FREAK KITCHEN

FREAK KITCHEN STUDIO REPORT UPDATE   Final Chapter - Wrapping Up "Dead Soul Men" As you read this our new album, "Dead Soul Men", is on its way to pressing factories around the world. It was mastered by Torbjörn Samuelsson at Digitalfabriken in our hometown Gothenburg in mid-July. Christian put together the cover while cooking excellent food for the crazy guys and gals attending this year´s Freak Guitar Camp, held by Mattias and side-kick Niklas Ottosson (a brilliant young man, spanking the poor guitarists in heavy music theory in the evenings).

The "Dead Soul Men" album will be released at the end of September in Japan and a couple of weeks later in Scandinavia. Other territory dates will follow. Stay tuned.

Alongside with the release there will also launch a brand new Freak Kitchen website. More about that later on.

We plan to start gigging in mid-October, probably kicking of with a release party somewhere in Gothenburg. Be there when the time comes.

Joakim got very inspired all of a sudden and painted some hilarious, vivid cows who bring true strangeness to the cover (the actual cd is a yellow cow with a baby cow coming out of its ass. Way to go, Jocko!)

Anyway, it has been said before but, we are very excited and proud of the new record. After intensive gigging we tried to make the cd closer to what we sound live, and live is always rough. A few words of what you can expect from the various songs of "Dead Soul Men":

Silence! - Agressive and vulnerable at the same time, intensive, odd and groovy. The only FK song without any kind of vocal harmony. Probably the most evil tune so far.

Gun God - Ac/Dc goes The Police goes Machine Head, or something... The title refers to the ugly, growing, global fascination of arms.

Ugly Side of Me - An experiment in taking elements of techno-frenzy, mixing it with metal, melancholy pop and hyper country. Could be a future live killer if we manage to play it without hurting ourselves.

Everything is Under Control - A non-typical Freak Kitchen-song, yet a favorite already among the closest friends of the band. An underdog and one of the last to get picked for the album. Nothing is what you expect.

Get a Life - Rock ´n Roll with a twist of jazz and a slight smell of the marvelous John McLaughlin and his Mahavishnu Orchestra, especially the solo part + background vamp.

The Sinking Planet -
"Do you think you could bear it?
Would you put up with the mess today´s kids do?
All the shit that surround us
How would you make love if fist-fucking was all you knew?"

The chorus goes way back, from the "Spanking Hour"-era but the rest of the tune stunk so it had to put on the shelf ´til now. Another favorite to some. Check out the phony jazz medley.

Dead Soul Man - Ahh, that Zara-woman, Chris´ friend, has a throat of gold. She really brings some mean gospel vibes to this song (also with a chorus written long ago). Joakim is doing a fine Jeff Porcaro- imitation in the mid-section.
Interesting recording anecdote (well for some): the strange sounds after the second chorus was put on the recording while in the mastering process. Mattias, who produced the album, thought something was missing and knew he had to do something about it. The day before the mastering he was up twisting sounds around and found some kind of rain forest preset in an Alesis keyboard (thank you, Noak) he messed up and all of a sudden, everything clicked. He then brought a DAT-tape with only the sound itself and fused it together with the rest of the music at Digitalfabriken. It´s very hard to say what makes a song work or not. Rain forest, parrots and insects might do the job. You never know. That´s what makes the producing part so slippery.

I Refuse - Christian takes it away in this raunchy, quite punky, song. Gronlund has a way of writing great melodies and the chorus of "I Refuse" has a lovely hook you just can´t... well, refuse...

Black Spider Flag - Heavy stuff about neo-nazis, Austria and Sound of Music. Edelweiss, edelweiss...

Super Model Baby - A corny, if unorthodox, pop tune played by heavy metal musicians.

Slap Me in the Face - Joakim´s lead vocal debut! Jocke kicks some serious ass when singing (not to say drumming, but you already knew that). The man has vocal cords from another planet. He simply sings so loud it´s hard to record him even. Roberto had to use every trick in the book to smooth out his vocals so it wouldn´t break the high-end on your play-back devices. Amanda Grönlund makes an inspired intro with her, also, amazing voice.

Shithead - Pop-blues-metal-ska-rock with a lot of odd meters.

JOE ROBINSON

Hi Gabor,

Hope you all are enjoying your vacation, but at the same time can't wait to see the next update. For all who are wondering, the offical release date for my debut on the Dreamscape Music Group Label is October 24, 2000. I've been listening to the finished master and am quite pleased and hope all of you will
be as well. On to new business...

I like the idea of studio reports on the site, and will begin taking advantage of it. The writing for the next CD is in full swing, and I expect to begin pre-production in the next few weeks. I'll be sending along a studio report every week or so from now on, this way you can see the entire process of how a "one- man-band" records an album. I hope you'll have as much fun reading them as it will be to write them!

Anyway some of you might be interested in my setup, since I record in my own home-studio. I'll be recording entirely from my computer, using PG Music's Powertracks Pro Audio 6.0. All the songs for this next CD will be entirely new and never before released material, which alot fo you have been waiting
for and I aim to please. I'm using MIDI for drums again, but this time I'll be writing all the patterns note for note and so far it's as close to real drums as you can get. I've already recorded a few practice tracks of two new songs.."Go for the Throat" and "I believe in you" and it's going well. Other song titles include:

"Goodbye", "Jealousy", "All we are", "Wherever you go", "Hangin' on" and a few more I'm still working on. There will also be an Instrumental on this next release. I'm planning on having 12 songs on this CD, more to come as I begin pre-production. Please be sure and stop by my websites as well, and thanks for your continued support.

Joe Robinson
http://www.joerobinson.homepage.com
http://www.mp3.com/JoeRobinson

ALYSON AVENUE

Hi Gabor!

Here´s a little something about Alyson Avenues recording in Rocky Road studio in Sweden.Too much have happened since the last update. Jarmo(guitar)couldn´t satisfy us with his work in every song, so we had to make some changes. After a meeting we decided to put two former Alyson guitarists and Svärra from DR.WEIRD to work. So, the album will contain four different guitarists. The last guitarist in Alyson Avenue, Tony Rohtla, have also been asked to join the band again with a positive answer.

