- back to fan page -
Introduction:
Hello guys!!
It's been almost three years we wrote the last entry of"Core" diary; and now we are back. For those who weren’t there on that time, “Core’s diary” was a blog we created in which you could follow every step we did on all related to the recording of our last album.
So, once again, we will continue with that idea. We are preparing a new album and we want to share with you guys all the experiences we will live from now until late April. First of all, I would like to explain you why I have said “April”. April 30th is our deadline to finish the album (composition, recording, mastering ...) and since we are really tight on our schedule we will write here every week for you to follow our way.
From the beginning: About a year ago we started working on the new album. We looked for an interesting concept to speak about and we started working on some cool musical ideas. We made some kind of teams. Carlos and me worked together (as always from the very beginning); Jordi and Marc Mas worked together finding some rhythms working fine with Jordi’s riffs and finally Toni and Marc Martins started working on the concept, searching which points could be interesting to write lyrics of. We spent several months working this way and recording/writing every good idea that came to our skecht. Anyway, we worked quiet, with no pressure and enjoying every moment. We had to stop because of summertime gigs (Andorra and Germany mainly).
This was about music. Let's speak now about some other problems. We had to find the way of recording the album with proffesional sound and several external people to work with, such as sound engineers, artwork proffesional, guest singers... The first task we dealed with was the recording. We decided to record everything by our own with our personal studios. Drums and grunt vocals were recorded at Marc Mas’ studio and bass, guitars, keyboards and clean vocals we recorded at Core Music Factory Studio (owned by Carlos and me...). Once finished we sent the results to Jacob Hansen to make a mixing and mastering of the song. The result was really impresive! We are really happy with the experience and we’ll continue working with Jacob for the mixing of the new album.
So once we solved the problem of the recording, we continued with the composition of the themes. For that time we had already almost 4 tracks, but a label arrived and they asked us to finished the album as soon as possible to release it on summer. It was past November.
The situation right now is what next: We have only one track and a half left to create and Marc is already learning drums. Next week we will start recording drums. Toni will start recording basses as soon as we had one drum track finished. I have already started recording keyboards (only with the click track as guideline...) and some orhestrations needed. Marc Martins is writing lyrics. Jordi is preparing his guitar solos and leading with rhythmic guitars as he will have to record pretty soon.
Monday, January 19th, 2009
We start our blog and we will speak about what we did this weekend. We are a bit frantic about the time left we have to end the album up. So we started by speding some time looking for ideas for the last song of the album. To be true, we weren’t very inspired and we made very little advances on this. So, in the afternoon, Carlos and Marc started working on the drums of the first song and by the end of the day Marc was able to play half the song with no problems. Meanwhile, I was recording some keyboards and looking for ideas for a small orchestration included on the first track we are working in. It’s always hard working of an idea played just on guitar, but Marc is a great drummer and he has managed to find cool ideas for drums.
Sunday morning, we have been looking for ideas for the last track of the album. I’m afraid we have been a bit stucked on this. Luckily, tonight we have find a path and we have been working really fine on it. We have the first minute of the song quite ready.
Besides, this morning Marc Martins came at home to look for a preproduction of two tracks to work on lyrics. He needs some music to get inspiration and maybe fix some rhythmic ideas for vocals. The rest of the day, I have been working with Toni on the bass line of the first song. He already worked a bit on them but we had to fix some notes and some parts not really clear. Now the song is really on its way. Half drums finished, bass line prepared and some keyboards already recorded.
We have worked fine on this weekend and we feel we are still in the schedule. I hope being able to say the same in about two months :).
Until then, stay tuned!!
Monday, January 26th, 2009
A new week has passed away, and several things happened. There were several goals to reach and we didn’t fail on this stuff.
It was a primary goal to end up all the drums ideas of the first song because on saturday Marc had to record it. So Marc and Carlos went to the rehearsal room and worked on the basic rhythms of the track. Once them created, Marc worked at home on better ideas bearing in mind the main ones. During the whole week, continuing the composition was a must and so Carlos and me did.
