Yesterday I did a secret acoustic show with my talented friends Sander van der Hoorn and Jelte Tuinstra. We performed songs by the three of us, so we also played some of mine: ‘Attention’ and ‘Haha’. It was fun, singing again after such a long time. We’ll be doing this again, sometime soon, and I’ll invite you all!
I guess it’s destined to be this way: I started recording this album in 2004 in my bed room at my parent’s house. I used to call that the Rbbknl Studios. And now I’m back there for two weeks to record the very last stuff for the same album, five years later.
Some weeks ago I woke up in the middle of the night, feeling all confident about this record I’m trying to finish. I’m going to finish it. Let’s record vocals. So I called my favorite producer Arno Krabman from Graveland Studios and asked if he wanted to help me. He said yes. I said yay.
Everything is recorded, except for the vocals (kind of important, maybe I should write it down somewhere so we don’t forget…). So now were making the first mixes. Because it’s hard to sing nicely when all you’re thinking is “this mix sucks!”.
Sander is helping me out a lot with his technical knowledge and a good set of ears. It’s good thing we live in the same house, because I have to call him out of his room every ten seconds with some stupid question about Logic. After a few “Sandeeeer? Saaaandeeer!!” he then slowly walkes into my room, with some sarcastic smile/frown on his face and all he does is stare at my screen(s) for a while. Just long enough for me to discover my stupid mistake. Oops. Thanks. You can go back to bed now.
A few years ago Abel (NIRC, Try Drowning, Piranha Hotella) and I wrote some songs together: he wrote the music, I wrote the lyrics. One of those songs, ‘Don’t Know How To Say This’ meant a lot to me, because I wrote it about someone very special. So I decided I wanted the song on my album, and I asked Abel to play the acoustic guitar.
Next on the list was the bass guitar! I really wanted to replace all the synth-basses with real ones, just to get that human feel.
So I asked my friend Hinne (Only Seven Left) to play bass on some of the tracks. I was very happy he said ‘yes!’ and so we practised a few times and he picked it up really fast and within no time we were ready to record! (click photos for large version)
One year later, and you probably didn’t expect me to still be working on the same album… Well, I am! The same 12 songs, but in a slightly new arrangement. I suddenly got all fed up with the beats and electronics and how fake and flat it all sounds. I want it to be organic! Alive! Let’s do the human thing!
So we started out by recording some drums, for seven of the songs on the album. Sander and I built a diy-studio in the Only Seven Left-rehearsal room. Let’s get to the pics (click for larger versions)!
The producer.
The recordings for my debut album are almost done! We need some more vocals and synths but all the guitars have been recorded this week. Sander did an amazing job playing nice arrangements that actually contributed to the vibe of the songs. Check out the pics!
There he is! We recorded five songs in one week in my bedroom, also known as the Rbbknl Studios.
March 25, 2007 we played at the Mariaplaats in Utrecht at the Culturele Zondag.
