1. SUPERB SESSIONS
4.10.1996
This is the day we’re starting to work out our first single for the album. Tracking is done at Janne Haavisto’s & Tom Nyman’s very own & excellent Hitsville IV studio here in Helsinki. The mixing will be done at the Finnvox studios, shamelessly using the opportunities provided by this huge studio combo and it’s ultra modern technology, filled with "Turbo Ultrasound Mega Force" slogans to fool the ordinary consumer to buy this equipment. Back on planet earth we’re supposed to do some soundchecking and get the gear working today and start recording on monday. Our plan is simply to get "Superb" & "I love trampoline" ready during the next week. Our attitude is to record the basic tracks for the whole album right now, today. Well, as it turned out, we sucked and didn’t get anything taped this day. A major blow against our huge egos
7.10.
We start the official sessions with 4 takes of "Trampoline", we feel they all suck and in our angst do a version of "Superb" which is the one that ends on the record. I have to rave about the way we're set up in the studio. Only Ripa & Pide use headphones. Antti & I hear ourselves thru the speakers set up in the room we all play in. I have my microphone set the same way as it’s live, really low, and we just rock the day away. Studios can be so sterile, but not Hitsville. We play a couple of takes of "Sun" & "A Good year" and decide to call it quits.
8.10
Tom (our other producer, Janne is the other one) has listened to the takes of yesterday and likes the first one of "Trampoline" and the last (4th) one of "Good year". We say OK, and decide to bag "Sun" for the moment. We end up doing some overdubbing, mainly guitars and call it a day.
9.10
This is the day I have to sing and of course I have a sore throat. Surprise! It seems that every time there’s something important going on I have a sore throat… coinsidence? I don’t think so. Anyway, I get the lead vocals for "Trampoline" quite easily and "Superb" even easier. Lucky me. Everybody’s happy and we’re off to our homes to concentrate on the vocal harmonies for tomorrow. Luckily I don’t have to sing any harmonies so I get to have a couple of beers to relieve the stress
10.10
Harmonies, some good, some bad. We decide to keep the good ones and we have ourselves a almost finished single. Our producers decide that the 3rd verse on "Superb" needs something extra so they decide to put this weird, very old organ sound, driven thru distortion and whatnot, underneath to give it some extra punch. They’re like two mad doctors doing some bizarre experimenting as they play this onenote15 sec. extravaganza that’s hardly recognizable on the final mix. Good stuff.
11.10
Today we decide to put "My donut mind" as a bonus track on the single, taken from our old demos. This is a song we’re somewhat tired of but it’s still a good tune so why not put it out. We finish "Superb" & "Trampoline" with a few guitar sounds, we’re done in no time and off we go towards the wild mood swings of the weekend.
14.10
The 1st day of mixing. This is the day when you finally get to find out whether the people you decided to work with were a good choice or not. We begin the work on "Superb". Our producers & Risto Hemmi (the mixing engineer) are in the studio and we’re laying around the chill-out room watching lousy television programs and German Viva channel which has to be the Worst of the music channels! They had a Boo Radleys interview, which of course got us excited, but it was dubbed in German. As it turns out everything else is likewise. Sick people these overdubbers. Soon they’ll be dubbing over the songs…
Anyway, back to business. After a while our producers call us in and ask what we think of the mix so far. We’re about to shit bricks as it sounds like there’s a different band on the tape that left the studio the other day. Luckily we can communicate quite well and we tell what we’d like to hear and so on. Two hours later we come in and it’s almost there!!! Everyone’s smiling and we finish the song in a couple of hours. We end up at Bertina bar to rave how great the song turned out and how great the producers are and on, and on, and on…
15.10
Today we mix "Trampoline". It’s easier, since we’re on the right tracks. Viva still sucks and the song turns out really good. Cheers! All we have to do is get the damn thing mastered and the cover art ready, and we have ourselves a finished single
2. THE ROCK SESSION
20.10
We pop in to Hitsville with our gear for the 2nd session’s sound check and that’s basically all there is to it. During the next three days (from 22nd on) we’re supposed to record the rest of the basic tracks for the album.