On thursday, Toni came home and we checked his ideas on bass about the first song. The thing is that the prerecording we did to let the guys work doesn’t sound as good as necessary and sometimes some notes are missing, so we have to check all what happen in every moment, just to make sure noone will record a note that we will regret after.
And Saturday arrived. Carlos, Jordi and Marc met at Marc’s studio and started tuning the drums, selecting mics and putting them properly to start recording and then, some hours later we started the recording of the drums. We’d like to spend more time searching for the sound of the drums, but I’m afraid the only thing we don’t have, is time. So, soon, at ten o’clock, Marc did record quite half of the song in a demonstration of proffesionality and great tempo feel. Meanwhile this was happening, I was working on the orchestration of the first minutes of the song. It’s not definetly at all because I had to work with a drum base, and some rhythms of the different instruments sound weird with drums. Violins, violas, cellos, double basses, trumpets, horns and trombons are some of the orchestral instruments used on this. I got tired of this and I decided to go to the studio at dinner time. After dinner, Marc continued recording until 2 am. Drums on the first song are finally done and we breath a bit more...
On Sunday, Toni came home to search the sound of the bass. We have decided to record it with a preamp Avalon M5 and adding a bit of compression and eq. The sound is fine and I think it’s perfect for Jacob to work on it and get a great final bass sound. We are pretty happy on how things are working, and we have the feeling of being in the schedule.
Anyway, thank you for checking out this diary.
Thursday, February 5th, 2009
New month! This means the final date is getting near at every moment. For those who have arrived right now to the diary, we have a deadline to get the album finished (recorded, mixed, mastered, and so on...). Anyway, we are keeping the schedule right away! (by decreasing our health of course hahaha).
First things first, the composition. We are about to end all songs. These days Carlos and me have focused a lot on that stuff and hopefully we have been pretty inspired, so right now we have some mid songs to end up and some details on every song to be checked out. Anyway, the big amount of music necessary to get the album on the way, is ready... So the next step is to prepare every click track to get the recording sessions prepared. “Click track” is a timeline in which every tempo or time signature change is marked in its exact moment, so we all can follow the same metronom and the music gets on its rhythm right away.
Some other stuff... Toni ended the recording of the bass line of the first song last sunday. He’s pretty happy because we didn’t find problems on it. He could prepare the song pretty fine and it has been reflected on the result. Now I am editing the line to clean weird sounds or minimal errors on it.
Meanwhile, Marc has finished the first sketch of some lyrics for the last song. He came home to show us and we really loved the result. I’m sure it will work just fine with the whole music. Carlos and Jordi went to Pere Revert’s studio (www.perevert.com) to check the guitar sound since we will record them there. We have to work a bit more on this but we are sure we will get a huge killer sound for the guitars!!! :D
This week: we have the drums of the first song already recorded, so we will start recording bass lines, continue preparing click tracks and finishing as much work as possible out... and of course, we’ll continue decreasing our health hehehe :)
Saturday, February 14th, 2009
Hello friends!!
It’s about 2 a.m. and I’ve decided that it’s a good moment to prepare the next Diary entry. I’m afraid it’s not the only thing it’s being done right now for Persefone. In this moment, Carlos and Jordi are assisting Marc Mas on the recording of the drums of DBD (only initials...sorry hehehe). Due to the difficulty of putting the free time of every band member together, we need to record at these very late hours in the day. Anyway, it has to be done so, no matter the hour...
Some other stuff... Carlos and me have focused this last week on the composition of one of the songs that we had to end up. It’s not completely finished since we have worked a lot on an instrumental part on it that we will enjoy a lot. I wish so you do. As a consequence, we need to end the final part of the song, hopefully, before the next week.
Toni is preparing the next recording session. I’m afraid we had to postpone the date because there were some very important things to focus on first. It’s hard, but he’s not knowing that I will call him tomorrow to record the bass line on the second song hehehe I’m sure he will get it prepared and ready to be recorded!!
In my case, I’ve been editing some drums and preparing some orchestras for the last song. Something small but pretty nice in my opinion.
