Recording of the Album: Booze for Blues ~ Blues Weiser

Around this time last year, after senen didn't have time to play anymore and we continued with Alex sala, we started writing and recording Booze 4 Blues.

As sad as it was that we had already written a full album with Senen...but the whole story got us in writing from scratch mode.... Although I am sure some of these songs we wrote with Senen will see the light of day either on our next album or as B-sides or bonus content.

1. Machine Gun Preacher
The first song we started recording and demoing with Alex is titled "MACHINE GUN PREACHER"...
It's a bit of an odd song bit odd... But it renewed the spirit of the band, and we were exited because in a short time with Alex we were seeing the inspiration flow and getting stuff done.

Forgodsake we bought Good drum mics.. As I remember recording with just a few standard SM58 and chinese crap mics on our first recordings with Senen...

Of course I had gained more experience with the Zoom R24 over time and many shit and read sessions..... Also I took 2 months to learn and read as much as I could about the process of recording, setting up mics, Eq, compression, gate, editing, producing tricks, normalizing, metering, spectrum analysing etc.. and ofcourse Mastering.

As I thought it might come in handy one day...

I obtained some computers that were old but had the capability to do what I wanted it to do...

One was a nightmare, as in Spain... old comps tend to overheat allot
So I changed the voltage of the fan to full power and added another small fan to help keeping the processors cool as there were times it went to 60 degrees...

And many times it of course crashed so... Yea work wise do something... press save... do something press save again... So that didn't speed up the process either.

Nevertheless I got the job done so... These old puppy's aint going to the scrapyard yet...

The moment we had the basic tracks for the song machine gun preacher we moved to the next frame of song to record...

Bleed was always a problem except for the times we only recorded drums...

But I felt that playing together in the same room gives way more feel and dynamics to the song and chemistry between the musicians.
This song was recorded as raw as possible and yes in the end that caused it way harder to mix.... Later I added some backing tracks and double solo bits to make it space out more.

And this is the only song where bobysan sings all double vocal lines and where we used the Exh vocoder effect to create more machine like vocal tones as backing doubles...

Drums where hard to get out the mix because of the extreme bleed from the mics so producing wise i tried to make the song more machine like but with an organic message..
attributing to the real machine gun preacher and his work....

2. Be Careful What You Wish For
The next song if I recall had the working title Devil: later changed to "Be Careful What You Wish For" this session I did with Alex alone and later we added the bass guitar.

I remember recording with slight delay and most of it mic in front of amp... My faithfull JET City heads.

And yes you can definitely hear snare noise on that intro.... But I left it in as I found it suited the idea of the song and album as I wanted it to sound as raw as hell and not all polished.

The bass guitar was recorded later with a digitec bp 80 as Bob was demoing it at home and in the end it sounded really good in the mix... Why fix if it ain't broke...
Most of the bass guitar was recorded with mic and DI out of the Orange OB 1, of course some extra dubs went direct or with pre amplification...

For the Guitars of this song i used My jet citys and the kustom trt 50 tube amp.

My jaguar with rail pickup and les paul custom.
And a shit load of fuzz for the chorus coming from a modified shin ei fuzz copy build by Koen Weijand... For clean I pushed it trough my trusty EhX Soul Preacher compression pedal, and of course for the leads delay.and wahwah...

3. Ain't Nothing I Own

The third song named "Ain't Nothing I Own" already written and played basically with Senen before... Went trough adjustments and arrangement changes and was recorded pimary only bass and drums at start.... As the bass plays an important role I wanted it to shine as much as possible... Carrying the song.

On this track we used direct DI and mic and room mic... And using his ehx wah laser wah pedal... And his Ultimate Overdrive and Boss Bass Drive...

The Ultimate Drive actually was destroyed by bob himself kicking the switch completely though the pedal... But of course replaced by a new one now...

For guitars I looked for a clean gritty sound so a bit of ehx soul preacher and light jet city amp overdrive... and boost for chorus...

For the fucked up over the top fuzz solo I used my custom shin ei fuzz again... Setting 1....

Overdubbed bit of unplugged guitar over it with slight delay...
Drums where mic'd up with larger overhead distance for more room vibe.......

