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MyGrain Studiotagebuch / studio diary

2012-07-31
Stadt / City Helsinki 
Land / Country FIN 
Web www.facebook.com/MyGrain
 
Veranstaltungsort:
Location
 
Datum / DateJuly 2012 

The Finnish Space Metallers are recording their fourth album at Sound Supreme Studio with producer Janne Saksa - and you can peep behind the scenes here! Perhaps the band even reveals some new recipes...

Day 1 - Monday 30th of July 2012
Hola everybody!
Today is The Day - the recordings of our fourth album are about to begin! Woke up in the parlour of the studio (Sound Supreme Studio, located in Hämeenlinna, Finland) and dragged myself into the recording room where our producer and sound engineer guy Janne Saksa was already setting up the mics. The beginning of the recording sessions is traditionally a bit hard for me. I don´t know why that is... am I getting old?! HELL NO! ;-)


After the soundchecks and pimpings my kit sounded unbelievably good. The sound is warm and "fat", I love it! On this album I play with Yamaha Maple custom drumkit, Sabian aax-series symbals, Pro-Mark 5a sticks and Aquarian Response 2 drumheads. Around two o´clock in the afternoon we finally got to the actual recording and the first song I played goes with the name "Trioli". The song is one of my favourites with its catchy (gay?) keyboards and the verse that has a good in-your-face feeling.

The second song I nailed on Monday was "Mato". The song is pretty much fitness training with its fast bass drums and trickeries and will most definitely be a great song to play live. Let there be moshpit! Both the two songs sounded eventually really good. Over and out for now.
Lisää paskaa housuun! - DJ


Day 2- Tuesday 31th of July 2012
Håpla! On Tuesday we managed to record songs that go with the names ”Nappis” and ”Eve-song”. Didn´t have any problems with Nappis, fluent playing. I personally think this song might have the best chorus in the history of MyGrain.

The second one, ”Eve-song”, has it all: a brilliant chorus, catchy melodic verses etc. Not to forget the truth, there´s also a progressive part in the song. ;-) This is going to be the first video of the album.
- DJ


Day 3 – Wednesday 1st of August
Hi! Today my wife beater shirt was totally soaked in sweat. You can all imagine how it feels to play with bloody nipples?! However, let´s get to the point... Today was the day to play ”Vanhaygöne”, which I think was one of the first songs we wrote for this album. The song is speedy and eventful and will definitely be a live hit. Let´s not forget a darn good chorus either!

The second and the last song that was recorded today was a song that goes with the name ”Gojira”. This song has a handful of Kotiteollisuus-feeling (mie oon Hynynen mie juon jallua... the Finns will get it). Just kidding! ”Gojira” is a mid-tempo song with Resistor´s main riff, decorated with 80´s love stuff, a bass solo etc... Over and out for today! :D - DJ


Day 4 – Thursday 2nd of August 2012
Sigh... First I have to tell you that taking a leak is expensive. The cops caught me and Resi in the act from the centre of Hämeenlinna and we both received a 20 euro ticket. So what did we learn about this? Absolutely nothing!
I started the day mildly by playing a cover song that will be a bonus song for the Japanese edition of the album. Unfortunately we can´t reveal the song just yet... Just wait for it!

The second song I played on Thursday was ”Nuotiolaulu” that starts off with a really cool keyboard lead by Eve. There´s a lot of things happening in this song with its tempo changes etc. Love it!


Day 5 – Friday 3rd of August 2012
The first song for Friday was ”Argh Enemy”. There will be sparks flying from the guitarists´ fingers when they get to the verse of this song (made by Mr.Downhill), that´s for sure! This is a frantic song that has an energetic chorus.
The last song for this studio session for me was a song that goes with the name ”HC”. The song is absolutely hardcore to play and pushed the last drop of sweat out of me! A brilliant song, one couldn´t hope for a better opening for an album. Now, when all the ten songs are recorded, I can honestly say that I have given my everything for this album.
Last but not least, a BIG thank you for our producer Janne Saksa for his patience and awesome ideas! - DJ


