The recordings of the third MyGrain album

This is the day that everyone’s been waiting for over two years now, the recordings of the third MyGrain album are about to start! We can tell you that we’re surely not the ones who have been waiting for this the least. The last year and a half or so that we have been writing and putting the new songs together, hasn’t been the easiest time for the band. As our sound has taken huge steps forward to more progressive and complex direction, it has meant that finding the last forms of the songs has been way more difficult than before. All this has taken a lot more effort than we could have imagined when the first chords were composed and we’re relieved that the biggest work is now behind. All we have to do now is to try to play the hard shit we’ve been working with during this long period, ha! The forthcoming months will show us, whether we have trained enough or not.

So, what can we tell you about the new album at this point? The album won’t be named at all - it will simply be “MyGrain” as we feel this is a new start for all of us. Above all, it is a new start musically, as we have a new awesome guitarist Mr. Downhill who has played a huge role in writing the new songs. The old fans don’t have to lose their sleep though, because the comments on the demo versions have almost without exception been “this is truly something new, but sounds exactly like MyGrain.” We ourselves are really excited about the new stuff cause it offers us and the listeners some challenges. Everything won’t necessarily open up instantly, but the reward stands in the end. Where there is progressive touch, there’s also catchy riffs and choruses as there’s always been. Where there are songs that you can hear that are written with guitar in hand, there are riffs that you can hear their origins lie in keyboards. So there will be a lot of new and also familiar things to spot.

We have been very lucky to get a really professional crew to work with this time. As you may remember, we haven’t had an actual “producer” on the previous albums, but this time we do. We’ve been honored to work with Janne Joutsenniemi, who you most likely know from Suburban Tribe and the legendary Finnish band Stone. As a producer, he has worked with bands like Stam1na, Ensiferum and Kiuas. Although we have always been very skeptical towards anyone else than ourselves touching the songs the six of us have written together (yes, on this modern era of technology we still make all the songs in our rehearsal room), this time we took the chance of making things a bit differently than before. I guess sometimes it’s good for you to listen to the others as well when making decisions (greetings to Alec at Spinefarm!), because so far our collaboration with Janne has worked like a dream. Let’s see how we all feel after the recordings, hehe!

We will also record the album differently than before. Orbit Dance and Signs of Existence were recorded and mixed at the same studio (Sound Supreme), only mastered at a different place (Finnvox). This time only the drums will be recorded in a studio (Seawolf) and for the rest of the recordings we have rented a place from Herttoniemi, Helsinki where we will build a studio and spend the rest of the summer recording everything else. This provides us an easygoing recording session: we will have more time and even save a couple of dimes at the same time.

The mixing and mastering will be handled at Unisound, Sweden by the legendary Dan Swanö. From behalf of myself I can say, that working with him feels surreal. I’ve been spending my years by listening to Edge of Sanity and the other bands he has had his fingers on (Katatonia, Opeth, Novembre, Diabolical Masquerade, Pain… to start with) - not forgetting Nightingale or the timeless Moontower solo album. Never could I have even dreamed that one day we will be working together. Lucky bastards are we!

I was supposed to write a short entry to welcome you to read our studio blog but well, I should know myself by now! The drums have now been assembled at a marine environment in Seawolf studios and tomorrow DJ will start hammering the first beats on the last chapter on this neverending story called “the third MyGrain album”. He will take over from now on… And his entries won’t surely be this long… Nighty night!

- Eve, on behalf of the other MyGrain dudes, my brothers in metal!

Drums - Day 1

Me (DJ) and our producer mr. Janne Joutsenniemi (two Jannes, this
can’t possibly go wrong!) arrived at Seawolf studios on 4th of June,
around noon. We started the whole recording process by choosing the
best of the four snares we had on our hands and naturally chose the
one that sounded the best. After setting the basic sounds right, it
was time to start the actual recording sessions. At this point our
bassist Jonas arrived to the crime scene as well and brought his
accurate ears with him.

During the first day we had the time to record the two first songs. I
started with ”Plastic #2” - it’s a nice double bass drum song that
reminds the listener from the older MyGrain stuff. I guess you can
sense that feeling from the demo name of the song too, hehe.

The next treat was a piece called ”Trioli”. I personally like this
song very much, because it contains some kick-ass riffs but it still
has oh so loooovely melodic chorus! (Gay.) And yeah, you really have
to PLAY this song, as a drummer. And why not the other guys and gals
as well. Me like! After recording these two songs it was already 8 pm
and it was finally time to quit the day and celebrate it with a couple
of lonkeros (a Finnish alcoholic drink, check from Google you
douchebags!).