22.10
We begin the sessions with some more soundchecking and start the whole thing with a couple of versions of "Over now". We’re not really sure whether they’re good or not so we decide to go on playing "Don’t know Myself", "Sun", "Zoo" & "Round". At the end we play some more "Over now" & we know we have a keeper for the song, we’re just not sure which one is the best. I want to go home…
23.10
Tom’s been listening to the tapes and has decided on the two best versions of "Over now" and found a keeper on "Zoo". Actually "Zoo" was quite obvious yesterday, but with all those moods and feelings hanging over the studio, one just can’t tell immediately. We feel we suck all the time…We start working on the "Round" and we just can’t get the damn thing right. So, Pide suggests we try this song separately track by track. We’re horrified of the thought of not playing live, but we decide to give it a shot. Pide lays down the perfect drum-track on first take, but we can’t get the thing grooving on top of it. We’re meant to play live! We decide to bag the song and do a version of "Tourist". Lucky us, the first take is so good we decide to put it on the album and forget "Round" for good. You just can’t have it all, now can you ?!?!
Next we play "You could be a monster", the second take is a keeper as we decide to leave the click track unused. Click is the thing to keep the tempos of the songs steady. It’s mostly good for us since we usually get overly excited and the songs fall into our hands like Jello that’s been left on the table for couple of days. Anyway, next we nail "Dinosaur" , 2nd take I think, "A Place" follows, and we work on "Sun" but it’s so complicated, 'cause it’s a bit of a long tune. Usually we get either the beginning right or the ending right, but never the whole song. Well, this time I think we have a keeper at take 1009 or something. We have to listen to it tomorrow to know for sure.
We try a version of "Heavy" but it’s sounding too academic, so we decide to use the demo we did earlier this year. Beef it up with some guitars and do new vocal tracks for it and I think we’ll have a winner right there. We also do a keeper for "Myself" but we’re getting some doubts about it appearing on the record. Something's not right with this song…
As it turns out this was one of the best & most productive days in our illustrious recording career. We nail basic tracks for 7 songs, and in our book that’s very good
24.10
This is the day we’ve decided to dedicate for "Bottle up, bye bye". It’s a song we haven’t played for about a year, but it appears on the demo we gave for the producers, and they decided to like the song. We’d already decided not to have it on the record. A lot of decisions there. Janne & Tom have made up their minds about the song appearing on the record so we'll just go along with them. It’s not that we don’t like this song, it’s just not happening as we play our rock version of it.
First we decide to make it acoustic driven and shorten it a bit. It sounds like something off the Nirvana "Unplugged" record, and I’m beginning to see some light at the end of the tunnel. We play this song over and over, but we just can’t get the damn thing right. It’s beginning to eat our confidence and also getting to our minds. Everyone’s quite pissed and I wouldn’t be surprised if someone would announce that they're leaving the band. We decide to quit, we haven’t got a single sound taped, what a day
Laika & The Cosmonauts are off to an European tour for a month, which means our producers are gone for that time (it’s their band, u see). So we’re left with this fuckeverythingwesuck feeling. I really hate this shit…
Tomi Palsa has come over to do a story about us for his ever excellent Pelo-magazine. I’m sure we can let some steam out during the course of the interview. Remains to be seen…
3. DOING THE FROSTING
25.11
A month off, and we’re like new people. "Superb" was released and some people seem to even like it. Radiomafia’s been so kind to us from the very beginning. It’s amazing how much good some airplay in the national radio can do for a band. During our absence we also shot a video for "Superb" which was directed by Pide’s brother Kie. Excellent, crazy & very weird stuff at the same time. We also did our Toys 'R' Us -show in Jyrki. It turned out really funny. Good job on behalf of the cameramen
Anyway, we’ve been joking that if Janne or Tom is going to suggest that we try "Bottle up" we’ll quit the relationship. It’s one of those "worst things you can imagine…" - deals. We’re coming into the studio all shiny and poppy, and Janne comes with this smirk on his face and tells us that he’s not willing to give up on "Bottle up". He’s got an idea…
I begin to laugh, we all do, and because this is one of the things that can’t happen, we decide to go on with it. Basically Janne had changed the drum arrangement so that there are no cymbals, just shitty sounding kick-drum & snare with him playing shaker all over it. Well, the damn thing started working like hell and we got one of the best tracks for the album. This is exactly why you hire producers!!! We’re happy as hell and start to work on the guitar overdubbing for other songs. The day ends on a good note and we’re one big happy family once again
26.11
I come in late and Ripa & Pide have been working some guitar stuff for "Bottle up" and it sounds great. Except for the major chord played by Ripa instead of the supposed minor chord on choruses, but that’s another story
Ripa does his blues bit for the middle section of "Tourist" thru this tiny Pignose amplifier, which is being used more and more during these sessions. See girls & boys, it’s not the size that matters!. Next we do some Buffalo Springfield quotes for "Sun", and as it turns out, a couple of Ripa’s basic guitar tracks are out of tune, so we spend some time working on those. He plays some weird stuff from higher positions on the neck, so they’re very hard to keep in tune. He’s forgiven. Ripa also does his masterful solo for "Place". He plugs all his weird pedals in and puts it all thru this old Leslie speaker and we’re floating. A good day.
