Final recording phase...!

Hey hey hey!

We have been lazy regarding the blog and have just made temp updates at our facebook page for the past month but now its time again, hey ho! What has happened in the M.O.B studio? Since the last time we wrote here, there has been a couple of weeks of minor retakes and changes AND then a couple of weeks of computer/technology TERROR. Our computer gave up, and of course, being the irresponsible bastards that we are, we had forgot to backup the work that we had done for a couple of months or so, ha ha...  Some guys just never learn..?

Anyway, our dear dear friend and tech wizard master supreme deluxe Björn helped us out, as usual. He not only helped us with buying/building/configuring a new computer, he also managed to save all the data from the old crashed one. So, a major depression and grown men crying through christmas was avoided, thanks a million Björn....

Today, me and Peter finally took our places again in the studio and began to work on the "changes and addons-list" and im happy to say that most of the stuff on that list were fixed this very afternoon. I have a feeling that we might have only one more recording session left, almost there.. Yeeeyyyy! Some 15 changes or so regarding bass and guitar were done today, Peter is da man! Soon, its time to come "Out From The Dark", finally!!! Cheers! /Fredrik and da boys..

The man and the guitar in perfect harmony.

This might make the dance charts?!? 

Finally, vocals are done!

Ok.. I´ve had a couple of rough weekends in the studio, plowing my way through a lot of tunes, but as a result of that hard work, the lead and backing vocals for all 12 songs are now in the can. I will do one or two more vocal sessions and really listen through all songs, trying to find faults and errors and try to redo stuff if i find anything that needs to be redone. As always when it comes to a large recording project, the songs have really developed and  changed (for the bettter i hope) in the studio and im quite pleased with the result. Next weekend we will do a rough mix for everybody in the band that we can dissect for a week or so.

Today we adjusted the lead vocals on a couple of tracks and Peter also sang some backing vocals on a couple of songs. Its not that much to go now before the album will be shipped away for mixing, a couple of retakes regarding bass and some guitar addons, and then we're completely done! Cheers to that i say! Rock on! /Fredrik/Peter/Richard

 Ho ho ho, its the M.O.B santa!

Brothers in arms..

Peter asked Fredrik today if he could add some last minute harmony vocals and Fredrik of course gave it a shot!

The jolly trio all present!

A rare session today as all 3 of us were present, ha ha. I spent last night alone laying down locals for "Among The Wolves" and today we dissected that performance, made changes, added background vocals, harmony vocals and so forth..

We also sat down and went through all the songwriting credits for the album as Richard is in the midst of collaborating with the cover design in union with M.O.B:s very good friend Janne Kjellin.

A good day i must say. Tomorrow, ill be back in there, taking on the song "The Legacy". Cheers! /Fredrik

Peter sings like a choir boy!

Hey hoo and a bottle of rum!

Richard questions why he wont get to sing!?!

-Now WHO wrote that riff? Hmmm...

Vocal rehearsals all night long....

Yup, just like the header says, im in the studio alone shouting away to keep the voice warm during the weekdays and im recording with Peter on the weekends. Last night wile rehearsing  i recorded some snippets for the blog, so, a small piece of some songs are now "Out From The Dark", hargh hargh... This upcoming weekend i will focus on recording "Among The Wolves" i think.. Cheers people! /Fredrik

Vocals taking off and some chair adventures!!

So, time to do some singin´, eeehhh?! Yup, sure is! Peter by the computer, me trying to perform, the roles have changed! We started off today with "When All Is Said And Done", which is your basic rock tune really, nothing fancy or complicated about that one, just a nice groove and a lot of melody. I think it went ok. After rehearsing on my own for quite a few weeks, it feels great to have some input from someone other than myself, ha ha.. Peter seemed quite pleased afterwards and if he says it´s ok, then i say its ok i guess.

We also added some harmony vocals, sung by both me and Peter and they turned out quite nice if you ask me. "When All is Said And Done"  is in the bag, at least vocal-wise..

You know, Peter is quite a tall guy and after today´s session, we came to the conclusion that the chair we had by the computer really sucked and sitting in it for several hours really did a number on Peter´s back. So, what to do? Well, off to IKEA of course! Not the brightest idea on a saturday afternoon but we managed to complete the purchase within 10 minutes without seriously getting hurt or hurting someone else for that matter, we bought the office chair "Markus" and headed back to the studio where Peter assembled it in a flash. Great day! Ill be in the studio again tomorrow i think, working on another tune, cheers people, have a great saturday evening! /Fredrik and da Pete man.