Day 6 – Monday 6th of August 2012
Recording the guitars Resistor and Mr. Downhill attended the studio on Sunday evening. Had to briefly check what was happening on local night life, but surprisingly we managed to go to sleep pretty early. On Monday morning we woke up and felt lively, thanks to the early bedtime. At 10 AM we got straight to work, mounted our gear and started the search of a perfect MyGrain sound. After a couple of hours of adjusting the sound it was time to record. On the first day we nailed ”HC” and ”Trioli”. Recording is hard work, but the songs are already starting to sound kick-ass! Nighty night... - Resistor & Mr. Downhill

Day 7 – Tuesday 7th of August 2012
Our first recording day ended up being pretty long, since it was already small hours of Tuesday as we finally got to sleep. We wanted to seize every waking hour, so we continued the recording after the producer Janne Saksa went home. In the night we managed to record the intro for the album. A couple of hours of sleep and then back to business on Tuesday morning. Today was a lot easier since we had a tense day behind us, so the score for Tuesday was three songs: ”Gojira”, ”Nappis” and ”Nuotiolaulu”.
Watch guitar video here!
In the evening we´ll continue the recordings again by the two of us. The goal is to record the cover song that was mentioned before by DJ. - Resistor & Mr. Downhill

Day 8 – Wednesday 8th of August 2012
Ok, now it´s time to talk about the gear we are using on this album. The Royal Rumble seems to do the work. We always start the day by intense gaming for couple of hours to get out fingers warmed up and then we are ready to hit some brown "kuikka" sounds on the tape. Second important thing to remember is to always reach out for multiballs on tape... we help each other to achieve this goal! Third important thing to create the sound on this 4th MyGrain album is the awesome axes we are using. GO Ibanez!!!
PS: Resistor uses red Jazz III Xl picks & Mr.Downhill uses the same but black ones... never forget that :D
Today we got two songs on tape. The fast-paced "mato" and the double-fast-paced "Aaaaarghenemy". Soon we´re gonna reward ourselves by a few tasty beers on the local bar. If we don´t get too drunk we might record some songs we have left by ourselves... lets see ;) - Resistor & Mr. Downhill

Day 9 – Thursday 9th of August 2012
Last day for the rhythm guitar sessions. We had two more songs to nail. The upcoming music video hit song "Eve" & this asskicking Meshuggah type of "Vanha ygöne". We were actually so fast that Mr.Downhill had time to nail some cool solo licks already on one song. Our good buddie Mr. Salminen (= photographer, the ed.) also spent last night here with us drinking some booze and challenging the Royal Rumble flipper.. good times! Tomorrow we will record all the weird guitar feedback noises etc. and after that it´s all about shredding licks on the tape... go go go Mr. Downhill!!!

Watch guitar video here!

Ps. A HUGE thumbs up for Janne Saksa! It´s been a pleasure to work with him again :) -Resistor & Mr.Downhill


Monday 13th of August 2012
Heya! So now it´s my turn to shed some sweat and tears for this album. ;-) Arrived to the studio with Mr. Salminen at around 11AM and Janne was already waiting for us. After sharing some thoughts, we rapidly got to work. Started with "Nappis", then continued with "HC" and "Mato". All of them are pretty easy songs for keyboards (aren´t they all, haha?!) and aren´t full of synth stuff.

I´m pretty lazy when it comes to training, so I was pretty surprised as everything went so fluently! :D As usual, there was more work with the string pads and "programming" than with the leads. Even the faster lead parts were played quickly without problems. I guess that is because you get to train the most essential parts at the rehearsal place and the pads and small details are added only at the studio. This time I was better prepared though - I had recorded demo versions of all the keyboards at home, and for the first time felt really confident with the recording sessions. I truly hope the good vibe will stay with me during the whole session :) So there weren´t any surprises, only a couple of notes had been changed with the guitars, so I had to come up with some new stuff... but it wasn´t a big deal.

