Nightwish's diary
25.02.2004
Cheers guys `n gals!
On January 29.-30. we went to London for the first orchestra/choir/percussion recording session. The result of these days was beyond my wildest expectations. The musicians were incredible, playing their parts beautifully, passionately, and without any rehearsals. Their musicianship was something I will never be able to comprehend. Pip Williams did a superb job with the arrangements, too. Out of the album`s 11 songs, the London gang will play in 9 altogether!!! The next session will take place next Sunday and then the album is pretty much ready for the mixing process.
Both Tarja`s and Marco`s vocals were done at Finnvox during the first part of February. This process went very smoothly and both of them, again, exceeded themselves. We experimented a bit with Tarja`s voice and the result is fantastic. Except for one bonustrack which is the worst shit I`ve ever done.
Now I`m playing my remaining parts of the keys and pianos. We found it makes more sense to do this after the orchestras and vocals.
Nemo-video editing is going fine, the cover artwork is ready, new photos are on the way, so the whole package is coming out fine.
In between the recordings we`ve been enjoying an overdose of Chinese food, alcohol, Hellsinki nightlife, and each other`s overwhelming company. (Waking up next to Tero every morning for a couple of months is beginning to make my groin itch). I also found out (in a blessed state of mind & body) what Marco truly thinks about the coversong we made... To a certain amount, I must agree with him, Haha!
Nighttime wishes,
Tuomas
Written by Tuomas on February 24, 2004
» Pictures
23.01.2004
morjens!
Last recording session in Kitee were over at midnight 23.1. Then it was legendary GME choir´s turn to put some sweet and actually very melodic voices to the forthcoming album. Check how sweet and melodic their voice was from this video-clip. (Thanks again to Tohmajärvi!!!) Three songs have now that kind of sweet icing :) After very successful session we had "after-recording" -party in Kitee´s Karhu -bar. The hit of that night was absolutely "whisky-banana-cola"!!!
TeeCee
Written by TeeCee on January 22, 2004
» Pictures
19.-20.01.2004
In a very relaxed athmosphere I started practising vocals with Tero and Tuomas. In a very beginning we took a brand new song to work with and I was very suprised in a positive way. Even though everything was a quite chaotic... this should get everyones attention! =) Totally we went through eight songs during two days and the basic idea for this session was to get some kind of idea of how melodies, harmony and lyrics work together. This was a good thing to do before entering Finnvox studios. (It's not a very good idea to go there without knowing what to do. !) Anyway, I believe that what I've heard/learned during these days Mikko Karmila will have many shocks during the recordings. There's still some unprepared material and some very "risky" choices so we'll definately will have a lot of fun in a studio. I almost laughed myself to death yesterday.
Well, as a summary of all this I could say that as long as singing rockmusic is this much fun we might even succeed it. At least sometimes...not very often...not often enough at all...hardly never well enough...forget it.
Tarja
Written by Tarja on January 19, 2004
» Pictures
29.12.2003
For the upcoming album we will have an honor to work with Mr. Pip Williams, who has agreed to do the orchestral and choral arrangements for the album. Mr. Williams has been working with bands like Uriah Heep and Status Quo since the 70`s, and his career includes countless rock / soul / film score projects since the 60`s. The actual recordings will take place at Phoenix Studios, in London. This studio and the orchestra (The Academy of St. Martins in the Field) was e.g. used by Howard Shore while recording the music for the "Lord Of The Rings" –trilogy...!!!
I met Mr. Williams 3 weeks ago in London and our musical visions and ambitions joined instantly, both sharing passion for film music. This guy is incredible and really enthuastic about working with us. I truly believe this is going to kick ass big time. I`m already counting the nights.
There will be also one finnish-language song on new album!
Tuomas / Nightwish
Written by Tuomas on December 28, 2003
29.12.2003
Good evening from the southern seacoast of Finland. In this case "southern" is just the geological location compared to the rest of the country. The wind is at the speed of storm, and the sea swells with the melting snow and rain. I stay inside. In here there´s warmth and a twinkling christmastree. Our twins are playing with their present toycars and I, at least, have a bloated belly from all the senseless eating during the holidays.
A week before Christmas I was in Kitee playing my bassparts for the upcoming album. We had a quite nice session over there. One afternoon of soundcheck and after that three days of intensive playing and recording. We usually had a break in the afternoon to eat and to have a couple of rounds of worms at the playstation. I got my ass kicked way too many times, so I´ll take my revenge on you dear fans. The basslines and the sound will come to
kick your ass. I hope you´ll appreciate the fairness of it. The album seems to be coming together nicely. Emppu had lots of rhythmguitar stuff done already and from what I heard, he still has a very good connection between his brains and hands. Via that massive torso of his, of course.
For the new year: EVERYONE SHOULD PROMISE TO ROCK!!!!!!
