14th Session, 27 March, Thursday.

I have been reading some of Chuck Palahniuk's content recently, and like many others, I've been hauled mercilessly into his neurotic world. Regarded as one of the most widely read nihilists, there is a strange appeal to his form of dangerous writing. His minimalist style is very focused and intense, driving home one sublime point after another. The texts in his work are also peppered with priceless quotes and facts about the side of life less explored. A tale in the unique short story collection 'Haunted' had the narrator recalling his experience of his anus being sucked into a swimming pool pump. If you were reading that over dinner, I'd advice against having anyone sit opposite you. And don't move your hand towards the back of your pants. It's not that necessary.

-Inspire yourself. Terrible situations evoke awesome songs-

Well, back to the studio!

The Operation
Today Syafiq stepped in to record his parts for Dreams and Silver Stains. If you had read the previous post, you'll notice that Fiq didn't manage to quite identify himself with the most suitable tone. We braced ourselves to experience the same setback again, but lo and behold, our resident Magick Master Nick stepped in, yet again, to save our bum bums. He pulled out a sweet beige baby in the form a Squire Vintage Modified Telecaster Custom, which Fiq was already molesting when I reached the studio. It had a natural crunch, a vintage texture and so much raw mojo that will make you squirt chili sauce. It was a modified version of the original, and Nick revealed that the condition of the guitar when he received it was so bad that he had to personally re-furnish the fretboards and re-calibrate the truss rod in addition to other minute adjustments. And judging by how the guitar looks now, we once again marvelled at Nick's handiness and knack for DIY stuff.

Fiq plugged this newfound obsession in, and he was ready to roll. It took awhile to tweak a few knobs before getting the perfect warm and solid crunch needed for the rhythm backbone for Dreams, and he was good to go. In a few takes, it was all set and done.

It was then Silver Stains' turn, and Fiq used the same guitar. Coupled with the characteristic and classic Metal Zone, we layered the chorus to produce an arena-like effect. It was pretty direct tracking for almost the entire song, and then it was time for Fiq to punch in the almighty solo.

About 8 bars long(i think, ha ha), it begins with a wave of feedback just at the end of the breakdown, before launching into an avalanche of staccatos and slurs. So Fiq had to record inside the recording booth, facing his amplifier, instead of the usual chill pose of sitting cosily on the sofa outside beside Nick. It took a number of repeated takes before he finally nailed the perfect score. I assure you guys that it's gonna be one hell of a ride, when you do listen to it on the cd.

The day ended earlier than usual, as Nick had another recording session to do, and we left the studio at around nine-ish. With the exams coming up and the pressure to still continue the studio sessions, it's definitely gonna be a lil' something. But nothing has really come in the way of what we love to do, and i suspect everything'll be okayrissimo.

13th Session, 20 March 2008, Thursday.

let's start the day with some warm man-love:

"they are ov the gay....."

Fortunately, not all of us were turned on by this cuddly behaviour, and I attempted to keep my mind off it by recording my bass tracks for Silver Stains instead.

The Construction
I am hereby about to expound a rather embarrassing fact.

It was not until last session that I discovered, to my surprise, that Nick has always been lining me up into the Fender Bassman. Ha Ha. Ho Ho. At the same time, he uses the parallel out from my MXR Bass d.i.+ to hook me directly into his spaceship pre-amp. So what you get are options to choose from, and with it different permutations of the levels of both inputs to mix around with. You could add more clarity, or drive, or a firm and full body, depending on the character of the low-ends needed for any particular song. mmHmm. I didn't allow this variety to take hold of me yet though, as the first thing to keep my mind on is my own playing. I'll only tie down my exact sound for every song during the mix-down process.

It took a few seconds longer than the song's length to get the bass tracks down, and I was quite happy with what I had. Silver Stains is a stark departure from most of our other stuff, and I'm a sucker for variation. Granted, the verse and chorus lines are pretty solid in shape, but the doobeedoobaps all happen in-between; at times even bringing the rhythm out of phase, but resolving it a split second later.
Then i wrapped my stuff up and it was Syafiq's turn to lay down the guitars.