So the result was three songs in less than six hours, including the breaks. I´m happy with the result! Tomorrow is a long day and my goal is to record at least five songs. Let´s see... My lil bro Aleksi came to the studio on Monday afternoon and was keeping me company in the evening. After going through with some cool keyboard sounds from the studio´s sound bank we just chilled out, had a couple of beers and listened to good music. Good times! Tomorrow back to work. Bye! - Eve

Tuesday - 14th of August
Tuesday was a loooong day. We started at 10AM and called it quits at 9PM. But goddammit, we were productive: we now have nine songs on tape with keyboards! The only song that required some more work was Nuotiolaulu - it´s an epic song with a LOT of keyboards. I also wanted the chorus to sound big so there´s a bunch of strings, male choirs and even a gypsy mandolino stuff. :D It took three or four hours of work, but I think the result is pretty much something I was hoping for.

The rest of the songs were nailed as fluently as the ones on Monday, the only problems occurring with the string pads - I hadn´t had the time to train so much beforehand. Luckily enough we had an extra pair of hands, as a studio trainee, Sami Latva, was working with me after Janne had left home. This leaves me only the cover song and the album´s intro and outro for Wednesday. We also have to work with some midi stuff today, but it shouldn´t be a big thing.

Resistor, Jonas and our friend Vilma arrived at the studio in the afternoon. In the evening we had an astonishing photo session with foil hats and beer. :D Five hours of sleep and back to work again. Zzzzzzzz... - Eve

Day 12 - Wednesday 15th of August 2012
Bass recordings
I arrived on Tuesday to the studio, and I found Eve in the control room doing her magic on the keyboard and Resistor ( The hippie of the band, we also have a horse man in the band!! Do you know who he is? ) was playing flipper. So no bass on Tuesday. Fine by me, I ate a pizza and listen to the songs Eve had recorded and then I went to sleep. Eivor,,,pruppa du???

Wednesday started also with keyboards, but around 2pm we started to seek for the muddy, killer, kick ass bass sound :). On this record I used the great Tom Stenback Bass that I have and a fretless Fender bass that I borrowed from my friend Egon. The amp I used was a Aguilar DB751 and the cabinet was a Aguilar DB412, then I used some Aguilar pedals like the Tonehammer and the sweet TLC compressor that they have and some more crazy stuff that you will hear on the record. I managed to record 2,5 songs and then our producer (Janne Saksa) had to leave, but I asked him to leave everything on so that I could record something by myself. I had a coffee and decided to record the secret song for the Japanese release. I did 1 take and liked it so I popped a beer instead of playing anymore that day :). All and all I recorded for about 3 hours that day and got 3,5 song done so I was very pleased with my achievement that day.

Tommy and Resistor had been drinking beer the whole day at the studio and they wanted to go to a bar or something, but I was too tired to do anything, so I stayed at the studio and they went to the city to do some bars and nightclubs. At around 4 in the morning I heard some weird noises in the livingroom at the studio, and of course it was the guys coming back drunk as 2 little monkeys. Then suddenly the lights went on in the sleeping area and they where shouting something, trying to scare me. I told them to shut the F... up and let me sleep (had to get up early in the morning to continue the bass recordings). Alright they said, we will not disturb you and went to the room next to the sleeping area and played flipper, like If that would have been any better. (the flipper game had the worst annoying sound I ever heard). Well I will get my revenge some day :).


Day 13 - Thursday 16th of August 2012
I got up at 8am and drank some coffee and thought about doing some pranks to the guys, but I didn´t come up with anything so I let them sleep instead.
This day I recorded for 3 hours and got 2,5 songs done. Eve came back to the studio and did her last keybords, I think it was the secret song and some space sounds that she added. I went to the town to look for some clothes and stuff and to have something to eat. After Eve was done with her stuff everybody left to Helsinki. Our producer had to go to a gig so we did´t record anymore that day. In the evening Dj dropped by and we listened to the songs and went to the local gas station and had some coffee. I was a little bit nervous about Friday because I still had to nail 4 songs. Dj went back to Helsinki and I watched some TV and went to sleep. mamm diin!!!!