Tea, water, chewing gum, lyrics, let´s go!

 Roaaaar!!

 Fire alarm nr 1!

 Peter finding vocal harmonies on da guitar.

 Oh yeah, lets get down!

Fire alarm nr 2!

 Oh no, arriving at IKEA, eeewww..

 Comfy, sir? No? Lets try another..

This is what we ended up with, 

our new friend MARKUS..

 Peter moving through IKEA like a scud missile,

me trailing along behind..

 Houston, we have a problem.. Naw, Peter 

knows his way around IKEA products, and the chair

is great!

Bye for now! /Fredrik, Peter and Markus.

Final guitars (almost) and M.O.B on the move...!

All three of us have been quite busy these past few days with M.O.B stuff. Saturday saw the completion of the guitar solos, we have one more guitar "thingy" to record, we were planning on recording it in the same session as the guitar solos but another band then started to rehearse in that hellhole we´ve been staying in for the past month and when another band plays in that facility, the earth shakes in the room we are in, so we canceled those plans.

Such good news then that we spent all sunday moving, again! We are very confident and happy regarding our new "home". The place is perfect and the guys that we are sharing it with seems to be great guys the lot of them, we are looking forward to many hours of writing and reheasing in this place. First thing´s first though. The recording train will stop at the next station this upcoming weekend and its time for me to wail away, and im so looking forward to it! I´ll be in the studio a couple of evenings this week, warming up the voice and i also have to do a bit of troubleshooting with the recording gear tomorrow as we have encountered a bit of a problem with one of the songs, its some form of technical mumbo jumbo error with "The Beast In Me" but hopefully ill be able to straighten it out, positive vibes is the name of the game ! Catcha later ladies and germs, stay rockin! /Fredrik/Richard/Peter

Ready to do some lifting!

Cables, cables, everywhere,,

So long Årstaberg!

 Mista Rille!

 Yeah, move that stuff, ill take some pics instead!

 Peter wants to make a final check, have we forgotten

anything?

 Setting up the computer in the control room area, where everything 

a rock band needs is provided. Comfy couch, fridge, nice atmosphere, the works,

Soon Richards kit will be up, and the pa, and eventually our whole gear,

and hopefully a new bass player will emerge also, so we can get out there

and  play you some "Out From The Dark" songs this winter, yeeeehaw!!.

Aaaaaaaaaand, the guitar solos is a wrap!

Peter and me have spent the last two saturdays working on and recording guitar solos, and now, it´s DONE!

We sat back after todays session and listened to all solos and we were satisfied with all but one, which will not need any major rework, it will be done in 5-10 minutes next weekend i reckon. After that, it´s one or two small things left to record regarding guitars and whats next after the guitars?

Thats right, it´s time for yours truly to step up and do "ma thang"! Fredrik "the broken fire alarm" is up in the studio. Holy shit, am I ready for this? I dont know, but we will soon find out I guess. Im looking forward to record with Peter by my side though, we have a great push and pull, bouncing ideas and making sure that the best efforts will end up on the album. Im quite excited about this!

We might move again though and it might happen quick, so maybe i´ll record my vocals somewhere else, we´ll see! Cheers people!

 We wanted to buy some stuff here today, but we couldnt, because M.O.B

 is a rock band and not a restaurant, hmmmm...

  This technician is starting to look a bit grey I think, I´ll have to do something about that beard soon! 

Guitar Solo Sunday!

Yours truly is finally back reporting from the "Out From The Dark" sessions once again!

The studio is now operational (Thanks to our very dear friend Björn Andersson, we saluuuuute you!) in its new environment and me and Peter spent our first session there today, and it was a loud, hard and quite long one.

Peter showed prime examples of his lead guitar skills as he recorded 3 solos today, one fast and furious, one quite groovy and one very melodic with some nice harmonies and a bit of "Thin Lizzy".vibes in there. Songs finished regarding solos today were "Legions Of The Antichrist", "When all Is Said And Done" and "Nowhere". I think he's got about 4 or so solos left to record after today. Tomorrow, im gonna spend a few hours here by my lonesome, working on my voice since im feeling a bit rusty again to say the least. 3-4 weeks without singing messes up the voice, straight away, grrrrrrrrrrr!! Ah well, ill get there, probably... Cheers and stay rockin!! /Fredrik

Peters choice of axes used today!

 Hard at work again, feels good!

The man, the myth, the guitar legend that is Peter.

Peter soloing away!

The guitar solo adventures begins..

Ok, time to start fiddling around with those solos! 

