One year later, and you probably didn’t expect me to still be working on the same album… Well, I am! The same 12 songs, but in a slightly new arrangement. I suddenly got all fed up with the beats and electronics and how fake and flat it all sounds. I want it to be organic! Alive! Let’s do the human thing!

So we started out by recording some drums, for seven of the songs on the album. Sander and I built a diy-studio in the Only Seven Left-rehearsal room. Let’s get to the pics (click for larger versions)!

The producer.

The control room.

The drumkit on duty.

Sander doing his engineering stuff with microphones and cables and mostly a lot of tape.

Me getting ready to rock with my brand new sweat band (back then it still smelled nice and fresh).

The fun part about recording the songs was I obviously already knew them by heart, but I had never ever played them before, on drums, because it was all programmed. So. That was interesting.

There we go! We recorded it all with Logic on my Macbook, using some nice vintage Sennheiser microphones, Shure 57’s for the snare, and Rode overheads. The sound we were going for was (as always) the sleazy, garage, non-slick kind of rocksound. Think we did a pretty good job, it sounds as if two kids recorded it in a bedroom with some old mics. Hmmm…

Time for some dinner, from the Wokkiewok.

And back to work! Playing discobeats all day at 35 °C.

I don’t like to brag, but even after all those months (years) I still think the songs are awesome, and I enjoyed playing drums for them so much, because it really sort of made them come to life.

Yep, my external hard disk is called ‘Oude Schaterhand’. Ten points for the one who guesses his (blood)brothers’ name.

Sander working his way trough the mess I created, cleaning up my tracks. I’m just not a one-taker kinda guy.

Still life with red bull and chopsticks.

So two days and seven songs later, the drums are done. Guitars were already done. Next is the bass guitar, and the vocals. And I’m not giving you a release date, but I promise you it will happen in 2009. I can’t wait.

Tags: bram, drums, gretsch, hilversum, recording, sander, Studio

Category: Photos, Studio