Recording the new album - Day Eleven

An afternoon packed with little things to do and get finished. Before the others came in, I had an appointment with the fishbowl to record the vocals for the last of our songs pending, “Stitch The Memories”. I had deliberately left it till the end as I had no definitive lyrics to it, and I had spent the morning writing lines on a paper and hoping to get something out of it. Didn’t turn out that bad at the end, actually.



So there I was, stitching the vocals together, and as a grand finale of the fucking vocal parts, a real screamer, one of those you only have one take to get it right, as the throat will be simply unusable anymore after that. Never been a real shouter myself, kind of envy the singers who can shout all the gig long and still have voice left for softer parts. But fate didn’t put me in a hardcore band, so it must be OK to sing like I do, I guess. I hope.

When Timo arrived we started playing back stuff from the other days and found out I had sung the wrong word in “Time” (“wait” instead of “waste”), and being the basser’s tune he was really keen on getting it right on tape. So back to the fishbowl to re-record one simple fucking short word. Probably the same way that Mariah Carey gets her records done, word by word, as the legend says (hey Mariah, if you’re reading this and want to sue me for saying that, take into consideration that Tobi really likes you and is a big fan of your artificial tits… but all the rest of us simply find you awful, so it’s OK, sue me if you dare, bitch).



Another tune that was still pending to redo was the bass track on “Stroboscope”. The Rickenbacker bass used didn’t really fit in with the tune’s sound, so Timo walked around and picked up an old East German violin-shaped bass (brand Migma, ain’t that cool?), sort of like the old Höfner ones, but with a fuller sound, and that was it: the perfect sound for the song. Sometimes the cheapest piece of gear can save your life.



Before Tobi arrived we had time to overdub some handclaps on “Stroboscope” and “Scent”, for which we were joined by two innocent bystanders (thanks Tom & Di). We looked a bit like the rhythm section of a flamenco group. Looked stupid, sounded cool, actually better than I had thought.

By the time we all should already be at home and sleeping, the drummer arrived (typical) and everything was ready to track the drums and bass of our cover of Britney’s “Toxic”. We don’t know if we’re putting it on the album at all, but we always like to record some extra special shit to have around if needed anytime. Last record we did “Tomorrow Never Knows” from the Beatles, so “Toxic” was due this time. Having already done the song before at the studio in Fürstenwalde, we got it nailed in a record time, and now I’ll get back next week and finish it, officially ending the first phase of the recording. Until we decide that everything is crap and have to do it all again, hehe…



Anaid Zeravla and Daniel Priester were there taking a few pictures of the session too, which means by now we have about one zillion photos of the recording sessions. That should be enough for a few lives, innit? Perhaps a few of them will come on the album cover, if we ever decide an album title and all that design shit.

Now a few days off, which I’m really grateful for… The next studio should be not so far away, three weeks of continuous driving back and forth have ensured the oil companies a nice surplus for this year’s balance. Not that they need it with the current prices, them bastards (they’ve killed Kenny!!).

Songs done:
“Stitch The Memories”: vocals
“Time”: vocal bit
“Stroboscope”: bass, handclaps
“Scent”: handclaps
“Toxic”: drums, bass