record deal!

OK, so we decided to try one more time with the whole "getting a record deal" thing - instead of doing precisely EVERYTHING ourselves all the time. This time it paid off!! We will be signing a record deal with a very fine label (whom we cannot reveal as of this date). Our debut album will be out in early 2008 so STAY EXTREMELY TUNED! We probably won't be updating this blog anymore but check out our new URL at www.terminalfunction.com where you'll soon find our brand new website as well.

Last stage of mixing!

Hello there. Last weekend, March 9-11, we gathered once again in The Clockwork Studio to finalize what will become our full-length debut album. We also took the time to rehearse a live-set for some upcoming dates in Norway (!). We only need to find ourselves a bass player to join us for the tour.

Anyhow, a lot of stuff got said and decided, songs were mixed, strings and drums were being severely abused, etc. etc. Since we've had no luck with the promos we've been sending out we've now decided to take matters into own hands!
We will be releasing the album ourselves! We will go through Stupid Dream Records' distribution channels (Stefan's electronica label) so that you will be able to purchase the album wherever you are in the world. The yet untitled album will of course be available in digital format through iTunes or your other favorite digital download site.

We're aiming to release the album in May or perhaps June. Keep checking the blog and/or the website for updates. THINGS ARE HAPPENING, FOLKS!!

And now for something completely different. Some silly images from our sessions in the studio:

Hard at work

Editing, mixing, editing

A MAX break

Suckin' up that cheddar dip

Planning the world domination

Two happy campers

Mikael, wearing his Brynäs shirt

Rice cakes were consumed

Some low-budget chocolate croissants (from ICA)

Unpacking before rehearsal

Thumbs up!

New song - SPAWN

Check out the new song SPAWN from our upcoming full length album! It's available on our Myspace site. Enjoy!

Contest

Gold medal: A signed copy of the upcoming album.
Silver: Underwear worn (and not washed since) by the band at Parkrock 2003.
Bronze: A free meal at your local hamburger joint.

So, what do I have to do to win any of these fine prices?, you might ask. Well, all you have to figure out is what Stefan is singing/saying in this video.

Good luck!

Mixing

Thought we were dead? Absolutely no way! As of late, we've been busy with alot of nice things like watching hockey, moving stuff, fika (coffee and/or tea combined with the consumption of different kinds of cookies, nuts or your prefered salted snack!). Oh, and we've been mixing some!

We're currently working our metal asses off adjusting instrument levels, reverb levels, cutting guitar tracks and lots and lots of other equally enjoyable and excruciating tasks when working on a TF recording. We are definitely doing our best at fulfilling the promise we made last year when we exclamied our quest for World Domination with this album.

Today, Stefan and myself (Mikael) worked from 10 am to around 7 pm, with the occasional lunch and coffee break. Lots of necessary things were done and fixed, and it is quite a boost to hear the big improvements we're making now in relation to the previous raw mixes we made earlier this spring/summer and to the Time Bending Patterns and The Brain-shaped Mind recordings.

Stefan and Mikael

It seems as we've come a long way on our journey with this album - writing songs, rehearsing, rehearsing some more, recording, mixing - and that, of course, feels very good. We're certain that this is going to be something that we and hopefully all of you guys will enjoy for a long time!

We will definitely improve ourselves when it comes to posting news, both on the site and on this blog, in the future. Be sure of that!

Until next time; stay functionized!

Vocals, finished!

Hi there, today we've recorded all the remaining vocals and can now consider us completely finished with the vocal parts. Isn't that kinda nice? I (Stefan), David, Micke and Victor met up around noon and started by eating a looong brunch in the studio - consisting by various microwave-heated soups, American-style chocolate cup-cakes, coffee, Gorby's pirogues and lots of other unhealthy stuff. After about an hour of intesive eating, we headed for the first recording session of the day!

Today we let Victor arrange a lot of the vocal parts, especially in the verses (still working on TACTILE). Otherwise, Mikael usually is the one working those out. It didn't take an awful lot of time for Victor to both arrange the parts and to actually record them. Incredible! We also recorded a few overdubs on the choruses to make it significantly "fatter"! Sounds really nice.

After having nailed TACTILE in a couple of hours, we started mixing the songs very rougly. Said and done. We signed off for the day around 6.30 pm and went to the store and bought chips and some beer for the World Championship (hockey) semi-finals between Sweden and Canada. Needless to say: great game!

Vocals, continued.

Picking up where we left it last time. Recording the final vocal parts was on our agenda today and we don't have much left to record, actually. Before we parted last time, we stretched Victor's vocal capacities to its maximum, leaving us with a vocalist who couldn't perform at all on the last day of recording, last session. A mix of two days worth of screaming, and one night of beer drinking with da boyz, probably did the trick... Anywho, we picked up where we left off last time. Having one verse left remaining on DISSOLVING SOUL FRAGMENTS (DSF) and another whole song, we started by setting up our recording situation, since the whole facility's been renovated, everything was disconnected since last session.

