Day III. The Good, The Bad, and We're Ugly.

.Tuesday, March 29

(Drums - Half of track 3 and tracks 1, 6, and 4.)

If you've never been involved in a band for a recording session, especially one with limited time and resources, you will never know the indescribable relief of being done with your tracking.  Drummers, I think, have a very intimate relationship with this sensation because, customarily, we track first.  Additionally, the overall tightness of the recording is based on everyone else needing the best drum recording possible.  I've talked to a few drummers about the initial pressure when entering the studio, and the concensus is that there is almost always a certain level of stress to perform.  Most of the people I've related to on this are in metal bands, but I assume it isn't genre specific.  I know for a fact that no matter the style of metal, be it tech death, sludge, progressive, doom, grind, whatever, drummers go in there knowing they "can not fuck this up."

With all of that in mind, on the second night of tracking drums, I'm finished with all six songs.  They're done, and they're stronger than ever; they sound better than I could have predicted two days ago.  Each song has some quality, whether intentional or accidental, that enhances it beyond what I'd planned to do.  All the stress and pressure, through to the relief of being done, has culminated in a level of satisfaction that I urge everyone to work towards.  


If you don't, you're probably a huge pussy.


As a footnote, for anyone who might find themselves in a studio with a drummer tracking first, you should do whatever you can to make them comfortable.  This means they're hydrated, fed, and most importantly laughing as much as possible.  It's those times when we take a beat or section far too seriously that we have problems nailing it.  Just crack some dick jokes and it gets worlds easier.

- C

Day II. In a Cold, Cold Corner.

.Monday, March 28

(Drums - Tracks 5, 2, and half of track 3.)

It's a funny thing, preparing drums for recording.  You spend so much time getting the whole kit to sound so massive and pure, and there is such an incredible variety of tones being created, that you truly get a glimpse into the world of those suffering from deeply-ingrained OCD. After all the tuning, room positioning, setting up, tuning, retuning, placing mics, testing acoustics, retuning, finally hitting record, and realizing that tuning isn't your strong suit, you find yourself a day into your schedule and you haven't tracked so much as a single snare hit yet.  But when you hear a drumset that thunders and cracks the way it needs to, you forget the frustrations you passed through to get to those sounds.  Looking back on it, the tuning problems we had on Sunday are hard for me to feel any negative emotions about, simply because they were part of the process that led to an overall great drum sound. 

However, at the time they fucking sucked.  But hey, it was what it was, right?

On a completely unrelated side note, rewriting parts and fills on the fly also gives certain elements of a couple of our new songs a heightened sense of inspiration and renewal, with a hint of off-kilter spontaneity.  When taken as part of the overall concept these qualities strengthen the progression from the first half of the album to the second half.  We've truly got the right man to work on this album with us.  Many thanks for your opinions and input, "Cream Fridge Sharp Cheddar" Henningsgard.

At the end of our second session in a cold basement in downtown La Crosse recording through the evening into the night, we could finally hear our tracks taking shape. 

- C

Day I. The Calm.

.Sunday, March 27

(Drum setup)

Well, it's Sunday, at about 7PM and I am just arriving in La Crosse after an amazingly scenic and relaxing drive from where I live in Wausau, Wisconsin. I was trying to listen to albums on the drive that would not only put me in the mindset for what the week was to be, but also to keep thinking about guitar tones, drum tones, etc. I have been excited about this record for a LONG time, so I have been trying to be as prepared as possible.

Anyway, Mr. Steve Henningsgard has come to La Crosse to record us in our "natural environment" haha. We are super pumped to have Steve recording this record for us. We felt that he was the perfect candidate to help us get the sound we wanted for this new record, and we knew we had our guy within an hour.

We got right to work and got the drums set up and started shooting tones. Right off the bat, we stumbled upon our kick sound. Seriously, the kick drum on this record is going to make you shit… haha, in a good way! It took us a while to figure out the snare, but eventually, we ended up picking up a new one all together and it just kind of worked out.

All and all it was a very productive night. We had a lot of fun hanging out and everyone was just really excited to get started. This record has been almost 8 months in the making, and we're finally recording it.

- T