6.4.2006
Hi all!
Tomorrow Markus will drag his drums to the Fantom studios Tampere where th recording of third Insomnium release will take place. I have to say that at the moment half of me wants to run away and the other half can't wait to get to lay down the guitar tracks. We're living nerve-wrecking times. By the way, we have started to form a bad habit at leaving everything till the last night. Last song got finished about two weeks ago and the lyrics will be completed eventually this week. Still I believe that we're not eventhe laziest band around...But seriously, no worries really because we have been in this situation twice before and this time we'll take this ugly bastard down for good. It will be a tough fight but I promise it will be one not to regret for.
- Ville Friman
7.4.2006
And here we go... As this band's roadie-coordinator I got the job to hit the studio first. Arrived at Fantom around 4 pm, had little chat with Samu and dragged my gear to recording quarters. Due to some exam Markus wasn't able to get to Fantom until the evening, so I had few hours on my own to settle and do some experiments with guitar amps, comparing Mesa's Rectifier and Framus Cobra.
We spent the evening building up the drums, rehearsing some of the songs and finally getting wasted and discussing last week's hottest topics. Our accommodation is in air raid shelter next to the studio, so sleeping on concrete floor actually fit with the feelings we had when we started to pass out about at 3 am. Tomorrow we'll start the recordings, no way or need to turn back. - Ville Vänni
8.4.2006
After sound check Markus was let loose and after two hours he had nailed drums for two songs. As the whole day went mainly on making sounds for the drums we decided to end the day after six pm. and to continue recording next day. By the way, snare sound sounds just great! We decided to use old Ludwig snare from sixties owned by our sound engineer Samu Oittinen. All in all, drums sound powerful and dynamic like they should sound. We continued the evening in variety of local bars and ended back to the studio at 3 am. Rainer Nygård and his collagues from DIABLO decided to join our company at 6:30 am. Rainer started a surreal conversation with Ville V. about his hearing problems. We suggested that the ringing in Rainer's head could come from his liver instead of his ears. Big R disagreed, went drinking some more and we continued our beauty sleep. -Ville Friman
9.4.2006
Me and Markus spent the morning to fine tune the drum fills and go through the songs enlisted for today. At the end of the day we had 3 songs on tape. In the meanwhile Vänni took trip to Turku and back and brought some more guitar gears to the studio. Drums will probably be finished tomorrow and then it is time to start search for the ultimate guitar sound. -Ville Friman
10.4.2006
Third day of drum recording is now behind and we have managed to record drums to eight tracks. Only one song is left to go and soon my part of the process is finished. Our goal was to get the drums done today, but didin´t quite make it. So far everything has gone fairly well and hopefully rest of the guys can keep up with the same pace till the end. I was feeling a bit frustrated about some of the drum parts I recorded today, but I worked my ass off to get them down propely. I have a bad habit of leaving the hardest tracks last and tomorrow morning I´ll be hanging on the edge of suicide. See ya in hell!
