Vocal sessions on

I've been doing vocal recording sessions on a daily basis since last writing, evening sessions. Tried several different vocal styles, while getting closer to the certain kind of mood I'm after. As a result I've done demo vocals for three more songs now and just one song remains with no vocals at all currently.

In past I've usually progressed fast, but this time I have a different kind of approach to the vocals. I don't want to rush them, I will try different vocal styles and ideas until it feels really fitting to the song in question. Currently, I think some of these vocals might be final vocals, but certainly not all of them are. I'd say one or two songs might have final vocals with them, and that's just fine. General feeling for this vocal work is good, at this stage.

When it comes to lyrics, I have done hardly any changes to them and I can say I've arranged them surprisingly well in my mind last Autumn. Makes things much easier.

More as things progress. 

Never (ever) say never

It feels funny now, but it didn't feel funny yesterday ... What I happened to write in my previous blog post few days ago, about not expecting any problems whatsoever, really, even that I haven't yet recorded anything in this new environment. I felt it while I was writing that comment, that this is stupid, you know, usually when someone expects no problems, then problems he/she will get in that matter. And that's exactly what happened in my case, too! :) I can smile about it already, but well ... I won't go into details, but let's put it this way; yeah, I was not expecting any problems. Yet I got bunch of problems. I had just listened the opening track and felt like it will be interesting to test record some vocals for it. Then I opened my DAW software and bang, I soon noticed that not only I couldn't record a thing, but I couldn't even get the projects playing at all. At first I almost laughed, because I thought it's really quick thing to fix, nothing big, certainly not something that takes much time. You can guess how it went, right? It wasn't quick thing to fix at all, there were about 3-4 problems at first that I spotted, and as I got few sorted, I thought it's soon done. But it wasn't. I couldn't get it all sorted out for some good 8+ hours or so (!) ... in the end it was pretty simple hardware problems and I got them all sorted out but damn it was frustrating. Itching to start doing some tests after half a year break from it all, and then I can't do a thing.

Well, that's all about that, bad news that vocals recording got a really buggy and frustrating start.

The good news is, that after I got the problems sorted and I got into doing tests and even recording for real. Even that I had about half a year complete break from the whole project, I was surprised how I could instantly see how I had arranged the lyrics/vocals in my mind six months ago. That meant I got into recording pretty soon. Yeah.

I have recorded layered vocals for three tracks already. I'm not sure yet if they are final recordings but in some case they could well be. Even if I got bad start for recording vocals, now it's going really good and it's certainly much more relaxed recording the vocals in my own "space", both physically and mentally. I can't say it would be easy, as I'm aiming for certain kind of twisted mood here and there - it all goes with the grand tale the album is telling about. Heavy tales and heavy music. Not just heavy, there are something mellow and strange too, gotta see if I could try some new vocal styles ... in any case, since I'm not in hurry, I have all the time I need for getting the best possible moods out of myself. Recording vocals has always been something where I'm out of my comfort zone, so to speak. But it feels good to challenge oneself, sure.

Pictures below from today's session.

Next on the list

 "Yes, it's been a while" ... 

... in the meanwhile our family moved to new space, notably bigger one (with me having my own working & recording room), sold away our former home, have been doing lots of renovation. For example sauna room got reworked into almost like scifi doom reality: Pitch black walls which reflect faint light coming from ceiling, yet also you can see the wood patterns below the black. Grey sauna benches with dark grey metallic support structure ... next summer coal black floor tiles will be installed and some finetuning the the lighting and the actual sauna stove, too. We wanted bit different looking sauna instead of the usual wooden or light environment and it really is turning into something like space meditation room.

Well, lots of renovation things going on, but like said, now I have my very own room which is a combination of daytime working area and sort of home studio recording room. Really, really good and inspiring to say the least. Best of it all, now I can record the vocals in my own private space and concentrate into the matter much better. While I have had my hands full during past few months (packing, moving to new place, renovation stuff etc) I think I might progress into recording the vocals during the March which just started. Gotta do some experiments first, see that my systems are working properly and so on, since I haven't recorded anything yet here in this new environment. I'm not expecting any problems though.

