| M | T | W | T | F | S | S |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| « Mar | ||||||
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | ||
| 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 |
| 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 |
| 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 |
| 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | |||
So, the album was Mastered this week. I’m guessing that about 99% of you haven’t got a CLUE what that means - to be honest, until Wednesday, I wasn’t so sure myself. I mean, I had a vague idea but it went waaaaaay beyond that. It also made me understand the Producer’s job a bit better. Up until Mastering, I just thought of the Producer as the person that records the band, mixes the band and makes it all sound fab. Of course, that is a HUGE part of what the Producer does but, beyond that, the Producer makes sure that everything is in place, sonically; that frequencies don’t clash; that everything works together and, essentially, that everything is in place so it can be enhanced during the Mastering. Quite interesting, as it goes.
Of course, before Mastering could take place, we had to decide on a Tracklisting for the album. Everyone had ideas on what was good, bad and ugly so, there was only one thing to do… I spent most of Tuesday burning and listening to endless variations of the album on CD (well, OK, 20 or so) to see which songs worked well together, which songs failed miserably together and so on. Doing that eliminated certain combinations we had previously been keen on and also highlighted others that we had overlooked. Eventually though, I worked this tracklisting out:
Sex, Drugs & Heavy Metal
Heart Thief
Trust Your Instincts
Young, Dumb & Full Of Fun
Dead Girl Walking
Down On You
Pussywhipped
Hunt You Down
Act Of God
Coming After You
Top Of The World
Sleaze Sells…But Who’s Buying?
Trick Or Mistreat
Why that running order? Well, let me explain (coz nothing in the SLT Universe happens by chance!).
“Sex Drugs” is a fantastic opener. I can thing of no better call-to-arms for the first sounds of the album than “Turn up the level”! The song is catchy, pretty heavy, pretty fast and a great sing-along.
“Heart Thief” just seemed to follow so nicely. A different style song but it bounces along in the same rambunctious fashion, setting a precident for great things to come. It’s also a potential single so it’s good to have those things near the start.
“Trust” just had to be in the Top 3. It is one of our most popular and endearing tracks and, now it has finally been done properly, our Huge Hit To Be simply had to be right there. Three enormous tracks to open makes this album stonkingly good!
“Young Dumb” shifts the mood slightly and introduces a menace hinted at in ”Sex Drugs”. Sure, the tone of “Sex Drugs” is upbeat but, lyrically, it is a feisty bugger. “Young Dumb” isn’t feisty in that sense but it does lay out the SLT ethos: ATTiTUDE! It announces that We are here, We aren’t going anywhere, This is what we’re about, Get used to it. It might well be this song that gives us the title - not telling you what part of it though!
“Dead Girl” next. We’ve actually crossfaded the end of YD into the start of this, which sounds amazing. Tonally, it is nice to stay in a slightly moodier place for a bit with both this song and YD being in the key of E (according to Cyndi!) - the result being they work really well together.
“Down On You” - our infamous ditty about eating pussy. It is night and day when comparible to “Dead Girl” so lifts you right back up again. Also chosen as DG ends with a whispered vocal and this starts with whispered vocals, so it’s like it is part of the same conversation. So, perhaps it is about eating a dead girl’s pussy! Again, this is a really catchy song so good to have in the first half of the record.
“Pussywhipped” next - a surprise entry as we initially had it slated as track 13. In fact, at no point during the recording process did we place it anywhere other than track 13. It is the longest song on the CD (about 4mins40secs, I think) and has an epic vibe so we figured last was the only place it could fit. Oh how wrong we were! Thing was, it is my fave song on the album. Gilez’s too. And, when we played the unmastered CD to our merch girls, Hayley & Twiggy, they picked “Pussywhipped” out for special treatment. It was almost wasted being last - like if people only ever hear the first half hour of our album, at least they will hear that! It is also damn catchy - great chorus - and sexy as fuck. Tried to move it to earlier on the album but it was a bit too much there, a bit of a shock, but this half-way point is simply perfect.
