One of my fave pics from Counterpoint (Mitchell and Brett)

Day 3 / Session 3 / Year 2

I can't believe how much we've been able to do in 3 days, but we've managed to complete most of the tracking that was left without feeling rushed, including a whole new track, drums (most of the drums were done last year at Counterpoint studios). "Ministry of Truth" is turning out really cool. That song was half baked before we came into Matt Winegar's studio, and it took some lobbying from my part to to convince the band that this song had potential. I think we are all pretty happy with the results so far, including Matt.

So far, beside some minor edits here and there, all that we have left are the guitars and extra arrangements for "The Gathering Darkness" and vocals in all tracks. I think subconsciously I've been leaving this song for last. I know what I want my parts to be, but I'm not so sure how well they will translate to tape (figuratively speaking, the tape thing that is). I'm also a little nervous about my solo on this track. I only do a couple of solos in the new stuff anymore, Brett has taken most of the leads. It is not such a big deal, but for some reason I've been worrying. Another reason I was holding back on this track, is that the guitar I was planning on using (it is a custom made guitar, tentatively to be named $30 Phat Tele Deluxe), was missing a couple of pieces on the tuning pegs, so it was having a hard time keeping in tune. Today I was able to finally get the parts to fix it (props to Gary at Guitar Technologies).

We are also improvising a track with Matt called "Journey to the Central Machine". Or I'm trying to make Matt interpret my thoughts through weird keyboard voices. Tentatively to be the intro track or a bridge track somewhere in the record. That is TBD.

Brett was supposed to leave his mark on this blog too. Are you there somewhere, Brett?

- Oliver.

Feeling the weight of the music.

What a great day at the studio. Every time we start a new session, we are all scattered on the first day, our late loading, our distracted minds, trying to structure the day... but once the day aligns (with the universe in our heads?), and things start to fall into place, it becomes a very focused and enjoyable process. We spent most of the morning setting up and then getting the drums ready for "Ministry of Truth". I thought we would just do that, and leave guitars for some other time, but we recorded bass, and most of the guitars. To say we are pleased with the way it is sounding, it's an understatement. But as of right now, they are just words, the real test will be when everything is done and put down as a final piece on a CD or another digital format.
We started at around 11:00 am and finished at 9:00pm and I would say about 70% of the day we spent it on the aforementioned track. No complaints.

Then we moved on to "Empty Places". At first, we thought it was going to be a pain to put the contents of the Roland MC-505 onto the computer, track by track, and I thought, oh no, we are not leaving at a decent time tonight, but once we figured out a simple way to dump it into the computer, that part went a lot more smoothly. That track, at least for me, put a very somber atmosphere in the studio. We were very pleased to listen to the drumming tracks again that we had done at Counterpoint last year. We had forgotten how good they sounded. Moving on to "The Gathering Darkness" didn't help the gloomy mood. We wanted to do some sort of marching drums, so Mitchell layered a few tracks with different snares.

Then it dawned on me.

I started feeling the weight of all the atmosphere, mood and sentiment we were putting into the music. It almost feels like a big responsibility to do it right. But how do you do it right? when you do art, it is a very abstract thing, even though you try to structure things. My only comfort is that we are doing the best we can, we are being true to ourselves and our music. As for the rest and how people react to it, I have no control. Am I being melodramatic about the whole thing? I don't know, but I think a lot about our music and what we are doing, especially during this process.

Until the next entry, beloved recording blog.

- Oliver.

Back in the studio 2010

Lyrics updated, bass strings changed, studio tasks almost done, transportation from the rehearsal space to the studio figured out and to record we go! Almost a year later (just for a few days) we were finally able to get back to what we started in March of '09. Way overdue, but all this time gave us a chance to improve the current songs, add arrangements, work on new material and come more prepared to finish something we have great expectations for.

A new song we are going to do drums for tomorrow, is called "Ministry of Truth", it would make it the 8th track we have for the album (we are trying to keep the track count low, especially since some of the songs are fairly long). We may still add a 9th one, but I guess we'll figure that out this week, depending on the feel of the recording sessions and the album as a whole.

Now, I need to convince the guys to change the title for Warning 09, I'll let you know, dear studio blog, if I'm successful.

- Oliver.