Some weeks ago I woke up in the middle of the night, feeling all confident about this record I’m trying to finish. I’m going to finish it. Let’s record vocals. So I called my favorite producer Arno Krabman from Graveland Studios and asked if he wanted to help me. He said yes. I said yay.

Still, I’m in no hurry, so we’ll record three songs every month. That way we should be done in april.

I went to the beautiful Graveland with my friend Sander. For mental support, arranging backing vocals and to watch over Arno’s shoulder to learn some. We started off with an easy one: So Easy To Love You.

Arno setting up the microphones, we recorded with a funny looking Blue-microphone which reminded me of Wall-E, so that was nice. I like singing for Wall-E.

We tried two different models, and picked the one with the best low frequencies. For my Barry White-like voice you know. On this photo I’m not actually singing, I’m just pretending for the picture. When I’m singing my hair looks way better.

Arno putting away some stuff. Besides a really nice guy, Arno is a very professional producer with a vision. He knows what he’s doing but he’s also willing to try new stuff. And he’s full of great stories. When I did a terrible take, Arno would just say: “Perfect! One more time.”

Graveland Studio. I met Arno through Jochem, from Only Seven Left. Arno recorded the first demo of Jochem’s first band, and more recently we recorded two singles for OSL here. I liked the ambiance so I decided to never go anywhere else again. Studios used to make me nervous, Graveland feels like home.

This thing looks good. Not sure what it is though. Hope Arno does.

Perfect, one more time!

The album will contain 12 songs, some older, some newer. Actually, some songs are from 2004. That’s when I was still young and handsome. And there’s one new song I wrote just this week which we’ll record which will rock. Or well, it’s more trance.

Break time. After some peanutbutter sandwiches and some going through catalogs filled with stuff we can’t afford, we got the train rolling again. Next songs were We Don’t Care About Reality and Safe & Sound. The last one is a very intimate, soft song and… well… it sounded great in this beautiful studio.

With Arno’s guitars and some apple juice.

We managed to finish three songs, I was very satisfied. See you again next month!

Tags: arno krabman, graveland, sander, Studio, vocals

Category: Photos, Studio