Reckoning Night Studio Diary
This was written by the band for old sonataarctica.info.
STUDIO DIARY...finally!! March 8th -
8th, Monday
"Alright, here we go again. Dragging the drums up the stairs and slowly building the set, exhausting...
once again the maybe little absurd thought comes up: am I tool old for this shit...at age of 28? Damn...
Once Tommy got the drums in order, it was evident, as it usually is, that something had to be done. Tuning, setting the mics,
Ahti's destist appointment etc..At this point I figured I'm better off home, doing something more usefull. Later folks!"
-Tony
"We arrive at the studio at 10 a.m. dragging Tommy's massive drumset up the stairs
...I start to wonder if this REALLY is what I want to do for a living.
While Ahti & Tommy starts setting up the drums I spend some time with the computer in the Lounge,
checking e-mails e.t.c. I get bored after a while and decide to go to the gym."
-Henkka
March 9th, tuesday
"Visited the studio for few hours, ate and came in the same conclusion as yesterday: Screw you guys, I'm goin' home!
Got more important things to do than sit here and drink black coffee."
-Tony
"The search for the drumsounds continues, I spend some time practising some weird
grooves on the chicken-shaker. We get some pizza & burgers....and start playing Tekken on the PS2.
-Henkka
March 10th, wednesday.
"Finally we got the drums ready for some action! First tracks layed and WE ARE OFFICIALLY ON OUR WAY!
I don't yet have name for that song, but it's a sequal for "The End of This Chapter". Everybody seems to like this one."
-Tony
"Finally some action, I start the day by laying down some guiding tracks on keys and
shortly afterwards Tommy sits down behind his drums and start banging....we're officially on our way 😀
...and I can get back to the lounge and relax. Jani shows up and I challenge him on the Playstation...
and he kicks my ass ... big time...I'll have to start practising more.
Me and Marko laid some bets on tonights footballgame....we'll see how that works out..."
-Henkka
March 11th, Thursday
"I don't know how long I want to keep this diary...haha! Tommy called sick, so it was basically a matter of playing
some demo guide tracks for Tommy and talks about Henkka's vivid social life.
Yet another short day for Tony, not that I'm complaining, NEVER! Cheers ya all!"
-Tony
"Shit, I'm having a terrible hangover (Krapula), I can hardly remember how the game ended...no.....wait..
Real Madrid won...I think. Tommy calls in sick so I get to play some more guiding trax."
-Henkka
March 12th, friday
"Got one new song finished last night and let me tell you it's pretty different from what you've heard so far from us!
Can't put too many songs like that on the album...Tommy was feeling sick yet this morning but we were still able to get something done.
Two new songs and one cover drummed today! Still have some catching up to do. We will record two or three covers to be used as b-tracks on singles.
"What songs?!!",you ask, but that we are not gonna tell ya yet. 😉 Nice weekend to you all!"
-Tony
"Tommy feels a little bit better, I play a couple of tracks more for him when I arrive at the studio around noon,
with a terrible Krapula again. Marko's phone broke down yesterday under mysterious circumstances,
I guess I'll have to buy him a new one...."
-Henkka
March 15th, Monday
"I don't manage to get myself to the studio, 'cause I'm still in Ylläs. ( A ski resort in the north of Finland)
I went there for the weekend with some friends I used to study with at the University. (no skiing for me though)"
-Henkka
March 16th, tuesday
"The morning arrives too soon, again... anyway Tony's brought some new songs with him and we spend some time
listening to demos before Tommy continues his drumming.
I spend the afternoon reading musicmagazines, surfing the net and eating hamburgers at the studio.
When I run out of reading material I run down to the local bookstore and get a couple of Hunter S. Thompson's books."
-Henkka
march 17th, wednesday
"I drop by the studio for a couple of hours, renew my insurance for my gear then split for the gym."
-Henkka
march 19th, friday
19th, fri
"I'm not sure what happened, at least I don't think I went to the studio, and I don't think anybody missed me."
-Henkka
"We continued working the drums with Tommy. He's having "time of his life" with this album: He knew, or even had heard, only two songs when we started the recording and has to practice the songs as I bring my demos in the studio...sorry dude, but that's the way it goes this time. 😛
We did not miss Henkka at all. 😀"
-Tony
march 22nd, monday
22nd, mon
"Banging drums, talking about stupid things and watching "movie" clips on the net."
