Time flies by fast. Hours tick like minutes, days like weeks. We´ve only had one day off during the whole process so far. Been working really long days. Is this a complaint? Hell no. Loving every minute of it!
The method of finnishing one song at a time turned out to be really afficient way of recording. Of course, Michael knew that already, but it is all new to us. We did record the drums and basses for all the songs in the first two weeks, but no guitars, keys or vocals. Normally any one song has taken 2 days to complete.
Day one, in the morning around ten, Michael starts to do the rough mix of the song done the previous night. After he´s done, Amen and Michael choose the guitar and the sound for the rhythm guitar track 1 for the next song. Then when that one is recorded, another guitar, another amp and sound, to double the track.
Then it´s usually already lunch time. We´ve grown pretty familiar to the local restaurants here in Mount Juliet. My absolute favourite being Chili´s, because of their awesome ribs of course. Sometimes we invade Olive Garden, oriental buffet, mexican and every thursday is the producers sushi night at Wasabi. Myself, not a fan at all of eating raw fish or anything that didnt live on land, but Awa loved thursdays! Oh yeah, and we loooove to grill!!
Anyways, back to the studio, it´s time to sing the lead vocals. My right hand, or should I say my right ear, Tracy arrived here couple of weeks ago. I scream in the booth, Michael and Tracy trying to get the best possible performance out of me. On this album, I have a feeling there´s a bit more of that cleanish singing here and there, much like on some songs on Get Heavy. But you´ll be the judge of that. Been really satisfied with my performances so far, they´ve all been loose and relaxed. Which actually means more energy and ass-kicking. After lead vocal´s done, it´s usually already ten or eleven at night.
Day two starts with checking the vocal, choosing the best takes. Then, it´s Amen's turn again. He comes in and plays all the additional guitars. And solo, of course. On this album, there´s a guitar solo on almost every song. Oh, and there´s also Awa's keyboard solo on one! Let´s see if that song makes the album. It´s gonna be harder than ever to choose the ones that are gonna make it, since every new song that is finnished is the new favourite.
After the guitars are done, we do synths. Quite a lot of them were actually done already in pre-production in Helsinki at our rehearsal loft, and that saved a lot of time. But still, choosing the right sounds for every part of the song can take a lot of time. We´ve had tons of different keyboards and synthesizers in the studio here. Millions of sounds to choose from. But I think Michael and Awa have been finding the best ones!
Then I go back to the booth, to double the choruses, sometimes also the pre-choruses and even the verses. Maybe a little harmony with my voice if needed. After all that is done, Kita crawls in and does his thing. Meaning harmonies, of course. Aaand that usually ends the day two, the time being somewhat around ten or eleven again.
But few of the songs actually did take more than 2 days to complete. Discoevil had a lot of programming and synths and loops stuff on it, very much like the songs on Get Heavy, Well, that song comes from around that period so in a way, that was no surprise. Call Of The Wedding is a ballad, but nothing like you´ve heard from Lordi before. Lot of clean guitars there for example. Actually, that one is not quite finnished yet. Bruce Kulick played the solo on that, and Jeremy Rubolino wrote the string score for it. There´s gonna be REAL strings on it, and they´re gonna be recorded in L.A. any day now.
There was also at least one another 3-day song. Which one was it... Hmmm.. I guess it was Granny´s Gone Crazy. We had to record a lot of extra stuff for it. Think Halloween theme, the scissors and low synth-horns. Think Alice Cooper. There´s little girls speaking. Weirdest approach on a solo you´ve ever heard from us is probably on this one... You get the picture. Lot of work.
Few words about our producer, Mr.. He´s a character. Funny dude. He learns Finnish language surprisingly fast by mimicking us, like a kid. And now after 2 months, he has a vocabulary of dozens of nasty or dirty words and frases. And he makes us proud by making up his own words, just by combining the words he already knows. And usually his words make sense, but without himself exactly knowing what he actually says. He likes the word PIPPURI a lot. Don´t know why, but he likes to say that word many times a day.
Michael is also a big fan of licorice and salmiac. Luckily our friends have been sending us some here. But we are running dangerously low already. God knows what will happen if we don´t get any before we run out..!!
Michael also has an assistant producer, who I actually think is the real producer, cat named Bamboleo. He comes in every once in a while and sits on the producers chair. Doesn't say much though, doesn't seem to be THAT interested in the music we´re doing.
Oh, while on the subject of adorable animal stories, a little yellow rat snake came to greet me when I was smoking at the studios back porch. It let me and Michael come really close and take pics. Calm little dude. Judging by it´s size, it was a young one, born maybe last summer. And meeting that little worm made me homesick. Started missing my pet snakes back home. And now, I really want a rat snake. Got boas, king snakes and corn snakes, but no rat snake. Well, that´s gotta be corrected. -L
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