“Hunt You Down” was never going to sit next to “Pussywhipped”! “Pussy” starts and ends with a synth part, “Hunt” is total synth. As they’re the only two synth songs on the album, we thought we should keep them apart. WRONG! Putting them together somehow enhances both of them (especially with the way “Hunt” starts - but I’m not giving that little surprise away, either) - it is also the two flip-sides of our synth stuff. ”Hunt” is definitely a song from the Dark Side!
“Act Of God” is arguably the most serious song on the album. The subject matter is extremely personal and the whole mood of the song is one of despair. Most people would never guess that this side to SLT existed - which is great, because we like to surprise! It follows on so well from the darkness of “Hunt” as it is a dark song with a similar theme. “Hunt” is about a twisted mind that forces it’s owner to do darstardly things to others; “Act” is about the same mind committing those deeds to it’s owner.
“Coming After You” rescues us all from slashing our wrists though with it’s up-tempo delivery. No hidden agendas, no hidden meanings, this is just a party song, through-and-through. Any funk the listener may have felt after “Act” will soon be forgotten by the end of this boistrous tale!
“Top Of The World” has been a difficult song to place. It started off near the end then, when it was mixed, it leaped to near the beginning. Thing is, it does have a really catchy, euphoric chorus, which instantly makes us think *potential single* but then we realise just how bonkers it gets after the first minute-and-a-half so figure it would sit better nearer the end. For a start, the uninitiated SLT listener isn’t put off by something some may consider a bit odd and, secondly, traditionally, quirkier stuff does tend to be placed near the end of an album. It is a really cool song though - has a similar vibe to “Trick Or Mistreat”, I think. Very Munsters-y.
“Sleaze Sells” has also been tricky to place. I don’t want to give anything away as it is an unusual tune but, once you hear it, you will understand why we had a hard time with it. Where it sits now though is simply perfect.
“Trick Or Mistreat” is, quite possibly, our most popular song. It will probably be the one we’ll be remembered for (for good or for bad!) and this is the ultimate version of it. Expect this to be released in about a year’s time. As you probably know, it has a Hallowe’en vibe so, to an extent, some might see it as seasonal. So, to stick it in the middle of the album would probably not have been such a cool idea. Yes, it is catchy. Yes, it is adored. Yes, it does scream HiT but it just lives at the end of a great album. And what a way to end a great album! It has the perfect “end of album” outro to it, designed to make you just hit Play again. And again. AND AGAiN!!
And there you have it. A blow-by-blow of the decision making process for the running order. I am sure there will be some that disagree with it but, thankfully, they aren’t in the band!
Anyway, Mastering! I nearly forgot what the fuck I was writing about! For those that don’t know how it goes down and what it is about, let me enlighten you…
Paul (our producer) gives Kevin (the Mastering chap) and small hard-drive containing the Master Mixes of each song. As well as the Master Mixes, there are Intrumental Mixes, Vocal Mixes and Harmony Vocal Mixes on the hard-drive, just in case the band vs. the vocals are too loud / quiet. All of these get loaded into Kevin’s computer (which looks rather flash and has two screens, which I found most impressive) and into a programme that I’ve never seen before.
We decide on what song is, generally, the best sounding at this stage which was “Down On You”. The plan being, Kevin masters that one then all the other songs are pulled up to that level and matched to it in terms of frequencies. So, he played a few bits of ”Down”, sussing it out then his arms reached out either side of him and started fiddling on various nobs, buttons and dials. It was amazing to watch - he was like an octopus doing it so fast but you could hear the song being pulled and contorted into shape. Some frequencies were pulled out, others brought out, the stereo was widened, it was compressed and EQ’d. And, in the end, it sounded amazing. The same as before, only much better.
I think, the way to describe it to the layperson is this: Mastering does to a song what make-up does to a woman. Tarts it up a bit. It’s the same as it was before, just certain things are enhanced, whilst others hidden. It just makes it appear even better than it was before.
(How many emails do you reckon I’ll get for THAT analagy!)
