Studiodiary for the recording of "Drama"

Day 1 Friday
The day started with setting up the drums and sound and was brought to an end with a well deserved sixpack.

Day 2 Saturday
Continued the work with the drums. We also started to test different bass sounds. In the evening we went back home.

Day 3 Sunday
We started to record the first drums, loads of hammering all day. We also went to Hajen (The shark) to fill up our supply of beer.

Day 4 Monday
Monday was a lot like Sunday; drums, drums and more drums. In the evening we had some more beers and we also got a visit from pedal conny, drummer of amongst others Anata and Eternal Lies. (Anata which recently got signed with Earache Records)

Day 5 Tuesday
Continued work with the drums, we all went back home in the evening.

Day 6 Wednesday
Drums and beers sums up the day pretty well.

Day 7 Thursday
The last day of recording the drums. Everyone went back home for the night.

Day 8 Friday
Jonas went to Stockholm to see Rolling Stones. The rest of us started to work on the guitarsounds and recorded the first of these. The evening ended with beer and a trip into Varberg to check out what was going on in this summer city. We met up with a group of people in Varberg, amongst others Drake, the bassplayer of Anata. We went to Varberg’s “heavy metal place”, which wasn’t much to put in the christmastree.

Day 9 Saturday
The day started with a dip in an icecold lake to get ourselfs started. Robert was the first to get in, Mikael was last to break the surface. Continued work with the guitars. While Rob was doing this Daniel & Mikael went back to Borås to get a computer. Most of the backing guitars are done come nightfall. We finish of with beers and music.

Day 10 Sunday
The last backing guitars were recorded. We went to the ocean for the first bath of the season. There where a lot of belly flops, and everyone but Mikael managed to somehow cut themselfs in the water. All in all, 4 injured and one relatively unharmed. Recorded some more drums for “Ghosttribe”. We had a barbeque and some beer. Erik joined us for the first time in the studio and set up his usual supply of coke (the drink, nothing else) and chips.
Todays good deed; a helpless lady with children (not that attractive), needed help carrying her groceries to her car, and in the true rocker spirit we helped her out.

Day 11 Monday
Woke up early when Bullen and his helper started to take down the drums and mics we’d borrowed and drove them back to Gothenburg.
Mikael has now captured 27 annoying flies which have the annoying habit of waking you up when you’re sleeping the best. In some strange way there’s no end to the supply of flies, they just keep on coming. We’ll see how many we catch before this is over. Is it because we smell bad or what is it? Studiotime has the tendency to affect your personal hygien in a bad way. Robert has made an attempt to shave off the hair under his arms to stop the sweat from coming. If it worked? Nope...
Daniel’s working on basslines for the songs, recorded some supportbass so we can start testing the vocals. Erik’s sitting and nodding his head to the music while playing his gameboy.
This is the last day Bullen (co producer/technician/part owner/family father/drummer) is going to be in the studio to help out for a while. He’s going to the States to check out bands like Metallica, Linkin Park, Limp Bizkit, Deftones and Mudvayne. What they’re going to do the remaining 9 days we don’t really know.
While he’s in the States we’ll work on the vocals and keyboards. All songs have a tendency to grow as soon as you enter the studio. Perhaps this is because you can give it all to the music then.
We’ve connected the vocal michrophone and started to record the vocals for “Come on in”. The keyboards has also been connected so we can develop those for the 10 days that Bullen is away. We went back home to Borås for the night.

Day 12 Tuesday
We went to the studio after a coffe at our regular place in Borås, the Orion. We continue to try different vocals for “Ghosttribe”. We’ve changed some things in the arrangement to and come up with a killer refrain both on the vocals and keyboards. It’s hot as hell in the studio, lucky for us we still have some beers left.
We got a visit from the chief of police in Varberg (also part owner of the studio), and discussed the ventilationsystem and cooling in the studio.
At 10 p.m your head is all mooshy, things go slowly and you get very drowsy from the heat in the studio. From time to time Erik and Mikael exits to challenge each other on Tony Hawk 3. Thank god for tv-games!
It’s Robert, Erik, Daniel and Mikael that’s in the studio this day. We continue the work with the vocals and keyboards, the next song up for review/arrangement is “Kenta”.
It’s now 3.am in the morning, still working on “Kenta”, we’re feeling bloddy satisfied with what we’ve achived with this song, turns out bloody well this, really groovy feeling. We listen to “Ghosttribe” one final time before we get to bed. It’s now 03.21 am, it’s long days in the studio.
Mikael has been a bit lazy with his fly catching today, only one cought. The number of confirmed kills is now 28.

Footnote: All the names of songs mentioned in the text are working names.