The guitarists will be: Christoffer Dahlman(Bai Bang, former Alyson), Patrik (Svärra) Swärdh (DR. Weird), as mentioned, Jarmo Piiroinen and Tony Rohtla. Svärra have recorded guitar on two songs so far with a brilliant result in our ears. Christoffer and Tony will record their guitars in week 31. We haven´t lost too much time but there´s a lot remain after all. We think and hope we can release the album as planned.After this last decision we all feel a better harmony and positive vibes are running thru our bones. We are all very excited about the respons. We are about to do a very simple but melodic album wich we hopefully will be pleased with. Well...of course we will. Anyone who wants a taste of what is
coming take a listening of our teasers from our last demo at: http://listen.to/alysonavenue

That´s all for now!

Take care
Niclas

BAND CENTRAL STATION

Finally !!!!  It's been a long few months for me and the boys from BCS.  We've had health, equipment, and scheduling problems, but it looks like we're going to finish this CD.  We just finished recording the last song, a ballad called "When".  We're going to try to mix down the weekend of July 15, but that depends on whether we can get time in the studio.  If not this weekend, the mix down will have to be next weekend, but we're almost there.

We're very excited about the release of "Now Arriving".  It features 11 songs all in the AOR genre, driving guitars, strong vocals.  Up tempo rockers like, "Dangerous", "I Can't Wait", "You Want It, You Got It" and "What's Your Name" as well as two ballads, "When" and "You Never Said Goodbye" which is featured on our MP3 page.  If you enjoyed our demo, you're going to love this CD.

Well that's it for now, we hope to get you a copy of "Now Arriving" as soon as it's ready.

BCS just wanted to say "thank you" to Gabor and all the staff at Strutter for their interest and support of our upcoming release, it'll be worth the wait.

Rick Haller
BCS

HIT THE GROUND RUNNIN'

Hi Gabor, here's the updated progress of the new Hit The Ground Runnin CD!   Well, This past weekend was a real productive plus for the new HTGR CD. Two brand new original tracks were given birth. "Win or Loose", a high power rocker with heavy guitars, as well as a real 8 piece horn section. Although this song was written back in the Control Yourself days, it's a great melodic rocker that contains the signature sound of "Hit"! The second track is a brand new original, in the same vain as Still Life Lover, from the "CY" cd (as Paul Piccari puts it) entitled "Sad", that will feature back up vocals along with HTGR from legendary R&B Group The Intruders. Photos of the latest session can now be seen on the HTGR website at http://hittheground.homepage.com

BAND CENTRAL STATION

Hi Gabor,

We apologze for not writing in a while, but we've been busy recording the CD.  Recording has been very difficult for us.  We've had some equipment problems, health problems, scheduling problems, and any other problem you could think of, we've had them.  Lately we've been doing very well.  We are currently putting the finishing touches on our last song, a ballad, called "When".  Once we finish this song, it's time to mix down, and then release the final product.  We promise you'll get a copy as soon as it's released.

We will then forward copies to Magnus at MTM and Mark Ashton over at Now and Then Records to see what they think.

That's about it from us, please feel free to keep in touch

Rick
BCS

ALYSON AVENUE

Hi everyone!

It´s been a while since we informed on what is happening in the studio with Alyson Avenue. There´s a lot been going on! Anette have finnished all harmonyvocals in her own fantastic way! Almost all guitars are done, there´s only one or two songs left. One of the songs, I´m No Saint, didn´t work out in the studio so I had to write a new fresh song called Free Like The Wind. That was really great cause I was very frustrated when I got back home from the studio. I couldn´t think of picking an older song...I wanted some fresh stuff in my ears! I think everyone needed that!

I sat down in my own small studio and recorded Free Like The Wind, then I brought it to the studio the next day. The song became a new candidate for our own favourite! For a while we didn´t think we could make it til September, but now we are all relaxed again. We just had to finnish all vocals in time, cause Anette is getting married the 15 of juli and will then have her honeymoon. Her last name will be Blyckert from then! Now she can relax and just think about that! Congratulate her in our guestbook at: http://listen.to/alysonavenue We have received a lot of positive mail who excpect a lot from this album. That´s really great and thank you all! We have to finnish all mixing til the end of juli, and I hope the next time I report can write: "Everything worked out great and we are satisfied with our work"

Til next time
Take care
Niclas/Alyson Avenue

CHALLENGE

Sunday, July 2, 2000

Just a little update before leaving on a well earned month long vacation, later today.

We're 90% done with recording.  We finished all the guitars and vocals and got some cool Hammond and Piano stuff layed down.  When we come back we will record more keyboard parts, some percussion and perhaps a few other instruments.

Taking this time off will help us reflect and listen back to the recordings with a new perspective.  We'll be taking some rough mixes of the tunes with us.

We're looking to release the CD a little later in the year.  No date set at this time but it will most definitely be available as a stocking stuffer for Christmas.

With that we'll sign off and will have much more to discuss a month from now.

Till then,

Allison Lindsay and Arno Verstappen
Challenge
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CHALLENGE

Hi everyone,

It's been a few weeks since our last update and we finally have much to report.

We finished laying down vocals for half of the songs, including backups. Compared to Acoustic Universe the vocals are really in your face.  While you're in the middle of recording it's easy to lose perspective on how well things are coming along.  When we listened back a couple of days later with a fresh mind, or should we say ears, we were relieved to  hear that everything is sounding very powerful and impressive.

We also recorded Grand Piano and Hammond Organ for a few of the tunes so far.  Wayne Cook, who played on our last CD is handling all the keys for us this time around.  His parts are sounding great and we will probably include Piano and Hammond on most of the songs rather than synths.  We want to keep this album feeling real.  We love the sound of a real Hammond Organ.  You just can't fake that with a synthesizer.

Until next time...

