The final rehearsal weekend before the studio session is over. The songs sound good, groove well, make your head bang and send the chills down the spine. Again, we grinded some details, but mostly just played tracks through to achieve confidence for the studio.
This is how the world looks like from a drum-point-of-view.
Ville's tapping drill.
We are going to nail down eight songs at D-Studio under the iron command of Jarno Hänninen. We are familiar with the place as we recorded a couple of songs there in the end of 2010. Its a high-quality facility with cozy sofas and a decent kitchen. Old saying goes, that armies march on their stomachs. Noumena members definitely play well only with a marvellous supper waiting after a hard day. This is why we appreciate good cooking conditions.
So, trooper Ilkka and lots of gear, guns and ammunition are already at the front in order to launch an infernal drum attack tomorrow morning. Operation Zombaiaa aka Noumena's recording session 2012 is ready roll.
Excited. Frustrated. Anxious. One
cycles through a variety of feelings when preparing for a studio
session. It doesn't matter whether it's the first time or the 21st
time, the rollercoaster ride is always there.
Finally, we are
undergoing those feelings again. We shall enter the studio in the beginning of October to
record the fourth Noumena album.
It has been a long journey this far.
Friends of Noumena may have thought "what happened to these
guys". Well, it's hard to keep the pace up all the time as there
are things changing in our lives. We wrote new music, rehearsed and
recorded, but the response from the labels wasn't what we expected.
So, it took time to make the decision to push forward nevertheless.
It has been a long journey in another
sense, too. We have been rehearsing the last four weeks pretty hard.
On weekends together and during weekdays individually. Digital
recorders are quite handy nowadays, so there's lots of rehearsal
material we have used to help pondering arrangements and details.
Some tracks needed more grinding than others, but we decided to take
all the time we need to forge these metal chunks into desired shape.
The Cleaning Stuba
In studio the equation is
straightforward: TIME = MONEY. This is why we had to drop a couple of
songs in the rehearsal phase (i.e. decide the tracks on the album
before recording them). We have to arrange the music, refine all the
details and make sure we can play the blues even in our sleep. When
everybody knows what to do when the red light shines, things will
proceed smoothly. But of course, there has to be some room for
intuition, inspiration and insanity (and mandolin)!
"Do we really sound this bad?"
Suvi and Andy digging deep into Spanish pronunciation.
The songs we are going to tame have
been written during last 2-3 years. Some of them are more or less
brand new, some of them oldies but goldies. There will be plenty of
new elements in these songs, but you will recognise the band
playing on the album.
There's one weekend left to perfect the
songs. We are feeling good and confident. Stay tuned!
Sincerely Yours,
Hannu and other Noumena fellows
Ps. You are eager to hear some clips or
teasers of new material, aren't you? I just uploaded one video to
Youtube. You might find it interesting. Remember: we take our music
somewhat seriously, but we don't take ourselves.