Day 14 - Friday 17th of August 2012
Up early like in the army!! We started to record 8.30am and like I said I still had to record 4 song, and in my opinion the most difficult ones. I don´t know what´s wrong with me when I always have to save the most difficult songs to the last day !!papp diin maybe??? But the playing went fluently and in 3 hours I had recorded 3 songs already, then we had a lunch brake for an hour and around 2 I was ready and very pleased with the results. On the last song on the record you can hear some weird bass, Is it because it was recorded last or is there something else??
A big "thank you very many" to Janne Saksa for the patience and inspiration, knowledge and for all the help!! -Yonas

Day 15 – Monday 20th of August 2012
Tommy’s studio diarrhea:
I first arrived to the studio the week before i got to do the vocals, to see what the guys had taped and to hang out n’ stuff. I was also psyched to begin some vocal recordings if there were any time for them, but luckily i had to wait until next week – the actual vocal recording week. So I had a couple of days more time to prepare myself and do some final arrangements to the lyrics as well. The next week i’d be mainly alone in the studio (of course recording with the producer though) as everyone else had nailed their parts already, except couple of guitar solos…then I VERY EXCITE!!
Diarrhea day 1.
I came to the Hämeenlinna’s Sound Supreme studio in “early” morning about 11 am. and our producer Janne Saksa was already at the studio doing arrangements for the recordings. We started the recordings around 12 and the first song was “Nuotiolaulu”. A slow but really heavy song in which there are not so much clean singing. There are big melodies in that song though, but it’s more or less sung in Gojira-kind-of half clean/half growl way… A good song to start with, to open up the throat and open the score, and shake off the excessive tension/excitement. I’m always a bit too nervous before starting to nail the vox, but this time the start went really smoothly. This day we had like 6 hrs time to do stuff all in all, so we started to record the second song of which working title is “Eve-song”. This song is going to be the video song of the album, so there was a little excitement as well. The song has really catchy chorus, progressive part, and a punch in the face-straight forward verses….some gayness in the radar as well, you will feel it when you hear the song first time ;D We got half of this song done, and then had to finish the day. Good start I’d say, great successs!

Day 16 – Tuesday 21th of August 2012
Diarrhea day 2.
I got up earlier than yesterday, and we started recording around 11 am. We started with the yesterday’s almost half-made video song, and I noticed that there were actually more than half to do as we’ve only nailed the verses yesterday…still there was the choruses and second part of the chorus, the spoken lines and the progressive part. In the end everything went really smoothly, although it took hours of time because of the many parts of the song. I’d say we’ve got pretty decent video song for you people! Next it was time for a song called “Trioli”. A really really heavy, galactic atmosphered and catchy song whichs is not too high paced, actually pretty slow song. This song didn’t bring any bigger challenges but the middle “progressive” Devin-like part, in which there you just had to kind of improvise, because this part you just have to sing with emotion and not to practice it too much before. All in all, in the end of the second day we had three songs ready! Slowly progressing work as the songs are pretty long and there is clean and semi-clean vox in different variations, growls, screams, shouts, whispers and spoken lines, plus the doubles and harmony singing. And lots of (too much?) the fucking lyrics (i should probably start to do rap music, hahah) … Whoah, like a big puzzle. But the result is rewardinnnggg!
PEEP Shows with Tommy
Nr1 click here!
Nr2 click here!

Day 17 – Wednesday 22th of August 2012
Diarrhea day 3.
Diarrhea day 3. started with the opening song of the album, with working title “HC”. This is really straight forward-punch in the face track with a big chorus and the heavy machine gun massacre in the middle part. No problems with this song, everything went well and the result was pure kill. A good thing for an opening song! After this we continued with a song called “Vanha Ygönen” which i think has the most evil touch in the whole album…really mean mean song. In this song there is so much of growling and screaming and stuff, that in the end of the day when we were supposed to do the middle part cleans and choruses to this song, my voice was pretty much already destroyed for this day….so, the resullt was almost two songs! This day went mainly fluently, but there was this terrible headache following me since the morning i woke up. Had to take some painkillers but still in the long screams and growls i felt like my head was gonna explode and all i could see was blurry stars after them, and felt so nauseous i almost vomited.. Braincells please revive after this, won’t you ,please? But this kind of pain is a good pain, isn’t it? Because it doesn’t come in vain but it results for something good After this I felt like i had given my everything!