Day 13 Wednesday
Today we’ve been working on the vocals for “Come on in”. Since Lotta is up in the north of Sweden, we’ve only been working with Erik’s vocals until Lotta gets here. She’s expected this weekend.
We’ve also continued working on “Kenta” and structured it more. We’ve started recording the vocals for “I wish”. We went in to town to buy some thai food, in a greasy restaurant, it was just like being in thailand....NOT!. Erik said goodbye as he always does; kiss, kiss. Robert used a bit rougher way of saying goodbye. His “Good bye” sounded more like “See you in hell”.
In the evening it was time for an internal competition in Tony Hawk 3. Longest liptrick was the biggest challenge. Erik, the old tv-game fox, was the one ending up with the victory in the end, even though Robert made some brave attempts. It was 4.30 in the morning before the competition was concluded.

Flies cought today: 6 which gives a total of 34.

Day 14 Thursday
We started the day by drinking large amounts of coffe while we continued our quest for the hig scores in Tony Hawk. Excellent way of waking up.

Wow, we’re working on the verse for “Kenta”, it’s getting really good.. We started to record the vocals for “Departed”. In the evening we went into Varberg again. Micke and Daniel took a ride on their rollerblades by the ocean while Robert and Erik went to see a bluesband on the square. Then we had a pizza at Eldorado before we went back to the studio to continue working. Micke recorded a slow song with his piano. Ended the evening by looking at the Type O Negative DVD, with commentary... they have a good sense of humour, the Brooklyn gang.

Flies cought: 2, total 36.

Day 15 Friday
Woke up as usual around 11-12 am. Started with some coffe and then recorded Erik’s vocals for “Departed”. Jonas came back to the studio and Lotta made her first appearence as well. We record Lotta’s vocals for “Departed” (which is now called “Bitch”) too. Pizza for dinner, unfortunately we choosed the pizzaman in Rolfstorp (in the middle of nowhere where In-Flames pre-recorded a record). He was a real pain in the ass. It doesn’t seem like he had that much to do, so every customer that came in he had to talk his way through their heads, but at least he made good pizza.
Finished rather early today to go home and give the ears some rest. No flies cought today, the where smart enough to stay away.

Day 16 Saturday
We came to the studio around 14.pm, started with listening to some of the songs and then started to record Lotta for “Come on in”. There’s a lot of hair and tare and retakes to get the best of the best, but it turns out really good anyway!
Jonas and Daniel has the day off from the studio today but they might be here tomorow again. Lotta has made her debut as songwriter today with the song “Higher level” and the song is almost finished. It’s only Erik’s vocals left, but he has of some reason completely lost it and only makes farting sounds in the mic which makes Rob and Mikael to crouch of laughter...that’s Beseech humour for you!
The studio trainee was here and went around with a vacuumcleaner, looking pointless, other than that he’s made a lot of use of himself.... eh yeah right! He’s trying so hard to talk like he knows the buisiness, but fails completely, but eventually he might figure things out too.

Flies cought: 2, all in all we’re up to 38. Have we finally got rid of these wing provided creatures? Ah well, there’ll probably be more of them.

Day 17 Sunday
A lot of people in the studio area today, 8 to be exact, we’re working “Drama”. Also looked a bit at “Rose Red” behind the scenes. Lotta recorded “Forever falling” and the lyrics were finished. Mikael, Robert and Erik went home in the evening.
It felt like a tough day, when much was hard to get right, but some days are harder than other and this was one of them.

Flies cought: 1

Day 18 Monday
Lotta and Daniel started the day by doing some skate on the X-Box, after that they worked on the singing for “I wish”. Robert, Mikael and Erik came to the studio around 15.00 pm. We started right away with “Friend Emptiness”. We worked on the lyrics and getting the vocals right. It feels really good after working hard an entire day, to feel that things are getting better and better after the ghosthour.
Annoying bloody bananaflies everywhere, is there a way to terminate them? In that case...how?

Ordinarie flies cought: 1

Day 19 Tuesday
Today we’ve been working on the stems for “Kenta” and re-recorded some of Erik’s vocals. We’ve tried some different stems for Lotta on this song to. We’ve also worked on “Friend Emptiness”, given it a good ending and so on. We’ve done the refrain with Erik on “Forever falling” and done some work on “I wish”.
In the evening we met up with pedalConny and Fredrik from Anata and a few other from the metalelite in Varberg. We went to Conny’s cabin just by a lake, perfect for a good party. We swam, had a barbeque, some beer and just hung out.
Around 23.30 pm we went back to the studio to continue working on “I wish”, everyone was a bit frozen but did their best anyway. Some indifferences in the band on how the verse should be, but with some testing and compromises we work most things out. It was 06.00 am before everything was right.

Day 20 Wednesday
Today we finished the vocals for “I wish” , then we listened through the songs to make sure they’re working properly. Some corrections here and there but all in all it feels really good.
Now we’re going to be home for a couple of days before continuing with guitars and bass.
We’re tired and worn out so it’s going to be really nice to be home to charge the batteries for a couple of days.