It's about time for an update about the recordings of our new album 'Unravel'. Peer Rave has finished mixing and mastering the album and the recordings are on their way to Finland. Lion Music will release 'Unravel' on 20th 2007 April worldwide.
But by then we already had a long process. It all started in de the summer of 2006, when we made a pre-production at Jos Muijsers' home studio. We found that some of our songs needed a little rewriting. After that we rehearsed, we rehearsed en rehearsed … to get the songs as good as possible.
This was very necessary, because we'd record the drums en bass live at the the Markant Studio in Heeze. But during these recordings the guitars en vocals would also play along, to get a real live- feeling. In previous recordings we recorded instrument after instrument (first drums, followed by the guitars en after that the vocals).
René Kroon took care of the two songs which needed keyboards. (In the end only one song made the album)
To record everything we had only one week in the Markant Studio and we were under a lot of pressure. Fortunately engineer Edwin Balogh was there to support us. On the first day (14 October 2006) we put all our gear in the studio and did a soundcheck. After that it was time for the real work:
Roel (our drum machine) needed only one take to nail the song most of the time. Sjoerd played his bass with strong feeling for groove. And at the end of day three the drums and the bass were ready. The guitars could start.
Coert and Marcel recorded the guitars in just two days. Again the focus was on playing with feel and groove and not on technical perfection. It varies from heavy parts to more intimate acoustic guitars. Very dynamic!
On day six Coert had to record some lead guitars and we already made a start with the vocals. It took a while before I was used to the studio, but Edwin coached me very professionally. He dared me to give everything I had. I gave so much, that by the end of day seven I had an emotional breakdown… and I still had to record three more songs. Fortunately we could do them the next week.
Edwin made a mixdown of the songs, so we could record the backing vocals and the vocals from Leon on 'Air', at Joost van den Broek's home studio. We finished these recording on November 10th.
Since then Peer Rave worked on the mix and mastering and I must say they sound very promising. This album is very different from the first album ('Oracle'); the songs are more compact and catchier and the recording process influenced the ambience of the album very much. Because we played with a lot of live-feel, the takes are more dynamical. Not technical perfect, but raw and honest.
We hope you feel this groove and feel when you listen to our latest creation 'Unravel' and we're waiting on your reactions.
Unfortunately we'll have to wait until April 20th, when Lion Music will release our album.
Love,
Aniek
Delphian