Once “Down” was done and we all agreed that it sounded FAB, he moved on to “Pussywhipped” and carried on to the end of the album. He then did “Dead Girl” and then started from the front of the album. Most songs just sound enhanced but three of them sound significantly more than they did before. This process has breathed new life into “Coming After You”, “Hunt” and “Young, Dumb”.
As per usual, I arrived at the session (which lasted about 9 hours, btw) with a handful of notes. Much to the amusement of Paul. I’ve copied and pasted them below as I thought it might be quite interesting for you to see them. You’ll only ever know the songs as they now exist so, it might intrigue you to know a bit more about how they got there.
MASTERiNG NOTES
General note about the sound we want:
Big, Wide, Powerful, Loud, Punchy, Wall Of Sound
Add glistening top-end and sub bass low-end (Mikey’s Tip)
SEX, DRUGS & HEAVY METAL
No notes
HEART THiEF
No notes
TRUST YOUR INSTiNCTS
More impact at beginning (kicks??)
YOUNG, DUMB & FULL OF FUN
Tighten bottom end
Make punchier
Can anything be done to bring out snare?
Can higher voice in 2nd Verse be enhanced?
Cross fade into next track
DEAD GiRL WALKiNG
Blends in from previous song
Can the lead vocal be made wetter?
DOWN ON YOU
No notes
PUSSYWHiPPED
Widen on lead-ins to Chorus?
Louder lead vocal in Verse 2
Next song starts suddenly at end of Fade Out
HUNT YOU DOWN
Song starts abruptly just before Fade Out of previous ends Enhance low synth (the Pad)
Bit between Intro and V1 made bigger
M8 has to be huge, ginormous, monstrous - wide and loud!
Make sure “silence” at end of M8 is TRULY silent - no leaks!
More FX on final voices (the bare ones)?
Bring last spoken voices “closer”
ACT OF GOD
Bigger kick
COMiNG AFTER YOU
Tighten in general, make more punchy
Louder lead vocal?
Can something be done to excite the sound?
Can something be done to improve the gang vocal?
Fast double-drum bit at end - can any sort of movement be added?
TOP OF THE WORLD
Make opening snare weightier
Wider at start of M8 to end of M8
Make Radio Voice more audible in M8?
SLEAZE SELLS…BUT WHO’S BUYiNG?
Remove breath at beginning?
TRiCK OR MiSTREAT
Enhance the first two tom hits somehow
Enhance level of low keys in intro
Enhance level of keys in Chorus
Widen spooky Ooooh’s
Make M8 wider; more spacious (to end?)
Last note held until the bitter end
As it happened, a lot of stuff was rectified just within the Mastering process - you hear a lot of things much clearer. Widening the stereo seems to have a large effect on the sound, also (as it spreads out the sounds within the stereowidth). The other things got fixed easily enough though. On both “Dead Girl” and “Pussywhipped” we used the Instrumental / Vocal mixes as opposed to the Master Mix. In “Dead Girl” I wanted more effect on the lead vocal, so that was added. “Pussywhipped” I wanted wider harmonies so these were placed “on top” of the track then widened.
The other change of note was making the keys louder in the chorus of “Trick”. As we didn’t have separate tracks, Kevin had to be quite cunning and he crafted a 2 bar loop from the Middle 8 section and built a new keyboard track out of that. Stuck it on top and it was sorted!
What was probably the most interesting thing was how the Mastering made all the tracks sound like they belonged on the same album. They were no longer 13 songs that we had recorded, all sounding quite different from eachother, they now sounded together. It is a subtle difference but a vital one. It all seems to be about matching frequencies (ie if song A is really bassy, losing some of that to match it to song B, and so on).
When all the Mastering was done, the album as a whole was put through one last process, bringing the overall volume up to match commercial CD’s (this is why most CD’s are roughly the same volume) - I think compression was used here as well. But don’t quote me on that! Next was deciding on gap lengths between songs. Really! When you start making an album, you don’t even think about that kind of thing but it really does happen. So, we sat there tapping our feet if we wanted the next song to start on the next barre line or closing our eyes if it was a feel thing. Like I mentioned, there are two songs that cross fade into eachother and another song that starts the instant it’s predecessor has finished. This processed shaved about 15 seconds off the length of the whole thing.