After some warming-up screams from Victor, we rapidly went on and started to record the remaining verse on DSF. Victor performed flawlessly and he soon had nailed that verse. After that, we rejoiced for a while, listening to various music and planning somewhat for the last song: TACTILE, a song which Mikael hasn't recorded a recitative on (which actually means that Mikael has recorded his lyrics and vocal ideas with some kind of rhythmic talking, only to give sime hints for Victor on how to scream it). The music enjoyed for the evening was: Tool, Chicago, Yoshi, Baron Bane, U.K., Tribal Tech.

Mikael's looking semi-mad

Proceeding with the last song, TACTILE. Started off by recording the choruses, which really are going to be a classic, hard-hitting, in your face, hit-chorus! Also recorded some other stuff and leaving the verses to be recorded today.

Be sure to check in later for some insane video clips! See ya!

Day 2 of vocals.

David, Mikael and Viktor started out early once again (10 am) while Stefan slept in and took some time off to go and see his video/audio installation being exhibited at Sandviken's local art gallery. After soking up as much semi-warm spring sun as possible, it was time to listen to some death growls from hell. Drove out to the studio and arrived around 1 pm. The rest of the guys had been busy and had already recorded the clean chorus parts on DISSOLVING SOUL FRAGMENTS - after buying Viktor breakfast so he at least could get his vocal chords started. Quickly after that, Viktor nailed the song REMOTE VIEWS which is the oldest song on this records - written back in 1999, I think.

Videoclip: Viktor doing some clean singing on the DSF chorus (4,7 MB)

Videoclip: Mikael singing the chorus on REMOTE VIEWS while filming himself (5 MB)

With no particular problems for Viktor on REMOTE VIEWS and with no further ado - we all proceeded to a well needed lunch break and David took off to have an easter dinner with his family. After lunch hour, the ones remaining in studio headed for THE BRAINSHAPED MIND.

We are a normal tech-metal band

Notice Stefan's (far left) spider fingers, holding the cup of beer

THE BRAINSHAPED MIND also got a face lift on the clean chorus parts - instead of three dubs of Viktor and two Stefan, we went nuts and recorded five of Viktor's and Stefan's voices, each. The result was a fine sounding clean chorus which will swell like fine wine through your speakers in a near future. Hehe.

Viktor in action

Anyhow, after nailing TBM, we went for another of those MODERN CLASSICS - CLONING ASSEMBLY. Also originally available on THE BRAINSHAPED MIND demo 2004. The greatest change on CLONING is that it has increased significantly in tempo, all for the better, we think. The song now has more drive and energy than before. Hope you'll like it too! On the total death growl chorus on CLONING, Mikael and Stefan joined in as well.

Videoclip: David is doing some serious retro gaming. (13 MB)

The clock was running late and we seemed to squeeze the last of Viktor's juices (hmmm) while recording the verses on DISSOLVING SOUL FRAGMENTS. Rumour has it that we had to record phrase by phrase, and sometimes word by word, sometimes even syllableby syllable. Haha. Mikael sure knows how to write tough vocal parts. Rhythmic as hell.

Videoclip: Viktor doing some rhythmic singing on DSF (13 MB)

Around 10 pm, the clock hit Beer o' clock and we rewarded ourselves with a couple of beers at a local pub, where Erik Larsson - a mutual friend of ours - were playing with his Irish folk music band. After taking farewell to David and Viktor, I (Stefan) took the bus back to Sandviken and enjoyed a good 4-5 hours of sleep.

Day 1 of vocals.

Finally we found a weekend suitable for everyone in the band to gather and record the only thing left on the record: vocals. I (Stefan) picked up Dave around ten:ish and drove out to the studio to find Mikael and Viktor already out there, with newly made coffee and cheerful attitudes. Sat a while and discussed the agenda of the day, while drinking some coffee and such.

Coffee & cookies - important!

Back in the control room we, of course, encountered computer problems. It took us about one hour to get started with those darn sound drivers that seem to f**k up once in a while. Also, bringing out the ultimate vocal sound from both Viktor and the microphone/pre-amp/compressor took us some time. For this recording, we're using a ADK Hamburg mic ---> TL Audio 5001 pre-amp ---> Samson S-com compressor ---> Behringer MX8000 mixing desk ---> DAW.

Started out with some growl verses on the song ROOM 101 ony to find out that Viktor needed more time to warm up those particular abilities before really nailing any growl parts. Instead we tried out the clean chorus parts, with harmonies. Ten vocal tracks later, the first chorus, with harmonies and all, was nailed. A real hit-song potential in that song!

Video: Viktor and Stefan discussing harmony parts (20 MB)

Video: The band enjoying the vocal harmonies on ROOM 101 (6,6 MB)

After that, Viktor felt warmed up enough to nail the remaining growl parts of the song, and so he did. Six or seven hours later, we finally declared the vocal parts to be completed and we quickly (i.e. after another coffee break) moved on to the song SPAWN which Viktor seemed to nail in just a matter of an hour.

Video: Viktor doing some "blargh"-noises (8,9 MB)

More will follow later this day, or perhaps tomorrow. But one thing's for sure: Terminal Function is back in business!