Howdy folks....well I said I would eventually get around to adding something to this studio journal and I guess I'm finally doing it. Paul wrote a pretty decent overview of what happened already but perhaps I'll try giving some more specific details and technical bits of info, if anyone really gives a fuck lol...
The first day of being at the studio was, like usual, dedicated to setting up and mic'ing the drums. Joe and Chris, the engineer, spent the better part of Friday afternoon and evening getting this done. The rest of us could have shown up to help but figured more than anything, we'd just get in the way. The rest of the band arrived early the next day and set up amps and generally prepared to lay down the drum tracks with "scratch" guitars as a guide. Basically, Vito and I played along with Joe through headphones while he did his drum tracks. Mike and Paul sat in the control room and gave "moral support"......in other words, they sat there and talked shit about everything while we couldn't hear them in the other room hah! Every now and then an insult was hurled at one of us (most likely me) through the headphones for a laugh. Joe used his Pearl double bass kit, as he has on the past two albums (The Knowing and To Welcome The Fade). This time though I think we came alot closer to getting the "right" drum sound we'd been hoping for. Joe brought along a few different snares to try out so as to have more options for a good snare sound....he even brought along the Lars Ulrich model snare. Amazingly, it didn't sound like a dented garbage can ala "St. Anger", which just goes to show that they actually made an effort to make the snare sound that bad! Strange, really....
The plan originally, as Paul stated, was to get the drums done quickly, but we realised that this time around we really wanted to focus more on making them sound perfect on this album, so a little extra time was spent on that. Joe did a killer job though, and this is definitely his best recorded performance so far.
Once the drums were finished, we set out next to start recording guitars. I first recorded my heavy "distorted" rhythm guitars for all 8 songs. For this album I brought in several different guitars but mainly relied on two. My Fender Subsonic baritone guitar, and my ESP Viper Baritone guitar (recently acquired from Shaun Glass of Soil, thanks man!). We used several different amps for this album but I wound up predominantly utilising a Mesa Boogie Triple Rectifier for my heavy rhythms. This is basically the same amp I used for "To Welcome The Fade" and I figured, I'd rather stick with what I know works. In order to get different tones however, we switched back and forth between using a Mesa 4X12 cabinet, and a Marshall 900 series 4X12 cabinet. Even using the same head, you'd be surprised at the difference in sounds between those two cabs, and they complimented each other nicely. My heavy rhythms went fairly smoothly and quickly, and next it was Vito's turn to do his rhythm tracks. He used the same amp/speaker configuration as I did, but he used his two baritone guitars...an Ibanez Mushok model, and an ESP baritone (I forget the model number....FB-300 or something??) Vito got his rhythm tracks done quickly and smoothly overall, which is commendable since this is his first time recording an album. He worked hard on being prepared for this and it's paid off.
Next, we tackled Mike's bass lines. He used his Fender Jazz Bass (the Geddy Lee signature model, I believe). Awesome bass it is, actually, and even being plugged straight into the console with a SansAmp, it was sounding great.
We knew that we still had plenty of guitars left to do, mainly acoustics, clean electrics, solos, etc. But we decided instead to start working on Paul's vocals. He was primed and ready to go, so we got right to work on that. Paul's vocals, in all honesty, are by far the best they've ever sounded on this new record, I guarantee it. He's worked pretty hard over the past year or so, working on trying new techniques and new approaches to his vox. I don't want to give too much away yet but I will say that there's a bit more "Clean" melodic singing on this album compared to the past. But don't worry, there are PLENTY of brutally heavy vocals on this album. In fact, dare I say, the heavy vocals on this album are MUCH heavier than ever before. If you enjoyed Paul's more aggressive attack such as on songs like "Spirit Seed" and "Not The Strong", then you'll love this. And frankly, he's outdone himself compared to those tunes even. I don't want to talk this up too much before you all hear it, but I'm pretty confident that you'll be pleased.