Just about the final thing to be done was to “write” the song titles onto the CD itself so, when you stick it in your CD player, the song names come up on the screen. We were then given a few reference copies and sent on our way.
And that is it. The musical side of the whole thing is finished. I can’t stop listening to it - I am so proud of it. It is funny hearing a vocal take and remembering how I was feeling that day; or hearing a guitar solo and remembering the funny faces Cyndi was pulling whilst playing it. Most of all though, it is funny hearing us sound as good as anything else costing 10 or 20 times as much. Seriously, I have bunged it either side of other contemporary albums and there is no difference sound-wise. I think we have all done an amazing job.
I’d like to quickly plug the people / places used in the making of the album thus-far. We couldn’t have done it without them (although we did pay good money for their services!) and you would be wise to contact them if you wanted a top-notch album made!
Paul Tipler, Producer http://www.myspace.com/paultipler
811 Studios, Cowfold, Sussex http://www.811studio.co.uk
Kevin at Wired Masters http://www.wiredmasters.co.uk
Obviously, there will be more players in the role-call soon - photographers, artists etc but, for now, apart from us, they have been the main men. Although only one has a pink Yukelele…
Is that really it? Finished?? When we started this journey back in June, I really did NOT think it would take this long. We all figured it would be on the shelves by now! Naiive bunch of twats. Well, the final 4 days of mixing are DONE - just the Mastering to go… And here is what happened:
Tuesday 25th Sept, Day 33, 10 hours. Cyndi picked up Tipler last night so I didn’t have to get in so early. Wasn’t long after I arrived though that Cyndi had to bugger off. Tips was already mixing “Sex, Drugs & Heavy Metal” and it was sounding great, as per usual - he had done a bunch of stuff at home (adding the drum triggers, compressors etc) so that sped things up a lot. Good job too as this track took ages as we were getting back in the swing of things.
No major problems - the thing that took the longest was getting the Back Vocals right. This has a lot of them and they’re an important part of the song and we spent hours on them! It was as done as done can be when I left and is currently the #1 contender for Album Opener.
Weds 26th Sept, 12 hours. Bloody speaker in the Slut Bus packed in on the way to the studio today so, whilst PT was tinkering with “Act Of God”, I sorted them out. “Act” came together really easy. It’s a massive song, quite anthemic and epicy so was glad there were no problems. Put a really cool Chorus effect on my lead voice which makes me sound cool as fuck. Wish we found it on day 1! Probably wouldn’t have worked in other songs, though.
Once “Act” was done, we started on “Pussywhipped”. This song has been a LONG time in the making, as I had written the bulk of it many years ago. It’s been sitting on my computer for years and playing in my head so, to finally get it recorded and, eventually, released, is a dream come true situation. I think everyone is going to love it. It is certainly my favourite.
Thurs 27th Sept, 12 hours. Still working on “Pussywhipped” - beefing up the drums on it and the guitars. Worked on it until about 9pm when it was done. This is such a good song - it is my favourite on the album and, for a few of the others that have heard it, it is their favourite too. No idea where to place it - it is quite epiccy and the longest track so, the instinct says last. But it is also really catchy and a fucking awesome song, so that makes me want to put it earlier on the album so more people get to hear it. We will see, I guess. Have to make a decision by Mastering on Weds!
“Down On You” was next. Last, in fact! I left Tipler to it overnight and went home to dream about Platinum Discs…
Friday 28th Sept, Day 36, 10 hours. Arrived to find the bulk of “Down On You” sorted out. It wasn’t sounding too hot though at first - I was really worried as everything seemed wrong. It’s weird, you have all the ingredients there to make a really cool song but, if something isn’t right, it can make it sooooooo wrong! So, I got my head around why it wasn’t working and, between us, we bashed it right into shape. So much so that it is now one of the best sounding tracks on the album! Didn’t take very long, either.
