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Geert van der Velde (ex-Shai Hulud, Miscreants) sent us a studio report. Check it out.
Howdy y'all, So, we holed ourselves up in Matthijs' "Paperboat Studio" last week. Check out the Paperboat Studio myspace for some cool pictures and tech. specs at: www.myspace.com/paperboatstudio. We recorded 3 new songs and had a blast recording them. We experimented with lots of instruments on some of the songs and did all kinds of microphone recording experiments. After all, isn't that what recording should be? One big audiotastic experiment! Exactly, that's why I thought... Hopefully you will be able to listen to these musical concoctions we brewed for you very soon. We're still mixing the tracks as I type this. After the mixing process we're sending our precious tunes over to our friend Tubefreak (www.tubefreak.com) to give them that glossy shine and analog warmth and cuddliness. I mean, Winter is coming soon and we wouldn't want our songs catching a cold so soon after they are exposed to the world, right? Riiiight!
So we came up with titles for the songs. Always a tough nut to crack. The first song we recorded and mixed is called "Madagascar". Actually, you may be familiar with that one from the 'live video' from the "Lopend Vuur" radio pod and vidcast session (www.lopendvuur.nl) that we have up for viewing right now. This time around though we recorded it properly and with the whole band. First I laid down the guitar tracks for Robert (drums) to manhandle and bruise on drums. Then we added Matthijs' soft fuzzy basslines and smoothed it all out. We topped it off with some cool organs, harmonium and mellotron. Just to give it a little "chanson" feel... Funnily enough this song came out sounding nothing like a "chanson". But what the hell we like her anyway!
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The second song we recorded is an acoustic song. Our friend and fellow singer/songwriter Florian Wolff (www.myspace.com/florianwolff) lent me his awesome Martin & co acoustic guitar to record it with. Thanks Florian!! This song'll be called "Lonely Moons". It's a more downtrodden and intimate kind of song with a reference to a naked lady in a mall whom I have never met or seen. It's really one of those songs you should listen to on headphones when going out for a late night stroll. And, don't forget to bring your umbrella! We had a little accident with the rain while recording this song. While recording we had forgotten to close one of the windows in the studio (it was behind a curtain so we didn't notice it). It was raining heavily that night. The way it does pretty much every other night in the Netherlands. When we listened back to our favourite take(s) of the song we heard the rain quietly pattering in the background. So, of course we kept it and recorded more rain because it was such a wonderful accident! Don't forget: accidents can be wonderful things...sometimes. The third song we recorded was our "grand experiment". Working title: "The Drunken (Bastard) Song". Matthijs had a few too many beers while laying down his basstracks so obviously it's called "The Drunken (Bastard) Song". Obviously. It is one bastard of a song for sure though. We're still unsure what to really call it or think of it. I mean, we like like it.
Another long day ahead of us. Of course some coffee and some cigarettes to get the motor running. We put the rest of the tracks down. After that we sat and listened to the vatious versions of the songs and picked the best ones. After we did that we did some retakes to eliminate occasional mistakes. After another long night we had the bass and the drums on tape. |
But you just don't know what to think of it. Apparently it's a mammal but it sure doesn't look like one. It looks like an otter with a duck's beak and cat's paws or something. Anyway, I digress...we used 13 different instruments on this song and we're still not sure whether we should dress it up more or take some stuff off. My gut instinct says: more!! Among the instruments used (off the top of my head) were: an old and out of tune Harmonium, a Saxophone, an Organ, a Piano, a Bass guitar, an Acoustic Guitar (Florian's), a (slide) Electric guitar, a Cello, a Mellotron, a Tambourine and some Eggs (shakers)... There's other stuff in there but I can't remember what it all was right now. We also borrowed the lovely pipes (voice) of Mrs. Hoffman - van der Velde (my wife) and Matthijs' (bass) and combined them into the sweetest sounding little choir you'll ever hear. Or at least, the second sweetest sounding little choir you'll ever hear anyway.
Should come out pretty cool once it's all mixed and mastered. Alright, I hope you enjoyed the show. Tune in for some Audio proof at www.myspace.com/theblackatlantic soon! Until then check out the picture section. I made a little studio folder with some bad photos of us. Sweet, Geert / The Black Atlantic
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