Once we'd gotten the majority of Paul's vocals done, I got back to work on recording my other guitar tracks. Clean rhythms came first, and on songs like "Autumn Reflection" for example, they sound fantastic. For this I actually tried using several different guitars to find the right tone, and settled on Vito's Ibanez baritone in the end. Some sections, such as on "Through A Childs Eyes", required a more "vintage" tone and some cool old school effects like a warm vibrato, so Chris went into his storage room and busted out a couple of old Sears Silvertone amps from the early sixties.....now these things looked akin to an old television set, and they smelled like they were going to burst out in a magnificent electrical fire at any moment! But the sound was great. After toying with it for some time we got it right and I'm happy with the results. I even broke out with the trusty brass slide for some brief slide guitar parts.
Acoustics came next. I used a new acoustic guitar that Vito recently purchased, an Avante baritone acoustic. Quite a nice sound, though it was the first time I've ever recorded with an acoustic baritone guitar and let me tell you, it took some time adjusting to the scale length and string tension. But the sound is great and you'll hopefully hear what I mean soon enough.
Finally on the last couple of days in the studio, we mainly focused on the "coloring" and layered textures for the songs.....stuff like percussion, additional vocal harmonies, a few more guitar overdubs, etc. Vito finished up his clean guitars pretty quickly, so we had a friend of Chris' come to the studio with his keyboard and lay down some brief keyboard parts that still remained. A great deal of the keys on this album are, in fact, performed by none other than Eric Burnley. He was kind enough to come to the studio several months back and lay down keyboards over the pre-production demos we had done for the album. When time came to do the actual album, we were able to keep his tracks he'd done and put them on the newly recorded versions of the songs. Ah the magic of the digital age! We could have tried to redo them I guess but what Eric did the first time was so perfect, there really was no point. I even wound up playing some keyboards on a couple of tunes, though my keyboard skills are not nearly as advanced as someone like Eric's. After the keys were completed, we added some percussion and stuff like a Djembe, tambourine, shakers, cymbal swells, etc. It's all little stuff that seems inconsequential on the surface, but it really can fill out the music when done properly.
After that it was pretty much just reviewing what we'd done, making sure everything was done and accounted for, and then Chris spent the rest of the time preparing the tracks to be sent to Dan Swano over in Sweden to do the final mixdown.
I should add that during all of this, much time was spent in the lounge area, by whatever members were not busy recording at the time, watching silly shit on television, playing video games, or even the occasional nap! I managed to keep my sanity during the occasional downtime by playing old Atari games (yes folks, I've still not evolved in that area. My favorite video game is STILL Yar's Revenge!) or by laughing at the ridiculous programming on the Playboy Channel. "Sex Court" is just awful, even if it does have Julie Strain in it! Vito brought in his collection of videos, which consisted of way too many Robocop movies and stuff of that ilk for my taste. Whereas I brought in a collection of videos as well, which consisted of probably too much KISS for his taste! Though he did seem to appreciate the horrendous masterpiece which is "KISS Meets The Phantom Of The Park", being a big fan of awful B rate movies that he is, hehe. Paul and I snuck away at one point and managed to see "Team America" which was just ridiculous and brilliant at the same time. Overall, not too much tomfoolery went down this time in the studio as compared to before, but alot of that had to do with the fact that time was more well spent working on stuff and making sure everything was correct, and with the studio being quite a far trek for us to travel back and forth from, we just didn't have the time to go out after work or dick around like we'd like to have done. A few comical moments were caught on video here and there and of course will likely show up on our future DVD.
I have to say that a huge thank you and hats off goes to Chris Djuricic, our Engineer/Producer, on this album. We had a really good time working with him over four years ago on "The Knowing" but this time around it was truly stellar. Both he and ourselves have evolved as artists and it really came together this time. I valued his input greatly and he knew how to get the best out of me, or even to let me know when something I played sucked ass lol, but all the while he was cool about it and professional, and he knew how to handle me (which I realise is not the easiest task sometimes, sorry). Chris put ALOT of time into making sure that everything was right and sometimes stayed at the studio way later and longer than he should have, but his dedication was true and we appreciate it. I know his hard work will show when all is said and done and this album is mixed, mastered, and ready to be heard by everyone. Can't wait to hear what Dan has in store for us with the final mix!
Anyhow, that's pretty much the jist of the whole studio experience. Sorry if it was long and boring but oh well, deal with it LOL