Carlos and Marc met last tuesday and thursday to prepare tonight recording session. It’s a great lucky that Carlos loves drums and he’s always thinking on what should the drum work on this or that other part... So, once he goes to the rehearsal room to work with Marc, there are always some guidlines to follow and Marc can develop his ideas on that or just proposing some other stuff. I have to point that Marc is an extraordinary musician and he gets the idea of the song in just one session. It’s not easy at all...
So guys, we continue on the schedule and March is about to arrive. Next week, Marc will record one another song, and then, on Carnival holiday, we will focus on ending as much drums as possible...
Finally, we have noticed about the increasing number of visits to the site, so this means you are there reading our words and following our steps. THANK YOU ALL!!! We love feeling you there...
Thursday, February 19th, 2009
Hello guys!!
Things are going on just fine! All these years back, we had always problems to keep the rhythm on every project we did. There was always something disturbing, or just any stupid thing that made us loose our attention on what we were doing. This is what is not happening right now. It’s the very first time that we have a total control sensation on what we are doing, and so, we are keeping the schedule on its right direction. Of course, there are some factors that can make us fail on our goal, but really, it doesn’t seem to happen. We are tired, very tired, but if things are working, there will be time for us to rest. We have adopted a sentence Mr Peter Jackson said to Mr James Newton Howard (musician who made the music on King Kong): “Pain is momentary, but the film is forever...”. And so the album ...
So, right now we have ended up several things. Right now we have three drum tracks already recorded and edited so we have been able to record some bass lines and now, guitars!! Yes! Carlos started last Tuesday the recording of the rhythmic guitars. I have to say that we all got amazed when he ended up three songs on two sessions!! Six ours and a half to record the rhythmic guitars on the first three songs is quite an amazing thing. None of these songs last less than six minutes, so it’s pretty a great thing!
Some other stuff. Toni came to the studio last week to record another song. It was quite a fast task, because it was the song that we already record to check the sound of our studio combined with Jacob’s. He arrived home at about 5 and by 9 we had ended up all the song.
Today Marc Mas and Carlos went to the rehearsal room to check a new song. Holiday! hahaha... well, in fact is not holiday, but to be true this is the easier song on the cd, since it’s quite slow tempo and not very technical, so I guess that tomorrow night, it will be finished and I’ll be able to edit the drum track and by the next week probably work on lyrics of that song.
Finally, we all are already thinking on ideas to give the designer of the album artwork. We are lasting a bit more than expected on that because we are focusing our efforts on some more inmediate things, but we are still on time. I don’t know how are your feelings about what will be the cd, and we really would like to know about that. So I invite you to send us your words, opinions or just to cheer us up. It’ll be welcome.
info@persefone.com
Anyway, again ... THANKS FOR BEING HERE!
Monday, March 2nd, 2009
Time to update! I have to sorry because I’m not updating as much as I would like to. I’m afraid we are totally collapsed of work. The good thing is that everything continues on the schedule.
Let’s start with the drums sessions. Marc is demonstrating us all that he is an absolute proffesional and he keep’s finishing songs everyday we meet. On this ten days he has ended up three songs!! It’s really amazing how he works. The problem, as I’ve already written before on this blog, is that he doesn’t know the songs. He learns the parts right in the moment he’s going to record it. Carlos and him look for a rhythmic idea and then he practices it for a while. After he says “Let’s record!”. And that’s all. It becomes reallity! He only needs to finish two more songs, that are schedule for next Thursday and next week.
Now, Marc Martins. He has started recording voices. Since it was already recorded, we started for the first song of the album. We have the lyrics for this song and he has already sung it live, so, as we all imagined, there was no problem on the recording of this song. On about one hour, everything was ready. I would like to do a small mention, just as a funny thing (that actually could become a problem, but not). I called him to give the instructions of the day we should record, and he tells me that a few days after he had lost the voice because he went to a Psycroptic gig. We did a queue to kick his butt!!! hahaha. Well, there was no problem because he demonstrated being fine with the voice, but some of us wanted to kill him on that moment. Well, yesterday we continue with vocals, and we did a small advance on the second song. By Satuday we will end this song.
Toni keeps on stand by. I told him that he would record a song last week,but there wasn’t time to do this so we have to meet next Sunday to continue the recordings.