29.12.2003 Helsinki, Finland
Marco Hietala
Written by Marco on December 28, 2003
» Pictures
17.11.-23.11. - Jukka's week
Drums_DayOne
Trip from Joensuu to Helsinki was pure torture like it always is. There are two things you can do in a train... Drink or sleep. We didn't feel like sleeping...
In Helsinki Ewo picked us up and took us to the hotel Helka which is our home for a next week. At this point everything looks good. Tomorrow we've planned starting at 10 a clock. First we'll pick up new heads for the drums and then take mr. Gas (HIM drummer) with us since he is supposed to help us with the drum sounds. We haven't heard anything about him for a week but he'll show up... We guess...
Drums_DayTwo
Sounds are great!!! We've planned of getting the drum sounds of the new album a little bit more like "natural". Put the samples a little bit to the background just to give real sounds a little bit back up. So this time we took much more time to create the wanted sound. Gas was a HUGE help. However we started to get a little bit worried because we didn't reached him until afternoon and we didn't know if he was coming at all. But finally he showed up and did a great job. Tomorrow we've planned of starting the recording by recording 3 "bunch"-songs. The style could be described Rammstein goes Kotiteollisuus (great Finnish band). This might be a little bit misleading but that's the best I can do right now!!!
Drums_DayThree
One day of drumming behind. First thing in the morning we needed to hunt down the secret weapon to get the sounds to the final level... Dictaphone!!! We almost gave up because only thing shops were able to give was "WeDon'tHaveIt" but luckily we found out that those inventions of the devil are sold in the Anttila(supermarket). So mr. E Rytkönen went there sent the machine in a taxi to Finnvox. Then just plug in and machine inside the bass drum. Now this is what I'd call distortion...
I have to be very satisfied because even though we had some delay we reached our goal and great sounds make right for the Rammstein-beat... Or what ever it should be called...
Drums_DayFour
The result of the day was various amount of some worse and some better takes. It's surprisingly difficult to get hand and foot to hit the drumhead at the same time... Result was 3 songs so we're in the middle of the session.
It's quite depressive to find out that the four Hi-Hat cymbals which you bought just for the session were replaced by cymbals which were found from the corner of the B-studio(Finnvox) and which were manufactured about 1 AD and which looked pretty close like lid of the kettle. =) Luckily my new best friend small ThinChina -cymbal turned out to be very nice and it's slashing-sound will be heard in many songs. It's nice to find out that not all of your purchased were for vain.
Drums_DayFive
It seems that disease which has been bugging Tero for a two months now has got into be. Head feel like empty barrel and I have difficulties to concentrate to anything. I hope it's better tomorrow. We got 3 songs today but it was total torture, We took takes after takes and it just doesn't worked like it should have. GOD DAMN!!!
Drums_DaySix
A little bit better than yesterday and 3 more songs done. Only one song for tomorrow and it's the cover-song. Can't tell yet what it is but it will mostly be done for our own pleasure. It probably won't be even on the actual album. Today we should drag ourselves in the SpineFeast to listen to some heavy music but we'll see. If I'll start to feel more confused it's probably better to stay at the hotel. Confused and drunken drummer won't be a very good company to anyone... But we'll see what happens after an hour or two goes by.
Drums_DaySeven
First take and that's it with the cover song. I don't know if the reason was hang-over (yes in the late night we found ourselves from the SpineFeast) or something else. Or maybe the aim wasn't as high as the days before and we didn't let the little unaccurate playing bother us. Now pack the cases and back home.
Written by Jukka on November 22, 2003
» Pictures
5.11.-10.11.2003
Howdy ho!!!
Greeting from our new studio! It has been a month full of work and fun since we started to work with the new Nightwish album in these facilities. As a result of the demo recordings we now have twelve new songs and Tuomas still has couple of new songs on the way.
Everything went on as scheduled and everybody did their part as a good ole "MetalHead" should. Some of the takes were so good that they will propably end up being on the final album as they are. (Especially Tarja and Marco did their vocal parts so well that such a spontanious performances can hardly be expected again...). Despite all this there is still plenty of work to be done. That's why we ended up postponing the drum recordings for a week. Lucky for us it was ok both for Karmila and Finnvox schedules. So even at the moment Yucca and Tuomas are rehearsing and giving the songs and arrangements their final touch.
The songs are the best Nightwish has ever had so we all have plenty of expectations!!! Also the guys know this and the enthusiasm in NW-camp is easily sensed and smelled...
So the demo did its job and left everybody really hungry and anxious to get to do the final perforance for the actual album!!!
Yours, Tero "TeeCee" Kinnunen
P.S. Studio still not named, proposals accepted with graditude!!!
Written by TeeCee on November 9, 2003
» Pictures
20.10.2003-4.11.2003
Well, demo is ready and it turned out to be quite a package... Some songs
are already ready to be recorded but some will still take a lot of work
and tears and sleepless nights until they can be released. All the songs
more or less work but some songs seem to lack that "thing" that
others seem to have naturally... Creating art can be difficult.=) But never
loose the faith!!! One thing I've noticed is that tempo-scale is much wider
than never before. Before recording the demo I didn't even noticed that
but almost all of the 12 songs go from different tempo.
