Recording at school + demo

The past three days we've been recording two songs; Cold Morning & Promise.

Two rather different songs which were also created on different times (Promise is our newest song while Cold Morning was one of the early songs created).

Recording with David was such a different experience when compared to Faber. David made it look like everything was a breeze and he helped with small suggestions and was so enthusiastic when it came to our music.

On Monday we started recording the drums, which took quite some time. Setting up all the different microphones (which David did; we couldn't do it ourselves of course) took time, and before we had enough good takes it was kind of late. But it sounded good and after playing both songs for way too many times we called it a day at around four.

On Tuesday we recorded me on the piano, cello and bass. For Cold Morning we needed bass which didn't took long. Neither did the cello part for Promise (which consists of a lot of piano and drum and cello only at the end). Both songs went incredibly well and we only needed about six hours before we called it a day (the fact that a piano doesn't need microphones also helped).

Today David recorded Anne. Unfortunately I couldn't be there the whole time, neither did Frauke or Roemer (I was there on Monday and of course on Tuesday). It also went very fast and what I heard sounded good.

At the same time we got our raw material from Faber, which sounded a lot better than we expected. Which is always a good thing.

Now all we need to do is wait for David to finish mixing the songs.

Recording in Amsterdam

Yesterday we went to Amsterdam to record a Demo.

At six in the morning I woke up, at seven I was picked up by Frauke. We had to take all our instruments, so we took my piano with us (Frauke's cello was already in the car). Then we proceeded to go to Anne, to pick her up, and we went on our way to Edam, towards Roemer. In Edam we picked up Roemer's Drumkit, while leaving Anne and Roemer behind (there was no more space in the car, and Roemer knew how to get to the studio via public transport).

We arrived at ten minutes to ten. At ten past ten Faber arrived (he's the guy who was going to record our Demo. He hadn't recorded something on his one, so this was a first for him as well). Frauke and I just finished putting everything inside when Roemer and Anne arrived.

The studio was a nice little basement which consisted of two rooms, divided by a corridor. One was the recording room, the other the room which had all the devices and such. Also, a little isolated room was there for vocals (or in our case; for the cellist).

We set everything up, got the drum right (after replacing Roemer's drumkit with a drumkit from someone else), and after about four hours or work everything was good. Until Faber fired up the computer and the program failed to open. Luckily it started working soon, and we could begin recording Loveless.

Idiots as we were, we decided we wanted to use a Clicktrack after recording it without first. Normally you use it every single time when recording but Loveless starts a little bit slower, and gradually picks up the pace. This decision resulted in one hour of trying desperately to use the clicktrack but failing miserably (though it sounded tighter, the emotion wasn't there and it felt flat). Finally we gave up and agreed that we wanted to use the one we recorded without clicktrack.

We then went to grab some food and to just take a break.

Then the program refused to start again, and this time, for quite a long period. In the mean time my sister swung by and that made the day a lot better. We went upstairs to a cafe which was next to the studio, and grabbed something to eat while waiting on the boss who would fix the darn pc.

We then proceeded to play the newest song On and on. That song went really well, though the song itself was quite hard for Frauke to play over and over again.

In the end we recorded two other songs as well within an hour and went home at around eleven. At a quarter past one I was home again, and went to bed.


It was an exhausting day, but it was great fun, and we learned so much from it. And poor Anne, who came with us but didn't even had to sing (we will be recording the vocals next week).

Songs recorded. Song found

We recorded six songs yesterday via my laptop and my microphone (which is a really neat thing. I bought it more than a year ago, never used. The past year it served it's purpose multiple times).

The recording went quite well, it's not good enough to post anywhere yet, but it's nice having something solid. At the same time I'm really eager on knowing when we are going to perform these songs outside our safe bunker.

We also stayed at my place afterward, eating chocolate cake with M&M's and whip cream, watching a really bad American comedy. I enjoyed it.

Today I found an old song I recorded more than a month ago; Mind You. I really really like it, and it's me and it's the piano and it's personal and it's not perfect, but it comes close. It's one of those songs you listen to and when it ends you wonder where the time has been. And if you listen to it closely you can hear someone singing about his life. Which I haven't done before, I always make songs about concepts or ideas. Turning my own personal life and adventures had always resulted in bad songs, so I just didn't try it after a while.

And then you find this. Which is all about me and about what I am. It kind of shocks me to know I had this song and I haven't found it earlier. It would fit so well with everyone. I'm going to fight for this song to remain the same. I want it like this.

This week has been insane. I have had time but my head is full and I messed up things I normally don't, it was my birthday (which was nice, though the real parties are next week), I played with Anna-Mae, and with Roemer. The whole week is filled with stuff to do, it's really really nice. Also really really chaotic for me.

But it's good fun.