This last lot of sessions has been quite relaxed. I think we were all pretty pleased to be near the end so we could get on with the next stage - ie getting a deal inked and the thing released. One thing that was really strange was working in such a close environment with someone - often in quite stressful and tense situations - for quite a long period of time and then it all stopping. Just like that! I must confess to having some blues by the time I got home when it dawned on me that that would be the last time (for the foreseeable future) that I’d be housed at 811 with Tipler recording our album. Really glad it is done but also a bit said that this part of the adventure is over.
We now have a few days to decide the final tracklisting and to make notes for Mastering. Never a dull moment! I burnt a CD the other day with this as the listing:
Sex Drugs & Heavy Metal
Heart Thief
Trust Your Instincts
Dead Girl Walking
Top Of The World
Down On You
Trick Or Mistreat
Hunt You Down
Coming After You
Young, Dumb & Full Of Fun
Act Of God
Sleaze Sells
Pussywhipped
But it isn’t right! I think the first 3 songs work REALLY well, so they should stay. I also think that “Trick” into “Hunt” is great, so would like to keep that but, beyond that, I’m stumped.
Answers on a postcard to…
Fuck me, was that another 9 days that just flew by? If you’d have told me before we started this mammoth venture that there would be two 9 day stints, I’d have been pretty worried, unsure if my concentration levels could maintain themselves but, you know what, they did! Also, if you had told me how long it would take in general, and how much (more) money it would cost, I’d have shit meself! Again though, we have it (sort of) in our stride.
The good news is that I had an interesting conversation with a very interested party just before this last session. Reckons it will be a “no brainer” getting the end result licensed to a label. That is very encouraging. His own label is more than likely going to make an offer on it so, all being said, that is two offers in the pipeline before anyone outside of the SLT Universe has heard it.
(And yes, Mr Tipler, if you are reading this, you are now part of the SLT Universe. There is no escape…)
So, on with the diary stuff. Glad I’ve been keeping this as I did a 2,500 word article for Kaleidoscope magazine - a studio report - and it all came out of these blogs. It’s good to be anally retentive.
Before I start, I would just like to say a VERY big thank you on behalf of myself and SLT to our producer, Paul Tipler. I doubt this is the MAMMOTH project he expected it to be from our very first meetings but he has stuck by us and helped us realise our musical vision. He’s reigned us in when we needed it and let us fly when we could. The end result is an extraordinarily dynamic and diverse record full of great material. We always knew we were a great band - he is helping us prove that. But, being of the Northern persuation, he gets embarrassed if we fawn over him too much so I shall use this forum to let him know just how grateful we are. Throughout this long process, he has put in more hours than any of us and, basically, hasn’t stopped working. Thank you Paul!
Weds Aug 29th, Day 24, 12 hours. The first song we mixed was “Coming After You”. I’ve been in mixing sessions in the past so figured it would take about half a day a song but I wasn’t counting on the very maticulous nature of Tipler. It is nice to have someone like that on the team! Rather interesting for me was the way the drums were treated. The kick and the snare have triggers put on them so that, when Gilez hits his kick, you get a combination of that PLUS the triggered sample. The end result is a much clearer, crisper and consistant sound, making the track much more punchy.
It took all day to get this track done and I was pretty fed up with hearing it by the end of the day! It’s our most uptempo number and will probably sit 2/3rds of the way through the album. And, speaking of the running order, we drew up a chalk board today with suggestions on. It changed umpteen times through the course of the sessions but, for prosperity sake, here was draft # 1:
How close that will be to the end order?? Who knows!
Thurs Aug 30th, 14 hours. I got in a bit later today as it takes a while for the song to be set up for mixing. I mentioned the triggers, well, each drum and snare track has to have them put on which takes a while then every vocal and guitar track is treated with compressors to make them sound even better than they did before. These tracks are then bounced down with the effect on them - all very time consuming. By the time I arrived though, “Dead Girl Walking” was in good shape. Tips predicted a 6pm finish, I predicted 7.30. We finished at 10! Possibly my favourite sounding song on the album though (that does change on an almost daily basis!). When done, we moved onto “Sleaze Sells…”.