Ticking of drumsticks was intentionally and was going to be replaced for a ticking clock sound
or watch but... Was left untouched as.... the way it sounded grew on us and left it original.

4. Heavy on the Witch
The fourth song we recorded came from a jam Alex and me did the same day we recorded the basic tracks for be careful what u wish for...

When we started jamming on that riff the next day, and building around it, Heavy on the witch was born.....

This one was tricky to record due its changing dynamics and speed but ofcourse we nailed it after a few curses and needed some booze to get it flowing without too much speed.

This is the only song where Bob actually uses the build in overdrive distortion of the orange OB 1 BLEND FUNtion. Later doubled again with a clean direct input..

On this point guitar wise double amping and many overdrive pedals together layered in the chorus...

My old boss turbo overdrive they don't make them anymore.
Worked good in giving heavy transparent punch and clarity... And metal muff for more grit gain and joyo orange for more mud..

I remember doing the vocals for this one was fun as Alex and bob came to do the backing vocals and resulted in recording it and building a christmas three out of beer cans...

The next day hangover hit hard hard but vocals where done..... Climax vocals where done with distortion function on the r24 zoom... And for all vocals I used a phantom powered condenser microphone... Being one of the heavier songs on the album... Playing it live resulted in people saying the "hey hey, hey hey" is very catchy. and because of that the song was chosen as one of the first music videos soon to be released... ofcourse opinion are opinions...

5. Guardrail Cruiser
As we where jamming around the idea of having a kinda fu manchu like "hell on wheels" kind of song but with a Wolfmotherish chorus and trippy mid section and a bass solo... Guard rail cruiser was born..........

The first incarnation of the song was played in sala Jerusalem with Senen still on drums...

So some of the ideas where already there... For this song we again all recorded together full blast....

But with some alterations of mic positions and sadly one tom mic failed but I fixed it by mixing more with the overheads for that section..... Pushing it out... In the mix...

We did bass overdubs to bring out the shimmer of the bass solo... and recorded guitars trough double amp sett ups and again used all drives dist fuzz that I had available, even the mxr blue box that on the end ot the song you hear kicking in....

The jam that continued after recording the song will be release as bonus material for everyone who bought the red edition of the album.

The vocals... took time as the chorus was set but verse needed something to go with the flow of the song....

I revisted the old technic I used on the Floodstain "Take a Ride" album, because on the song Asphalt Blues I used a megaphone simulation....

Now when I got exited having one for real a megaphone...

It didn't seem to work... Resulting in some inventivity... As I saw an ordinary Mc Donalds Cola Cup I started thinking, "hmm that might work" And... it did! Pulling it over the mic and adding a bit of tube gain... and some Eq... It started to sound radio-ish and megaphonish, just what I wanted it to sound like!

The bass solo was jammed for a day and then the next day he had it done.... a version of that jam will also be available for the red edition buyers..
recording this song was a lot of fun resulting in many jams after and even today played live we tend to jam off to space....

6. Becoming the Past
The fifth SONG THE DREADFULL BALLAD....LOL

The song "Becoming the Past" was created overnight...

Because of frustration, because when I came in with the basic idea of the song...

Alex and Bob told me it was an exact copy of a "Alice in Chains" song........

I was so pissed off that night that I wrote the song in one go, and if I remember correctly, we recorded it the same week.
The song does stand out different compared to the other songs and seems to feel more seriously and carry a heavier emotional load.... Still it ends on a rather pleasant vibe.

Vocals for this one were a nightmare... Resulting in breaking down of frustration of not getting it right... Funny how when I sang it completed fucked up and almost in tears. The critics that we're helping me get the right feeling of the track were satisfied...

The bass was recorded direct but on bobs unplugged bass guitar trough svt pro simulator...

If I recall the guitars where recorded mixed so...direct, room and amp...

For this track again i recorded it with alex without bass ...to prevent bleed..as much as possible....

7. Tiebreaker and 8. Knuckleduster
The other tracks that we recorded with Senen "Tiebreaker" and "Knuckleduster" were going to be added but I remastered them to fit more on the album...