It's always a headache whenever we have to put guitars on, but it's a good kind of headache. Variety is always at our disposal in the studio, and Syafiq tried on guitar after guitar to get the right tone. First it was the red Gibson 1315113(i think), then it was the Epiphone Lucille(i think), then he used the Gibson SG(i think), and finally the Gibson Les Paul Supreme(i think).

At this point, if I recall correctly, Fiq was just about to get his desired tone when we realised we had to jam, to prepare for a gig we had the next day. And we had to do it by 10.30pm(the neighbours next door is apparently a bitch), when it was already 10.15. ha ha ha what a joke. So all 5 of us rushed and crammed into the studio to set up for practice, and abandoned the recording for the day.

Before i end off, i'd like to display the trucker-cap model of the decade:

"different strokes for different folks"

12th Recording Session, 16 March 2008, Sunday.

It was that time of the month again as Dr.Q and me(syai) got ready to lay our mojo down in the studio.

The agenda today was to set in stone the grooves of Silver Stains and Dreams, 2 of the more faster-paced songs that'll be on the disc. Ok well Dreams isn't really that pace-y, except for that last bit at the end where i gallop like a pony. But Silver Stains is perhaps as 'hard rock' as we're ever going to get, i figure. ....unless we embark on this special project called 'Breathless'....... but that's a different story for a different weather.

The Doing
So I arrived at the studio about half an hour after the agreed time(blame my conscience on the obligation towards schoolwork), and Dr.Q was in the midst of setting up his kit. After checking the this and the that, we were finally ready to get-it-on, yoh.

The previous week, Dr.Q tracked down Silver Stains' beats, only to find slight but haunting discrepancies that floated to the surface upon inspection. And once they were on that surface for us spongerinas, it would be almost impossible to drown them in the depths of our unconscious again. So in came Nick and his Magick, as he tweaked those slight details, and although they weren't really as perfect as we wanted it to be, we had to settle with what we had. After all, as long as all the instruments moved together coherently, it'll still emerge as good groovey mooziq.

Having settled Silver Stains' drumtracks the week before, we then listened through it again, and decided it was cool enough to keep. But just before Dr.Q actually went into the recording booth, Nick surprised us by unearthing a magnificent delay instrument. This fantasy box was manufactured by Roland, and although I can't recall exactly what model it is, I remember that Nick mentioned it's not in production anymore. . What i can recall is that it runs on tape (yes, producing delays using TAPE), and that it's 10 times bigger than a typical effect pedal. ho ho ho.

Ta-daa:

(look! the TAPE!)

Nick did a quick demo as he plugged in a guitar and using just simple initial sounds, he transformed it into a total monster of free-wheeling roller-coaster delays and pitch bends. It was simply deligtful. The tone is sweet, and very organic. You just couldn't get this warm texture with a digital pedal. Think of the comparison between vinyls and CDs, and you'll get the picture.

So after ooh-ing and aah-ing for abit, we threw Dr.Q into the recording booth and he churned out his bits for Dreams. After a few takes and a few more listens, he gave the all-clear for the drumtrack to be used for the song, and I got ready to plug in the Squire into Nick's mean machine.

There weren't any real problems with my take on Dreams, but i was trying to approach a different technique for the first time(in recording), and it didn't quite work out. I attempted to crank the volume up and play soft. To go gentle. Subtle but compact right-hand work. It turned out to be a pretty silly move, because Dreams is a song where authentic punch is needed. Meaning, the hard tap of the fingers. Reverse carrom stuff. Things were working out quite fine at the beginning but as the song proceeded, the mood was very different from what it was whenever I played the song. And it did affect my playing. The fills were not tight, I couldn't link different sections quickly, and I just didn't feel good playing it. So there I was, sitting there, doing a few re-takes and wondering why this had to happen at such a wrong time. I've pretty much tried to be as much of a perfectionist as i could with my playing, and it was a tad bit disappointing not to lay down the groove all at once. But oh welly-wells, this serves as a good old-fashioned lesson for your dear bassist. And it did get me thinking:

Isn't it amazing how the modern digital recording process has given us the excuse to be a less perfect musician?