Allison Lindsay & Arno Verstappen
Challenge
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HIT THE GROUND RUNNIN

Hit The Ground Runnin Album #3

Arriving at Powerhouse Studio's in Camden, New Jersey, the same studio we had cut our debut album "Sudden Impact" and the "Control Yourself" CD, was like coming back home. Athough Paul Piccari and Dan McKeown has been cutting some of the Philadelphia R&B legends for a label called Philly Sounds there, it was the first time HTGR had been in a studio together in 10 years. "It was like we picked up where we left off", explains Paul Piccari.

First track we are cutting is a cover song recorded by The Intruders (not to be confused with Intruder). The song "Cowboys to Girls" was a 2 million seller for the group...and now they are doing the back up vocals for us!!! Although this was an R&B hit.......we've turned it into a pure melodic rocker

We arrived on May 27th early Saturday morning to start working on the drums. Back in the 80's, we had a set of MAYPEX's, that were provided through an endorsment deal, already mic'd up and ready to go. The results were awesome, but then again, Paul Piccari always had the nack to getting the greatest drum tracks around. We always start with the drum tracks first. It amazes us how Sticks (Craig Soma) can go through an entire song, with just a click and have it completed within a take or two. Our main objective today, is to get the best possible rhythm track .

After completing the drums...it's time for a coffee break (far cry from the Jack Daniels/ Labatts Beer / blowing a bone days 10 years ago). Next tracks are the bass & rhythm guitars. Alans Augunas is doing a combination of mic'd Marshalls, as well as the Rocktron effects. The sound coming through the monitors sound like GOD...and then some. He brings his collection of 3 vintage Strats and 2 vintage Les Pauls, all well polished and tuned....although he spot checks before each take.

The tracks went well. We accomplished what we set out to do. We're schedule to come back in June 20th, to add Rob Knauss's keyboard tracks. Then June 21th we're going to bring Blair and all of The Intruders, along with the rest of the HTGR members for the vocals tracks.

Thick Meaty Guitars , Thick Meaty Vocals, and a track that has your foot and head rockin.......... yeah......feels good. And we have Nicky and Gabor at Strutter to thank for this moment. 

8084

8084 News:

6/2000........... 8084 back in the studio

The band will be lying low and spending most of the summer/fall in the studio, writing and recording material for a new album, tentatively titled "Shoot from the Hip". Brand new 8084 songs for this project currently being recorded include the  titles "Catch My Breath, Seven More Days, It's Only Love, Without You, and Do you ever feel the Rain? ". A winter 2000/001 release date is scheduled.  Watch the Audio Clips page for Real Audio demos of these new tunes as the album progresses. http://www.8084.com/

The 8084 USA Marketing Team

INTRUDER

Hello Gabor it is george karak we are in the studio finishing vocals with tracy it sounds great. this CD is going to rock i am very excited about it as we get closer to the finish CD we are starting to mix the CD next saturday...should be in europe buy the middle of june...escape music is very excited about its release again i am sorry about the daily reports...but i was able to write daily for we were not here on a daily basis..when its finished i will let you know.regards george karak

ALYSON AVENUE

Hi!

After major problems with our microphones we are now back on track with the recordings of our debutalbum. All keyboars are done on this 11 track CD. Anette have done vocals on a few songs and it sounds just great! Now she can rest a little bit cause Roger "Mini" Landin are hammering the drums
desperately! Everyone who has heard Alyson Avenue will recognize the sound of this album. It´s still pure AOR and I think these songs are as good as our demos. Here is little about the songs:

All This Time- a midtemporocker just floating til the end!
Without Your Love- little bit faster but still midtempo with a catchy chorus
Call Out My Name- a song I believe in very much! A ballad with a great attitude in the verse.
I´m No Saint- I´m serious, it´s a midtempo song like Heart!
One Touch- a song we have record before, but now with a stronger verse!
Walk Away- also a song we´ve recorded! Now with bigger sound! A midtemporocker! Wow!!!
Every Now&Then- a rocker with a strong chorus.
Lost&Lonely- a rocker wich has been compared with Tone Norum!
One Desperate Heart- a midtemporocker with a great chorus!
It´s In Your Eyes- a little bit like I´m No Saint! I love 80s Heart!!!
Tell Me You Love Me- a different verse with a little Toto-drums. Catchy chorus!

Catchy chorus!!! That´s how I do my music. I´ve tried not to be so orientated but this is ALYSON AVENUE! The release date are not set, but watch for this album at AOR Heaven in September. I´ll be back with more!

Take care
Niclas

INTRUDER

Hello gabor we are done with the music and tracy is finish with five vocal tracks,sorry I could not email daily but this cd was not recorded on a daily basis because of other commitments........it is sounding like the best work we have accomplished in a long a time and we are very excited about its release in june 2000.........tentative title is     INTRUDER "FULL PENETRATION"..........BUT THAT MIGHT CHANGE not even the escape music knows the title yet so you are hereing first from me......i will email again when we get to the mix down session end of month.......everything went so smooth and this will show on the cd...steve d is doing a great job producing the music...he gets a lot of credit on this one and tracy is vocally the best i ever heard him sing.........i call it raw emotion..........anyway.......ron s is hard hitting on the drums and ed is steady as ever on the bass guitar.......

kind regards..

george karak Intruder

FREAK KITCHEN

STUDIO UPDATE  

Monday the 1:st of May
Christian and Mattias rigged the gear once again, this time in Joakim´s new house, a nice little place on the country side, just outside Gothenburg. We are currently located in the man´s tool shed (!). And it works real fine! A new, much improved, bass sound has been discovered, using an old, ragged LAB-amp. It´s sort of broken, which gives a nice distortion to the bass, a bit of Grönlund´s trademark.

Tuesday the 2:nd of May
Chris nailed some three tunes this day. Probably due to serious frustration the last time we tried to record the bass. "Ugly Side of Me", a song called "I Refuse" and "Get a Life" were done in short time. We even managed to eat some ice-cream on Joakim´s porch before going back to town while Joakim got put off when he unintentionally split a worm in two in his garden. A very kind man, Sjöberg.