-Henkka
"We continued working the drums with Tommy, as we did last week few new tunes for Tommy to dig in to. Safe to say this will be slightly different from "Winterhearts Guild", atleast few very odd songs. This is what I say and think now, but in the end people think it's the same old, same old...IT`S NOT!!!
Henkka was consuming internet movie clips, eh, and toilet paper... 😀"
-Tony
March 23rd, thursday
"I arrive on the afternoon and we got Tony's K2600XS (that is a keyboard ladies & gentlemen 😉 )
down to the studio. I start to fiddle around with it a bit searching for i interesting sounds.
Marko pops by the studio and announce that he's going away for a week.
(I'm not sure if he minds telling people where, so we'll see about that when he gets back)"
-Henkka
"My day was colored with a very severy toothache, biggest ever. Imagine a situation you are not able to talk
by moving your jaw without getting kneeled by the motherinlaw of all PAINS!! Eating something did not even cross my mind.
You know the saying "the one with the best medication gets the best laughs"? ...buhahaheheheehheheheeee!
Henkka and Ahti came and stole my synth...thanks guys. I'll have tomorrow off, or actually not, but I do my work at home.
Ahti's got some "computer fighting" to do. At this point I wish you all a pleasant weekend...pain, pain, pain..."
-Tony
March 24th, friday
Arriving after noon, again. Ahti is fighting with the computer and I don't see no
one else around so I spend some time programming the K2600 but get bored after a while.
It's football-night again so we'll see how much Krapula I have tomorrow...
...later.
-Henkka
April 28th, Wednesday
Alrighty, just got back from the studio. My first comments to the diary. I'm tired as hell, we spent hours recording some choirs for the album (FC Sonata strikes again). That was a lot of fun but also very tiring. Ahti's computer started to get angry because there was some many tracks playing at the same time, about 200... I think all in all we laid down more than 100 tracks of choirs and backing vox today. Fortunately tonight I can just relax, have a beer or two and watch the ice hockey world championships from tv...
I haven't been writing here before so let me bring you up to date about what's happened guitarwise: I got a new preamp last month ( Mesa/Boogie Triaxis, for all you guitarheads 😀 ) and it's been working like a dream in the studio, great sound. New material is starting to take shape and it sounds mighty fine to my ears. Yesterday I also received an email from Mike from Ibanez telling me that they'll ship my 7-string guitar today. So you guys can expect some heavier guitar work from the new album. And as we all know, Heavy=Good 😀
~Jani~
April 29th, Thursday
Tony was sneezing and shivering yesterday, and this morning we find out why: He's sick again. He sends me a message in the morning that he's not gonna make it to studio today. I give Tommy a call that we could record some drums today since Tony won't be singing. I go to the studio at 10:00am and talk some bullshit with Ahti while he starts to set up for the drum recordings.
Tommy arrives about 11:00am, basic hanging and talking more b-shit. Slow start to a day, but it usually goes like that😀 We start to work on the drumsounds and notice that everything isn't working like it should. Beginning of the day is shadowed by technical difficulties, but being the whizkid he is Ahti get everything fixed and ready to rock. We're finally ready to record and lay down drums for a song that I wrote 2 weeks ago. Tommy isn't too familiar with the song, he's heard it only few times since I sent a demo for him as an mp3, but he does great job anyway.
All in all it wasn't THAT productive day, but one more song has been played in by Tommy. That makes it 11 now, including a cover.
~Jani~
May 10th, Monday
certainly have not written too many lines on this diary lately. This was not really a surprise for me, thinking that this is now our 4th studio album and I should know how much work there is.
Today was for me personally a really good day. Suddenly few songs started taking shape giving me new hope that we might actually have a fucking great album here! Yeap, there are few desperate moments behind me...
Jani's new 7-stringer has REALLY given a new heavier sound on few of our songs. We can't really have that on all tracks, but some of the songs are just screaming for it.
So far that stick can be heard on songs called 'Wildfire' and 'Don't Say a Word'. I believe those were the very first titles I've given to public here via this diary!