11th Recording Session, 6 March 2008, 7pm-11pm

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not everything happens the way you want it to.

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10th Recording Session, 28 February 2008, Thursday, (7.30pm – 11.00pm)

Unusually, this recording session was not on the last day of February but the second last day - A leap year. An extra day every forth year to compensate for each of the 1/4 days which should actually be at the end of every year. Its weird when you think about it. Did you know that a year which is not a leap year is referred to as a "Common Year"? Guess that's how normal life can be. Oh well. For more S.P.O.N.G.E unrelated info on leap years, head to (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leap_year). Anyway, just a little note. I will unlikely be writing on future recording sessions as Syai da man, will be taking over from the next post on. But hey! I promised to comment on a few things on this blog, so I will definitely do so in the future (once I have the time). These will be short little posts which won't have much to do with the recording sessions though. Hopefully interesting and related enough for you gals/guys! Anyway... back to serious business.

Songs – Today, News, Fortify
Instruments Recorded – Guitar (Kenneth), Classical Guitar (Kenneth), Vocals (Rahmat, Qader and Fiq), Shaker (Qader)

Recording Process
The Fender Bassman had returned (only to be taken away by "Electrico" the next session. Syai will let you know more in the future post. SYAI!) and the guitars for Today could finally be completed. I had only used the Bassman for the verse and ending chorus though. The rest of the guitars (including the distorted portions in the verse) were recorded using the Vox amp as we felt that the Vox sound "set" itself into the mix much better. Anyway, for Today, I had suggested adding a classical guitar to the mix. Glad that the band endorsed and liked the idea, more or less (Maybe they just didn't really care!) Anyway... Yup! There is a classical guitar being played in the song. I won't really spoil it for anyone, but once we have some clips... or the record gets out, try listening for it. Hehe :). Its in quite a few places. I liked that it wasn't too obvious. Still it was definitely worth the time.

Rahmat, Qader and Fiq did some of the vocals, redoing certain parts of the song. Hmm.. anything interesting about recording the vocals this time? Not really. Here's a picture of Syafiq pretending to record vocals though. He's just posing like this with his mouth open cos we wanted a "handsome" shot of him "recording vocals". ;)



Honestly, this photo wasn't even taken during this recording session. Haha! Oh! Once the song's out, try listening and see if you can identify where each of the 3 singers sang! :)

So next up... that box of percussion stuff. Man. I don't even want to begin saying know how many forms of percussion instruments were in that box. We'll try to take a photo and post it up for everyone to see. Its madness. Anyway, for Today, we used a plastic cylinder filled with rice, which you quite clearly hear in the last chorus - Gives the ending of the song a nice beachy (not bitchy) feeling. Ah... just listen to the song at a remote beach... and let your troubles float away...

End
Today's advice is on percussion! I am definitely not the expert here, but I think its worth learning how to use shakers properly. Apparently, there are many ways to shake a maracas (is this even how its spelled??) and different feels and sounds can be created. So. Yup. Definitely something worth learning for all percussionists. :)

3rd Recording Session, 24 January 2008, Thursday (8.00pm - 11.00pm)

Wow! A journey back in time. Erm. This post is happening now as Syai and I kinda realised we had missed out talking about the 3rd recording session which was on the 24 January 2008 and we had wrongly labelled all the sessions... Er hup! Actually, it was solely my fault. Anyway... Moving on.

Song – Astray
Instruments Recorded – Syafiq (Acoustic), Kenneth (Electric Parts)

Recording Process
Ok. Basically this session was a long time ago, and my memory of what exactly happened is really quite vague. I do remember the difficult parts of this recording session. The first was strumming the acoustic guitar in time with the original strumming. It actually sounds easy, but it is a little harder than how it actually sounds. Like i've mentioned before, most guitarists strum in a rather random manner... so to actually perform what you did randomly before can kind of drive you crazy. Just look at Syai.


