On the way to vocal recordings

6 a.m, somewhere in Jyväskylä. I, Tina, the singer of Crimson Sun, am about to destroy my alarm clock. Since my dear friend had a birthday party last night, I got to sleep around three, so after three hours of sleep I feel like I’m not even on this planet. Somehow I was able to predict I might face this feeling in the morning and packed my stuff already before leaving to the party. Of course I have no hangover, a divine creature like myself does not suffer from such human troubles, except when in Germany. That though may have something to do with the country’s fairly low pricing of alcohol beverages.

The reason for this inhumanely early wakeup lies in the deep cellars of one particular building in Kouvola. I am heading to Manu Audio to record the vocals for six new songs of Crimson Sun. Two of these songs will later be chosen for our next demo but I’m more than excited to have all of our new song to MySpace for you folks to listen!

The chilly climate of Jyväskylä definitely wakes me up better than the alarm clock of my mobile phone, though the only living creature I meet during my 25-minute walk to the train station is a least weasel. This lifts my spirits a lot, since I have never seen a least weasel before! Although at first I thought I saw a white dove, which made me question if the last night’s Jägermeister was still messing with my brain. Something is obviously messing with the brain of the gentleman sitting close to me on the train: The clock strikes 7.43 when the man opens a beer can and at 08.09 he is already sharing a bottle of vodka with his wife. The man sitting in front of him is drinking sparkling wine. What the hell... Or should I perhaps say ”Welcome to Finland”. Thank god I don’t have that hangover.

After a two week battle with a flue and despite an ongoing battle with the softwares of my new computer, I have finally finished all the melodies and harmonies of the six songs and I’m also ready to record them. Or as ready as I will ever be. After moving to Jyväskylä I haven’t been taking any singing lessons, so I’m a slightly nervous about some parts of our songs. This time the vocals will (hopefully) be quite different from our previous recordings. Less classical, more powerful. As I mentioned, all six songs will be released on MySpace. For every song we create a blog entry on MySpace where we share a little bit info about the song and hope that our beloved MySpace friends will comment on the songs and help us choose the two songs that will finally be recorded at E-major studio. So now, before I start the Mission Impossible: Sleep on a train, I want to tell you something about our songs.

No one, nowhere (aka Yellow Blast): This song is mainly composed by our former keyboard player Saku, who is also recording these songs now. It has the best singing melodies ever and also the harmonies I made are pretty nice. The lyrics are based on a true story about a little girl whose mother is a junkie. You can find some live versions of this song on YouTube.

The Pathway (aka Last Dance Pain): The world’s sickest lovesong tells about a man who loves his girlfriend literally to death. The chorus of this song is my favorite part from all of our songs and I’m really putting effort on singing perfectly the first time it comes in the beginning of the song with only an acoustic guitar and strings on the background.

Resurrection: This song with lots of orchestras tells about nightmares and depression. The last chorus is really high and if I shall lose my mind this weekend, this is probably gonna be one of the reasons.

Half Dead (aka Slaying the Dishes): In my opinion this is our best song so far. It was born from Joni’s pure hate towards dirty dishes. The lyrics however don’t tell about dishes but about how awesome life can be with an optimistic point of view.

Lost (aka Potion): I totally love the electro beginning of this song! In my opinion everything works really nicely on this one and it’s also the nicest one to sing. The lyrics are the most personal I’ve ever written. It’s not a love song, it tells about a friend.

16th Autumn (aka The Way of Smegma ... yeah): If Crimson Sun was really famous, the story of this song would make us end up in the front pages of crappy Finnish tabloids. This was supposed to be a love song but after two months I still didn’t have anything to say about love, so I decided to write about school bullying. In the end it turned out to be a song about a bullied boy, who later becomes a school shooter. This is a taboo at least in Finland and this song is about the reasons that may lead to such a horrible act and how we should pay much more attention on the well being of children. After a very long Facebook conversation the character of this song has also become one of the best jokes in the history of Crimson Sun, but since I really want this song to raise some serious thoughts about today’s world, I am not gonna share with you what my dear band mates think is the reason this poor boy called Arska is being bullied. If your mind is sharp like Sherlock Holmes’s, you can listen to Vesku Loiri’s song ”Hyvää puuta” and try to figure it out.

Me and Miikka will later write about what happened in the studio during the vocal recordings. Until that, good ”night”.

-Tina

Studiosessiot II

Jälleen kerran astun Manu Audio -studiolle. Minulla on edessäni varsin mielenkiintoinen tehtävä:

Sinulla on käytettävissäsi 61 mustaa ja valkoista nappulaa (36 valkoista ja 25 mustaa). Painele nappuloita oikeassa järjestyksessä oikeaan aikaan.

Ei kuulosta vaikealta, mutta näin jälkikäteen voin todeta, että tehtävä osoittautui varsin haastavaksi.
Tosiasiassa kyse ei ole siis mistä tahansa pelleilystä, vaan kosketinsoitinosuuksien äänittämisestä uusiin Crimson Sun -kappaleisiin. Onneksi minulla oli apunani jälleen kerran köyhän miehen Kotiteollisuus, Junnila-Jauhiainen-Moilanen -akseli. Tosin kukaan edellämainituista ei soita rumpuja eikä tietojeni mukaan osaa laulaa. Alkoholi kuitenkin maistuu kaikille, tai ainakin tällaista olen kuullut.

Useita tuskaisia tunteja ja lukemattomia nuotteja myöhemmin lähes kaikki syntikoille varatut kaksikymmentä raitaa ovat täynnä mitä erilaisimpia kosketinsoitinosuuksia. Kuten myös kosketinsoittajan selkänahka on täynnä Jauhiaisen ja Junnilan verbaaliruoskien aiheuttamia sivalluksia. Ylipäällikkö Moilanen on tyytynyt vain antamaan neuvoja ja katselemaan, välillä jopa säälivästi.

Kun pakkaan soittotavaroitani takaisin autoon, päässäni pyörii kysymyksiä. Soitinko kaiken tarpeeksi hyvin? Olisiko ollut vielä jotain parannettavaa, tai olisiko jonkin jutun voinut toteuttaa eri tavalla? Tarkoituksenahan oli äänittää kuusi biisiä mahdollisimman hyvin, sillä kaikki aiotaan kuitenkin julkaista.

Toisaalta, projektiin voi suhtautua rennommin kun muistaa sen, että kuudesta biisistä kaksi pääsee jatkoon. Jatkoon pääsemisellä tarkoitetaan myöhempää käsittelyä ja uudelleen äänittämistä mystisen tuottajahahmon suojeluksessa, eli nämä kuusi biisiä olivat vain ”demon demo”.

Noh, ehkäpä ei kannata vielä huolestua, ehtii sitä myöhemminkin.

Helpottuneissa tunnelmissa,

H