Carlos keeps working on quite every part of the production. He has been helping Marc on every drums recording session. Last Thursday he met Jordi and they worked on some overdubs and rhythmic guitars. They spent quite all evening recording ideas, so Carlos will start recording new guitars this week. Friday he spent some time writting lyrics. The problem is that we are writting lyrics quite ate the same time they are being recorded so we have to be really organized between us to work on the same direction.
Jordi started recording guitars last Saturday. It was his first approach on the recording and he did fine! He started recording the first song. It was not possible to finish the whole song due to some “neighbouring” problem. Too much noise on Saturday afternoon, I’m afraid. He’ll continue next week.
There’s a lot of extra work to do. The thing is that we did a meeting and we arranged a schedule to get things on time. Now we are quiet because by guiding that schedule, the album will be ready for Jacob to mix it on time. One of the things we have been doing today is trying to contact a great singer that maybe will help us on one song. I’m willing to get back here and tell you that she will do it. Let’s cross our fingers....
I’ll try to update sooner than this time...
Monday, March 9th, 2009
Hello friends!!
Weird week I’m afraid... Some great things happened and some really bad things did too... I have always prefered knowing bad news first, so I can get a good taste at the end, so I’ll tell you this in the same way.
Last Thursday was the day in which drums had to be finished. Carlos, as always went to the Marc’s studio and they began switching on all computers and stuff needed to record. Everything went smooth but, suddenly, Marc realizes that the main preamp doesn’t work. It had happened before. That machine used to stop working and in the next day it got recovered. Yeah, I know, this is not usual, anything went wrong with this hardware, but, well, the recording session for that day just got fucked up. Carlos went home and so Marc did. They should met on Saturday to record the song. So it was... The preamp seemed to work properly this time. Carlos went againg Marc’s studio, but as soon as he got there, the machine just stopped working. Well, in this moment, the real problem appeared. We have a very tight schedule to follow. That song had to be recorded by saturday night as latest hour and that wouldn’t happen. We have called today to the main distributor in Spain and he told us that it had to be repared (oh sure??!! XD), and that they could let us one another preamp. The thing is that the original one is 8 inputs, and this one is 4 inputs... Problems... I don’t know how this is going to continue, but we won’t fail. Not now, just in the moment we feel there’s no time enough to end everything, we will change studio reservation days, but not before that... We are in trouble. I hope coming back next day, anyway, if any of you can lend us a Universal Audio mic preamp 8110, please let us know. We are really worried about this...
Ok, let’s go on good things. Several guys of the band have ended up a lot of work. I’ll start on this weekend about Toni and Marc Martins. Saturday morning I met Toni at the studio to record some stuff. The idea was to record a song that day (as marked in the studio). Well, the morning went just smooth and he did a great job. We went eating something and then we come back to the studio. I have to say that the song is really hard, and we found some problems on it, but Toni did a great job and by 5 he had ended up the song, and I decided him to continue recording. So I opened one another session and I started taughing him the new song. It is the slowest tempo one so by the end of the day we managed to record to songs!! I was pretty amazed because we had reached one step above in just one day.
I went bed and at 10 I was again in the studio to record Marc’s vocals. Coool!!! It was just funny. We had to produce the idea of the rhythm of lyrics on the song, but we worked together the get great grunt and grind vocals!! At 5 we were ready with the song already recorded. I thought on the same idea of continuing but.... no possible in this case because we haven’t written any lyrics more yet!! As I said, we are really tight on the schedule...
We go back a bit sooner on the week, to Jordi’s recording session. He went to the studio and he was able to record the rhythmic guitars on two songs. It’s quite a task doing this on Persefone, because guitars use to be really complicated... Then Carlos went to the studio. By Thurday morning he managed to record all the rest of the rhythmic guitars he was able to do (since we still don’t have two of the drum tracks to continue with those guitars). Both Jordi and Carlos were really happy because things are going fine.
In my case, I have been editing all kind of stuff and writting some lyrics. I’m afraid right now my work is just as technician, so I’ll have to leave my work for the last weeks. In that moment I’ll start recording all keyboards and clean vocals. I hope not getting a cold or something that fuck me up for that time hahaha.