-Markus
12.4.2006
Markus finished drums yesterday and we spent the rest of the evening setting up the guitar gears and trying out different head-cabinet-guitar combinations. Today we will continue the search for the ultimate guitar sound and hopefully we get to recording business tomorrow. Markus will leave studio today and me and Ville V will continue session by laying down the guitar tracks. Everything has gone smooth and without any technical problems thanks to Samu. -Ville Friman
Huh, we just went through numerous combinations of different heads, cabinets and guitars. At the moment it seems that we will use Mesa Boogie single rectifier head with rectifier cabinet and Framus Cobra ("Boa") head with its own cabinet to record rhythm and riff tracks. However, we will make final choise tomorrow with Samu when we'll experiment with diffrent microphone setups and start finally to record. Now it's time to oil the machinery with jallukola. Cheers! -VF & VV
13.4.2006
Happily we found that our ears did not lie yesterday and same head-cabinet-guitar combinations sounded still good today. Soon as Samu arrived to the studio we continued the search for the G-sound. After three hours intensive testing we had proper set up in our hands. Framus and Mesa heads worked out best with their own cabinets and we decided to use Ibanez tube screamer before them to boost up the sound a bit. As a rhythm track guitars we concluded to use Esp K-500 and Tokai Les Paul custom and spice up the sound there and there with 7-string Ibanez. In the end of the day we had recorded rhythm tracks for the one song and the guitars sound really heavy and punchy! In the evening Ville V had to leave to work and tomorrow I will continue to lay down the rest of the guitar tracks by myself. For this night I had chance to get to shower and to get proper accomodation from my brother's and his wife's apartment. God, it's great to feel like a human for a while. -Ville Friman
16.4.2006
Everything went actually too well...I had finished rhythm guitars for the 7 of 9 songs until our luck turned. Today I woke up to experince a hangover of my life and noticed that Framus head had gone totally silent. I tried to fix the amp by replacing the fuse but it didn't help and we have to take it to somewhere repaired on tuesday. If it can't be fixed till friday we have to finish the rhythm tracks for the two remaining song with different gears. After the first shock and "vitutus" we decided to start to record acoustic guitars with Samu. I have to tell you that it was really a struggle because I wasn't prepared to play them yet and had not practised them properly beforehand. In the end of the day I was totally exhausted, dead tired and ready to give it all up. However, we have still lots of acoustic parts left and I'll use this night for practising and try to finish them tomorrow. Then I'll head home to Jyväskylä and have earned 3 day break. Elämä on.... -Ville Friman
19.4.2006
I finished all acoustics on monday and went straight home. Framus head is now under repair and hopefully we get it back till friday so that we keep in schedule. And yeah, I almost forgot to mention that we'll have at least one guest vocalist in the album this time. The story continues on friday...-Ville Friman
23.4.2006
I got back to the sudio at friday after going through a world of troubles and numeurous calls when trying to get the Framus in shape in schedule. It appeared that it can't be fixed without some new parts from factory at Germany, and no replacement could be found despite our persistent search for another Cobra. So we still have two songs without rhythm guitars. Friday was somehow wasted in trying to solve the amp dilemma, and feelings here were quite depressed in the evening. I took a long walk with Friman in coasts and parks of Tampere. We went through few hours of conversations about life in general and fought the evil forces with beer and jallukola (mixture of cheap cocnag, vodka and cola). Enough of those and mood was lifted again.
Saturday and today were spent with clean guitars and some synth stuff. Aleksi "Hippi" Munter from Swallow the Sun came here yesterday and we spent the afternoon and this morning doing the orchestral parts. I must say that Hippi is really the man for that job, he conjured some incredible stuff just in few hours. We finished all the clean guitar parts two hours ago, and now the feeling is quite content and relaxed. The only drawback for today is a killing hangover, we "had" to drop by at Dynamic Art Records party last night and the free spirits made today's recovery a long hull...
Tomorrow we'll start the fun part, the lead guitars. And of course continue the strife to get the Framus fixed. Now it's time for some rehearsing, the show goes on tomorrow. Hail and Kill!
-Ville Vänni
25.4.2006
Last few days have been a strain, and it's yet again time to share some of the recent events with you.
Monday was spent doing some specially efected guitars and some guitar leads with semi-distorted tone. Ville "Santana" Friman conjured a killer solo to "Last Statement". In the evening we made the lead guitar sound, with the classical method: Ibanez vintage Tubescreamer in front of Mesa's Rectifier head and cabinet. Sounds excellent! We even recorded some leads in the evening.
Today was another 12 hours of work with the guitar leads. The recording itself is time- and nerve consuming, and I had a certain extra-edge to it: sundays hangover turned to be a good old stomach flu, and therefore I've spent the last three days shitting, vomiting, practising and playing in turns. I was starting to feel little weak today after three day of playing and not-eating, but now it seems that the tide has turned. I have finished my solo parts, I have the control over my sphincters again and even got to shower tonight!
