So today was the final day of recording where we basically had to go back and touch up a few vocal lines, guitar lines etc.

We started by re-recording the intro gallop for ‘Battle’ and harmonizing a couple of the intro leads twice over. We also added a few double ups and harmonies over the lead vocals. We then moved on to the guitar solo in the 3rd track Histories and the Making. This proved alot tougher than we had anticipated. The guitar part was meant to be a blistering-fast-burn-your-face off solo but when heard within the context of the song it actually just sounded like jacking off and kind of killed the feel of the track. Being the genius Bryan Anthony is, he came up with some new ideas after much coaxing verbal abuse from Scott and Mike. The end result is more of a bluesy lead meets Bad Religion which worked way better and lent itself to strengthening the final chorus. Yay for Bryan and beer without which creativity would be dead.

We all then sat back and listened to the entire EP, filled in some rough parts, added some sick bass and guitar slides and decided to program every single drumbeat because Scott was not in the room. Sadly as we where starting the wanker walked in and we where left with his technically retarded percussion.

Finally we all went into the vocal booth separately to do gang vocals for the tracks that needed them.

Tomorrow we head home…finally. Two weeks of eating shit, drinking shit and living with five guys in a tiny flat had taken its toll.
Scotts gut has grown, Brents ears have grown, Bryans beard has gone gray, Kamils liver has packed out and Robs already massive ego now has to be stored in the luggage compartment on airplanes.

Seriously though its been a really awesome time, more like a holiday than anything else. Recording an EP that everyone of us is extremely proud of with guys who worked on it with same dedication we had when writing it.

Thanks go out to Mike and Chris for being the coolest guys. Roz for the accommodation. And Gary!!! for the organization, transportation and laughs.

Now its onto mixing, mastering and production. The months ahead look set to be hectic.

Cheers and thanks to everyone who’s been reading these blogs and enjoying the ride along with us!

ManINsuiT

Well today Rob finally got his chance to record his bass. I sat with him and Chris though most of the recording. It went well on my
opinion. A couple changes were made in pretty much each song, Rob and Chris taking their time to get every riff and rhythm perfectly in place with either the kick or the guitars.

After Rob was through dominating on the bass Bryan and I proceeded to complete the guitars for the intro. This was the last bit of guitaring I had to do for the EP and it was the easiest, a couple of layers later it was all over for me. Intro was done and the evening was on its way, we finished up with a bit of gang vocals and then got our drink on! We decided to go big 2nite and headed to Melville Cool Runnings.

When 12 struck it was Kamils birthday and he definitely proved to us his is a worthy member of the suits! It was out of control, just the way we like it, and loads of fun.

Cheers,
Brent aka. Heiny

Today I contemplated life, love and love handles. It seems that in the last two weeks Jhb has taken its toll on my young body. Where I used to have guns, I now have water pistols and where I had brains I now have beer. Oh well…at least I get to watch Rob suffer surfing withdrawal symptoms!

This recording time in Joburg has been amazing, great engineers, sound and professionalism, I really think this EP is going to set another standard for South African
Alternative music. The stuff that’s coming across unmixed, un-mastered and completely raw has surprised even us. Although we’ve been playing these songs for close to a year, hearing them, changing and improving them in studio has made us amped to hear them again . Amped as fuck to release this stuff.

Today we tracked vocals and guitar for the last track on the EP… ‘Goodnight and Goodbye and Here’s to Today’. Picture Ignite meets Queen and Deftones and you get the picture.

After everything had been finished on the last track we went on to record gang vocals for most of the tracks, it went pretty quickly and when mixed should sound like a bunch of Orcs at a premiership derby game. We have two days left and only the Intro vocals, a couple of blazing solos and about ten cases of beer need to be finished.

Everything seems to be going along smoothly so tonight Kamil and I will record the last of the keyboard, pick the sounds we want and sync it up with the rest of the music. Sweet.

Now I shall return to the kitchen and pour myself a vodka and lime.

Don’t Reason With It, Don’t Try To Argue With It…Just Dominate It!!!

Scott

Yesterday Ricky from Revenge.co.za popped in the studio to do an interview with us for his website. After he filled his pad with a couple of pages of ramblings and took a few photos we continued with tracking ‘The Time Machine’ on guitar, which is sounding mean.

Next up was Bryan adding an awesome acoustic part to the middle of Future Man. The combo of acoustic picking just before the keyboard comes in for first time in the song, still gives me goosebumps.

I’m lank keen to get the Bass out the way but Mike and Chris insist we leave it to the end and get all guitar and vocals out the way cos we can rush Bass but definitely not vocals. I totally agree. (we recorded our last album with 10 tracks in 4 days as you can hear with some of the rushed vocals)

Today we did the vocals for ‘The Time Machine’ and ‘Future Man’. It’s amazing how much vocals can change a song. Mr. Anthony (Bryan) was trying some new styles and was really getting emotional (in a non emo way) in some sections. Scotty-too-hotty also added some sweet backing and we messed around with a couple effect inspired by Imogen Heap.

To end off another good day in the studio we watched Donnie Darko. It was so goddamn awesome we watched it twice.

Take it easy,
Rob

This is Bryan Anthony in studio playing the intro of ‘Future Man’, track 4 off our EP.

Don’t reason with it, don’t try to change it, dominate it.