What else new I can give you? Oh right, Jani has written his very first 'sonata song' and it really rocks!!
Lot of people sent me 'get-well-soons', so thanks for those. I had this weird 24 hour bug and felt real shitty and feverish when I woke up. I am ok now, fine and dandy like sour candy!
Tomorrow I will continue singing one song that was left unfinished today, maybe start on another. I think I still have like nine songs to sing!! Argh! Singing leads in studio suck ass, but backing vocals are SO much fun!! I think I might have said something like 'it's better than sex, or at least different!'. ...yet another of my bright moments, no doubt, and I was not even drunk then!!
Still have couple of weeks left of these recordings, then mixing and mastering. We should be done after JUHANNUS, PERKELE! Too bad we don't have a chance to play any show then...
I'll drop you people few lines as soon as I find time or the quilt starts to eat me again.
Cheers!
~Tony
May 10th, Monday 🙂
Another day, another song...🙂 I recorded the basic guitar tracks for one really weird song today. There's some parts that sounds like the bastard child of Dream Theater went to circus...🙂 The strangest thing we've ever done, at least I think so. And one of the heaviest as well. The 7-string guitar really adds some balls to the songs I've used it in. Have to be careful not to use it too much though. And I still love the sound of the Triaxis.
The album is starting to take shape and I really like what I'm hearing, I'm sure you guys will too when you'll finally hear it🙂
~J~
Dude, it's May already. 😉
~T~
Heh, edit🙂 I really should get more sleep🙂
~Johnny~
May 11th, Tuesday, some pics
people have been requesting pics a LOT, so here are first two. Mainly just for us to check how this thing works. If you can see the pics, then it does and can you expect more of these in VERY near future!
I feel pretty, oh so pretty...ararai!
cheers,
~Sonata
May 11th, Tuesday
Ah, the pics seem to work! Great!
Today I learned to appreciate the computers again, when I suddenly felt an urge to change one song...and quite a bit actually. Cutting the unwanted parts off is eazy!
I think I ended shorting the song almost a minute. Now you think " you sick bastard, why?!" but honest the God the song gained much more than it lost!
I now have the title for the album finally and it's ...none of yer business yet!! 😀
Cover art is forming nicely and promotional pics are developing. All in all we're making nice progress. And yes, there will be a musicvideo made from a song yet not decided.
I will take my camera to the studio tomorrow, so perhaps we get some new fotos up!
rock!
~Tony
May 12th, Wednesday
Hell-o ya all!
Today was a short one for me. Marko and Jani did something before I arrived.
I Had to take care of domestic stuff until 2PM, but
then the day was relatively productive. Still worked on that same one song I mutilated yesterday.
Some vocal arrangements needed adjusting and now the song we for some reason call "the summersong"(and it has nothing whatsoever
to do with summer. Doesn't even sound like anything "summer".)sounds fucking great!
You can expect to hear some new elements on these new Sonata tunes, like hammond organ...it rocks!
Generally this album will be more "rock" than the previous ones. Good or bad, don't know, but I am developing
a serious liking on these new songs. 😀 Me happy.
Songtitle of the day: "Shamandalie". ...ok, hold yer horses, this ain't gonna be a daily thing! 😄
managed to take ONE, ladies and gentlemen, ONLY ONE ok picture today! Here you have it.
Jani recording guitars for this
yet unnamed "summersong", which has nothing whatsoever
to do with summer. Doesn't even sound like anything "summer". Am I repeating myself? Time charge the cameras and my own batteries...
Cheers, monkeys!
~Tony
ps. that Brazilian flag behind Tommy is part of the studio decoration. Ahti got it from our tour in South-America. I was a bit suprised it caused such a positive riot. 😀 Hopefully we get to play S-America soon!
May 20th, Thursday
dear diary,
sorry for neglecting you the past days. I have been so busy with the new album...
Last night, around 3am, I got one new song finished! Burning the midnight oil...And as you can imagine I am pretty tired now, after short sleep and a long studio day.
