JPKALLIO.COM in the studio

  It is 7.45am Wednesday morning. I am walking along the river Liffey. My feet are carrying me faster than usual, I must admit I am little bit exited. I am on my way to our rehearsal room at Volt to pick up our equipment and then heading to Trackmix studio in Blanchardstown. Back in July we won the Live and Unsigned night in the Pint and as part of the price we got a free day in the Trackmix studio. We must have been one of the last ones to get to go to Trackmix, as since then the studio used for the Live and unsigned nights have changed. Me and Qra had been there before while doing the interview with Michael Richards for this blog, check it out here, so I had a good feeling. One day can be little bit short, so we decided to splash out and pay for a second day our selves. We had prepared a list of songs, that was more than what we thought we had time for, but none of us had any idea what we would accomplish in the next two days, not even Michael. The list consist six songs, when I told this to Michael, I could see the doubt in his mind, but I assured him that if it looked like we were going to run out of time, we would start cutting the list from the bottom. But we had worked very hard on rehearsing the songs to have them as tight as possible, in the past month or so. We broke down the songs several times, trying to find trouble spots. We had all worked extremely hard on our own as well to have everything ready.

   After setting up and sound checking the drums, setting up guide guitar, bass and vocals that me and Qra were playing live in the control room, we were off. I did loose the track of time very early on in the day, but it must have been around mid day when we started the actual recording. It took Sebastian few takes to warm up, but after this most tracks were first or second take. Playing to klick is like second nature to him, which makes things in the studio so much easier. It is funny how human mind can play tricks, even though we knew we were well prepared, still there is that small bit of hesitation if every thing will sound ok. But when we first time heard back the first few notes of “Flying high” we knew we were on the right track. Sebastian can be very critical on drum sound, as any professional drummers should be, but when he first time heard him self through the studio speakers I could see Michael had won him over. I have worked on both sides of the controls in a several studios over the years, and I was impressed as well. He knows his way around Logig pro, but he also uses old school techniques, like EQing on the way in. But most of all I was impressed how he understood our sound.

   By 4pm we had drums and guides down and lunch over and done with. It was time for the guitars. I must say I did feel bit like a kid in a candy shop :-) Michael, being a guitar player him self, has some really nice guitars and amps, that he lets his customers use. The Gibson ES137 was one I found particularly hard to put down, I'm sure if you ever were in the Trackmix studio you have seen this beauty. Doubling and layering guitars can be a real art form on its own, and again the Trackmix studio has the tools for this job. But still I did bring in my Laney GH50L, that stood proud beside the Hughes&Ketner TriAmp and Mesa Boogie Triple Rectifier. I told you, like kid in the candy shop ;-) At the end of the day one, we had done all the basic rhythm parts and doubled them. So it was time for a good nights sleep.

  The next morning we returned with charged batteries and full of enthusiasm, and even the fact that we got lost on the way did not dampen our spirits. I started my day with strong cup of coffee and guitar solos. I have bit of a love hate relationship with guitar solos... I love playing them, but hate the idea of them. Figure that on out... But in the six tracks there were two of them, in Misery and one in Forgive my self. Misery showcases the Gibson ES137's neck pick up beautifully and on Forgive my self my own Gibson Les Paul proved once again why it is my number one guitar. We also Beefed up some parts of the tracks with a third guitar track on the middle. The result is a guitar tone, which is the best electric guitar sound I have ever had on any of my recordings, but let me just make a few quick notes here. First of all guitar sound is very much a taste thing, so what works for me, probably would not work for every one. Also I am very heavy handed guitar player, and this does play a big part on the sound, if you attack the strings hard, the stronger signal drives the amp in a different way. All the amps went in to a Mesa Boogie cab that had Celestion V30s in it, and the signal went through a very nice Mic preamp and Michael’s magic EQ settings. So it was not any one magical piece, but a combination of things that resulted in the guitar sound that I am very happy with. I suppose what I am trying to say here is: that's what you pay for when you book your self in to a professional studio. Oh yeah, and I forgot to mention the Ibanez TS 808 tube screamer :-)

  We had the guitars done before 1pm on the second day. Next we recorded the Bass; this was something Qra was looking forward to as much as dreading. His past studio experiences were haunting him at the back of his mind, but he had been rehearsing his parts a lot. His trusty Epiphone Thunderbird bass was the tool for the job, it really has that growl and attack that is very much part of the JPKALLIO.COM sound. Michael had a Warwick bass head and a 4x10 cab. Qra was in bass heaven. And after all the worrying, he recorded almost all the tracks in one take. Bass done in an hour! I must admit that me and Sebastian were watching Qra’s fingers fly on the Thunderbirds neck and the hairs at the back of our necks were standing up.

  But I was very relieved that the bass was done, as it left more time for the vocals. And again I had been working a lot on them at home to be ready. Singing is always a difficult one, and the most temperamental instrument of them all. It can be affected so much by things like stress and tiredness, nerves and even what you had to eat on the day. But I could really feel the confidence I got from all the hours of rehearsing kicking in and managed to relax without any problems. And again most vocals were first takes. Good headphone mix that Michael set up really made things so much easier as well, I didn't need to ask for anything :-) After the lead lines we laid down some vocal harmonies, and me and Qra did bit of shouting as well. “That's nice guys, but how about you try it with bit more melody?” After we had done backing vocals for four tracks it was starting to get late, and Michael had the sense (and experience) to decide to start mixing the tracks. Again his working method is fast and lot of the work was already done during the recording.

  So about 8pm on Thursday night there were three tired but happy men standing on a bus stop outside Blanchardstown shopping centre with CD’s in their pockets. Even though the time had gone so fast, it was obvious to us that we were not holding on to a new EP, but the bones of an album and no matter what it would take, we'd be back early 2012 to record the rest.

  Big thank you to Michael for all the hard work he put in and making us feel so welcomed in his studio. We can't wait for the second chapter. Oh yeah, and we could not just talk about it with out giving you a taste;-) Here is one of the tracks from our recording session. This one is called Wasted Mind. Let us know what you think :-)

Wasted mind by jpkallio.com

 Also check out our studio video diary
  That's all for this week, I'll be back for more next week. Feel free to share our new song on Soundcloud and the video diary:-)
J.P.