Friday Aug 31st, 14 hours. Stressful day today.. The vocals on “Sleaze Sells…” are very important to me and it took a while to get everything right on them. Also very important are the leady guitar parts - strangely enough, it is one of the more solo heavy songs. It was a bit of a struggle to get them heard though as they shouldn’t dominate the track. Got there in the end though, as we always do! After that, we started on “Top Of The World”.
Sat Sept 1st, 14 hours. Where did the summer go? Seems we’ve spent nearly all of it in the studio. Anyway, by the time I arrived today, “Top Of The World” was all but done. I had a few ideas but, on the whole, nothing major. Works really well. Spent part of today going through some classic albums looking at the track listing for any obvious patterns. We want our album to flow well from start to finish, so seemed like a good idea. It has posed as many questions though as it has answered others so, we are still none the wiser!
Tipler was talking today about how good he thought this album was. Good to hear as, up until now, I hadn’t heard a peep out of him as to how he thought it was going. He said he keeps looking for the stinker but can’t see it. Phew!
“Top Of The World” was finished by 6 so we moved onto “Heart Thief”. All drums, guitars and vox were done by the time I left so an early start for me the next day (grrr!).
Sun 2nd Sept, 14 hours. Typically, I slept really badly last night so was pretty shattered today. Perked up a bit though when I heard how “Heart Thief” was shaping up. Wow! Who knew it! Seems we have a potential single and album opener on our hands! The 1970’s glam bridge near the end works so well - wait until you hear it! And the horns we put in as an experiment have lifted the chorus so you can easily hear it blasting out of a radio near you.
Had some shit to try and sort out today. As some of you may or may not know, our drummer has had a rather nafarious past. It caught up with him last year and, as a result, he has been paying for it this year with probation. He’s been good as gold and nearly finished but, part of his probation is that he has to attend a drink driving course (not how to do it better, more why you shouldn’t do it at all). Due to band stuff, he has had to pull out of 2 already this year but the 3rd one came up starting Sept 12th. Thing is, we had a gig that day. If he didn’t start this course though, he would have to do another later in the year / early next, by which time, the band will be really busy. The upshot is, if he didn’t do this one, he could end up back in court and, as his past is behind him now, it seemed the only option was to attend this one.
We hate pulling out of gigs but, sometimes, shit happens and you just have to. Unfortunately, the promoter of the show wasn’t very happy. We were in a no-win situation - we just couldn’t do the show. He suggested we used a session guy but, we are SPiT LiKE THiS. It is the 4 of us or nothing at all. We don’t want to short-change our fans with a half-hearted show. Although I understand the promoter’s frustration, I didn’t want to be dealing with it when I am in the middle of doing just about the most important thing I have ever done, so I handed the problem over to Gilez to try and solve whilst I got on with the task at hand.
Started “Trick Or Mistreat” next. A fan favourite so an important song to get right. I left at midnight-ish leaving PT beavering away on it…
Mon 3rd Sept, 14 hours. …”Trick” was pretty much done by the time I arrived, and sounding most splendid. It hands-down knocks the old version clear out the water and it was all done and dusted by 4.
Realised today the inevitable: mixing was going to take longer than 9 days. So, we have booked another 4 starting 25th September. Will this album ever be finished?!!
Started on “Young Dumb” next - a lot of it was done by the end of the day.
Tues 4th Sept, 14 hours. Another day of me being unusually tired. These early mornings don’t agree with me! Well, “Young Dumb” was our nemesis - the fly in our ointment. We had put on a second kit with tom overdubs but it was quite clear that it wasn’t working. It took away the power from the main kit. So, that was scrapped. It seemed to be a tricky song to knock into shape. I don’t want to put any filler on the album so we will have to see what happens with this one. I am not saying it IS filler, just that I want to live with it a bit and see if it works with the rest. If it makes it on the album it will be because we think it deserves to. And, if it doesn’t, we will stick it on a b-side somewhere.