Mr. TeeCee KInnunen was supposed to write this update in diary but he was
too busy with the final mixing of the demo so I desided to give a few comments
before we'll get the great creation of Mr. TeeCee.
Jukka
Written by Jukka on November 3, 2003
14.10.-19.10.2003
Cheers!
I just arrived here at Kitee and headed straight to the studio. The boys
have been recording some demo drums, synths and basses while I was spending
time in Southern Finland last week. There was an instant stench of shit
and hangover in the studio, which was an indication that the guys really
have been working hard... After first listening
the stuff recorded so far sounded fine...which has to do with the fact that
there`s not a note of guitar recorded yet. So
now I have a few days to get my parts recorded. From experience I know that
this will at least take a week. But to make it all easier I begin with tuning
my axes now, even though it`s an overrated thing in rock `n roll.
We`ll keep in touch and let you all know how we are doing!
Eli AAARRRGGG ROK DIE DIE!!
Emppu Vuorinen
Written by Emppu on October 18, 2003
11.10.-13.10.2003
It seems the basic rehearsals are pretty much
done now. We spent the last two days just going over the songs again and
again, giving them a final touch at this point and now we try to feel ready
for demo recordings. I really think we would have needed more time for this
process but on the other hand, I`m quite fed up with the songs already,
having worked with them by myself for ages and some time with the band,
too. It`s nice to have something recorded, finally. As always, I feel very
prejudice about the new material. 2 of the songs sounded like total crap
today and the rest didn`t exactly bring shivers on my back, either. And
nobody`s into that Kake Randelin - wannabe song except me... Haha! But it`s
been the same with every album so far, so I hope it`ll turn out fine again.
Time to finish the night with some lyrical frustration. Cheers.
Tuomas
Written by Tuomas on October 12, 2003
» Pictures
6.10-10.10.2003
It's my turn to reveal something from the depths of the studio and so it will be. I have worked with the songs for three days now with Tuomas and Emppu and now we have 10 songs more or less ready to be recorded for the demo. Tomorrow we'll have an day off and we'll let our brains recover from the information-flood until we'll continue on sunday. Working the songs seems a bit easier than with Century Child even though songs are more complicated and there's much more hooks included. It must be that our skills are improved or our standards of judgement are totally wrong. You can decide after the album is released.
Today I also got back my snare which was left in Switzerland (READ: Which was left in Switzerland by my dear friend... =) ) on our shows in August. We almost had to pay customs for getting it back because when Ewo went to pick it up some guy told him we'd have to pay customs because snare is coming outside EU. Luckily Ewo talked things through and we didn't need to pay because
I've already payed once for this piece or metal...
Just don't give up and keep the humor along and add some shit in your pants.. =)
Jukka
Written by Jukka on October 9, 2003
3.10.-5.10.2003
Hello from wet and windy town of Kitee! We´ve got four days of intensive rehearsals behind now and so far, so good. Eight songs are quite finished for the demo recordings. Everybody has been really enthusiastic with the new stuff. Little arrangements and hooks have been added by everyone and all the songs seem to be getting better. As Tarja already wrote I´ve had a bad case of flu and raw garlic has been consumed in huge quantities. Only thing not so positive happened Friday night. We had a few drinks then and later that night I was sleeping in Tero´s living room. A friend from Tohmajärvi had passed out in the kitchen. He woke up, broke a flower pot, puked in the dirt which was all over the place. Then he came to the living room with his feet covered in the stuff and stepped on my face. I was pissed. The guy passed out again and me and Tuomas had to clean up the place. Tuomas was also pissed. Luckily, we´ve recovered and things are fine again. Some of the other bastards will probably be giving you some news later on this week. Until then… Stay clean!
Marco Hietala
Written by Marco on October 4, 2003
» Pictures
First message from studio!
Kitee Monttu
The Pizza on the table has a very strong smell of garlic. Luckily today the smell of beer doesn't make the smell any stronger. Marco's flu and bacteria need something stronger anyway... We have rehearsed 3 new songs in one hour and they sound very good. I sense positive energy, we all have strong desire to learn new songs. It was good to take a break from touring for a while to have a "clean table" before going to the studio. New songs are changing all the time and learning them is not always so easy, but we made at least two songs sound as we all want and they ROCK LIKE AN ELK! I haven't sung any vocals yet because that will happen in a couple of weeks. We will go back to "Oceanborn"-time at least with one song and I think that's a positive thing. Couple of hours and couple of new songs, after that we're off to sauna and relaxing. Autumn's coldness makes fingers freezing and that's not so good for heavy musicians!
Tarja
Written by Tarja on October 1, 2003
