Day 3: Stefan's solos

Finally! Before taking off to Uppsala again, I stopped by the studio to record the two solos on DISSOLVING SOUL FRAGMENTS. Spent a few hours before finding a nice vibe and finally nailing the two solos. The first one, being the more softer, was re-recorded since I played it comepletely wrong yesterday. Moved on to the so called shred-solo which actually didn't require as many tries as I was expecting. Perhaps some late-night practicing at home yesterday paid off.

Also, I recorded a clean sounding guitar on the choruses of the same song, adding a nice complement to Mikael's already recorded clean guitar. After that, I tried out a few ideas on a solo for the song TACTILE but I couldn't find anything interesting to play at all, so I gave up on that. We'll have to come up with something else for that part. We'll see.

That's it for now. I'm (Stefan) back in Uppsala and Mikael is back in Norrköping. We have to schedule some time for vocal recordings with Victor and nothing's currently booked. Hopefully we will proceed with the recordings within a few weeks. So stay tuned! Cheers!

Day 2: Stefan's solos

David and I (Stefan) got out to the studio around 3 p.m. and the mission for today was to record the two solos on DISSOLVING SOUL FRAGMENTS. The two solos are of very different to each other; the first being a kind of soft, minimal solo; and the second being a complete "shred"-solo. Both caused a lot of problems during the day. We started out with the soft solo (as a kind of warm-up for what's to come), but it seemed that I had forgotten parts of it, since I haven't played the solo since it was written and temporarily recorded in the end of October. At last, I thought I'd remember the way it was played, and the darn thing was recorded. Ok, great, we thought, and moved on to the massive shred-solo.

Videoclip (6.7 MB): Stefan practicing the soft solo

Practice, practice, practice

Old DARK ARMORIAL guitarist Jonas Hjelm dropped by the studio and sank down in the couch. Haven't seen him in quite a while. Anyway, I figured I'd better do some stretches and serious warming up on the guitar for this particular solo. Said and done. Started to practice the solo before actually recording anything and the damn thing was a bit of a hard nut to crack. After trying to nail the solo for a couple of hours, I finally gave up and considered my attempts at least as a good practice session for tomorrow.

Videoclip (9.7 MB): Practicing the shred solo (not looking too happy in the end)

Listened to the first, soft, solo once again and realized that I'd played that one completely wrong and that I'd better go home and do my homework and REALLY learn that frickin' solo! (Which I have now)

Current #1: the Remote Views solo with 182 takes

Not too satisfied with today's session. I'm only hoping tomorrow will be a better day, solo-wise.

Stefan's solos #1

A bit slow day in the studio today. Since Mikael is back in Norrköping again and David still was a bit sick, I (Stefan) was left to my own devices in the studio today. Arrived around 3:45 p.m. and started to warm up a bit. I began by recording the REMOTE VIEWS solo which was originally written and recorded back in 1999, if I remember correctly. Quite a while ago, you may think. This particular solo required 182 takes because I seemed to get completely stuck towards the end with some really fast hammer-on/pull-off trills which I never seemed to play well. A few hours (probably) went by and before I knew it, the damn trills were OK. Took a small food break and went on with the outro solo on the same song before moving on to CLONING ASSEMBLY.

Videoclip (10 MB): Practicing the REMOTE VIEWS solo

As said before, CLONING ASSEMBLY was recorded at a much higher tempo than the last recording. A fact that perhaps would affect the already hard-to-play guitar solo. Anyway, I managed to record the first half of it and decided to divide the solo in half: the regular solo & the Zappa part. I also managed to record the first bit of the Zappa part, but as my finger tips were getting more and more sore, I called it a day and went home. Figuring some rest would do good and I probably will perform better tomorrow. See you then!

Videoclip (8 MB): The solo on CLONING ASSEMBLY

4th day of keyboards + Stefan's solos and leads

I (Stefan) arrived at the studio around 3 p.m. and found that Mikael was already there - tidying up and such. Poor David had gotten sick and couldn't make to the studio today. We started to lay down the remaining Moog bass parts and also some remaining lead stuff. The Moog's keyboard didn't have enough keys to play the intro lead melody on SPAWN so we ended up recording that with a Roland Juno 106. Wrapping up the keyboard works with a forgotten pad on Mikael's solo on REMOTE VIEWS, and voilá: we're finished with all the keyboard parts!

Mikael recording the lead melody on SPAWN

Moving quickly along to something that I'd feared for some time now: my guitar solos. Not having played the guitar in quite a time had made me question my present technical abilities. Mikael also stated that my soloing style is a lot more "sport" than his. Chops are needed, badly. Anyway, we hooked up my old Music Man RD100 with a Behringer V-amp2, and also some TC Electronic preamp of Mikael's. We ended up with a very personal, Stefan Aronsson-type sound, I think. Mikael tried, for fun, to play his solos with "my" sound but found it extremely difficult. I guess you can expect two very different solo sounds, all for the better, in my opinion. You can really distinguish our sounds from each other. Great.

Trying out different sounds

Stefan practicing the ROOM 101 solo

We hit it off with the solo on ROOM 101. A not too shreddy solo but with a nice vibe to it anyhow. My fingertips were beginning to hurt a bit we recorded some "slingshots" on the choruses on ROOM 101, THE BRAINSHAPED MIND and REMOTE VIEWS. After that, we packed our stuff and left. Today (Wednesday), Mikael have to leave for Norrköping but I will continue soloing and keep you updated on what's happening.

Videoclip (14 MB): Stefan recording Moog bass on THE BRAINSHAPED MIND

Videoclip (7.5 MB): Stefan practicing the ROOM 101 solo

Keyboards & Moog - Day 3

After celebrating the New Year's weekend in Uppsala, where I (Stefan) live and study, I drove north to Gävle and The Clockwork Studio to proceed with the recording of the remaining keyboard parts. I arrived around 2 p.m. and stopped by Lilla Saigon to eat some delicious fried rice and vegetables with tofu before heading out to the studio. Our agenda for the day was to record the remaining 'pads and choirs' before takin' out the good ol' Moog synthesizer. I started by importing a few pads from the old (Brainshaped Mind demo 2004) arrangements to THE BRAINSHAPED MIND. After that no-sweat achievement we went on with REMOTE VIEWS. That song is one of the oldest songs we've got, actually. The older songs seem to have a lot more piano parts going on. Perhaps this is a somewhat forgotten TF trait. Anyhow, piano parts and choir stuff were recorded and everything went smoothly.

Stefan recording piano parts

David, finishing the lyrics for TACTILE

After that, we pulled out the Micro Moog (built in 1973!!) to record some lead melodies and "hit refrain hooks" (or various "slingshots", as we call them). Mikael started by recording the chorus lead melody on TACTILE and the two choruses required a total of circa 66 takes. It probably has something to do with the Moog's characteristic keys (somewhat different from your ordinary keyboard, I would say). Later on, we continued by recording the Moog leads on REMOTE VIEWS and later decided to skip the piano double on that particular lead and to put the Moog in a more up-front place. Also, the Moog lead for the choruses on CLONING ASSEMBLY were recorded and since that song has gone through a noticable increase in tempo since the last recording, I had to play the part with both hands this time, thus missing out on the filter sweep present on the past recording. (sorry 'bout that...) ;)

Mikael learning the Moog

Stefan, working those magic knobs

Wrapped up today's work and went home. Tomorrow we'll be recording the last Moog leads and continue with Moog basses and later: my guitar leads! (Boy, that will take time...)

A fan purchased a signed copy of TIME BENDING PATTERNS

Video links will be posted tomorrow.