Again, the full band lineup was there to give opinions, get bored, read magazines, nod in approval from time to time and some of them also to record (by the way, have you seen Tobi’s new drums? Cool or what?) We decided to finish up those bunch of songs which we had started during the week before starting with new ones, otherwise we might lose control of what we already have, what we had planned to record, what we are currently planning to record and what will be done in the end. You know, “Didn’t we have a guitar lick still pending somewhere? I cannot remember which one on which song right now, but it was something like ga-ga-bum-cha-ga-ga-cha-bum… Shit, we should have written that down”. Those kind of sentences can be quite often heard if you don’t keep a control (also called paper and pencil) of the progress.
Anyway, as we are quite decent and clean people and always like to have our things in order and tidy (except for T_b_), we started by finishing “Stroboscope” and its doubled chorus guitars. All I can say is that it was an experience running two Marshall amps through a Marshall pedal and still wondering afterwards if we had a marshall’y enough sound. We did, don’t worry. Or worry if you don’t like Marshalls. So, in less than half an hour, first song of the day wrapped up in paper and ready.
“Berlin” was next. Going through several options we settled for a fat Big Muff sound for rhythm guitars and then a solo full of feedback with the semi-solid guitar. It was a pain in the arse during takes when I wasn’t playing, it kept howling all the time, but when you started to play it was tone heaven. Hearing the song afterwards in the control room for the first time with all guitar parts was quite an experience, almost a psychedelic one (hey, what was in the coffee anyway?), we were just blown away. I cannot wait to hear the final mix of this one at full blast.
After another coffee and a short chatter on the speed of light, we dove into “Scent” and did some guitars for the chorus experimenting a little with preamps and several different combinations of modern and vintage amps, Les Pauls and Explorers. I don’t really know how that can sound, but if Juergen says it’s ok, then it’s ok. I always say his ears should be in a museum. Now some handclaps overdubs and that kind of shit next time and we’ll have it in the can.
Again today, “Time” was left for the end part of the session. After double-tracking rhythm guitars with AC30’s and some licks, Juergen brought out one of his many gadgets lying around in the studio: a real vintage tape echo machine, with thousand knobs and wheels. We wanted a real surf sound for one specific bit of the song, and what we got was much cooler than just that. I was having a blast playing around while Juergen was kneeled on the floor fiddling with the knobs again and making amazing sounding noises. It was so cool, man, I was laughing madly while playing, wanking with the sound, while Tobi and Timo where in the control room also having hysterics at my face of pure delight. Too bad we couldn’t play longer. It was already quite late and we had to go home to do the kind of things you do at home when you come late from the studio. And I mean get some sleep, of course.
Songs done:
“Stroboscope”: more rhythm guitars
“Berlin”: all the rest of the guitars, solo
“Scent”: chorus guitar bits
“Time”: rhythm guitars, surf!
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