Studio diary: day 5

First things first: today it's fucking freezing. On the way to the studio, the thermometer marked -12ºC. I had the acoustic guitar in the trunk of the car, and was expecting it to break at any given moment. But it made it to our noise room for today's session. It was the last booked session of the year and it was going to be a relatively short one, just four hours. And as our bass player wasn't available today, I decided to do a few acoustic guitars here and there just to get a few extra things done before the Christmas break.

After setting up the mics and balancing them, we started with the almost full-acoustic number, "Twelve Years" (for lack of a better title it looks like we're sticking to it), did a few takes, double-tracked the best one, a little solo part and that was it. Well, not really, Daniel came up with the idea of using an old, dusty and battered Spanish guitar he has there for the outro lick. It had a very alternative tuning, that guitar. In fact, it was tuned in microtone steps so impossible for the human ear to distinguish that, for a moment, I almost thought that was just a piece of crap completely bonkers and ready to smash. But no, it was just waiting for a loving hand an iPhone tuner app to return to the wonderful world of the standard 440 tuning. It took some time to show her the marvels of staying in pitch. It took a lot of fucking time, more than actually recording the part.

With the first one in the can, we directed our energies to "The Wounds Inside", which was done in nearly no time at all. Same with "Vertigo". "Talking To Nobody" took a little bit longer due to the strange drums reference I was listening all the time. Don't ask me how, but drums and click were coming and going all the time making recording nearly impossible. So after a few hits on the recorder with a hammer (courtesy of Maxwell Silver) everything was again spot-on, and recording could be finished pretty quickly. Stll half an hour left and the last one for this year, "Don't Lose Your Head" found its way onto tape (well, hard disk) just in time to wrap it up and call it a day (a year, rather).

Next sessions will be in the second half of January, where we'll be finishing the basses before entering my favourite part, the electric guitars, which precedes my least favourite part, recording the vocals. But let's not think that far right now, I want to have a happy Chrimble. And to you all as well, dear readers (is there anybody out there by the way?)

Songs recorded (Dec 18):

Twelve Years: acoustic & classical guitars

The Wounds Inside: acoustic guitars

Vertigo: acoustic guitars

Talking To Nobody: acoustic guitars

Don't Lose Your Head: acoustic guitars

Studio diary: day 4

Can you feel the bass? I certainly could yesterday evening. First day tracking bass at D&S Tonstudio with Timo and Daniel.

After arriving so very late it was almost time to go home (Berlin traffic jams can get quite frustrating sometimes, especially when the police detour everyone to the very same place, very bright), we lost no time and set up the mighty bass speakers in the recording room only to notice that, well, they were too mighty, the walls were shaking. We probably changed the whole static of the building, who knows, maybe tomorrow there will be no building anymore. A mic here, another mic there, a cable, bring out that bass, and ready to go.

Timo's weapon of choice was his MusicMan StingRay with that extra fifth string that makes your bowels dance samba when plucked.. "Krawall!" said Timo with horns in the air, his trademark shout when everyone looks in disgust to that string.

We didn't have so much time left, so off we went with "Ink", which, being the first one, was the one that took longer to get right. It's not exactly easy to nail it with cold hands, just ask Tobi (although this time, Timo brought his double-kick drum pedal just in case, ahem.) Several takes and a few curses later, the first one was finished, and the next, "Cosmonaut" was already waiting to be executed. That took its fair share of time too, especially trying to get the accents right with Tobi's drums. My duty was to annoy Timo with those little details until it was perfect. I know, it's a dirty job, but someone's got to do it, right?

"The Wounds Inside" was done in the blink of an eye, and before we finally went home we also tracked "Seattle Girl", where yours truly's reference guitar track was so out of tune, we had to leave it out for fear of completely making Timo go bananas trying to record to it. And tomorrow, more bass. Let's hope the traffic allows us to arrive before actually having to go home again...

Songs recorded (14.Dec):

Ink: bass

Cosmonaut: bass

The Wounds Inside: bass

Seattle Girl: bass

Studio diary: day 3

And then they were three... Friday evening and we're down in a hole making noise. Tobi calls me to say he and Daniel will be arriving a little later, so when I park in the yard and see no lights whatsoever, I wait for them in the car and listen to some radio. And listen to some radio. And check my mails. And take a look around Facebook and chat a while. And listen to more radio. And call Tobi to ask where the fuck he is, but to no avail. And check my mails again. And start freezing. And curse. And freeze a little more. And then I text Daniel and 30 seconds later he emerges from the basement, and with his best south German accent asks me what the fuck I'm doing out there, they're already recording. Inside my head, I prepare the acceptance speech for the Idiot Of The Year Award, which I'm possibly going to receive after that. I swear the lights were off and there wasn't any other car parked there. I should check my contact lenses, my eyes and while I'm at it, my brain, too.

Anyway, when I get down there Tobi's already sweating. He's done a few takes of "Ink", but none's a keeper. He's recording to the reference guitar I did last time, so I'm free to talk with Daniel while Tobi's inside the booth losing some calories banging the drums.

Recording drums the old way is a fine and difficult art, no editing allowed, and if he fucks it up on the very last note, that means it has to be done again from the top. Very cruel. So after a few fuckups in the very last note, Tobi digs deep down into his curse reserve and lets out the most incredibly vulgar sounding German curses you can imagine. Really funny to watch and listen to, a true literature class. But that really helps him focus and on the next take, he bloody nails it. Chapeau, mister. This is going to be a powerful song when it's finished, man, mark my words.