Well, we continue working hard. I have to find a solution for that problem with drums preamp, if any of you could help us, we really appreciate it.
By the way, I almost forgot. I can’t give you a lot of information about this, but just a bit. A foreign singer will participate on Persefone’s next album. For all those who loves manga series, she has sung a song on a really well known serie, and we will have her voice over a song!!! We are REALLY happy with this. We’ll let you know her name as soon as possible. :)
Meanwhile, stay tuned friends and stay cool!
Wednesday, March 18th, 2009
Hello friends!!
Half March is already gone, and we have very few time left to end everything up. There are only two weeks and a half to end everything. Well, to be true maybe three or four days more. This means that we have to record two whole songs yet, quite all overdubs and guitar solos, all keyboards, quite all vocals and some basses left, and you’ll say: You won’t get on time. We will! hahaha.
Things that has happened this last week. Since we had problems on the studio where we record drums, Carlos decided to continue recording rhymic guitars and started doing some overdubs and solos. Marc Mas has had to stopped almost two weeks but yesterday he started recording again drums. Yes! this means we have find a solution. The preamc is just broken, and he has to send it to USA, so he has managed to get a 4 inputs preamp. Later we have added and avalon m5 preamp with one input, and finally Pere Revert (owner of the studio where we record guitars) has offered us a stereo preamp. With that material we have been able to continue. The pic shows the preamps and Pere Revert watching over them to get everything right.
Let’s continue. Marc Martins has recorded one another song. Maybe this is the weirdest track from the cd, more likely “Truth Inside the Shades”. We are happy with the results. This is important because at middle week he called me with a throat problem: pharyngitis. Luckily he went to a doctor soon and he could recover on time.
Toni has recorded one another song. With this one finished, he has to record only three songs to end everything! He’s happy but at same time worried because he has no time to learn the songs. He has to come to the studio and learn them in the moment. Hard stuff.
Jordi keeps working on his solos and yesterday he helped Carlos and Marc on the recording of the drums. Technical assistance on recordings. Probably it seems nothing, but when you have to go to bed at 4 am and wake up at 7.30 to go to work, it’s more than a sacrifice... Everything because of the album.
About me, I have spent the last week working on the lyrics for the song to be recorded on Sunday, and editing some stuff. Everything continues on the way, so I’m happy.
Final sprint guys!
Monday, March 30th, 2009
Hello friends
As always, I have to apologize the big delay on writting the blog. I would really like to write every three days or so, but I’m afraid it’s just impossible. Too many things to work in. Right now, it’s 1 a.m. and I found it a good moment to write something for you.
So let’s start. A lot of things have happened all these days. First of all, we will start for the base: Drums. Everything is already recorded. After all problems with the mic preamp, we managed to get material to record and Marc did recorded the last two songs in about two days. He did an amazing job and now he can rest of all this crazyness. We have to finish the edition and make the last “watch overs” to get sure everything is right.
Drums finished, we continue with all the rest. I feel the obligation of speaking about this weekend that have just ended. Last Thursday Carlos got home with a mad idea: “What about if we record two bass lines tomorrow night and three vocal lines during the weekend?” Of course, I answered something like “are you drinking something wrong right now?” But he explained the plan more accurately, and I agree. So, Friday night at 9, Toni came the studio and we started recording two songs. Both song are the shorter ones so by 4 a.m. we was going to bed with the work finished. By 9.30, we woke up and when to the studio again to start recording voices. We decided to start with the japanese bonus track because we had to write the rest of the lyrics later and we wanted to start with something easy... Wrong! Can you believe that we didn’t find the lyrics of this song on the whole internet??? We own the original albut, but there are no words in the booklet, so at 10 in the morning we were with our ear stuck next the monitor trying to understand what was that guy saying. I have to say that we have no difficulties on this stuff, but this is a typical 80’s song and the production is the typical one for that time... big reverbs on vocals and drums, a lot of guitars... so we found great problems to get the lyrics, but we did. So we spent the morning recording the bonus track, and in the afternoon we started compiling and translating all the drafts we had for the first lyrics we had to arrange. Once we got the complete idea we started recording the vocals on that song... I have to say that Marc’s vocals are huger than in “Core”, with some new ideas and some different kinds of grunts. We finish that recording by 9 and since we had more time, we decided calling Toni to come and record the last song he has to play in the album. An so he did. Meanwhile Toni was recording supported by Carlos, Marc and me spent the rest of the night writing lyrics for the song we had to record on Sunday.