Wednesday the 3:rd of May
The hard song "Shithead" was completed. A tune about the dog in Steve Martin´s debut movie "The Jerk". Stupid subject? Not at all. Check out the film! Great, great stuff. Mattias got stuck in the tool shed, editing and cleaning up, as always and laying down some strange keyboard parts. Be back soon.

Thursday the 4:th of May
Some more three tunes were recorded; "Gun God", "The Sinking Planet" and another heavy thing. Joakim was supervising while cleaning his under-pants on the porch. When you record bass your ears get sort of numb after a while. It´s very difficult to hear the low frequencies; is it in tune, in time, e t c? You sometimes have to crawl under the speakers (which we have blown to pieces, giving it all a nice overall distortion), go outside, stand on your head, whatever, to actually be able to listen to the stuff in a correct way.

Friday the 5:th of May
Bass, bass, bass... "Black Spider Flag" and "Slap Me in the Face" were recorded while Joakim (again) washed his clothes on the porch. Ia edited and we all had coffee and choclate chip cookies in the kick-ass weather. A bloody nice way to make a record.

Monday the 8:th of May
Fixed some bass parts on a song called "Dead Soul Man". Christian also nailed another tune called "Silence!". During the session Mattias discovered him and Chris were not all alone: dozens of ants crawled around the mixing board, in the duo´s pants and elsewhere. Well, we´re used to making "guerilla"-kind of cds so...

Our buddy, Tom Englund of Evergrey, stopped by with his girlfriend Carina and their baby Salina, and Christian´s Annika and their baby-girl Amanda kicked back in the sun too.

CHALLENGE

Sunday, May 1, 2000

We had a bit of a slow week as far as recording goes.  It's been quite busy lately just keeping the studio running to pay our bills.

After finishing practically all the guitar parts, we are now listening for what other instruments the arrangements need and preparing to record vocals.

With that we will sign off for now.

Allison Lindsay & Arno Verstappen
Challenge

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KEVIN CHALFANT

Hello AOR-sters Kevin here again, This past week I signed contracts with Marquee/Avalon Records in Japan to host the new Two Fires CD.The president of the label,  Mr. Yamazaki will personally be handling the record there and I am very confident that they will do a fine job. Frontiers/Now & Then will be handling the CD in Europe. I have had so much positive feedback on this CD. Josh and I want to thank all of the people behind the scense doing alot of PR and just talking about the CD.

Thanks to Gabor and others with AOR Melodic Rock sites, we are enjoying the instant good vibe return from thousands. Please come and visit my website http://www.CliqueRecords.com and sign up on our mailing list. We will be giving updates and specials as we near our release date. June is the dead line for a major release party. Today, George Tutko is coming to my home/studio to mix "Teasin' You, Pleasin' You" the bonus track for Japan. Keep those emails coming in and keep the "Fires" burning!

Two Fires

CHALLENGE

Saturday, April 23, 2000

We layed down guitar tracks to the ballad "Opening Wide."  Which happens to be the only acoustic song on our otherwise hard rockin' album.   We plan to place this tune somewhere in the middle of the CD for a nice variation in pace.

We also worked on making some last minute tweaks and melody changes on some of the vocals.  The plan is to start recording vocals within the next couple of weeks.

Minnetonka Audio Software has asked us to Beta test their new version of MxTrax recording software (which we have been busy working with most of the week).  We have been using this software for the past year and we like it a lot.

For us, Beta testing is great because we can have the company take all our input and ideas for modifications and incorporate them as changes or patches into their next release.  It's even better for Minnetonka since this way, they have a chance to find out how it performs in a real studio environment
before releasing it to the ma sses.  If you're into computer recording check out MxTrax at http://www.minnetonkaaudio.com

Till next time,

Allison Lindsay & Arno Verstappen
Challenge
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INTRUDER

HELLO GABOR, WE ARE BACK IN THE STUDIO ED IS PUTTING THE BASS ON A NEW TRACK AS I TYPE THIS TO YOU..IT SOUNDS BIG....ANYWAY I WILL TRY AND REPORT MORE OFTEN NOW THAT WE ARE BACK IN  THE STUDIO..THE GUITARS ARE ALMOST COMPLETE AND THE BASS IS A FEW TRACKS AWAY FROM COMPLETION.......WE WILL LEAD GUITARS AND ACOUSTICS TO DO SHORTLY AND THEN KEYS...BACKGROUND VOCALS AND TRACY THEREAFTER...TIME FOR ALL THIS ,,IS END OF MAY AT THIS POINT...WE ARE LOOKING FOR SOME TITLES FOR THE NEW CD YOU KNOW THE RECORD INTRUDER{??????????} ANY THOUGHTS LET US KNOW..

TALK TO U SOON GEORGE KARAK...

CHALLENGE

Sunday, April 9, 2000

Towards the end of this week, we concentrated on gearing up to record vocals.  Today, we spent a productive day selecting and testing different mics, mic preamps and compressors.  This along with various combinations and
settings helped us decide on the optimum setup to capture the vocals at their best.

We went with the Neumann TLM103 microphone, a variation of the well known Neumann U87 which is pretty much the recording industry standard.  Most of your favorite albums were recorded with this mic.

As for the mic preamp and compressor, we selected the Joe Meek VC1 which combines both preamp and compressor in one.  Joe Meek gear is famous for its vintage, "In your face" sound.

Here's a little, what we think to be interesting, trivia about Joe Meek. Joe Meek was a famous producer in the 60's.  Even though Joe has been dead for a few decades, the company named this equipment after him.

Joe Meek coined the statement "If it sounds good it is good."  This is a much used cliche' in recording studios but for a very good reason: it is extremely important to let your ears tell you what sounds good rather than relying on equipment specs, other people's opinions and where you think the knobs should be.  It is often pretty amazing how good a very cheap piece of gear can sound and how crappy something that costs thousands of dollars can sound.  It all depends on what it's used for.