Anyway, the person who's sitting opposite Syai's is Flint from Bismuth. Just one of the many denizens you meet at the Musicforgood studios. He's kind of a chill dude (When we first met him, Flint said "I live in the West, I am a cowboy". To which we replied with a "WTF" look on our faces). Anyways... here's a link to Bismuth's myspace account, so you can listen to them. Some alternative shoegaze music (www.myspace.com/bismuthsg) for you. My favourite song is "Hospital Drive". Argh! That addictive guitar lick in the background..!

I wanted to really talk about why I choose the Fender Bassman to record the "Glittery" clean parts of Astray, but I had already mentioned that in a previous post. So in this post, I'll say a little about the Vox Amp which I recorded the distorted parts of Astray with (in the interlude at the end). For the distortion pedal, I had used my trusty Sansamp GT2 set to "Centre", "Hot Wired" and "California", to get the really overdriven sound I wanted. Here's the Vox Amp I used in its beautiful warm natural setting. :)


Just for info, this amp is used by two of my favourite guitar players, Mike Eizinger of Incubus and Jonny Buckland of Coldplay. The most unique things about a Vox amp is its slightly overdriven tone and its overwealming warmth, which many players love. I believe the Amp in the studio is a Vox AC30 CC. I use a Vox Pathfinder 15R at home too a definite recommendation for a budget amp for a warm "British" tone. But if you prefer, a heavier rock sound, I would recommend a Marshall CDR 15, which is what I used to own during my "metal" days. Both come with a distortion button, but the Marshall definitely has a heavier sound.

Anyway, yeah. That's really the highlights of the 3rd recording session. With all the tracking done, it was up to Rahmat to finish the song up with Vocals!

End
Well. My advice for this session is.... practice strumming in time with a metronome! Its really not that easy (unless you have been doing it frequently). :) That's all folks!

9th Recording Session - 21 February 2008, Thursday, 6.00pm – 9.00pm

The 8th recording session is one which shall be remembered for the missing bassmen. The first bassman, Syai, was not around cos he was trying to find ways to get S.P.O.N.G.E a sponsorship deal from Gibson Guitars. The second Bassman (probably the more important one), was the missing Fender Bassman, which we wanted to record the clean parts for Today.

Oh well. Like all women would say... Men. Always go missing at the critical times. Err... argh W.T.F. lah. Ok. Song list and instruments recorded.

Songs – Today
Instruments Recorded – Guitar (Kenneth), Vocals (Rahmat and Fiq)

Recording Session
Rahmat and Fiq had arrived early together to start on the vocals for today. When I arrived, Fiq was finishing his backup Today. They both sounded good. Oh well.. Fiq had bowling so off he went off when I arrived after work. Nick was sick though. He was dripping mucus all over the place and desparately grabbing tissues. Me? I was probably too happy when he was suffering while recording my clean guitar parts for Today. Look at me!

What was pretty disappointing was the lack of the Fender Bassman for the sparkly tone we wanted. Also, though I am seen playing a black Gibson here, we ended up using the recording which was done with my Gretsch Syncromatic (its in the background) for the clean chorus riff, which was the bulk of what was done that evening. After that, we wrapped up the recording for the night with the picking in the interlude. Nick was really too sick to do anymore, and we decided it was a wrap at 9pm.

Well... Rahmat and I headed to Geylang for daohui (known as Soya Beancurd to non-locals)... err... the right kind of course. Not the other "daohui" in Geylang... err... ok. Whatever.

End

Nothing much to say here. But hey! I feel really happy watching Juno. Have the soundtrack.. haven't really explored it yet thought, but the song at the end of the movie is simple... yet really touching. Here's the song which keeps running in my head now. (I'll talk about the movie in a separate post).

"Anyone Else But You" by The Moldy Peaches

Ciaoz~

8th Recording Session - 17 February 2008, (5.00pm - 7.30pm)

Waddup Currypups!

This is the day Dr.Q(Qader) and me(Syai) came in to finally lay down the rhythm section(drums and bass) for "Today".