Now I have to make a break on the story. These last weeks we have constantly mention Mr Murphy from Murphy’s Law... you know that story that it says that if something can go wrong, it will... So Saturday night Mr Murphy came and suddenly, when everyone thought it was 2 a.m, the clock changed to 3 a.m. and we found ourselves in the middle of the night, recording and writing lyrics. We had to wake up at 9 to come the studio and continue and losing that hour just made us go angry... I know it seems a nonsense but believe me that every sleeping hour we lost, it’s something that we carry the rest of the week...
So, we get home at 4.30! and by 10 (finally, we decided to move the schedule one hour later) we went to the studio and started fitting the lyrics on the song. This song is the longest one of the album, and so at 11 at night, Carlos, Jordi, Marc and me were finishing the weekend with bass lines and vocals recorded on three songs.
There are more news, indeed... Last sunday we sent the information to start working on the artwork. We was told that the artist was willing to start with the work because he likes the concept idea. And he demonstrated it. Two days later, he sent us several drafts. I must say that we got shocked! Never before we get that impression with just drafts. We think he’s going in the exact way we imagined. We are willing to see the “baby” grow.
Finally, we have added a colaboration in the album! She’s an amazing singer from Japan. I can reveal right now her name, but I can say that her singing style is very peculiar and unique!! We are amazed for this colaboration and we are willing you to listen it. I can’t tell much more about this, but well, it won’t pass so much time until you can listen it.
Well guys, I hope you keep there... I wish to write more often but, it’s just impossible... See ya next time! Stay tuned!!
Tuesday, April 7th, 2009
Hello friends!!
Again, a lot of time to update the blog but this is being really a crazy time. There’s a lot of work to do yet, but luckily we have ended up A LOT of other things. Let’s see, in the last entry we were working a lot for finishing several bass lines and vocals. It was a really mad weekend. So, the week started and on monday I met Toni to finish his bass lines. And we did. We felt very quiet once this work was done. It’s kind of “finishing-one-another-thing” and we could finally rest.
For continuing, on Tuesday, Carlos and Jordi went the studio to record some solos and overdubs needed. It was a hard thing because Jordi had only some hours to record everything he had to (solos, and the rhythmic guitar from one another song). It was great to know by night that we had finished all things on time. So we was keeping the schedule.
By wednesday, Carlos went the studio and he recorded all the rest of the rhythmic guitars and several overdubs, same as on Thursday, the day in which he finished ALL what means distorted guitars. He got home and he was smiling a lot so I quickly understood he was done with that stuff. Only clean guitars left, job that started on Friday and he could end up today! So, guitars are all recorded, only some editions needed and we will be done.
During all this time, I’ve been recording keyboards, solos and every stuff needed to add some ambiences to the music. It’s pretty a fast task except for the solos, because I record everything via midi and I have not care about the sounds. For all what doesn’t know about this, midi is a comunication language between keyboards and computers. A signal is sent through the midi cable to the computer and it contains the selected note in the time it was played, the intensity, if it is sustained... in the end, all parameters needed to reproduce it again from the computer. The only thing is that this is only information, so we have to reproduce it later and make it sounds through a keyboard or a computer sound library. It’s great because you can edit every note separetly and once it is done you can check every different sound in order to find the very suitable one.
Well, let’s go to some other stuff: Abroad stuff. Because of the lack of time we have asked our good friend Manuel Corredor, a poet from a town called Albacete, to write the lyrics of one of the songs. This week he sent us the results and guys, I have to tell you that we got amazed. We are musicians not lyricist, so you can guess that probably this is the very best lyrics in all the album. Unfortunately we had to translate it to english so part of the magic has been lost in the way. Anyway we have tried to maintain the idea. You’ll have time to check it in the album.
