Teloitus... and how it all came together
Welcome to our studio blog! It certainly has taken us a long time to get this far, but yes sir, we're finally recording our second album. First songs were written two years ago and the last one came together only this June. For the past year song-writing has been our main priority and as a result we've spent countless hours at rehearsal room working on this material as a band. It's been a long and hard road, but it was definitely worth it. We can't wait to let you guys hear what we've got to offer!
—Mynni Luukkainen, Kosti Orbinski, Pete Lapio, Tomi Otsala, Timo Häkkinen.
Executed on 4 September 2007, 16:54
Kuolinjulistus artwork is here!
And it’s nothing short of amazing! Three more weeks and this baby will hit the stores in Finland. On top of the single track it contains non-album track Estrangulados as b-side as well as music video for Kuolinjulistus. The artwork was created by Anna-Kaisa Reed from Mainostoimisto Aava & Bang.
Executed by Timo Häkkinen, filed in Artwork
Comment
Executed on 27 August 2007, 20:30
Release dates for Scandinavia
Here come the release dates! Teloitus will be available in Scandinavia on October 24th and Kuolinjulistus, the Finnish only single is out on September 26th. At the moment we’re still working on release dates for rest of the world. Stay tuned, baby!
And sorry for the lack of updates lately. We’re working on it. The video has been finished and it looks amazing, the album is mastered and it sounds amazing and new photos have been taken. They too look amazing. And the artwork for the album… That’s really going to be something!
Executed by Timo Häkkinen, filed in General
Comment [2]
Executed on 14 August 2007, 10:52
Writing updates for no one
No, we didn’t change the album title to cPanel. We experienced slight(?) issues with the server change on the past weekend and as a result, this site was down for a while. Goddamn I hate when stuff like that happens and there’s nothing I can do about it. As I type this, the site still isn’t available to anyone, so I have to admit, it feels kinda strange to write an update when no one can read it. Oh well, we’ve seen more distrubed people getting out of prison to kill again, so I guess I don’t need to worry, roit?
So, umm, what’s going on? Well, we drove back to Vaasa last Sunday for a video shoot! Everything went really well and I’ll type up a separate entry on the whole ordeal. Yesterday was pretty much just spent resting and listening to Hannu’s first mix. Today we’ll get down to the serious business and fight the whole day on who gets to say the last word on this whole “I wan’t my instrument to be the loudest” thing that the art of mixing is all about. (Natürlich Hannu gets the last word, but that’s not what I meant. I meant who in the band can win Hannu over to his side and thus win the whole war.)
Tomi: Minä oon Pete maksanut sen. Haluutko nähä kuitin?
Pete: No itse asiassa joo.
Tomi: Vai onko sulla muka sellainen olo, että oot ite maksanut sen?
Pete: Vahva kutina on. —Tomi bought Pete some sweets, but Pete feels different… At 5:15 AM.
As for what’s going on right now. Well. I’m babysitting a bunch of rockstars who went out last night to discuss foreign policy and tax issues with our video crew. Rumours say at least one beer bottle was seen nearby, but no official source has been able to confirm or deny this rumour. Somehow they all ended up drunk out of their minds, though, and woke me up to get back to the flat. Thanks guys, I love you too.
Executed by Timo Häkkinen, filed in General, Mixing
Comment
Executed on 28 July 2007, 10:41
Recordings have been finished
Actually everything was finished already on Wednesday the 25th. Our guest vocalist did simply amazing job with the song Estrangulados. It's exactly what we wanted it to be! We also had two special guests performing guitar solos for this song, but it's best to not say anything more on this subject.
Hyvä tuolla on istua kun jätkät haukkuu tuolia, tökkii tikulla ja vittuilee. —Hannu feels it ain't easy working with a bunch of wankers such as us
As everything was now finished with recordings, Hannu had arranged us a special evening: Sauna, grilling, chilling and drinking! Wohoo! What a champ! It was the perfect way to end the 1½ weeks of working for every single day. Thanks to everyone involved!
The night ended with five tired guys hitting the bed after midnight and Mynni "da man" going out drinking. Before 4 AM a certain someone needed to get back in, and instead of using the key which he had, he felt it was necessary to call everybody and wake them up to come and open the door. Worry not, he was totally sober and we have photos for prove it!
Se näyttää ensin vaikeelta, mutta helppoahan se sitten oli. —Mynni, the great philosopher, on drinking
On Thursday morning we packed our stuff at the flat, cleaned the place up and left to pack the drums and then onto Hannu's studio to get a rough mix with us back home. It was a great feeling to head towards home already on Thursday afternoon, instead of, say, Wednesday next week. We now have two weeks off before heading back to Vaasa to be rockstars and mix the album. Mastering has been booked for late August.
