun recording it. At least, judging by the swearing and banging that he did with head and bass on the wall.
After the day, the basses for FM's second album were done and it was time for some refreshing beer.
"This take sounds like a hungarian moussaka"
GRRR
It's easy to pose when the basses are on tape
Thursday was the last day for the bass recordings. Among the songs that were recorded is already previously mentioned Ilokaasu metal track. This one has much space for some groovy bass licks - thus Tuomas had much fun recording it. At least, judging by the swearing and banging that he did with head and bass on the wall.
After the day, the basses for FM's second album were done and it was time for some refreshing beer.
"This take sounds like a hungarian moussaka"
GRRR
It's easy to pose when the basses are on tape
Basisti - rumpalin ujo ystävä
Day 3 - Bass Wednesday 9th of December
Day three for bass recordings and six songs to go. On Wednesday Tuomas nailed the remaining three of "Eemeli's songs". One of those is a song that can be labelled as honest testicles-in-your-face power metal. Usually bass players settle with these kinds of songs to back up the double bass drums but Tuomas is such an ambitious bassist that he came up with great lead like bass riff for the double bass drum parts. Like they would say on Myspace: "Mood: ecstatic"!
Bending it like Bender
H-Metal or no Romanian hobo metal at all!
Eemeli is starting to feel the combined studio and X-mas depression
Day three for bass recordings and six songs to go. On Wednesday Tuomas nailed the remaining three of "Eemeli's songs". One of those is a song that can be labelled as honest testicles-in-your-face power metal. Usually bass players settle with these kinds of songs to back up the double bass drums but Tuomas is such an ambitious bassist that he came up with great lead like bass riff for the double bass drum parts. Like they would say on Myspace: "Mood: ecstatic"!
Bending it like Bender
H-Metal or no Romanian hobo metal at all!
Eemeli is starting to feel the combined studio and X-mas depression
Basso Kalinainen
Day 2 - Bass Tuesday 8th of December
It's always a wonder what a decent sleep can do to you. One word comes to mind when descriping our feelings on Tuesday: "rebirth".
KevytOlo pretty much sums it all up in this pic
Among the three songs that Tuomas nailed on Tuesday was the 10min+ epic of the album. Oh boy, how the rattling sound of bass strings sounded good in this one. We also did some experimental effect stuff by doubling some bass riffs and then reversing them. Pretty basic stuff but it sounds really cool. This one's gonna be epic :D
Tuomas playing the lead bass. Rhythm basses will be recorded later ;)
Da Beis is always in perfect tune
It's always a wonder what a decent sleep can do to you. One word comes to mind when descriping our feelings on Tuesday: "rebirth".
KevytOlo pretty much sums it all up in this pic
Among the three songs that Tuomas nailed on Tuesday was the 10min+ epic of the album. Oh boy, how the rattling sound of bass strings sounded good in this one. We also did some experimental effect stuff by doubling some bass riffs and then reversing them. Pretty basic stuff but it sounds really cool. This one's gonna be epic :D
Tuomas playing the lead bass. Rhythm basses will be recorded later ;)
Da Beis is always in perfect tune
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