After the setback of last week's session, where we discovered the crash springing a surprise on us AFTER recording the entire drumtrack, we were more determined that ever to get this over and done with. In stepped The Spongerina's rhythm section, on that sleepy Sunday, to get the groove down.


Song - Today
Instruments - the d'N'b


when we came in, we found Mr.Muon Magick staring concentratedly on his twin screens...
Ok kidding. I actually can't remember when this pic was taken. But it's good shiet. Courtesy of our brilliant Dr.Q.


Recording Process
Laying down the drumtrack for Today was tedious not because of it's technicality, but because the song consists of two different alternating tempos. Most of our songs are quite direct (in terms of the tempo), but we had to go through a stop-start process where Today is concerned.

The intro riff (that starting guitar part), all the way into the verse up till the first chorus, that's the pacey, chugging rock bit. It also comes in after the first chorus is done, and works its way up to the second chorus. These two chunks of supersonic-electrofying-turbocharged material, we recorded them at 144b.p.m(beats per minute). It's not really super-fast, of course, but it will be as compared to the choruses. The rest: the two choruses and the point from the interlude all the way till the climactic orgasm-inducing end, we recorded them at 140b.p.m.

I shall break away for a moment to reflect on something important regarding Today's tempo. For the Noise CD compilation, which we submitted both Dreams and Today(recorded with Nick, of course), we recorded Today using a single tempo, which was around 148b.p.m, methinks. No slowing down at the choruses. No retardation during the interludes. And oh, how unnatural that felt. During practice and during our 'live' shows, we always naturally slow down during the choruses and the interlude, because..well..they are meant to be slow in the first place! That's how the song was written, that's how it's been performed, and that's what YOU are going to hear. So we decided to split the song into the relevant tempos to get it down nice and right.

So Qader went in, smashed the kit dry, and came out in a jiff. Having ran through the take a week before, he knew exactly what to do and wasted no time in doing it. Split timings or not, he nailed it like a pecker. A woodpecker.

And then it was my turn. I believe I've not elaborated on how my rig is actually set up.
I run my bass into Nick's massivvv preamp, which is connected to the Hartke's VX410 Cabinet(speaker). He explained to me that he only uses the Hartke's cab, and not the HA3500
head, because he believes the boom he gets when he utilizes his preamp is much more solid, full and beef-ier. And i kinda agree with him. I mean, i've used the Hartke stack during our jam sessions at The Void, and somehow it doesn't sound as powerful as that UFO-looking thing on the left. Nick, you da man, maannnn.


I also have a piece of trivia that you guys can tell your friends once s.p.o.n.g.e has been around for 10 years and have toured the world 300 times(kidding....... ok maybe not...hey at least you know we ARE that determined.) Instead of using my skinny-looking Ibanez SGR-200, i've taken quite a liking to the studio's resident bass, the Squire J-Bass. The first time I picked it up to record the first song "News", Flint(the Bismuth vocalist/guitarist and Wilma's husband) went "what?? you're using that thing? the studio bass? for what???", and i just went "hey, i like the sound". And i'm NOT kidding! I do like it. Even Nick said that it's the lowest end of Squire models that you can find. How flattering. But that didn't stop me from using it, and it's been of service to me for 4 songs now.

I love it's tone, and I think it's important that I use Dr.Q's MXR Bass D.I. together with it. The D.I. has 3 basic equalizer knobs, and i use them to tweak and improve the tone output. Having this D.I. adds a totally different dimension to the input that Nick's Cubase 4 system receives. There is very very little noise given out, and the tone gained is a lovely rumble with a lip-twiching high end. Another trivia is that I didnt use any of my staple effects pedals at all. I only use 3 (i believe a bassist should keep his effects-toying to a minimal. .....well FINE i just don't have the money to buy more pedals): all 3 being from BOSS, i use the Equalizer, Limiter/Enhancer and Chorus. Save for the Chorus(very prominent on "For Fathers"), i won't be using the others, and it'll probably remain that way throughout the album. The combi of the Squire J-Bass and the MXR Bass D.I. keeps my bass sound 'pure', without any fancy stuff(my playing not counted *laughs*) happening. Keep a lookout for my bass sound throughout the album, and you'll note that aside from the difference in mixing, the rumble of my low end remains largely the same, creating a solid foundation for the characteristic and unique s.p.o.n.g.e sound.

this is me, with the studio's Squire J-Bass, laying down Today's groove.