Drums - Day 2

The second day’s sessions begun with the song called ”Eye of the
Void”. It’s actually the only song that has had its final name from
the beginning. Well, we still have the time to change it before the
album goes to print, haha! It’s a neat song that offers rough riffs
(again), nice melodies as usual and it even MIGHT smell like
lederhosen a bit…

After sipping a couple of cups of coffee I started to work with
”Cataclysm Child” and what the hell – didn’t have any kind of problems
with it! This song rocks like a motherfucker! ”Blistering” had the
honour to be the last song of the day. This songs has it all: rumble,
thunder and macgyvering with two rides, but the part in the middle
which is really moody, is pretty challenging for a drummer. I think I
still succeeded well, so a great day overall!

Drums - Day 3

We started this day a bit later than the others, around 3 pm. The
first song was ”Klaus Härö”. Klasu is a nice, catchy song that has a
knotty 7+9 riff and some other weird stuff. Playing only to a click
and not demo guitars etc.made the whole thing pretty challenging
because as you’re playing progressive stuff, you should exclude all
the accents etc. I still managed to play everything on the tape and it
sounded killer in the end.

After Klasu it was time for ”Terminus”. That song has been a true pain
in the ass from the very start of its existence and that’s a looooong
time as this was one of the first songs we wrote on this album. We
eventually got it ready just days before the recordings started and it
didn’t have anything else left from the original version than the
guitar solo part! This song has some thrashy metal riffs and a disco
beat chorus. Like Borat says: it’s a nice!

Drums - Day 4

I decided to leave the fastest two songs for the last day. Eve the
Gayboardist had arrived to listen to the fruits of my work as well. I
started with ”Göteborg” which offers some ”butterfly beat” and some
freaking good riffing. Good work Resistor and Downhill! There wasn’t
any problems with this song.

The last song to record for this album was ”Gaykanttori” (a nice name
– invented by ME!). At this point it was no longer fun for me at all –
for some reason this always challenges me 10-0. After a long while of
anxiety mr. Joutsenniemi stated that it was enough and off we go. We
had to gather our stuff rapidly to get to the last ferry to the
mainland on time.

In summary I can say that the drum sounds, even as raw, are extremely
good! And when it comes to recording, Janne literally beat the shit
out of me and a big thank you for him about that. Even if it hurts!
Lastly, here’s the gear we recorded with:

Drums: Tama Starclassic Maple
Cymbals: Meinl Byzance, Mb20, Soundcaster custom, Souncaster fusion, Mb10 and
Generation x

Now we’re having a couple of weeks’ break and continue with the
guitars. On the seventh day God rested, Chuck Norris took over.

- DJ Locomotive

Keyboards - 7. - 9.7.2010

There was excitement in the air as the first actual keyboard recording
day was dawning. Only the drums were recorded at this point and this
was the first time that I was recording anything with any project
without guitars. Our producer Janne had a vision that it would be
better to have the keyboards there before the guitars, to get the best
possible guitar sound on every part of the album. This arrangement was
due to the stretchy schedule as well. At this point it even seems that
everything else than vocals will be recorded during July. Great
success! Anyways, I was a bit stressed out because of this - I had no
experience whatsoever on this kind of situation and was pretty sure it
would turn into catastrophe at some point: that I would forget which
part is which and how could I find my parts without the guitars. It
could also be possible that I panicked and played in the wrong key,
haha!

All my worries turned out to be pointless in the end (as they usually
do). Although the structures of most of the songs have changed a bit
after Janne stepped in, we have played them so long that they could be
played even eyes closed. It was only a couple of times that we had to
think if some part came two or three times etc. Even the playing went
fluently, although I have to admit I hadn’t trained my parts at all
after the last rehearsals in May. Making proper demo versions of
the songs has helped a lot, since this time I didn’t only have all the
extra layers etc. in my head but we had already tried whether they
worked or not. So the actual playing didn’t take that long , only
finding proper sound combinations took their time. At first I thought
there wasn’t going to be that much keyboards this time but I thought
wrong. In January you will hear the familiar “nintendo leads” as well
as a bunch of new stuff like Hammond organ sounds, horns and so on. In
the end, I’m pretty happy with the result. All my parts have been
recorded now - except for one song (Terminus) that I will record after
the guitars. We will probably add some “techno beats” later on as
well, but this will most likely happen at a different studio.

That’s all for now!

- Eve