I sang "Shamandalie" today, which maybe has the less backing vocals ever in our history, only few, maybe 16 voices layered only on the last chorus, but that's it. I just found the song too beautiful to ruin the "sensitive feeling" with too many "Tony's". 😀
On the contrary there's this one song, that I have been singing for four days, with maybe around hundred tracks used for vocals alone...and those are only mine, FC Sonata will be layered on top of that, so this is scary...
BUT IT SOUNDS GREAT!!
Tomorrow we'll have a visitor in the studio. If you remember "the Voice" from "silence" album... 😉
"you have to finish what you started..."
yeap, gotta start thinking lines for the man. Why do I always leave everything for the last night???
...ja lasinen värssykirja avattakoon.
~Tony
May 24th, Monday
I think Garfield has said it best about mondays....
I sang yet another song today. Speedy one with no 100% sure name yet. It came out pretty ok. Tomorrow I'll start working on this song Jani wrote. Interesting! 😀
Took couple of photos today. Here's one with the band, without Marko though. Now the dude is really lost somewhere in Japan! If you read this, come home asap!! 😉
yeah yeah, the flag is still there. 😀
And here's yours truly wasting a valuable moment and posing for the camera. Rock rock, yeah...
Last friday we taped the "Voices" for the album and it was once again a hair raising experience!! Aargh! "Burn it all..." YEAH! Nik will be performing on 3 tracks, one of them being the longest Sonata song to date. Atleast I think so...best way I can descripe it is a mixture of "Power of One" and "The Ruins of My Life".
Feeling pretty tired, so it's maybe best for me to start working the lyrics now.
😢 Still so much to do before I can kick back and relax.
""Mikkää ee oo mahotonta", sano akka ku pikilapulla kaljupäätä tukisti"
~Tony
May 31st, Monday
And another week begins... Actually, it's the last full week we have for the recordings, as mixing is scheduled to start later next week. There's still sooooo much to do... Like all the solos😄 Today was a pretty active day at the studio, thank god. Tommy recorded the last song of the sessions for him, a cover song that will probably end up being a b-track of a single or something. This is again going to be something that I don't think you would expect from us😉
After the drums were done I still had the time to lay down the basic guitar tracks for 2 songs, one being the longest song of the album and the other this coversong. The long song is pretty massive as it is, and we're still to record the FC Sonata over it, which is scheduled for tomorrow morning.
Now I guess it's time to go to sleep so I will be shiny-happy tomorrow, we have some "beautiful" "singing" to do 😄
~J~
June 4th, Friday
Less than a week to go, and still piles of things to do...
I'm still confident we'll manage to get all done in time. 😛
I've been singing quite a bit the last few days. Yesterday from 10am to 8pm. And I can say that it's a loooong time to sing.
Haven't had any time to take photos...sorry.
The track titles are now ready and the baby has a name!
4th studio album of Sonata Arctica is titled "Reckoning Night".
But, hush, don't tell anybody just yet...
I can as well drop you some song titles while I'm on it.
"White Pearl, Black Oceans...", "The Boy Who Wanted to be a Real Puppet" "Ain't Your Fairytale", "Wrecking the Sphere" and the summersong ended up as "Blinded No More". Jani's song is called "My Selene".
I think I have one or two titles still in consideration. How many of those have I given already??
Ok, time for me to hit the studio again.
Cheers!
~Tony
"Kusi ei ole muuta kuin olutta, josta on erotettu rahat." -Bisquit
June 12th, Saturday
Hello you all!
The mixing started on thursday in Helsinki, while some recording was still in progress in Kemi. Still feel something is missing from few songs, but luckily I can still play few notes in Helsinki. Can't wait to have the mix done, then get back home and disappear for few days. I need a break, real bad. 😀
But before that, I'll try to drop you a line or two in here about the newborn.
At the moment I think I'm the last person to say anything smart about the album. It's a bit different from "Winterheart's", that's for sure. 😀
Hyvää Juhannusta ja kesän jatkoa kaikille!
T-man lähtee nyt ottamaan hyvin ansaitun bissen.
(I'm gonna have a glass of milk now.)
Cheers monkeys!
~Tony
"Kapitalismissa ihminen riistää ihmistä,
sosialismissa asiat ovat päinvastoin."
-puolalainen sananparsi