Finding a proper guitar sound was over and done with quite fast and then Peter started with the song "When all is said and done" and it did not take him long to nail that one. Next up was "The Legacy" but after messing around with that solo for an hour or so, Peter was not satisfied with the result. So, he decided to pull the plug for today and work at some solos at home instead. I cant blame him, who wants a moron lead singer sitting by your side looking bored when you are trying to be creative, ha ha.

I felt that this was a great opportunity for me to work on the lyrics for the last song that was written for the album. It has been called quite a few things in the past months but ive finally decided to name it "Legions Of The Antichrist". Intriguing title, huh? !nataS liaH :) The first person to guess what movie that inspired this lyric wins an ice cream...

Im not sure if im gonna be alone in the studio tomorrow or if Peter will join me, he might want to write/arrange solos at home, we'll see! Have a great saturday evening ya'all, later!

Every self respecting rock album needs a hillbilly guitar track, and we got it!

Im in my "satanic lyricist" mode, yikes!

All bass tracks done, again!

Ok, so, Peter nailed the last 4 bass tracks tonight, "When All Is Said And Done", "Nowhere", "Dark Defender" and "Legions Of The Antichrist".. A couple of these tunes are quite relentless regarding speed and moves like a freight train on meth, we love it! I guess its the age syndrome taking its toll.. "The older we get, the faster we have to play", ha ha..

It was a short session, we felt that since guitar solos is next on the agenda, we wanted to start fresh on saturday with that. We have to try and find the right sound yada yada and you have to be quite alert for such activities, which we are not today.. The humidity is a bugger combined with the lack of oxygene in the studio room. But fear not, we will be back this weekend, until then, keep rockin and enjoy the last bit of summer. By the way, i walked into a lamp post today while listening to Judas Priest, i wish i could have seen it, thats music trance for ya! Cheers. /Fredrik (and Peter)

A new E string, my oh my..

Men at work. No, we are not pissed at each other, we are focused!

My mic (and its new pop filter) are ready to go to work soon! /F

A question rose tonight, are we recording a cd or perhaps building a house, 

we´re not sure anymore, ha ha!

Amazing Bass In So Many Ways!

Hooray, Peter is back from his vacation and he brought a new bass guitar and a hunger for recording with him home! No less than 7 songs (The Legacy, As The Demons Call, Nightmare, The Beast In Me, Out From The Dark, Among The Wolves and Infected) were re-recorded this afternoon regarding bass tracks and the sound from this bass is quite amazing. 

We are very happy to be back in the studio and hopefully, the remaining bass tracks will be done on thursday, opening up the stage for guitar solos which will commence next weekend! We dont have very much time left now before we move M.O.B HQ to a new place, so some of the guitar solos and all lead/backing vocals will be recorded in a new environment, but we are confident that it will all turn out great in the end, Cheers everybody, more coming up next week! /Fredrik

Peter with his new baby, thundering away!

Yes, we are happy to be back, or something...

 

Minor setback but spirits are high!

All 3 of us joined up on this sunny day to listen to all the bass recordings. After listening to 3 or 4 songs we decided that all the bass tracks has to be re-done. It's nothing wrong with Peters playing, the problem lies with the bass itself or rather one of  the strings, the E string sounds like its in a bit of a coma.. Ah well, shit happens! Peter has ordered a new Gene Simmons signature bass guitar just for the hell of it and when he returns from his vacation in 3 weeks, he will redo all bass tracks with his new toy!

As Peter will be spending the next 3 weeks on the island of Gotland and charge his batteries, i guess this blog will rest a bit too. The only thing happening in the studio during the rest of july will be lots of vocal practicing with yours truly and that's not very exciting to write about, ha ha. We hope that all our friends are having a great summer, we will be back soon! Be good, see ya! /Fredrik/Peter/Richard

Ok, Richard will record a bit with this set of keys in august, i hope he will play in the right key, hargh, hargh.....

Peters new family member...

All bass & rhythm guitars done - CHECK!

Oki, so, after another hard working evening last night, all tracks regarding rhythm guitars, acoustic guitars and bass is done, amazing work from mr axe man Gustafsson! We hadnt planned to start working on guitar solos until august when Peter returns from a well deserved vacation, but since we now have some time left before he leaves, we will be in there this weekend, Peter playing his guitar like a son of a gun and me handling the computer as always, im so looking forward to it!

We also have to listen through all of the bass tracks and hopefully find out that they are all done to our satisfaction. Later people! /Fredrik

Hmmm, artsy?

Yes, yes, pout away...

     

No time to waste, gimme some thundering bass!