Fin
Well, there're not many lessons to be learnt from today's session, since everything's been pretty much straightforward.
Now it's up to our duo of guitarists and our frontman to fly on top of the groundwork we've laid out for 'em.

Drop pants, not bombs, people.
-syai-

7th Recording Session - 6 Febraury 2008, Wednesday (2.00pm – 3.30pm)

Chinese New Year Eve. Little India. Not exactly two things you put together. It happened. For one and a half hours, Syai and I spent time recording the lead guitar tracks for Fortify at Dunlop Street on Chinese New Year Eve, 6 February 2008.

Songs – Fortify
Instruments Recorded – Guitar (Kenneth)

Recording Process
What was really funny about this session was that it began with the idea to begin recording at 12.30pm. Nick messaged us that he would be late, arriving at about 1.00pm. Soon, Syai and I realised we'll be even later... to reach at 2pm. What's up with musicians and being late? Actually maybe its not a musician thing... its sometimes just a Singaporean thing isn't it??? Haha... ok. Back to what happened (which isn't much).

This session was relatively simple. But I'll talk about the Fender Bassman. Here it is right on top of the Laney Head and Cabinet.

For many of our songs, such as Astray, Today and Fortify, I wanted a bright sparkly tone for the guitars. This sound is very apparently in the lead guitar intro riff in Astray, the ending of Today and the verse of Fortify. This is what the Fender Bassman gives. A sparkle and glee to a guitar tone (probably very familiar to people who listen to atmospheric music like Sigur Ros). I haven't heard an amp which does the same yet. Amazing. Listen to believe. If you're a guitarist who wants that sound in your music, I would encourage you to head down to the musicforgood Studios and listen to the Fender Bassman (including what Nick adds to it). Its a tone which is hard to obtain anywhere else.

Anyway, recording wrapped up quickly. Oh. And we wished Nick, Wei Wei and Patrick a happy Chinese New Year :)

End

I think... from this session there was one special thing we learnt from Nick. Its that with layers, you can choose to eccentuate certain melodies or try to create a more dissonant ending to certain parts of the song so that it does not merely resolve in a listener's mind (ergh... I know this sentence is difficult to understand but that's the best way to put it). For Fortify, my overlays were pretty odd notes. When the CD does come out, listen to the ending and you'll hear certain notes played in a second layer to emphasis certain parts of the lead melody. It felt really different and I was glad that Nick made me do it (it was odd/difficult to play like that). One thing to takeaway? Choose a good producer which knows this stuff :)

6th Recording Session, 5 February 2008, Tuesday (2.30 – 8.30pm)

So, here I am (Kenneth), writing about the 5th session when Syai has not finished on the 3rd and 4th sessions yet (Yes. I am going to save this in draft so he can post this once he's done with the 3rd and 4th sessions). See how much I am blaming him for how slow the updates to this blog are? :) Anyway, due to a sudden inspiration, I hope to bring everyone up to speed on the status of our recordings. Really. When I heard the full unmixed recording of "Today", literally today, I had a good feeling that all the effort (and money) we have put in, has been worth it. The album is going to be a blast. Anyway, I think I will keep the introduction short and move on to the details of this session.

Songs – Today, Fortify
Instruments Recorded – Drums, Bass, Rhythm Guitar

Recording Session
This session was the beginning of the recordings of "Today" and "Fortify" (Henceforth refered to their titles w/o open and closed colons!). I think for those who know us, and have listened to us (if not, pls go to http://www.myspace.com/spongemusic), Today is a very familiar song. Its that kind of song which runs a million miles around your head w/o you knowing it... leaving you momentarily blank. Next, your mouth starts moving. Face it. You start singing along. I mean, I really never knew this fact till I was convinced by a few people say how catchy it really was. Well.. trust us to be cynical and hard on our own music.. and trust Mr Fiq to write a song like this just to blow you (and us) away.