Till next week,

Allison Lindsay & Arno Verstappen
Challenge
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DAVID

Gabor, Hello it's David Mikeal with a new studio update. It's Sunday afternoon here in beautiful sunny central Florida. Although it did get quite cold last night for Florida this time of year. In the hi 30s. Sorry it took me a while to get to this update, but as I told you before I may be able to do these only every couple weeks. Last week we started recording the new John Babcock album to be entitled "Chiller Theater" I have produced 2 previous albums with John. In fact the last record we did which you reviewed "17 Castle Heights" was just picked up by Virtual records in Germany and is to be released I believe on April 17th. I also believe the first single off the record will be This Thing Called Love. So keep an a watch out for that release.

Back to the current sessions.....John and I recorded the title track for the new album along with a second track called Heavy Traffic. We had Liberty DeVito (long time drummer for Billy Joel) in to play the drums. Liberty being from New York now lives in Winter Park about 10 minutes from the studio. I played lead guitar and John played Bass. Liberty just played the studio house drum set which is a 5 piece CB Percussion kit. John played his 4 string vintage Hofner Beatle bass and I played my 6 string Chandler electric guitar w Seymour Duncan pickups thru my Line 6 amp. We just recorded the Hofner Bass direct.

We played to a click track (metronome) and John sang a scratch vocal to be redone later. My guitar tracks at that moment were also scratch as I was playing from in the control room running the recording gear. We later redid my guitar tracks that night late after Liberty had done his parts and left. I usually use 2 mics on my guitar cabinet and blend them together to my liking onto one track. Unless of course it's a stereo patch on the amp....then I record each mic on to a separate track and pan each track left and right. I usually use a Sennheiser MD 421 and an AKG 414 for the mics. Sometimes I will play thru one of my old vintage Marshall 4-12 cabinets....but in this case I just put the mics on the Line 6 amp 2-12 speakers. I'll tell you that Line 6 amp is kick ass. The two songs are really rockin and had lots of energy mainly due to Libertys hard hitting style.

We will probably have 12 cuts on the new record and will be recording more basic tracks in the following weeks as well as finishing up the two we started. John will also play drums on some of the upcoming tracks. We are recording this album digitally on multiple ADAT machines. We are also however using alot of tube mic preamps to help keep the sounds warm and punchy. I just started another project with Jessie Cutler who was one of the guitar players on the original soundtrack of the famous Broadway musical GODSPELL. That original soundtrack also included such people as Paul Schaefer (David Letterman).

We are attempting to record 12 albums in a period of 60 to 90 days (whew) of all instrumental tracks for a project called Music Of The Stars. I can't really say much more than that about it now. But Jesse is playing mainly solo acoustic guitars and solo acoustic piano.....then I am adding in all the other color by sound effects, synthesizers and percussion. It's kind of a New Age type direction and I will certainly keep you updated on the progress of it.  I also still continue to work on at least a song a week for my client in Switzerland... Michael Boren Williams. This last week I finished a 9 minute dance version for him called Wild Night In Copenhagen.

It is chock full of wild house and techno drum beats, crazy sound effects and lots of Euro- World synthesizers and percussion. I used a Roland JX 305 groove synth to help me do alot of the drum and synthesizer programming. Of course when any of these projects are to be released especially in Europe I will let you know the details. We also finished up a new song for christian rock artist Connery Faire. The group is led by lead singer Conni Whitley who has a great raspy kinda Janis Joplin sounding female voice. I am also playing alot of lead guitar, keys and producing this project. The song we just completed is called Easter and is already receiving some local airplay and is on quite a few mp3 sites along with about 4 other songs we have already done.

If anyone wants more info on my studio or me they can go to my website at www.davidmikeal.com  or if they wish to email me, or if they want the contact info for any of the bands or artists I write about ...then they can email me at diff@magicnet.net.  Gabor we are also planning our next date now for the MPG fellows to get together soon to record probably 4 or 5 more rhythm tracks for the MPG reunion album. As I told you before we have already completed 3 songs (That's Easy, Worn Out Shoes and Number One) to be on the upcoming release. I am also still working on the third DAVID album probably to be done late summer. Well that's about it for now and I will tals to you in a couple weeks.                       

Your friend;                                            

David

KEVIN CHALFANT

Hello Strutter fans. Today I am working on my new studio complex. I bought a two story building and we are tearing out walls and rebuilding this new building from the floor up. It is a cool building and it has so
much potential. I have a great design and a crew willing to help. I plan to do many new projects there. This is a life long dream coming true for me. The building was a resturant with two apartment flats above. I have a few possible new studio names, tell me what you think... "The Sound Cafe" or The Rock and Roll Diner". Send your suggestions to Clique@CliqueRecords.com Maybe this can be a contest...yes...if your suggested name for my studio is chosen, you shall win an autographed CD and a T-shirt. All titles given must be freely given with no claims to the name! Sounds cool, huh? That is all for now....back to work on the "The Room"!

Kevin Chalfant

INTRUDER

good afternoon gabor......today we are continuing guitar tracks...it is going very smoothly....ed is a bout 3 tracks away from completing the bass guitars...and steve and i have started the lead and double guitar
work.fantastic results so far......steve played last night in his solo project in new york city..it was a good show....I also caught a few songs with tracy white of the stone temple pilots were playing a gig down the
street at a place called the irving plaza.....anyway the rest of this week will be spent on finishing all the basic tracks to and including the bass,drums and guitars...i will write over the weekend again when i am at the studio saturday and sunday to finish some guitar work....i am really looking forward to releasing this cd  talk to u soon

g karak

FREAK KITCHEN

FREAK KITCHEN - STUDIO UPDATE

Monday 3:rd of April
After the stimulating week-end, it was back to the good ol´ grinding again; finishing the rhythm-guitars.
Another untitled piece of music was recorded and got real dynamic with elements of everything from Punk Rock to Tom Petty...(Lyrics are under construction with the titles around the corner. Mattias´ pants, desk, bed, e t c, are full of pieces of paper with notes impossible to read by anyone else. Looks more than hebrew than a heavy rock´n roll-lyric).