Then it's time to move on to the last planned drum recording by now. A song called "Vertigo", which we already tried during the Not Completely Clean sessions but abandoned after a few takes, not being really sure about the arrangement we had. But this time I've done my homework and the song is ready and approved to be recorded. Tobi drums to a home demo, so no guitar raping on my my side, just sit and watch the guy play as he can do, a total pleasure for the ears (as long as you're not too close.)

By half past ten we're finished (especially Tobi) and ready to go home. It's fucking freezing in Berlin. My bed is waiting, comfy, warm and dry. And no drums on my head...

Songs recorded:

Ink: drums (finished)

Vertigo: drums

Studio diary: day 2

Second round in the fight against musical boredom. Last night we met again at Daniel's studio to continue tracking drums. All mics were already set up, so after a ciggie, a laugh and fooling around with Daniel's Dean Dimebag guitar from hell (heavier than a bag of nails), Tobi went straight to the booth to torture his snare drum.

First on the agenda was the traditional cover. Normally, we record a cover song for each album, (last ones were "Tomorrow Never Knows" while the Allergic sessions, and "Toxic" for Not Completely Clean.) So after thinking about it a few weeks ago, I remembered a great great tune from 1982 by the Alan Parsons Project called "Eye In The Sky", which I used to love as a kid everytime it came on the radio. I hadn't heard the song for ages, and it seemed that, with the right amount of tweaking it could turn into a cool frogsong. I made a fast demo at home and it was an instant "yeah" by the band. So here we are, doing our own little heavier version of it.

After finishing that one, Tobi decided to try his luck with "Ink", which is a rather fast and ugly kind of tune. Several takes were done (I mean, very several), but Tobi wasn't satisfied with them but still couldn't say exactly why. Something was just not right, and after several several retakes, the little bulb inside his head lit up and he remembered he hadn't brought along his double kickdrum pedal. And that was why he couldn't get the heavy ending right. Phew, you kinda notice such things right on from the first take, don't you? I mean, I would notice if a string was missing on the first take. But well, drummers are a completely different and exotic species, maybe that's why love them and put up with those things... And so, after I had fucked up my voice while singing and playing for Tobi's reference on "Ink", we had to leave it until the next sessions (I hope he remembers to bring the kick next time, hehe.)

"Instead" was next. A slower but heavier number which was finished before you could say "bumblebee". Deciding on the right song speed took us more time than actually recording it, trial and error procedure ("I think it should be 95 bpm", "No that's too slow, make it a 100 bpm", "huh, I think that was a little too fast, turn it down to, say, 98 bpm", "damm, still too fast, let's try 97 bpm", "oh, that was cool, just perfect, let's do it"... and so on.) This could turn out as a very nice song, let's see if I don't fuck it up later...

It was getting late, so we just tried to finish one more, and set our eyes on "Talking To Nobody", a tune with a decidedly 60s flavour to it that we had recently done for the very first time at the HQ. Tobi didn't have a clue what the fuck I was talking about when I named the song. "Never heard that one", he said with wide open eyes. Good that I had brought the home demos with me and a few seconds into it he remebered again, "Oh, yeah, of course, let's do it". And so he did. Came out pretty good, very solid, straightforward drumming, just as the song needed. It's great to have such a versatile drummer in the band, even if he can never remember the song names and it's always up to me to start humming the melodies. But well, we've done a lot of very new songs from scratch in the last weeks, so it's understandable to mix up everything. I guess. I was never a drummer in a band, just a frustrated one.

Next session's scheduled for Friday, which means today I can rest my ears and maybe enjoy a haxe with some friends at Lemke's. Cool.

Songs recorded:

Eye In The Sky: drums

Ink: drums (unfinished)

Instead: drums

Talking To Nobody: drums

Studio diary: day 1

Here we go again. We're finally back in the studio for what it looks will be our fifth record to date (temptatively called Album Five, how original). The place: D&S Tonstudio in Berlin. The date: December 8, 2009. The involved parties: Daniel Strobel as the main engineer, Tobi on the drums and yours truly sort of watching it all and taking care of tiny details such as which songs are we recording. Not really producing, just annoying people.

So this is it, another project under way, let's hope this time it won't take too long to come out as is usual with this little band of ours. Only this time we've been making up songs real quick and after one or two rehearsals, we're putting them to tape. Most don't have lyrics yet, some not even a name, but I guess that makes it all a little less studied than previous times, more like The Beatles used to do back then, write a song, rehearse once, record the next day. Only they made fucking classic songs in the process, we're still happy to get a decent tune here and there.

As for the recording itself: we gather in the evening at Daniel's studio, a basement in the Berlin district of Weissensee. Outside it's cold, damp and completely dark, so it's great to go downstairs where it's, well, cold, damp and dark too. Until we turn on the rock'n roll machines to warm up and light a bulb here and there. Ah, much better now.

Waiting for Tobi to arrive (as usual) I make a list of the songs we'll be recording, and I panic when I notice there's one missing. I've gone completely blank. One, two, three... I keep counting the song titles and still cannot remember the one missing. It's either I'm getting too old or we have too many songs. Probably both. While I'm in the middle of a crisis with myself for failing to remember all the songs, our drummer happily arrives, tunes his drumkit, bangs the shit out of it for a few minutes, retunes it again, rebangs, re-retunes and loudly announces to the world "I'm ready".

And boy, is he. By 23.30 we have six full drum tracks in the can. Some of them are done quite easily, some take a few more takes, but while I'm in the control room tracking reference guitar and vocals for our drummer and having a laugh with Daniel, Tobi manages to execute enough perfect takes for all of us to go home with the feling of having done a good day's work.

And today, more to come.

Songs recorded (Dec 8):

Seattle Girl: drums

Cosmonaut: drums

The Wounds Inside: drums

Don't Lose Your Head: drums

Twelve Years (working title): drums

Uno, Otro (working title): drums