Anyway, since I just talked about this, perhaps its a good time to talk about the collaborative and creative process between us banditos (that's just a term for bandmates which sounds better and not always... funnier). Many people have asked me (at least when I first tell them I play in a band), who writes the songs in the band, or how the songs are created. To quote them:- "Hey! So who writes the songs? YOU? *excited voices*" Unfortunately, no. Not all at least. In fact, only one (I'll talk about it when we blog about the session on it). So far I must say majority of our songwriting (the chord progressions, the melody plus some lyrics) must be credited to Syafiq. In fact, our journey as a band with our own songs began with "News". And it was really almost all done by the time he let us listen to it for the first time. For the current tracks which have been revealed, "News", "Astray" and "Today" were first played to us with Syafiq's singing and strumming. Woah. Trust us. We liked what we heard. But just to burst Syafiq's bubble and maybe musicians who just come up with "originals" and expect them to be good and heard immediately, we have trashed and dumped songs when we really listened to them. In fact many. Know why I will probably only have one song written by me in the record now? ;)

Just to be clear though. Some songs go through a different evolution. For e.g. Fortify. It began when Syafiq strummed a chord progression (if I am not wrong its E5, C9, A5). This lead to a sudden explosion of a melody for the lead guitar riff in my mind! With just these two elements, the band explored and created what was Fortify. Rahmat came up with a singing tune and the lyrics soon after and the rest... as the cliche says, is merely history.

I'll let Rahmat elaborate on Fortify in the future (if he ever posts), but for me, when I listen to Fortify I just think of two lovers lying in bed, looking into each other's eyes, in a moment of quiet peace (w/o any other additional movement in bed). This is definitely one of my favourite songs in the album, but I have heard many who have felt the contrary. Comments heard for a particular gig were - "Why did you play that STUPID SONG???". Not exactly a compliment. Oh and thanks Nadia for buying us all Chicken Rice (including Nick) that session (and the remark!). Haha... we still appreciate the realness of your (and many others') advice. Such comments really brings us back to reality whenever we start thinking (like many Singaporean bands) that we're rock stars and so good that we should be heard WORLDWIDE just because we have a few songs under our belt (I'll leave this rant for another time. This post is getting too long).

So, back to the recording. Qader, Syai and Syafiq, began by tracking the rhythm parts again. Nothing new there as this is how it always works when you record a song. Unfortunately, for Today, we realised that the crashes (a crash is one of the metal disc/cymbal at the side of the drum kit) at Nick's studio did not suit the song (no fault of Nick). And this was AFTER we had recorded the entire drum, bass and rhythm track which took about 2 hours. Definitely a downer when every crash sounded like a chinese cymbal in a Chinese Orchestra (no offense to Chinese Orchestras).

It felt a little worse because we realised at the end of the session we had to re-record the drums, and thus, the bass and rhythm guitar track. :( Well... Fortify escaped such an outcome though. And the drum, bass and rhythm guitar track for Fortify were kept.

End
So, what's the lesson to be learnt here? I think for bands who are really serious about what they do, its important for the drummer to have their own cymbals (crash, splash and right). Some drummers even bring their own snares. In fact, from the Ballyhoo talks we have been, its even advised for guitarists to bring their own amps (I wish I could) so that their tone can always be retained. Many local musicians go "WOW. WTF". But think of all the travelling small time bands in other countries (out of Singapore) who drive around with nothing but their gear (which includes, full drumkits, amplifiers and mics, yes mics) and get poor for long periods of time just to pursue their passion. Just think how many make it in the end (oh wait. Let me rant about the so called "lack of government support" in the Singapore music scene another time. Argh, why does this keep coming up in this post).

So yes. Having your own equipment is really important unless the studio really has all your favourite amps/gears there. For Syafiq, Syai and me, we aren't really able to afford our own big amplifiers right now (and its not worth the hassle transporting them all around yet), so we make do with what Nick has which is what we really want actually. At gigs, we just make do. We would love a van but... oh well. Anyway, I promised pictures so here's Syafiq on that day itself... looking longingly (lovingly?) at Nick after doing some tracks.