Day 18 – Thursday 23th of August 2012
Diarrhea day 4.
Thursday…no headache in the morning, that’s a good sign! This day we had little less time than in couple of last days, since Mr. Downhill would come to play some missing solos, kind of a good thing for me as well, so the voice got a little rest. Today we nailed the song “Argh Enemy”. This song is actually pretty straight forward, but for vocals it’s like a big fucking puzzle: in all the four verses there are cleans with doubles and harmonies, and the growls/screams. The choruses are also big and kind of “poppy” (gay?), and with slight differences in the endings and so on… After the puzzle was completed, Teemu came along to do some serious solos!! I immediately open a beer and relaxed while hearing those nice guitar tunes! Actually at this point i had been drinking my relaxing recording beers a minimum amount of 6-pack per day. Got to continue with the beer ’cause everything had resulted in so much good at that point and keep with the same label (Pirkka) which was the cheapest you could get from the local supermarket around the corner… Although i’m not THAT superstitious, got to keep these routines and not to change the label of beer either.. This evening my beloved girl friend came to the studio as well, to hang out and keep company for me. So we had some triple tournament with the flipper in the evening, with couple of beers, naturally!

Day 19 – Friday 22th of August 2012
Diarrhea day 5.
I woke up after Teemu had done solos about one and half hours already. Krrhhhmm…it was friday and this day i literally got a somewhat instant diarrhea or something (probably resulted from drinking so much beer and not eating properly). A really romantic thing, considering that my girl friend was in the studio as well… After i had been somewhat drained by the fucking shitstorm in the toilet and my lower back was splashed with the…..ricochet from the flushing water (NEVER happened before, i promise!), i started to prepare myself for the songs “Mato” and “Nappis”. The first song went succesfully through really fast, in couple of hours. Then again we continued with some guitar solos. After that we started the second song for vox, it was the same time when Resistor, DJ Locomotive and bunch of friends came to the studio to have a listen and get drunk. There is always a little extra tension while there’s many ears listening to you recording the vox, but in the end we got the second song as well almost done. Just some little parts missing. Literally i’d say this day we got nailed some serious shite! Now, it was time to party on with the dudes and dudettes, and have a little rest until next week’s final challenges….! Yagshamash, it’s a nice, I again VERY EXCITE!
Until next week’s final challenges then!
-Tommy the shitstorm Tuovinen

Diarrhea day 6
This next week there was only couple of songs to do (one actual song and a surprise song for Japan edition of the album), so we booked two evenings for the final songs and fixes. This first evening (tuesday) we recorded the actual song/final track for the album with a working title "Gojira". A really groovy, heavy and atmospheric song with a slight touch of something new in MyGrain sound, and with an really epic closure/outro to the album. Things worked out well, except for some reason I had some difficulties with the chorus and my voice didn´t work as I expected...though after a some while I managed to nail that chorus decently as well! Good shit. After these couple of hours we wrapped up the notes and stuff and I left the studio for a day. Not much work to do anymore, the victory is drawing near!!

Diarrhea day 7
The final chapter with the bonus song and final fixes here and there!
It was thursday evening and the last night at the studio. For starters we decided to do the final fixes for the songs already earlier recorded, so that everything else would be done before nailing the bonus song. All the fixes and stuff went out really well and I could not have been more satisfied with the result! Now the songs were completed, wohooo!! Then, it was time to nail the last piece of art. It took only two hours in all. A song which has almost nothing but cleans and just two growls in the choruses. This song will be very...very different...you will hear it one day Until then it´s a surprise!
Whoah....at this point I couldn't believe that we were actually happily DONE with the recordings!! It really was again hard yet fun work, and the result will be pure kill!

For the final words I´d really like to thank our producer/recorder mr. Janne Saksa from Sound Supreme studios, for his extremely good work and fruitious collaboration, it´s always a pleasure to work with him!

Now we´ll be waiting to hear the first mixings of the songs, and to complete the album with mr. Dan Swanö. Yay, feeling like a little child on Christmas, waiting to have the presents opened already!!!

Yo folks, that´s all for now, stay tuned for the news about the upcoming album! In the meantime we go touring around Japan with our friends Aggressive Dogs a.ka. UZI-ONE. It´s BANZAI! - Tommy Tuovinen

- And STALKER.cd says THANKS to you guys+girl for this studio diary - CU on tour!


photos: Toni Salminen www.metalscope.net , band, promo-photo: Terhi Ylimäinen



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