27.11
I was supposed to sing but I’ve been struck by a flu - surprise!- so I can’t sing until the next week. We stick to guitar stuff and do new guitar tracks for "Over now", because Ripa is out of tune. We decide to redo my guitar track as well, just to get us in the same mood. We set our amplifiers in the same room facing each other and crank them up. This way we get more feel to the playing - it’s not the correct playing that counts, but the feeling. A word of advice for you young musicians! So, we do some more guitars, after which we do a couple of guitar tracks and finish the day by doing some guitar overdubbing. A true six-string mayhem. Antti & Pide are enjoying themselves by playing this old pumporgan; it’s driving the rest of us mad…
3.12.
Time for me to sing. My voice is getting better, it’s still a bit weak after the flu but it’ll be ok, once I’ll warm it up correctly. Voice is like an old car. You have to be really gentle with it. I begin the day with some acoustic stuff for "Monster" and continue the day by doing the lead vocals for the tune. It takes a while, but we get the song down. I’m beat, and so is everyone else, so we decide to call it a day. Singing can be really frustrating at times.
4.12.
A sad day for me. I hear that a good friend of ours, Rami Kuusinen, has passed away. I keep thinking of him all day, and I’m sure he’s present as I lay 4 (!!!) lead tracks down during this day. I sing "Over now", "A Good Year", "Dinosaur" & "Tourist". Peace.
9.12.
As always, the first thing in the morning, I take the acoustic guitar with me and go on singing by myself to get my voice going. Ripa & Pide sing some backing vocals while I’m gone and things go along really smoothly. Today my voice feels really good so I decide to nail "Zoo" & "Place". For the latter my voice has to be in shape, otherwise I’ll run out of it quicker than ice-cream melts in the sun. I sing my lungs out and I really like the way these two come out. As I get tired of singing we put some Leslie guitar on "Zoo" and do my John Frusciante rip-off bit for "Place". Enough is enough and off we go to our quiet homes.
10.12.
I do 4 lead tracks for "Bottle up" and they will all end up used simultaneously in the final mix. This way we get this 60’s Beatlesque mood for the tune it seems to require. Druggy stuff. Ripa, Pide & Antti all sing backing vocals to the songs I’m finished with. This can be really time consuming, but in the end it’s worth the trouble.
Antti plays some keyboards for "Monster" but he’s in his Stevie Wonder-mode, and we just can’t fit all those maj7th, and 6ths and whatever chord progressions to the song, so he settles with the regular rock stuff. If you have a restaurant and need an entertainer, contact Antti. He’ll make your bar into a lounge in no time. Pide also shows his potential as an entertainer and does his bit with keyboards, with organ this time, for "Good year". Pide’s playing is more Jon Lord influenced but would make great entertainment for the rock joints. Smooooooooke on the waaaaaaaateeer….
We also promised to do a couple of acoustic gigs, but haven’t had the time to rehearse, so we should get on with that pretty quickly. Talk about being busy…
11.12.
More backing vocals. We get into a major shouting contest, Pide & I that is, about nothing really. It’s just that this is frustrating at times and it’s truly good to have some things in the open to clear the air every once in a while. Actually this is the first time, and I hope we can avoid the second time, but when you want to make something really good and your heart is in it, shit like this happens. I really love him like a brother. The day ends on a good note, and we have mostly a finished record, almost that is…
We do a quick rehearsal of the acoustic tunes before we head towards our homes and the gig tomorrow. It’ll be alright
4. FINAL TOUCHES
16.12.
Big day. We begin to mix the rest of the stuff at Finnvox while I’m doing the rest of the lead vocals for "Sun" & "Heavy" at Hitsville. This is the last day of singing for me and I couldn’t be more happy about it. This is quite handy, cause Hitsville & Finnvox are located next to each other, and we can maximize the use of time this way. We mix "Over now" first and we’re really happy about the way it sounds. We’re thinking of the next single also. "Over now" & "Monster" are both possible choices. Pekka Ruuska, our record label guy, likes "Monster" a lot & we like them both really. We’ll see.