Tuesday the 4:th of April
"Gun God" (ahh, a title! At last...) got to be the track of the day. A tricky thing to figure out. Not so much playing-wise, more the arrangement of it all. It didn´t take to long to make it work though and it became quite sinister and heavy. Another song with various musical styles: metal, pop, and more. A nice little fusion.

Wednesday 5:th of April
A funky tune called "Slap me in the face" was given a single-coil treatment of the mean Apple Horn. Music by Grönlund and lyrics by Eklundh the duo is thinking about letting Joakim sing it. He only a got a coupe of lines on "Scattered" of the previous cd, yet he sings backing vocals on almost every song live so...

The plan is to finish the rhythm guitars before the week-end and start working with the bass next week. It´s always nice to hear the bass added to your stuff since it´s gluing it all together. Chris is warming his fingers up. Preparing for the session.There had been some damn burglars around the area where we are recording and Mattias got slightly paranoid and brought the computer home. Too much to loose to ignore it. It´s a lot of work to make a record as it is without any asshole stealing your stuff. Talk to you soon.

FREAK KITCHEN

  FREAK KITCHEN - STUDIO UPDATE

Cheesy chorus pedals and partying our brains out in Copenhagen...

Wednesday the 29:th of March
"There´s something wrong with your car" was finished with a little help from a real cheesy chorus pedal turned with every knob on maximum, creating a spooky sound which fit the track real well.

Thursday the 30:th of March
Another, yet untitled, song was recorded. It´s real weird: when you rehearse together you play in one way only to find out it doesn´t work out at all when you sit in front of the speakers and is about to lay it down. Everything has to be re-arranged.
It´s the same thing after a record is finished and you´re gonna shape the tunes up for the road, you have to change everything over again to make it work. Especially if you´re a trio. Sometimes it´s hard to recognize it´s the same song, live vs cd. Freak Kitchen is definately not the kind of band who try to recreate our cds when giving concerts. We improvise a lot and occasionally it sounds like shit but every now and then a good vibe happen to show up. Basically like life itself (gee, that was deep...).

Friday the 31:st of March/Saturday 1:st/Sunday the 2:nd of April
Going to Copenhagen for clinic and gig. Mattias had fun doing a short clinic at the music store Super Sound. In typical Danish behaviour everybody drank beer while smoking heavily and having a good time. In Sweden somebody would have called the cops if that would happen, ergh.

Not only did couple of friends from Sweden come to see us (hejsan Björn, Tony, Trine, Kivi and Jennifer) but two crazy guys, Hjalmar Holm and Johnny Djurhuus travelled from the Faeroe Islands (!) just to see the weekend´s gig and clinic. Guys like that deserve respect (not to say they make you get your shit together ´cos you know they´re watching really close. I mean, they got the time to talk about how lousy you were during the way back in middle of the Atlantic Ocean). When this is being written the gig has not yet been performed (Christian is cursing a Playstation game while Joakim is sleeping and I, Mattias I am writing this corny diary on the laptop). We´ll see if we get the Faeroe Islands guys thumbs up or not.

Arrrghhh! We´re now sitting in the bus on the way back to Gothenburg after a super-duper-funny last night together with the crazy people from Bröndy-Strand + The Faeroe Maniacs and our Swedish buddies!

The special guests and fine band Who Anonymous opened the night in the cozy little club in the middle of nowhere (at least for an alienated Swede), playing some cool original material mxed with covers (that was some kind of Gasolin tune, right? They should have played it like that in the first place).

Anyway, it was an overall swell vibe in the air and we decided not to make any kind of set-list, just improvise as we went along. Performing basically every song we knew we also managed to make guerilla kind of versions of songs we didn´t know, like "Haw, Haw, Haw" (which we haven´t played in many years and somehow always sounds horrible. It didn´t improve much this evening but what the fuck, it was a blast to play it anyway).

Christian opened the show by getting his feet all messed up in his instrument-wire and fell like a tree on his butt, haha! A moment of instant choreography and lovely surprise to everyone (including our dear Chris himself). A real loud person who later we discovered was the drummer in Danish band Jackal, called Jens, shouted "Appetizer" and jumped on stage to howl parts of it. Hjalmar and Johnny got up there too, getting "Taste My Fist" dedicated to them (while shooting it on video).

As if wasn´t enough that we played forever, the aftershow party became something pretty special. Our dressing-room for the evening was a rehearsal room, used by some local band, and after some fooling around with a couple of acoustic guitars (Hi Dennis, thanks for the FZ t-shirt - IA) people started to gather. Quite soon the room was packed with dancing party animals and we played some horrible interpretations of Abba, Kiss, Ac/Dc, Van Halen and more Hendrix-tunes. The loud Jens took over the drums while congas (and everything else with a sound) was attacked by the rest of the crowd. Joakim started to "take it away", singing, very inspired, "You really got me" and he too, got stuck in some kind of cable and fell, also very inspired, right into the amps, drums, you name it. It took a small eternity for the FK-drummer to get back on his feet since he managed to get stuck in every object around. The party then mutated into drum-solos and whatnot before every drop of alcohol was gone and people were just exhausted...

A very, very funny night, thank you Bröndby- Strand, we´ll be back!

FREAK KITCHEN

FREAK KITCHEN   HTTP://WWW.FREAKKITCHEN.NU   Wednesday the 8:th of March
Finally, things are going the way they should be and Mattias happily laid down the first track, Ugly Side of Me. The previous days there have been some serious messing around with amps and speakers without getting the proper sound, all very frustrating.

Thursday the 9:th of March

Yepp, some more riffing was executed. The new record is going to be very guitar-oriented (like there was no guitar on the other cds and Mattias´ Freak Guitar didn´t make you sick already, erh?). Before we started to record we rehearsed a lot and arranged the music and every song will stand tall live, which sort of was a problem on our last album. On the self-titled third album (which we are very proud of) we used a million various instruments beside drums, bass and guitar, but everytime we played the tunes live they mutated from (slightly insane and of course heavier than average) pop-songs to what best could be described as death rock, you get the picture. There were only fractions left of what was on the cd.
This time around we wanna do a frantic rock´n roll-record, Freak Kitchen-style, and get out on the road as fast as possible. (If you, by the way, happen to be in Falköping (Sweden) on Saturday the 18:th, please drop by Kulturkammaren, where we surely will play some new stuff).

