8/24/09

kick out the jams.

it feels like ages ago i was going to rehearsals when in fact it was only last week i was there. but for the last three months we've been recording the new album and much of it has been done during vacations so we haven't been more than two guys at a time in the studio. today, we're not pressing rec, we're not being captured, we're not thinking. it's only a rehearsal and we're all going to be there. you se we realized the following the other day:

a. we're a bit shakey on some of the songs,
b. we haven't seen each other as a group in over three months and
c. we need a break from all the seriousness.

so tonight will feel a bit like a high school reunion, except no one will be wearing any home coming crowns. or maybe we all will. king for a day...

8/14/09

and you will know us by the curegarden dredgtone tool of a muse.

i got a comment from beardonaut about our working title 'cure lou' and it got me thinking of all the stupid working titles we've had throughout the years. actually, sometimes they've had those titles for so long that even when we do name them, we keep mentioning them by working title name.

i wrote 'cure lou' at home and it started with the bass line. the only bass i have at home is an old accoustic one i bought from a friend when he needed money to move out of town. when i played the line on an accoustic bass it really sounded like the cure. i recorded it on my 4-track zoom and started adding guitars and, while still accoustic, it started sounding a lot like tiger lou. you can figure out the title by now, but would i not have told you this story you would have wondered why a song that sounds like something muse could have done bares the name of two quite different artists. it goes to say without question that i named it before we started rehearsing it.

if song don't get lame working titles like 'the new', 'the new new' (depending on how many songs we are working on at the time) or 'the b-song' (reminding us of to tune our instruments way down) they often get titles refering to what other bands the songs sound like. we've had songs like 'the isis rip off', the deftones song', 'soundgardenish' and 'tool circle'. before 'prodigal son' got its new title it was called 'gossard' because i felt i moved like him whilst playing the song. trying to copy a riff by mouth gave 'dagadagá' its title. i don't know where we got the idea from but i guess they are funny remarks that reminds us that all music has been done and we're all just stelaing, borrowing and rearranging music. maybe every band have working titles like these? i also remember when i got my hands on one of faith no more's set list back in 1997 and found the title 'whitney' among a few titles i did not recognize. i started reading their faq's on the world wide web and found that they had these names for some of the songs for no apparent reason. 'whitney' was a remark that 'land of sunshine' had something to do with whitney huston. i never figured out what, but i still thought it was funny.

two other working titles right now are 'judgement day' (although we say 'domedagen' which is the swedish word for it) and 'the sound of inevitability'. well, i think you pretty much can figure out what those two songs sounds like without me adding any more words to this post.

///misha.

8/12/09

brun utan soul.

yep, i know, a bit slow on the updates lately. but vacations are over and it's back to balancing work, kids, music and girlfriends. they all need their share of attention or else we'll lose touch, get dumped or fired. let's not go there.

but me and thomas were in the studio monday night and added some guitars to 'dejected' and last thursday we did 'uptempo' (yep, still untitled) so together with 'prodigal son', 'foment' and 'cure lou' (working title) we have five songs for thomas to add vocals on. 'foment' and 'prodigal son' already have his voice on them so tomorrow we are focusing on 'uptemo' and 'dejected'. the latter of those two got a brand new solo on top of the old one and i really hope it turns out good in the mix so we can keep it. only problem is i don't know how i will solve it live. but, we're treating this record as our last, so no need to think about that, right?

five songs! can you believe it? and we have more takes on drums to add guitars and bass to, but we figured we'd complete these five first. i wouldn't wanna leave thomas with fifteen songs to mix or add vocals to in a row.

but it's so damn fun recording the songs and since we havn't rehearsed in ages, it's like discovering them again. sometimes i find that i've forgotten how we play the songs and have to listen to old rehearsal takes to figure them out. i like that, it makes it less like work and i get a chance to rewrite parts i wasn't all that content with. like the solo on 'dejected'. or the solo on 'foment' that got a second guitar with harmonics. once again i've no idea what to do with it live, but with our history of touring i see no need to worry.

thomas is a happy camper as well. he's going out there alone at nights and adding so many vocal tracks it seems like a rock opera. but it's all good. and fun! as i told you before, we promised you a grand record armed to the teeth with layers and fireworks. so far we're keeping that promise.

later
///misha.