If there is a problem, more like a challenge; it's the lyrics I've written myself. Long, detailed, partially cryptic - will be quite a nice little job managing to record them all the way I've pre'planned. 

Lyrics, artwork and stuff

 It's been several weeks since I last wrote. A lot has happened in the meanwhile, the biggest thing being that all the songs now have final lyrics & vocal arrangements roughly done. There is clearly a larger tale which forms from the tales off all the songs in the album. This became even more evident as I got the rest lyrics done. It is all connected to the album title - as said previously; smaller scale sounding cosmic title this time around, but the grand tale which forms from the individual songs is on a different level with its' scale. Small pictures (songs) form a much bigger picture of a cosmic kind. 

I also got the album artwork (front & back cover art) completed recently. Front cover depicts the certain aspect of the whole tale(s) directly, in a doomy way. Feels very fitting and good, the visual side, to me personally.

The biggest work remaining to be done is of course recording the vocals. I'm not sure whether I'll record them at my current home or at new place. Also sampling aspect & possible keyboard work remains to be done, too. Depending where (and especially when) I'll record the vocals, the release date happens in late 2020 or in early 2021. Time shall tell, as usual.

... more lyrics, and some thoughts.

 It's been really hectic past few weeks, haven't had much time to really work with the lyrics. Still the work has progressed as currently I have lyrics fully completed (and arranged) for 4 songs so since last post one song has been given a name and content. 

Not just that, but the rest 3 songs have titles ready, too. Just need to write the lyrics. I realized recently that the 7 songs will form a kind of large scale tale from beginning to end. It is definitely scifi, not all the way such gigantic scale stuff than in past, but ... there's a certain theme to it all. It connects with life on earth (and beyond) so to speak, so it's partially fact based, but it's also heavily fiction based. It's different kind of lyrics than in past, I'd say. It will make an interesting album to say the least.

Also it remains to be seen whether I'll get this release ready in 2020 or will it go into 2021. Otherwise I'd strongly predict it's ready in 2020, but it looks like we are going to move in late 2020 and it means I'm going to get a recording space of my own, a dream I've had for years! To be able to record the additional elements (like vocals) in private space - instead of living room - feels quite tempting. We'll see what happens. In any case I can say this is going to be a nasty scifi doom album, in many ways ...

More lyrics ...

Got some nice work done today; 2 songs got lyrics completed and also pretty much arranged as well. Going to work through all the songs this way, first writing around the music and then doing the arrangements. Working like this makes it much easier for recording the actual vocals some day, whenever that is going to happen ... or where. It might happen here where I currently live, or somewhere else. We'll see ...

Anyway, I like how the lyrics go, even that I know it will not be necessarily easy for me to sing them all through, being a native finnish speaking person. Well, there's always room for some challenges. Gotta practice the stuff before recording sessions - and like said, I don't know yet when it might happen (or where, exactly).

Four more songs need lyrics to be written. That's where I'm heading next in coming week as time permits.

After the summer break

 Well, I did take a summer break as I thought I would, yeah. I've progressed with the album in the meanwhile, during this August mainly. I've got the artwork somewhat done, but some work remains there. To be continued later.

When it comes to the actual music, I started writing lyrics during the summer as ideas started flowing and it seems that there might be a certain theme to the songs. Doomy theme, of course, but not in such a grand scale as in previous albums, necessarily. Should I call it as planetary downshifting in a brutal way? ;)

Anyway, one song has 100 % lyrics completed and I've also arranged the vocals (not recorded anything yet, though). Two other songs have core lyrics / verses prepared, but nothing arranged. And that's where I am currently. Recently I haven't had any time to continue the work, because of multiple things happening.

In any case the work continues. I'm not sure if I can get the release ready in 2020 as some big (positive) life changes are taking place during next few months quite likely. But I'll be working on the album whenever I can and am in a fitting mood for it.