Sunday the 12:th of March

The guitars for "Shithead" was completed, a song that contains really different elements; rock, blues, punk, ska... you name it. A funny little thing. Eric Clapton is called Slowhand, Mattias should be called Slowbrain. About a zillion years after every other guitar player on the planet he discovers, and only by co-incidence, the Cry-Baby/Wah-Wah-pedal. It happened to be in a placed in a speaker borrowed from a friend to try out. Your slowbrain FK-guitarist plugged it in and said: "hey, this is a cool sound". Of course, he twisted it all around so it doesn´t sound anything like the typical Wah-sound anymore but nevertheless...

Monday the 13:th of March

Editing and searching for something to give "Shithead" that special touch. Sure, everything´s groovy and the playing and sound is delicate but to make a song stand out it has to have a certain unique sound of its own. This can be pretty slippery since you don´t know what you´re looking for, but hopefully know it when you get there.
After a couple of hours, Mattias found it after messing around and making various harmonic noises on the fret here and there.

Tuesday the 14:th of March

God damn fragile computer-shit! No matter how much money you put in to a recording system there is always one little bit that will fuck it up for you. This time the hard disk space shrunk and we ran out of memory although you´d think a couple of gigabytes would be enough to play some rock´n roll-tunes on to save the day. Nooooo...
After restarting the computer a trillion times (at least) Mattias came to the harsh conclusion he simply had to buy another drive. Said and done. The furious producing guitar player ordered some 20 and half more gigabytes and while this is written sits on his butt waiting for it to arrive. Over and out.

Wednesday 15/Thursday 16:th of March

Waiting, waiting... Eager to work but out of megabytes... Maybe one should go back to the good-ol´ four-track machine. It definately can be a problem not to kill your raw, wild urge to experiment the way one used to do on plain tape and porta-studios. Everything sounds so nice (or could do) on these modern devices so you wind up thinking "what if this could end up on a record? I must therefore spend hours and hours miking the stuff right so the sound qualitiy is tip-top" and whoops... the instant creativity is gone.

A contrary example of this is the tune Squirrel (click to download an outtake in mp3-format) on the Freak Guitar-album. It took as long time to write as it took to record it, and it ended up quite horrible sounding, BUT it certainly has a vibe to it that can´t be re-created. So be careful when you mess around with your Cubase, Pro-Tools, Sound Forge, Digital Orchestrator, e t c, with millions of plug-ins. Don´t loose the real thing!

Monday the 20:th, Tuesday 21:st, Wednesday 22:nd, Thursday 23:rd, Friday 24:th of March

Back to bizniz. Mattias spent the entire week riffing his brains out.

Sorry for not up-dating, it´s a genuine problem to find the time for everything. Still, you can be sure of that sooner or later there will reports and despite a rocky start, things are running smooth now.

A real tough tune, called Silence!, started off the week. Probably the wildest FK-song to date. Mattias praised his new Apple Horn guitar and the hand made VS-IA, single coil, pick-up. The guitar sound is really thick and warm not to say personal. It´s quite fun to twist things around: when you think it´s 100% humbucker-metal-lot-of-distortion- kind-of-time, turn on the single coil and turn it into blues from hell

Anyway, Silence! needed a special touch and the good part of the Tuesday was spent to find it by hammering out strange sounds from an Alesis keyboard to match the frenzy guitar parts.

Christian and Mattias have collaborated on a couple of songs on this record. Chris wrote the music and Mattias is putting the words to it. One of these tracks is Black Spider Flag which was extremely easy to lay down. Snap! It was there in nano-seconds. After some messing around with a shitty old chorus-pedal Mattias went home after a good day´s grinding.

A yet untitled song was worked on during the Thursday and a bit tricky to get right. Not so much playing-wise as, again, to find that thing that makes the song click. After some serious thinking, erasing and re-playing some parts, Eklundh was satisfied.

Sometimes the old saying "kill your darlings" is the only, often painful, way to go. You listen to a song from start to finish and say to yourself: "what´s wrong with this shit? It was good two hours ago, what happened?". Well, the answer quite often seems to be to take a minimalistic approach to it all. It´s very, very easy to overwork it and thereby killing it. There has to be some dirt under the fingernails and the listener has to be able to participate. Surprises are good, we don´t want you to sit to safe in your favorite chair, but doing anything only for the sake of it is stupid.

Another good ol´ heavy metal-thing took form during the Friday. Called "There´s something wrong with your car" it was another of those easy tracks to record. The week-end, as well as Monday and Tuesday was off. Recording begins again on Wednesday before going to Denmark over the week-end for a Freak Guitar Clinic at the music store Supersound and a Freak Kitchen-concert in Bröndby-Strand.

THE GOOD CHINA

THE GOOD CHINA STUDIO REPORT:

Hey Good China people,

Well, we are back from a long, grueling weekend of recording at MT Studios in Burbank and are ready to rock and roll! Things went great in the studio, and we are getting more excited about our upcoming release... lots of new songs and new sounds, and we can't wait to get it out to you. Expect our new CD to
be available sometime in the fall.

PAUL SHORTINO

Just to keep everyone up on what's going on..Take care, Carmen Shortino

For immediate release!

Contact:  Dave Tedder
Dave@egotripent.com

SHORTINO / CRESPO ENTERS STUDIO

Los Angeles, CA -- Two of the most respected names in hard rock music have united to begin work on what will surely be one of the most anticipated albums of the new millenium.  Vocalist Paul Shortino (Rough Cutt, Quiet Riot) and guitarist Jimmy Crespo (Aerosmith, Rod Stewart) have entered MT Studios in North Hollywood to begin work on their new album, 'Sneak Preview'.  A return to the blistering melodic metal that they are known for, 'Sneak Preview' will bring to light the first writing collaboration between the new vocal / guitar super team.  In the grand tradition of Plant and Page, Tyler and Perry (irony???) and Rodgers and Ralphs, Shortino and Crespo have that certain "magic" that is nearly impossible to come by.  "We expected it to be good but this has gone far beyond anything any of us could have ever imagined", says Shortino.  "I loved doing the 'Stand Or Fall' album but it feels great to open up and let loose again."