Listen to me, sounds like I’m saying it’s shit! I’m not, honest! It just has a very different vibe from the rest of the record and, until all 13 tracks are done and in place, I’m just not sure how it will sit. That’s all.
Heard from Gilez today. He’d been trying to sort out the promoter guy but all was still not well. We’ve even tried to find a replacement band. Shame, as they are generally cool dudes. I know we let them down but it was completely unavoidable. Not like we didn’t have a decent excuse. It’s incovenienced the shit out of us too as we have a gig booked in the same sort of area for the day after meaning a REALLY long journey just for one show. Bummer!
Anyway, at about 6pm, “Young Dumb” was in the bag and we moved onto “Trust Your Instincts” - another fan favourite. Spent hours and hours just making sure the snare was right! A slow, frustrating day.
Weds 5th Sept, 13 hours. When I arrived, Tips had just about mixed “Trust Your Instincts” so it was just left for me to fine tune it. A couple of hours later it was done. I will say one thing about it: the end half of the end double chorus is just about one of the best choruses I ever heard, ever. Something about the combination of melodies, harmonies, horns and guitar solos makes it so absolutely overwhelmingly GLORiOUS! If you hear it and it doesn’t warm your soul, you are dead inside!
Vikki heard from Peavey today. As part of her endorsement deal, they have asked her to be on the Peavey stand at the 2008 Download Festival! Nice! In exchange, she gets some free stuff and me and her get VIP passes etc. Obviously, as a band, we are looking to be playing the festival ourselves but so it will be a great chance to meet some of our fans face to face. More info on the SLT main site…
After the jolly delights of “Trust”, we moved onto “Hunt You Down”, the sickest most sadistic, nasty and menacing tune on the album. Quite surreal hearing them both back to back! This song is the only song on the record that Gilez doesn’t play on. The drums are all electronic, circa 1984! It is also one of two tracks featuring a lot of synth.
To update the drum sound and make it as powerful as the acoustic kit that Gilez plays, Tips put a triggered sample behind the electronic one. Wow, what a difference! He did the same to the snare. Makes the song sound massive. All very time consuming though as there are about 5 or 6 synth parts.
Thurs 6th Sept, 11 hours. As with all final days it seems, this one was a bit more stressy than the rest. I think everyone kind of wants to go home but knows there is a job to be done. A bit like the last day at school. When I arrived, Paul was still sorting out all the guitar parts. Along with the main rhythm tracks, there are assorted guitar bits but, for whatever reason, when these were recorded, they were done in little bits so it took him a while to establish what was what.
Once that was done though, it was pretty straight forward. This is a very vocal-heavy tune and I wanted a Gary Numan-esque chorus effect on my main vocals. Once that was done, the song really took shape.
This is a tune I can really see the Goth clubs loving so, to check it had the right effect, we ran it through the huge PA speakers the studio has. Wow! 3 minutes later, my heart had pretty much stopped beating on it’s own accord and my whole body was affected by the frequencies it was being forced to absorb. I cannot wait to hear this in a club now!
There is a special moment in the song near the end. I don’t want to give it away but, something happens that I was quite maticulous about getting right that has such a huge affect on the listener, it is quite astonishing. It makes you feel like you may have just died. Like all the air has been sucked out of the room. It is some affect and it will surprise you as to how it is achieved. All will be revealed!
And that was that. By 9, “Hunt You Down” was done. It was too late to start on any of the remaining four songs so we packed up and left. Right now I have a CD with 9 of the 13 songs on, mixed and ready to be Mastered. Mastering takes place on 3rd October when all 13 songs will be in our grubby hands. Part of me is tempted to put 1 or 2 tunes up on our myspace or something, but I shant. We have spent a LOT of OUR money on this album, working our fingers to the bone (in Vikki’s case, quite literally!) to achieve something of enormity. So, we don’t want to blow our wad just yet.
Oh, and if Dante Bonutto, A&R guru from RoadRunner Records is reading this, get in touch. Tipler is an old mate of yours and we reckon this album might be right up your street…
Expect Part VIII at the end of September.