Before I forget. Nick was really great. As he kinda felt bad for the drums (despite even doing his best and letting us try all the crashes he had at his studio, which was really amazing of him), he told me to come down to finish up the intrumental tracks for Fortify on the next day (Chinese New Year Eve) and record for free. See why we made such a good choice in choosing him? ;) "Nick, you rock man..."

5th Recording Session, 31 January 2008, Thursday (8.30pm – 11.00pm)

This session turned out to be the first of its kind in its umm.. vocaling intensivity.

As it turned out, the rest of the band weren't comfortable with the results of the previous vocal session with respect to Astray. It was a mixture of the nasal-ness caused by Matt's flu and several off-tune parts which somehow escaped us completely. We then decided to re-record Matt on Astray completely.

Before we got to that, however, Syafiq had to correct the opening riff for Astray, as the electric and acoustic elements were somehow out of sync in a few phases. After laying down our goals for the day, we were ready to get down and dirty and mean and filthy.


Song - Astray
Instruments - Guitar & Vocals


Recording Process
Things got started with Syafiq re-entering the electric guitar track for Astray's intro, using the Gibson Les Paul Supreme. He realised that he forgot exactly which guitar he used for this intro-into-verse part, and we decided to try with the Les Paul. After laying down the track, Nick noticed that the tone was different from that of the verse, and Syafiq had to play into the verse until the first chorus, to achieve uniformity in the tone. Still, there were slight discrepancies in the sound as compared to the overall rhythm guitar tone. But this was well taken care of when Nick, doing what he does best, cast some brilliant Magick to set everything straight. It sounded just like before, in under 5 mins.

This is the Gibson beauty that Syafiq used for his part:

[pic]

Hurrah! It was finally time to get da vox in da box. At this point, we could see Syafiq stepping up and assisting Matt greatly with the vocal parts. Matt stayed inside the recording booth, with Syafiq outside at the cockpit alternating between sitting, standing and jumping, all the time barking out comments and orders to Matt through the BattlestarScralachtica-esque microphone.

It was quite stressful at times, especially in some tense situations where I thought Matt's hand would just crash through the thick glass panel of the cockpit, grab Syafiq's head, and gobble it up. But luckily that didn't happen. If it did, i'd be the first to grab all the Gibsons and get the hell out of there.

So anyway, i have to point out that our revered Mr.Muon gave a lot of helpful tips, pointers and shared his personal opinions while we were somehow struggling with the vocal tracking. The adjustment of Matt's pitching here and there, the pronounciation and focus of certain words or syllables, it all helped us a whole lot. Nick also reminded us that over-directing and being too critical of Matt for some difficult parts of the song would make things worse, rather than improving his performance. I realised that this is quite true, from what my friend majoring in Film studies also informed me about. Some directors tend to over-direct their cast of actors, and point out their mistakes too much. Instead of acting from their inner selves with natural feel and passion, they tend to focus on their mistakes that have been pointed out, and this shift in perspective can affect the actor's performance greatly.

As the day drew to a close, Matt finally finished laying down his voxiness at about 10.15pm. It was then Syafiq's turn to churn out his backing vocal tracks. Well well well well well well well. It turned out that Syafiq had slight trouble voxing it out shagedalically too. There were a lot of harmonizing to be done, particularly at the choruses, and to follow the exact wavering and slurring of Matt's melodies was pretty tough. At one point, Syafiq commented that he felt like a 'goldfish' in that room.

Fin
Our long day finally drew to a close when Syafiq finished his backing vocals at around 11.45pm. This is the latest we've finished a session, if i'm not wrong. We were all tired and aching and sleepy and hungry. And the next day we would still have to head to work and school. How lovely. The things we go through for what we love. At times, we sacrifice a lot just to get our music heard. Just to reach out to people.

But at the end of it all, we realise that it's absolutely worth it.