Vocals for "Sun" come out with only a little trouble, but I still have the second verse’s lyrics to write for "Heavy". Well, I turn my lyrical side of the brains on and decide to say the word "fuck" in the lyrics no matter what ;-) How rock of me - and clever! Don’t ask me why, but I’ve been singing mambojambo for this verse live and the f-word seems to come up, so it’s obviously meant to be there ;-) I get the lyrics ready in no time, sing this tune quickly and I’m off to Marketta to honor this achievement by buying myself a couple of beers. Talk about rock credibility. F-words & beer. Watch out Andy!
17.12.
We finish the mixing of "Monster" this morning and begin to work on "Good year". My favorite track on the album. Backing vocals are being sung at Hitsville, Viva is being watched at Finnvox and a lot of work is getting done. We have a somewhat tight schedule because Tom & Janne have loads of other work waiting for them, geniuses that they are, so this thing can’t get off the tracks. Not to worry, heh, heh…
"Good year" is left on the mixing table for finishing touches in the morning, but it sounds really good. Pide asked if there could be more guitars at the end of the song, but Janne said NO. And when he says NO, there isn’t any room for more guitars, believe you me. He very rarely says NO to anything, happy-go fellow that he is, but when he says it, he means it. On our way home Pide thinks that the overheads should be louder in the final mix and decides to give Janne a call. Interesting, isn’t it
18.12.
Well, the overheads weren’t loud enough and after some finishing touches "Good year" is ready. As we come in to the studio Janne & Risto have started the work on "Bottle up". It’s great. Meanwhile, Tom is working his ass off in Hitsville with the rest of the backing vocals. Hard work it is. Especially for me, watching Viva
Risto is really excited about mixing "Dinosaur", he’s playing air guitar and that doesn’t happen too often. Old punk inside him takes control and were back in the 70’s, baby. Great, great stuff. We’re off to Christmas vacation, almost in schedule…Merry this, merry that…
2.1.1997
I hope this’ll be a good year for the human race. A lot of expectations on our part as the album comes out & so on. Well, we still have 5 songs to mix so we better get on with it! We begin the year with "Tourist". It’s really simple. Just turn the guitars loud and make them louder at the end. That’s the way to go! Viva Las Vegas. Rehtorit knows how to play that tune by the way. Ask them.
3.1.
We mix "Place" and it seems to be a bit problematic. We can’t level with Janne & Risto and we get sounds ranging from early Simple Minds to the late Simple Minds and we’re not really happy about this. We talk….then we talk some more…and after a while we’ve been talking enough and have ourselves a finished song. Simple, eh! Tero Alanko from Soundi is coming to do an interview on us. So, we talk a little bit of everything, after which we talk some more about the rest of the stuff, and finally Tero says there’s been enough talking for an article. Quite simple. A nice fellow! We work on "Sun" and finish it and start to work on "Zoo". We’re running out of time, which means that the temperature in the studio is rising…
The song just doesn’t sound good, so Janne decides it’s time to go home and begin the whole thing over again tomorrow. There’s something really scary when you get a superb, friendly, nice and everything guy like Janne pissed. There has to be a way we can blame Viva for all this!
4.1.
A little quickly in the morning and we have finished "Zoo" by noon. Amazing what a good night’s sleep can do. Sleep people!
6.1.
Final day of the sessions! Ripa & Antti have to sing the harmonies for "Heavy" before we begin the mixing of the song at 12 o’clock. As we meet at Hitsville at 9 am, Tom the sad bastard, is so hungover after partying yesterday, that I really pity this teddybear lookalike this morning. As if recording backing vocals isn’t the shittiest of all jobs, doing it in hangover, has to be among the worst things you can imagine along with being stuck with Hannu Karpo for the rest of your life. I have to take off as I’m going to produce a song for Sub-Urban Tribe for their forthcoming album. I leave these animal men to finish their job, and by the end of the day we have not only one of the best tracks ready for the album, but a finished album altogether. Congrats are in order. Couldn’t be happier at the moment.
10.1.
Mastering day. This is when the songs are put in their final order, compression is added, some levels are being checked and after this day there isn’t anything you can do about the record. We finish the day by listening the whole album in darkened D-studio, drinking beer and I’m almost crying at the end of it. We hug, go to sauna, eat some pasta at Ilves (the best in the world!) and go to see Fabulettes play at Semifinal and do ourselves a favor by getting totally wasted. Good stuff
All we need to do is get the cover art ready by Jan 17, and the record is on it’s way to the stores for Feb 17 release. Simple, eh!
THE END
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