|
Mala Luna studio session, 12/01/05 - 12/06/05
OUBS studios, Espoo, Finland
Personnel:
Panu Kontkanen - guitars, vocals
Jussi Niiles - drums
Janne Nikula - bass
with
Heikki Niiranen - record engineering
Friday Dec 2nd
Hi, it's Jussi here, I'll be the first one to write to the diary, the guys are working on the bass tracks for two songs. It took me 8 hours to finish the drumming for those two songs. However, the biggest part of that 8 hours it took us to arrange the sound of the drums etc. which is rather common thing in this situation.
Besides the drum sound, Heikki worked with the common sound policy as well, and that he did by fixing and making some new cords which could be trusted to work with instead of worrying of some possible signal loss. Today we're working on the drum and bass tracks for songs called Journey and Mortality and we'll finish the drumming and the bass playing tomorrow by recording the drums and bass lines for two more songs.
Saturday Dec 3rd
Janne: Couldn't finish the bass lines completely last night. I continued working on them today and now the situation is that three songs are completed with drums and two with bass (it's now 5:21 pm.). Right now we're having coffee break and we'll continue on the drumming of the fourth song in a while.
Yep, the clock is ticking - it's now 9:45 pm. We've finished the drum tracks and Janne is working on the last bass lines. Jussi just made some excellent mexican stew for dinner. Perfect with cold beer...
11:23 pm. The bass tracks are now put down. The few beers reserved for today are finished - actually, some of'em got accidentally "stolen", but the evening goes on. Panu probably still starts to work on his guitar parts, if he still has the energy - but, tell you the truth, currently he's sitting in living room with glass of gt in his hand...
Jussi just called it a day and went home. He made an excellent job today.
We already have taken quite a few pictures from the session and now we're working on finding an easy way to put them online with the diary. So stay tuned for them as well.
Panu: OK, it's almost 4:00 am. in the sunday morning and we've been adjusting guitar sounds with Heikki. It's rather interesting to see how even half inch change of position of the recording microphone can crucially change the output of the sound. Nevertheless, the sounds are already kicking ass! Can't wait the result of the fine tuning...
And must say huge 'thanks' to OUBS technician Tapio who had the patience to move the mentioned microphone - literally every half'n inch at the time in the middle of the night between sat and sun.
The actual guitar recording will take place tomorrow - or today to tell the truth, after a few hours of sleep. Catch you tomorrow.
Sunday Dec 4th
Jussi: Apparently Panu and Heikki had adjusted the guitar sounds until 4 am. in the night. Janne had left the studio in the middle of the night after finishing his bass lines.
So today is the time for Panu's guitars. He has been working on Journey for couple of hours. Janne had to go working.
And, of course, we had to eat as well: today was the day for french fries and sausages - gourmet dinner, right? I'm watching the TV show Idols, but Panu is not there (he's one of the crew members of the show) because he's here with us. Disco Inferno!
Panu: We've just passed midnight, the others have gone away several hours ago. Now we're having a toast break with Heikki. So far we've finished the guitars for Journey and Scapegoat? with melody guitars excluded. Next we'll record the "Jatsi" noise guitars, then we'll calm down with Mortality's acoustic guitars.
And tomorrow we'll start singing.
Monday Dec 5th
Jussi: Just popped by to the studio. The guys had stayed up until 8 am. Way to go! Panu is working on with his guitars. Killer material.
7:37 pm. All of the electric guitars are now done. And next is the time for acoustic ones.
Panu: It's 11:10 pm., all of the guitars are now done. I'm satisfied. Very satisfied.
But no time to sleep, the recording of the vocals is about to start.
4:15 am., today I re-wrote the lyrics for the "Jatsi" which is now finished with backing vocals excluded. As is the Mortality.
The OUBS TV crew just came home from a collective night out, and now we're fighting against the noise they make by listening Led Zeppelin...
Heikki wanted to bring back the tradition of writing a new song in a session in the middle of the night. So I did, and Go to Sleep was born.
Tuesday Dec 6th
Panu: Today is the Finnish Independence day and people are celebrating - and hopefully so are we, for the finishing of the session. Looks good so far: Mortality and the above mentioned Go to Sleep are completed and now we're working on the backing vocals of Welcome to the Night, previously known as "Jatsi". And then, the choruses for Scapegoat? and Journey and we're done.
2:27 am., I just heard a very pleasant phrase from Heikki via the headphones of the studio booth: "It's a wrap." The backing vocals for Journey actually tore my throat so that even speaking is rather hard right now, though...
Anyway, even though tired, I'm full of relevation and enthusiasm: the recorded tracks are not the easiest ones to play or to sing. Five days not being at home, working nights and days, five songs. Songs of which I'm extremely proud of in any way. Songs what have been the most precious ones ever for a long time.
And here they are, explained by words, five songs of five days:
1. Journey
Fast tempo rock piece, very edgy and turning all the time, usual for us. The melodies of the verses have some echos from the Kalevala heritage, which step aside when releaving chorus comes along. The subtitle verifies the lyrics.
2. Welcome to the Night
The text of this twisted jazz-rock piece was re-written on the very same day that the vocals of the song were recorded. The melody of the chorus is constantly flirting even with pop music. The lyrics'll take us to the era of gangsters.
3. Scapegoat?
The oldest one of the songs recorded in this session - I had the idea for the basic guitar riff when sitting in a bus going home in the middle of the night from the previous Mala Luna session in April of '05. The result for the process of working on the riff was a song which we've played in a few shows as a last song of the set. Twisted riffs, twisted melodies - of course. The epic 5-min piece ends to rounchy rock. The lyrics are about a person who has problems to admit his/her own mistakes - about you. And me..
4. Mortality
The first Mala Luna song leaning to acoustic guitar. The basic guitar lines were written last summer to a different purpose but the song was adapted to Mala Luna when noticing that the rest of the new material is also influenced by the Kalevala heritage. The lyrics tell the tale of a person who is thinking that should he go on or throw himself in the arms of death by coldness. Freezing text is supported by a haunting composition.
5. Go to Sleep
The tradition of composing a complete new song in the middle of the night is still going strong, thanks to our record engineer/co-producer/multi-genious Heikki. This song was composed, it's lyrics were written and it was recorded by one take 5 am. in the morning. Go to Sleep is the little brother to Mortality.
Espoo, Finland, 7th of December on the God's year of 2005,
Panu Kontkanen.
|