Most of the leads (a lot!) are now done, and Niilo came to studio just now. We'll experiment little with bass amps, and today will lead us to the wonderland of miraculous bass art and marvelous singing. Stay tuned!
-Ville Vänni
26.4.2006
This was the first day when I was let loose. I arrived at the studio yesterday evening and found these two guitar heroes in pretty anguished state - both mental and physical. Framus head was still broken, the guys had not seen a shower for days and Vänni was still feeling sick. So the feeling was a bit downhearted for the whole evening...
But today was a new day, a brighter day. We borrowed a Framus head from Tomi of Coma of Loss, so now we should get the rest of the rhythm guitars done. Big thanks for Tomi for being such a nice and generous guy! We also recorded vocals for four songs so now we should be back on schedule. Vänni left us since he had to go to work, but now Friman and I should be able to finish the recordings in a couple of days. Now we will relax with a beer or seven and then get back on track tomorrow to record some serious guitar and bass art.
-Niilo
28.4.2006
Stress is finally releaving....We managed to record the rhythm guitar tracks for the two remaining songs yesterday and I used the evening to record the remaining lead guitars by myself. I got almost everything done except for few parts and we spent the rest of the evening/night with Niilo to listen all the songs through. And man...I must say that our material have never sound this good in studio before. Songs are working extremely well and we have been able to keep the shit-filter high enough all the time. Also the production sounds clearly best we ever have had. Now it really feels that all the struggle, stress and worrying have been really worth of it. We will use this day to record some bass lines and rest of the vocals. If (and only IF) everything goes well, we will have everything on tape tomorrow and we can head home to celebrate the first of May. -Ville Friman
11.5.2006
It's again time to reveal some of the recent events... Guys got everythin on tape at 29.4. and we had one week's vacation from studio. Now we (or actually Samu) have done the mixing for four days and all the groud work and editing is done. I got here yesterday, and we got the first song (The Killjoy) into some shape. Naturally we had to celebrate the event, so me and Ville F. drunk oursevles back to the stoneage.
This morning started with a killing hangover, but it was to be expected. Today we mixed "The Killjoy" to its final form, and also got "Devoid of Caring" done. We are now processing "Mortal Share" and it will be finished today.
Everything goes as planned, and I must say that Insomnium has never sounded as heavy and dynamic as now. Samu is very professional and knows exactly how things are done, so we can only sit back and enjoy as songs gradually come together. Friman has to leave today, but I'll stay here till the mixing is done and "supervise" the progress. I.e. relax on the sofa and try to avoid gettin wasted every evening. Today I'm going to fail. Cheers! -Ville Vänni
14.5.2006
We are almost there. Only one song is yet to be mixed and we should finish it by the end of the day. Everything sounds good and we are surely pleased with the result. The whole Insomnium family is at the studio today supervising the final phase. Tomorrow we will rest and then on Tuesday we'll come back to Tampere to shoot a video for the ultimate killer track "Mortal Share". The whole track list for the new album "Above the Weeping World" is:
1. The Gale
2. Mortal Share
3. Drawn to Black
4. Change of Heart
5. At the Gates of Sleep
6. The Killjoy
7. Last Statement
8. Devoid of Caring
9. In the Groves of Death
We have to mention that after 27 heathen years we have at last seen the divine light, here, in the darkest of cellars. The negro spiritual version of the album ist titled "Above the Weeping Jesus" and the track list for this ultimate praising mass is: Intro - The Jesus, Mortal Jesus, Drawn to Jesus, Change of Jesus, At the Gates of Jesus, The Jesusjoy, Last Jesus, Jesus of Caring and In the Groves of Jesus. Praise the Lord!!!
(This version is available in your nearest congregation centre and you are allowed to buy it only if you are truly righteous and free from sin.)
-Reverend Sevänen & Vicar Vänni