Just got home from the studio and both me and Peter were kind of beat when we left after todays session. Its due to a combination of lack of oxygen in the control room and of course, lots of work! Peter is such an amazing guy to work with. I was thinking that he might nail the bass tracks for 3-4 songs today, ha! He finished bass recordings for 9 songs PLUS some additional guitar tracks! Take a bow people, the king of strings is in da house! The songs are really starting to come together now and they are **oody rockin., I guess its up to me to ruin them with my vocals soon, ha ha! Anyway, well done Peter, here's to ya mate!

We will be back in M.O.B:s rock n roll crypt on tuesday evening to lay down bass tracks for the last 2 songs. Until then, enjoy the rest of the weekend folks, yeeehaw! /Fredrik

 Give the king of strings a cigar i say!

Stunned studio technician!

 

A blast from the past, were we really that young once??

Time for a good listen!

Me (Fredrik), Richard and Peter met up this afternoon in Årsta to look at a new rehearsal space for the band since the building we are located in right now will be torn down soon and we will be out in ths street come august 31:st. We quickly decided that this space will do just fine though, so, that problem is now solved, we will move in September 1:st, yeeehaaa!

After that, we went to the studio to listen to all the recorded rhythm guitar tracks (of course we stopped by the Preem gas station and violated the salad bar first, ha ha) to see if any changes/re-takes are required. We didnt find much of that though. A couple of small changes and some add-ons will be made, but nothing major really. We are all very happy with Peters efforts and the sound of his guitar, it rocks, can't wait for the guitar solo sessions! We will have to wait for those until august though...

Richard grabbed a guitar and showed us an idea for a last minute addition for a song also, me and Peter liked it right away and it will be recorded this weekend probably along with the other little changes and hopefully also some mean lean bass guitar! Until then, cheerio! //F

M.O.B:s future home! 

The three Stooges.

Richard with da guitar!

Rilchard with another guitar! 

Some bas(s)ic problems and guitar demons in the machine..

Interesting session today, a bit of a Spinal Tap vibe actually, ha ha. First off, when we (Thats Fredrik and Peter) were almost at the studio, we discovered that we had forgotten to bring some vital equipment, weeee. OK, lets go home and get it then, shall we, and so we did. After returning and consuming the standard salad brunch, we were ready to embark on a bass guitar adventure..

First, we plugged the bass straight into the mixing console and tried to record a couple of tunes. We then came to two conclusions. 1. The sound really sucked, it was flat and boring. We then plugged it into Peters guitar amp instead and the difference was quite astounding BUT then conclusion number 2 showed its ugly face. The strings used on this bass is not adapted for "M.O.B music" since we play our songs waaaay tuned down.. Well, well, what can you do? We have to get new strings in order to get the right heaviness that we want from the bass recordings.. Peter will see to that tomorrow and a new attempt regarding the bass will be made in a couple of days.

We instead focused the rest of the afternoon on a couple of more guitar addons on "The Legacy", "Among The Wolves" and "As The Demons Call My Name". We also discovered that one of the previously recorded rhythm guitar tracks for "Demons" was a bit messed up with some strange overdub causing a bit of a problem. After screwing around with that for a while, we managed to solve the problem anyway, so.. All in all,  we got some great stuff down. On wednesday, Richard will join us as we will sit back together and listen to all the guitar tracks thats been recorded so far, to see if anything has to be changed/re-recorded, or whatever, and after that, it's bass time again! Cheers! /Fredrik/Peter

Houston, can you hear us, we have a bass problem, no strings attached...

Due to the bass problems today, Peter felt that he needed to play a warm beautiful guitar solo to end the day, it will bring tears to your eyes!

   

All rhythm guitars done!

Allrighty then! Peter delivered the goods as usual tonight as we recorded the last of the rhythm guitars. Songs  worked on was "Yet untitled crazy metal tune", "As The Demons Call My Name" and "The Legacy". Some acoustic guitars were recorded and it was quite a bit of messing around in the program/moving drum files  into the right position before we could record this but it worked out really great in the end.. Since Peter has a cold right now, we discovered after a couple of takes that his nose sniffles came out quite clearly on the recording. So, we speculated about whether he should record this part with bits of toilet paper stuck up his nose to avoid the noise but he went to the bathroom and really blew his nose clean instead. Too bad, it would have been a great picture and video clip!?!    

Peter in his "sensitive guitar playing mode". 

Next on the agenda is bass guitar! This adventure will commence sometime this weekend, we will keep ya posted of course! All the best and we wish you all a nice midsummer weekend! /Fredrik/Peter/Richard