All in all we had nothing but great time in Vaasa with a bunch of amazing people. Thank you all, you know who you are! Also a special thanks to all of our fans and friends for supporting us and reading all this silliness. It's greatly appreciated, thank you!
(Photos, videos and general updates on the album progress will be posted gradually during the next few weeks and we're back with daily rambling once the mixing starts. Stay tuned!)
Executed by Timo Häkkinen, filed in General, Recording, Vocals
Comment [1]
Executed on 23 July 2007, 21:59
We are a team, no doubt about it
Mynni came here yesterday and we watched The Village together. Mynni had hard time trying to get someone to join him for a few beers at some bar and eventually left on his own. What a trooper! You really know you have that special team thing going on when everybody has been kicked out from the same bar within a few days (except for me, but I don't count seeing I don't exist, haha).
Minä lähden sitten baariin, kun kukaan ei kerran puhu mulle. —Mynni faces hard reality
We got to the studio at 9:30 AM and waited for Hannu to arrive. He had had fun time in Germany and brought us some bratwurst - what a hero! He briefly listened to what we had recorded over the weekend and then fiddled with Pete's guitar sound a bit.
Hirveetä pörinää. Et säkään ole tätä helpoks tehnyt itelles. —Hannu has a special liking for Timo's drum parts on "Verellä kirjoitettu"
After Pete tracked few additional parts for a couple of songs it was time for Kosti to start tracking his parts. Hannu gave us a killer guitar sound (once again) and we started tracking. As I type this, another 12 hour day is behind us and Kosti tracked seven out of nine songs (all songs doubled). Apparently his special weekend training did the trick. Pertti on hirveä nöitä!
Ootteko pelannut Pleikkaria koko päivän? —Mikki checks in on us during our dinner break
Right now we're just chilling out, playing some Playstation and trying to rest. Not really sure if Playstation is the best way to chill out, seeing Mynni got hostile earlier on today when Pete was kicking his ass on NHL like it was nothing.
We're actually a bit ahead of our schedule, which is nice, and we have a special guest coming in on Wednesday to do some vocals. Can't wait for that to happen!
Tomorrow Kosti will track the two missing songs, throw in some additional guitar foolery where needed and then it's time for Mynni's vocals. More than likely, we will also record some guitar solos during the evening... Only wimps and posers work less than 10 hours day, roit?
Executed by Timo Häkkinen, filed in General, Guitars, Recording
Comment [2]
Executed on 23 July 2007, 18:13
Believe it or not, we are actually working here
Just a quick update to let you know that on top of watching silly videos on Youtube, we are actually making some progress here. Today has been a guitar day and a more detailed post will follow later on. We're heading back to studio in a moment to continue tracking Kosti's guitars. Just wanted to let you know that we finally have some videos up, so check out the video section here and feel free to add us as a friend on Youtube.
Executed by Timo Häkkinen, filed in General, Guitars, Recording, Videos
Comment
Executed on 22 July 2007, 19:18
This week we have been mostly...
Pete has finished tracking his share of the guitars (except for solos and some additional parts) and things are sounding pretty damn good! We were meant to start tracking at 11 AM yesterday, but due to certain reasons I believe we started recording around 2 PM. Pete was almost dead, but he was a brave little fellow and tracked three songs. Afterwards we had sauna with Mikki and spent the evening chilling at our flat. Mika from Rotten Sound came here and then we headed to a bar with Kai Hahto. It was the same bar the guys visited (and were kicked out from) the night before and we didn't stay there long this time either.
Asterix on muuten vittumainen jätkä. —Kosti doesn't like the producer too much
Today we got up around 10 AM and headed to the studio after getting some breakfast and watching silly videos on Youtube. Pete wasn't feeling too well today either, he's getting sick, but he managed to track the missing four songs. What a champ!
Kaidop-biisissä meni vire kun joutu vödläämään. —Pete is a hilarious fellow when he's sick
Kosti on the other hand has been on a rather hilarious mood since he got here... I believe it must be the water he drinks. He's been writing his first solo album/stand-up set. Here is some of the stuff he has been entertaining us with since this morning:
- Pertti ei syö omenoita, Pertti ei syö päärynöitä, Pertti on hirveä nöitä!
- Pertti ei kuuntele riffilöitä, Pertti ei kuuntele klikkilöitä, Pertti on hirveä nöitä!
- Pertti soittaa kitaröitä, vetää hirven papanoita pitkin öitä!
- Pertin maksa vinkuu harmoniassa sustainerin kanssa!
- Jäkä jäkä!
What a funny guy indeed! Mynni will get here in few hours and tomorrow it's time for Kosti to start recording his share of guitars. All in all we're in schedule and everything's sounding killer!
Executed by Timo Häkkinen, filed in General, Guitars, Recording
Comment [1]
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
Comment
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
Comment [2]
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…