Slim Void Album Log – September
September was a very interesting month for Slim Void. Having visited the famous Chapel Studios in Lincolnshire for a week to lay down drums and bass, it was now time to leave the quiet grasslands of rural England for the more continental feel of seaside Brighton.
A quite nice city with loads of pubs, restaurants and innumerable shops selling useless stuff. The seaside had a lovely promenade by the stoney beach. Quite nice to stroll along searching for inspiration, or just enjoying a walk in the fresh air.
The drummer and bassplayer left for Norway, while the rest of us (Anders & Ronny) restringed our guitars and tried to get ready for some playing and singing.
After a week of just laying around in sofas eating pork pies, it was now actually time to start contributing to the album. I had of course loads of lyrics yet to be written, lazily postponed to the last minute as usual, waiting for some divine inspiration to gently pop them into my head.
Anders though, lucky bastard, had no such worries and started recording right away. Effortlessly laying down guitar tracks on song after song. Well, not quite effortlessly. Dan Swift, the producer, was quite a bit more challenging than people we were used to be dealing with. Suggesting parts we had not thought about, sounds we were not aware of and playing techniques we had not rehearsed. Apart from that he oftened changed amps for certain bits within the same songs and it really made a difference. Mr Swift was to have no slack parts on this record. In other words he was very much a pain in the ass comfort wise some of the time. We have been left to our own judgement for decades, thinking we were pretty good and now everything was scrutinized and parts were thrown away with no sentimentality what so ever. Welcome to the world of music production!
Once getting used to this attitude of making an album we started appreciate it more and more. After all there is absolutely no use in clinging to parts not really working, just for affection. It's a healthy process, going through your old stuff to evaluate what is essential and what to throw away. Like clearing your messy, old garage.
Then it was time for the most important contribution to the Slim Void album: the vocals.
The singing is what most people pays attention to and the voice carries the melodies. Without good melodies an album is useless in my opinion, so the voice has to be at it's best to make the whole thing work to it's potential.
Of course Anders' voice turned out to be screwed for the first days. The producer tore hair out of his full red head and got into a really bad mood. There was no tone to be found in the singer's raspy voice. There was only rasp!
It was clearly due for a time out and the following day was spent at Dan Swift's garden, drinking bubbly wine and trying to chat with the producer's neighbours and avoid being atacked by their savage kids.
Poor Anders was given a rusty old guitar with a string missing and ordered to play a Norwegian song to entertain the guests. Feeling slightly torn between awkwardness and laughing at his expence, I sucked down a couple of more glasses of that sparkling fluid. The singer though, professionally managed to please the small crowd with a 5 string version of one of his own Norwegian folk songs. Well done in deed.
Later in the evening he was lured into putting the producer's kids to sleep playing good night songs. Not stupid, that Swift guy...
The following day it was time for another go at recording vocals. Having been ordered to warm up his vocal chords for about 2 hours, it was a transformed voice coming out of the studio monitors. Clean and beautifully sounding, it was just a pleasure from there really and the singing went smoothly all the way through.
The lesson learned: Warming up helps a lot for a singer. Screaming doesn't. And bubbly wine? Well, it makes you drunk before you know it.
At the moment of writing all recording is done and we're back in Norway feeling really pleased about what we have done so far. The songs sound strong and living up to our hopes and expectations. Some of our best playing and singing ever were done.
Next step now is the mixing. Dan Swift will be working on the mixes for most of October and the final result can not really be rated until that's completed. But from what we heard in the studio the album is going to sound very, very good.
Will be back with more info on that in the next 50K MUSIC MAG.
Hasta la vista!
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