:: In the studio with Streetcar

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"Mennään studioon, purkitetaan audioo"

The studio date came and Streetcar packed their gear and relocated to studio where Mr. Cavonius was ready to do some recording stuff. The general idea was to record everything (including vocals) live together in one take with as little overdubs as possible to capture the sound of the band. Because of this technique the band intended to record a whopping amount of 6 songs in two days: "Tonite", "A bit the same", "Hold on tight", "Last onset", "I've been waiting", "Universe & sunshine". The plan was perhaps a bit overbloated...

Gear was set up retro-style for the recording. Drums were miked with just snare and bass mics and 2 overheads. Guitar amp was set up in a small closet and bass was taken directly to board through a pre-amp. Bartsi and Petteri played in the main room and Ville did vocals and guitar behind Jeppe in the small control room.

Most songs were captured in two or three takes. "Hold on Tight" took only one and "A bit the same" was a bit problematic with several takes when B screwed up otherwise perfect first take. After all the basic tracks were recorded it was the time to wrap it up for the day.

Next day was left for all kinds of little additions and fixes. ""Last onset"" received a new intimate vocal and backing vocals. "Tonite" got some acoustic guitar had some robo vox from an old Texas Instruments children's spelling toy ("T-o-n-i-t-e. That is incorrect!"). "Hold on tight" got some backing vocals, tambourine (later removed) and some 'twang'-guitar from Mr. Cavonius. "Universe & Sunshine" and "A bit the same" got some extra guitar parts. "I've been waiting" was originally recorded with guitar and now Ville played the organ parts. Since no-one had remembered to hire a horn section, a violin orchestra or a gospel choir the recordings were then done. It was the time to mix.

A third separate day was reserved for the mixes. A small problem: the band hadn't really thought about what they really really should sound like on record. Retro? Raw? Effected? Jeppe had suggested that it would be easier to do the mixing with just one band member present so naturally everybody had to come. Yet the work progressed quite smoothly (especially when Jeppe kicked everyone out from the studio for a while).

"A bit the same" was again a problem (C: "This has all the wrong frequences"). The drums sounded like something from St. Anger! After a lots of knob twiddling (that's what mixing is, anyway...) the drum sound became more humane. "Hold on tight" got some soul vibes and "Last onset" some dub effects. Traces of the original guitar were left in "I've been waiting". Mr. Cavonius did loads of mystical rocket science things with little knobs, sliders, cables, rack units and ProTools filters while Streetcar stared in awe.

When everybody was sick of all these stupid songs the mixing was declared finished and the final versions burned on cd. Happy happy joy joy.

Conclusion

So, what did Streetcar get from all this? Not perhaps the most perfect demo ever, but a good recording of the band at this point. Two recorded songs, "Tonite" and "A bit the same" were declared not fit for a release. This version of "Tonite" just lacked the drive it had live and "A bit the same" was just... wrong, a song clearly evolved in the wrong direction.

But other tracks were ok and the band decided that they should try to collect enough cash and backing to release a 4-track EP. So the tracks should also be mastered, covers designed etc etc. Work never stops with this band thing.

Also, Streetcar had gotten a good collabrator with J-P Cavonius, a man with whom the band will certainly work in the future. And has worked, too. Thank you, Jeppe, for the effort.

The experience had been invaluable so was also the question raised. What should the band really sound like?

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