Some other stuff: The Artwork. We have already the cover of the album!!! Yes guys! and I have to tell you that it’s AMAZING. In other times, we have always a nice reaction with the other covers but in this case, we got stunned... The designer has reach our idea in a perfect way so we are really happy with the result. He is working right now on the booklet. I’ll keep you updated...
Now we get to the weekend. Due to the album’s concept, on Friday I drove until Girona Airport. A friend was coming from Paris. Her name is Kumiko Kiso. She’s a friend of us and as you can imagine, she’s japanese, but right now she’s living in Paris. She had to come here because she had to record something spoken in Japanese (for all those who want to know about the main concept, this is A clue). We had a lot of problems because of the flight company but we got home at about 20 in the evening (we was expected to arrive home at 14...). Nice trip, nice drive. On Saturday we went with her to the studio and started working on what he needed. She spent almost all the morning looking for the suitable words and she finally found it. She just recorded it on one only take and she started to help me on some japanese lyrics. I have to say that all the band is HAPPY of having her voice on the album. She’s a very nice and kind person. I’ve included a photo with some guys of the band, and some other great friends (Bobby at the right side, photo man of the band, and Jose, his brother and close friend from us). We spent the night playing a freak zombies game hahaha. Nice night. By Sunday Kumi took a bus and she came back home and we continue recording voices. Marc’s voices. The happy thing is that by 21.00 we had finished every grunt or screaming vocals needed on the album!!
All this means just one thing: There are only keyboards and clean vocals to be ended up, besides some small edition... We are on the schedule and we are happy with it.
Finally, drum tracks have been already sent to Jacob Hansen for him to work on them. Final sprint friends!!
Saturday, April 18th, 2009
Hello friends!
It’s 18th April. Today we have finished everything related to the recording process of the new album SHIN-KEN!!! I know that, again, I have lasted a lot on writing on the blog, but this time I have been completely concious about that. I’m afraid I prefered to wait a few days more and coming back with the final result.
Step by step. I’ll started this entry with the name of the album! Yes, it has been finally revealed: Shin-ken. The album concept will be the samurai and the stories, philosophy and way of life from them. The whole idea is to treat that theme far away from the occidental “romantic” idea and focus the concept on what the believed, and fight for. We have had the chance of working with Japanese artists directly such as Asazaki Ikue, a fantastic singer from the Amami Island in the southern part of Japan. Her singing style is very traditional. We have listened songs from her that were written a thousand years ago for ancient japanese artists. We hope you enjoy this colaboration.
Let’s go on other stuff. Recording process of clean vocals and keyboards. In this last week and a half I have been recording every keyboard, orchestral sounds, solos and clean vocals for the album. It has been a slow process because I had to create a lot of arrangements. After some days, quite everything was recorded. I have been using several stuff in here: a Korg Triton, Roland V-Combo for hammond organ sounds, Minimoog Voyager synthesizer, Yamaha P-90 piano conected directly to a Synthogy Ivory Piano library, and Vienna Symphonic Library for all the orchestral stuff. Working with such material is simply great because every sound is professional and top notch stuff. Once keyboards were finished I started recoding vocals. There were not many places to sing, but I had very few time to end everything. Jordi and Marc Martins were working on extra lyrics for those parts, so I had everything prepared on time. Supported by Carlos and for our friend Bobby, I recorded every vocal in just two days.
Once this was finished, we started with the final editions of bass, keyboards and vocals. I’ve spent two or three days doing this, but everything has been fixed on it’s place and now everything sounds just fine.
So this morning was the final day, so Carlos and I have spent all night working on final details. Every sound, every post production detail had to be ready. We have checked everything and prepared all files to be sent to Denmark in which they will be mixed next week.
