Month: September 2018

Both our PCs were pretty useless at the time. There simply wasn’t enough computer capacity (CPU) in them to run Cubase. They were too slow and the more recorded tracks we added to a song, the worse it got. If we used a reverb insert on a single track, the programme slowed down and broke up, making it impossible to hear what was being played. Because of that, most of the effects we used were guesswork, as we couldn’t hear them. Mixing was a nightmare because of this. We were also unaware that we could export the mixes directly to a file.

Instead, we mixed in real-time, listened to the finished mix, heard things that needed adjustment, and then mixed again. In real-time. Which took forever. I hadn’t learned to use compressors, or even equalizers (EQ).  It was many years later that my nephew Ben mentioned the mysterious phrases “low-pass filter” and “high-pass filter” and explained what they were. Oops. But what the hell, it was still fantastic fun despite my massive ignorance.

Most of the album was made using programmed drums. Not because we wanted that, it was simply for practical reasons. We couldn’t record more than two tracks at a time, which in my head made recording live drums not an option. In retrospect, we should have tried that anyway, but I honestly didn’t even think of it. But that’s exactly how drums on pop records were recorded in the 60s, which I found out on the internet when searching for tips on miking up a drum kit! Instead, we used electronic “ddrums” played by Björn Hammarberg on a couple of tracks, but I was not particularly happy with the sound we got.

Niclas Carron also guested again on a couple of songs, coincidentally Rest & Relaxation and Ultra Violet. We persevered despite the difficulties and again it took about a year and a half to complete the album, which we released in 2001 with a nice CD-insert designed by Herbie. Personal favourites from the album are Rest & Relaxation and Herbie’s standout song, Slow Boat to america, the “hit” from the album, and a song we’ve played live several times with Tuckers Lilla Kapell and the Tuckerettes choir. Magic!

“Clockwork Heaven” came out in 1995 and a year later I went to France to work for three years. I took guitars, the Fostex and the M1 with me, but in the end, I had no time for music-making at all. I did a lot of listening though as some stunning albums came out during that period. Like Radiohead’s OK Computer and XTC’s Apple Venus, both of which I listened to solidly for two months each. I bought a lot of CDs in France.

When it was time to move home in the summer of 1999, I began thinking seriously about writing new songs. Herbie and I were in regular contact and we wanted to start work on an album as soon as I got home. So, we both worked on ideas at opposite ends of Europe. The first song I wrote for the album that became “Love & Alcohol” was Rest & Relaxation. I wrote it in my head, on my lunch breaks, walking through the tiny village where I worked. When I had that mapped out and a lyric, I started on Ultra Violet, again at work, again only in my head. Preparing for the move home and with a year-old baby in the house made it tough to find the time to sit with a guitar in the cellar, so I didn’t bother with that.

I got home in August 1999 and within a couple of weeks Herbie and I met up, at his flat on Storgatan this time, to start in on the album. This time we used a PC, with the Cubase programme, which was a complete and total mystery and we understood very little of it to begin with. It was anyway a revelation to work in that digital environment, rather than with analogue tape recorders. We had some huge problems, however. We could spend a whole evening recording overdubs, just to have the programme crash and everything we’d done during the whole evening was lost. It took a long time to learn that we had a to save as we worked and the learning curve was steep, even if recording a guitar or other instrument was easy enough. Quite quickly we installed Cubase on my PC too, so that I could work at home in my studio in See.

It took a while for Herbie and me to start writing again after we’d finished Padded Room, but we weren’t in any direct hurry to make another album. It was more than a year later that we even talked about it and thought about writing new songs.

When we got started I bought an Elka disc recorder so that I could work with the M1 and save the programmed tracks. It was a bit clumsy and slow – a million miles from today’s systems – but worked OK. As songs appeared I programmed the M1 with drums and other instruments during the winter, spring and early summer of 1995. When we finally decided to record and set a date, we agreed on a rented 8-track reel-to-reel. The drawback was that we had only one week to record and mix the whole thing. Hugely different to the leisurely pace of the first album.

Again, there was not a compressor in sight. For those who don’t know, the compressor is one of the main tools in a recording studio and used on basically everything, but we didn’t own one and had to do without. I wouldn’t have known how to use it even we had had one. The studio monitors were speakers from a living room stereo. Not ideal for listening either.

“Clockwork Heaven” was recorded the last week in July 1995, so it was a major rush to get everything done. Herbie was around for three days before leaving for a holiday with his family, so we did as much as we could while he was there: bass and as many guitar overdubs as possible. Later that week I had help from Brit mate Mark Newman and Mark and I did a lot of backing vocals together, on most tracks in fact, both of us singing into the same mic. Mark still complains that I hassled him for not always keeping time and yes, I did, but he didn’t cry – not once. So that was alright.   Another week recording that album would have been wonderful but it was not to be and today I don’t even know where the original tapes are. I still have both the Elka and the M1, but the discs with the programmed music for the M1? No idea. So, a remix is in other words impossible. Herbie’s take on these two albums is that they are what they are: that’s what we could do at that time with our very limited resources. But I can remaster? Perhaps. I’ve already done it once, but that was back when I didn’t know anything about mastering and could perhaps do a better job today. b6vB