Executed on 21 July 2007, 11:06
A Hard Day's Night
About an hour ago I got a message from Mikki asking if all the guys made it back to our flat. The reason he asked was because they were all kicked out, one by one, during the night. To answer this question, yes, they all made it back here and I have photo and video evidence to prove it.
En ole nukkunut! —Tomi being kicked out
I believe the night went something like this. After midnight the guys left and visited a bunch of bars. At some point Tomi started feeling sleepy and he was kicked out. Apparently he took a taxi and made it back here on his own. At this point it's noteworthy to mention that we only have one key to this place, and Tomi had it. Pete is another story altogether. At this point there's no way to tell why, when and where from he was kicked out and how he got back to our flat. Tomi did let him in. I myself woke up closer to 4 AM because Pete was snoring while sitting on his inflatable mattress... Sure that's one way to sleep?
Then the phones started ringing and I knew it had to be Kosti, because he was still missing - drunk, alone, lost in a strange city and no idea where our flat was. I called him and gave him instructions so he could get here. He fooled around in front of my video camera for a while before hitting the bed around 4:30. We also made a bet at this point. I said Pete wouldn't be tracking guitars by 11 AM as we had agreed earlier on, but Kosti trusted his partner like a fellow guitar player always should. As I'm typing this, I know I've just earned two euros, which was nice!
Executed by Timo Häkkinen, filed in Random foolery
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Executed on 21 July 2007, 02:05
Today the world, tomorrow the guitars
Just a quick update to let you know that all bass parts have been finished and Pete has also tracked two songs on the guitar (two guitar tracks for each song). We had a great day today (well yesterday, seeing it's already 2 AM) and little by little the songs start sounding better and better as we keep on adding instruments over the drum tracks. We also visited Mika from Rotten Sound and his family today. They live upstairs from where we're tracking the guitars and vocals and we had a nice little coffee break at their place, cheers! :)
Mustikkatassut on muuten ihan vitun hyviä! —Tomi + 10 kg
By the way, Hannu was wondering the other day if anyone could send us some extra double bass notes for our songs. He has special liking for the song Kidutus, but he'd like some more double bass on it. Anyone?
Siellä on koko ajan kellarikidutusta. —Mikki told us what's going on in his basement
Kosti arrived today around 9 PM and Mikki also came to hang out. We talked more crap about the album release, new merchandise, video shoot and so on... A while ago everybody else left for a few beers, but I had to stay here - natürlich - to update this blog, take care of Myspace etc. Oh well, someone's gotta do it!
Executed by Timo Häkkinen, filed in Bass, General, Guitars, Recording
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Executed on 19 July 2007, 22:39
Drums are done!
After a few unlucky days things really started rolling today! We started early and everything went really well. We tracked the two missing songs and also did new takes on a bunch of songs that were already recorded. We ended up nailing 6-7 final takes today, so definitely a very good day! After the drums were done, we headed out to lunch and moved to Biotech Audio Solutions to start going through the drum takes and choosing the best ones.
Hannu is leaving to Germany tomorrow, so he taught us how to record few additional bass parts and guitars over the weekend. We did roughly a 12 hour day and everybody is beaten. Tomorrow we’ll sleep late in the morning and then head out to work. This monster of an album is finally starting to come together and we’re damn excited!
As soon as Hannu gets back from Germany (on Monday, unless he eats some Germany Bratwurst that’s gone bad) we’ll put together a gear list for all those interested. Drums, heads, mics, positioning, photos… everything.
On siitä ehkä yks otto sinnepäin… Tai en mä tiedä. —Tomi asked Timo how he did with the song Oikeutus
Sorry for the short post, but we’re totally beaten. Kosti will arrive here tomorrow so it’s going to be all about guitars from now on…
Executed by Timo Häkkinen, filed in Drums, Recording
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Executed on 18 July 2007, 23:45
Drums and a night out
There's been a bunch of troubles so far, but it seems like things are getting better now. Some equipment at the studio was not working properly, some broke down and also our drum computer is having slight issues in perfecting the takes, haha. Tomorrow's another day of blasting. Who knows, we might finally get some pictures up too.
After calling it a day we headed to Kråklund's record store and then got a TV and Playstation from Mikki. Cleaned the place up, went shopping and spent a couple of hours talking with Mikki about the album release and everything related to it. We were basically given two options to get better sales: gay porn, or kill some people. Any publicity is good publicity, roit?
Terve mutsi! Mitä löytyy? —Mikki to an old lady who was going through trash to find empty bottles
All in all it really seems like this album isn't supposed to happen, but rest assured, we'll get it done no matter what.
Oh yeah, while walking on the street tonight I was called Osama bin Laden. Whatever...
Executed by Timo Häkkinen, filed in General
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Executed on 17 July 2007, 09:55
Vaasa so far
The coolest thing with this album is that we don’t have to rush everything. We decided to drive to Vaasa already on Sunday – one day before the sessions would start. This made everything more enjoyable. We had good time at rehearsal room packing the drums and started driving towards Vaasa at 7 pm. First stop came pretty soon and it was coffee and ice cream time! While enjoying these simple pleasures of life we were approached by a foreigner trying to sell us a (stolen) gold ring. We had noticed how this guy had given another person next to us hard time and thus wasted no time in leaving. Those people are known to get really pushy with their shit.
Eiköhän me ensimmäinen viikko vedetä ihan rennosti kuppia? —Pete at rehearsal room while packing the gear
Driving was cool, although there was a bit of rain for the whole journey. Our second stop was at Seinäjoki for another coffee session. While getting our coffees we were approached by a lady who told us Jesus loves us, even though we didn’t want her brochures. Outside the gas station we noticed that Hitchcock must like us in a special way: I swear, there were so many birds sitting on a tower crane that it had The Birds written all over it (and we’ve got photos to prove it). Eventually we reached Vaasa close to midnight and found our way to Midas Studios, where we’ll be recording drums and bass. An amazing studio with a huge recording room that sounds just amazing! We carried all the equipment in and spent a few hours talking shit before hitting the bed.
Yesterday morning we started putting the drums together. The plan was to spend the first day just setting everything up, changing and tuning the heads and micing the kit. Kai Hahto was the man responsible for the tuning part and we picked him up in the afternoon. After some healthy pizza, we started working on the drum sound. Good times hanging out with a friend. After we got what we all thought was a goddamn amazing drum sound we called it a day. We headed to the city (the studio itself is located in the middle of nowhere) to meet Mikki from Woodcut records and check out the apartment where we’ll be staying for the rest of our time here in Vaasa.
Oh yeah, we were pulled over by cops yesterday, but that’s another story altogether.
Today is when we start tracking the drums and bass. So far everything has been smooth and things are going nicely. Hannu will be arriving here in about an hour and then we start soundchecking the drums and then it’s blasty time. Pics, vids and more rambling coming along eventually. For all the drummers out there; I swear, the Pearl Reference snare is the best thing I’ve ever heard in my life! Now, we gotta go do some important stuff like watching silly videos on Youtube…
Executed by Timo Häkkinen, filed in General
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Executed on 15 July 2007, 14:17
Today is the day
It’s been almost four years since we recorded Death Metal Finland. In few hours myself, Tomi and Pete will hit the road and drive to Vaasa. During the next 2½ weeks we will be recording our new album entitled Teloitus with Sami “Hannu” Koivisto. There’s going to be eight brand new tracks on the album and only two of them have ever been played live. The material is heavier than before and we’re looking very forward to playing them live later on this year.
That’s all for now. Gotta go and pack my stuff. Stay tuned!