So this takes me to one another stuff. Jacob Hansen was the guy who was going to mix the album, buf unfortunately he had problems on his studio and we won’t be able to mix Shin-ken with him. Luckily, our manager, Claus Jensen, is a great proffesional and by the next day we had a new producer for the album. I have to tell that we like to call him “The Wolf”, same as the guy in Pulp Fiction, because, “he solves problems” hahaha. This is a joke we use to tell him. The fact is that finally Tommy Hansen (Helloween, Circus Maximus, Raintime...) will be the producer on Shin-ken. By Saturday we will be in Horsens (Denmark) with him. We are anxious to meet this man. When I was only a child, he was already mixing great bands, so this is going to be a real pleasure for us.
Well, everything has been finished, but we still have to wait for some extra details as band photos, mixing process, and artwork stuff, so I’ll continue writing to you friends. I would like to have written a lot more, but you know we have been very busy and it has been simply impossible. I promise writting you from Denmark.
Meanwhile, stay tuned. From my heart, I promise you that Shin-ken has been created with passion and all what we are, will be sounding there, so we hope you enjoy it as much as we do.
PS: Today I have included several photos of the band guys during the recording process. I hope you enjoy it! :)
Carlos, Jordi and Marc in one of the drum’s recording session.
Toni recording bass
Carlos recording at Pere Revert studio.
Miguel on Pro Tools recording Marc’s vocals
Pic taken when writting lyrics
Miguel at Core Music Factory studio, recording keys and vocals
Marc recording grunts in “The Hole”.
Sunday, April 26th, 2009
Hello friends!
We are in Horsens (Denmark)!!! Carlos, Pere Revert (the man behind the guitar recording process) and me. It is the mixing time and we are lucky spending some days here in such a beautiful place. Yesterday we drove to Girona’s airport in Spain and then we took a flight to Bremen (Germany). Once there we drove several hours to get to Horsens right in the middle of Denmark. We got a bit late in the evening so we didn’t get on time to the studio to meet Mr Tommy Hansen (Helloween, Beyond Twilight, Raintime, Hatesphere...).
So this morning, after a great breakfast we went to the studio. We was nicely received by Tommy and his familly. And we got in the place. We couldn’t avoid having that sense of “Here, a lot of great musicians have recorded their albums”. In fact, Tommy told us that Jörn Lande was there about two weeks ago. It was really like being a child with a new toy. We kept a great conversation with Tommy and then he told us to choose one of the songs to listen. The song that we chose (and besides you’ll know about one of the names) was “Kusanagi”. It’s a pretty powerful song since the beginning and suddently it started. In early times, we never got really shocked with the mixes, but now we did. That sound was great. Very clear and easy to listen. We listened the song as carefully as possible, bearing in mind that we were really shocked. Once the song finished, he changed the monitoring output and Kusanagi started sounding in two HUGE Genelec monitors. For you to know the size of those monitors, we have compared them with flight reactors haha. That was really huge sound.
Well, we spent part of the morning listening the songs Tommy had already worked in, and we got them into a pendrive for us to listen them quietly at home.
So we left the studio with a great sensation. We were in a really happy moment and we went home and started checking the files...
Ok, I have no more time to write here, so I’ll try to do it tomorrow.
Tuesday, April 28th, 2009
Hello friends!!
Quick update and probably one of the last from this blog. Still in Denmark, we are in the last day of mixing. We have an mp3 at the hotel with every track already mixed. We need now to check them carefully to get every detail on it’s place. I must say that quite everything is really in its place. We have nothing to say about the mix itself. Drums are really powerful and easy to listen, guitars are as really cool too. In the end, everything really seems to be in its place. So, we are only looking for small arrangements that can be out of the mix, or some places with too much reverb or any other effect that we think that could be interesting.
Anyway, today Tommy spent the day mixing the last 4 songs. It’s amazing seeing like a proffessional can mix something that fast. When we got to the studio we had only to listen the songs and pay attention to some small details to change in the moment.
Tomorrow, we have to meet Tommy to get final details ready. We hope being everything on its place by 13:00 and then we will start preparing the track list. Every intro, every mid song, and every track must change smooth, as always on Persefone’s albums. Once we finish this, Shin-ken will be ready to get to you, as soon as possible, of course.
Final entry on upcoming days. Don’t miss the final opinion of band members!
See you soon, meanwhile...
STAY TUNED!
- back to fan page -