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Black Cloud Halo Studio Report
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This is a report on the recording of our upcoming full length album 'Born Under A Bad Sign'. The CD will be released by WTF Records from Rotterdam, Holland,in the summer of 2007.
Day 1 It's Saturday morning. The skies are deep black...it's raining like crazy and it's cold. It's the weather that fits our band name and it's the weather that fits the music. Today we'll start the recordings for 'Born Under A Bad Sign'. The follow up to our self titled debut. We decided to have an early start. We met at the studio at around 10:30 and everybody was eager to kick things off right away. We started by building ip and creating the drum sound. The Ludwig kit has a deep and heavy sound but it takes some tweaking and a lot lostening to get a GREAT sound on tape. While Roland was workings on the drums, two others were building up the bass rig. Casper was busy restringing and setting up the guitars and basses. Han was fooling around with an old Fender Vibro Champ from the 70's we just picked up this morning. We just love the sound of old amps. We might want to use that one on a song. After a couple of hours of listening, talking and twisting knobs the sounds were just as we wanted them and we got started. Jan Dekker was our engineer/ sound techt and took care of the technical side of the production. Jan knows how to take care of the insane amount of knobs that are in this studio and he's a lot of fun. He's always joking, telling the most idiotic stories and acting crazy. Besides that he works hard and inderstands and loves our music.
We started recording the songs. Man that drum sound combined with the bass sound really is a solid
foundation for the album. Our previous album was real heavy, dark sounding hardcore in the vein of
Blood For Blood and Killing Time. 'Born Under A Bad Sign' will have an even heavier and darker
sound. BCH has always been a band that combined hardcore with punk, rock and metal, and that still
is our recipe for writing songs. But we all have different bands we love and those influences can be
heard. We also have the luxury of two guitar players that can really play, so the new album will have a
bunch of kick ass solos in it!
Day 2 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. |
Day 3
Today we started with the guitar tracks. First we worked on getting a good guitar sound. We brought a selection of amps and guitars and selected the sound for Casper. We used some vintage and some newer stuff to get a real heavy rhythm sound. He laid down all the tracks and that took about the whole day. Exciting to hear the songs take form! We decided that the whole band should be in the studio, even if it’s just one guy that has to do his thing. It’s nice to have the rest of your band around for advice and support. We are having a lot of fun, we know each other pretty long and share the same stupid humour. Jan the studio dude fits in great and keeps the spirit going with his crazy talk, which is nice ‘cause we make 15 hour days. 
Day 4 We kicked the day off early and listened to the recordings. Fixed some mistakes and re-played some parts. After that we took a couple of hours to get Han’s sound. Difficult stuff. On the previous recordings we didn’t have such a choice in amps and guitars. Choices choices… After we got the sound right Han played his parts. We worked ‘till early morning to get things right, but the foundation is solid as hell. Went to Joris place, ‘cause he lives on the same block as the studio is and got pretty wasted… 
Day 5 They say (well, I heard somebody say this) that the fifth day is the worst. Our fifth day was pretty good. It took half of the day to record the guitar solos. Then Joris did sound checks for his vocal parts. He started putting down the vocal tracks. After waiting so long only listening and helping the others Joris openend his throat and burst out in anger. He laid down half of the tracks and then we went to Joris his place and drank… too much. |
Day 6
Last night it got way too late and the next morning we had regrets about drinking too much and staying up ‘till 4 AM. Day 6 would become our shit day. Everybody was wasted. We had to start with about 6 cups of coffee each to get in the mood. Luckily Han felt OK and put down some additional guitarparts. After Joris got some sleep he seemed to be back in business. Fuck yeah, he sounded great! The album will be titled ‘Born Under A Bad Sign’, which is also the title of Albert Kings most legendary album from 1967. Albert King is a blues artist and while our lyrics are also very bluesy and darkmooded, we thought that it will be a nice tribute to use his lyrics in one of our songs as well. So we did, thanks Albert! R.I.P!
Day 7
We got back in the studio after a couple of weeks off. Did us good ‘cause we were going nuts. After hearing the songs for about a 1000 times you start hating them a little… But today we finished the whole album. We think it sounds awesome. It has a real rock sound, powerful in your face rock, with crushing guitars and a devastating drum & bass sound. Joe’s vocals sound pissed off and soulful. Finally… It’s ready. There’s only so much time a couple of guys like us can afford. We could spend months on making this thing perfect but we wanted it to stay raw, in your face and unpolished. But it took us blood, sweat and even some tears. I hope this album will ache, hurt, cut you up, and in the end I hope it will give you a feeling of redemption. That’s the way it was for us. We put our hearts and souls into it. Now we’re ready to hit the streets and play the songs live!!!
Cheers, |