Originally teaming up when Jimmy Crespo came aboard as a member of Shortino's band The Rhythm Junkies, the pair have decided to make the situation a permanent one, "We just felt the time was right to take the partnership to a new level", Shortino points out, "We've reached a point where we are completely comfortable with writing and performing with one another and now it's time to make it a full team effort"  The duo, together with fellow "teammates", keyboardist JT Garrett, bassist Earl Miles and drummer Alex Davis have formed a solid partnership that fully kicks off with the sessions for 'Sneak Preview'.

Co-produced by Shortino / Crespo and Matt Thorne (eels), five songs have already been tracked: "Speak Your Mind", touching on the political side of life,  " I Believe", which opens as a ballad then crescendos into a raging rocker, "I Can Feel The Rain", (a moody, mid paced number about dealing with
life's trials and tests) "A Sacred Place" (about the teachings of the Kama Sutra) and "This Must Be Love" (a cover of a previous song recorded by Paul). The band also plans to record a cover of the Queen classic "Fat Bottomed Girls".  'Sneak Preview' will be released in the later in the year through Musicworks Records.

#     #     #

http://www.egotripent.com/ultrasound/
UltraSound 2000 - May 27/28 2000
Las Vegas, NV

BAND CENTRAL STATION

It's Rick from BCS.  Just wanted to update you on the studio progress.Our main focus this week was scratch guitar and scratch vocals.  I put down the scratch vocals and Larry and Frank put down the scratch guitars for the last four songs.  Next week starts the heavy recording.  We hope to be on target for the April 15 release.  Thanks again, we'll stay in touch.

Rick

INTRUDER

One more song to go for basic tracks......we are going to take the weekend for some playing commitments we have.. steve is going to florida and i am playing a live show here in a local club called the stone pony...........I will start up with reports again on tues or weds of next week........will be starting guitars etc.......have a great weekend george karak

INTRUDER

We took a few days off this past weekend.........today we are more than halfway home with the basic tracks of drums and bass guitar...as you can see the process takes some time...........but the end result is a
solid foundation for the music which is of most importence to the overall quality of the cd recording....... the arrangements are chaging as I type this because of the creativity of the musicians I am working with.. steve d is during a great job working with the musicians as I operate and engineer the project from the board or recording console......my guitar parts don't happen til much later in the process but I can't wait to do my parts .......anyway tonight we try again which will be tuesday 3-21-00.....not to let the cat out of the bag but this cd will feature another one of my interpretations of my song that bonjovi did called runaway... we are starting that one on thursday to end the taping of the basic tracks...I am looking forward to that because it is really going to rock...talk to u soon george karak

JOE ROBINSON

Long time, no hear!  Hope all is well with you.  I think the "Studio Report" is a great idea...as a matter of fact I'm in the process of recording my debut for Dreamscape Records as we speak...

My debut CD on Dreamscape Records (as of yet untitled) will be out by summer 2000.  I'm recording it in my new 48 track digital home studio, as with previous 'demo' releases I'm doing it alone.  The new CD will be a mix of songs from "Trail of Tears" and "No Boundary".  Basically I've stripped 14 songs from both CDs, and am totally rebuilding them from the ground up.  By far the best work I've done to date, and the production and sound quality will meet or beat anything else out there.  As of 3/16/00 I will have 7 of the 14 songs ready for post production, and will soon begin work on the other 7.

My new website (http://www.joerobinson.homepage.com) will be up and running very soon.  I'm extremely busy but expect to be able to finish it up sometime next week.  Hopefully the new site will clear up some of the mystery since my recent signing.  For anyone who would like more information, please feel free
to email me from my fanmail address: joerobinson@homepage.com.

Well that's all I could come up with off the top of my head. 

Take Care,
Joe Robinson

JEFF PILSON

Just got out of the studio Tuesday after cutting 7 new tracks for my solo cd, hopefully to come out by Jan. James Kottack [Scorpions] is playing drums, and the stuff is SLAMMING!!! I already cut a couple tracks in Jan., but wait til you hear this. Rocking rhythm tracks, but with tons of harmonies. Queen eat your heart out! I'm also playing in the movie Jeff Scott Soto was talking about- Metal God [I think the name's gonna change], and that's been great. Zakk Wylde, Jason Bonham and I are the band and Jeff Soto is the voice of the "original" singer [of course it's a movie!]. But working with these guys feels SOOOO natural to me- and we kick serious ass! Also check out my new website at www.jeffpilson.com  -should be up and running soon! Hang in there one and all, and let's rock this new millenium out- in style! Take care.

Jeff

CHALLENGE

Sunday, March 19, 2000

We recorded some rhythm guitar parts to "Backbone" one of our heavier songs. When the guitars are done, we will be lay down some scratch vocals to be used as a guide for the Piano, Hammond and other keyboard parts as well as percussion.

Before that happens, we'll first have to transfer all our tracks from tape into our new computer system.  We recently started using this cool recording software called "MxTrax." Which we like a lot.  This enables us to perform 32 bit digital recording.  A very high caliber of sound quality as well as automated mixing.  We have some great vintage tube gear.  Which will give us the warm sound we really love, before sending it into the digital domain.

Currently, no release date has been set.  Although, we are planning to take vacation in July so we want the CD to be released before we take off.  That way we can do some serious promotion right after our well deserved break.

Hope we can stick to that timeframe.  We might have to kick some clients out of our studio in order to pick up the pace.

Till next week,

Allison Lindsay & Arno Verstappen
Challenge
http://home.earthlink.net/~challenge

JEFF SCOTT SOTO

A quick point of interest....I'm currently doing lead vox in the new Mark Wahlberg/Jennifer Aniston movie 'Metal God', currently filming. The movie is about a Judas Priest-type band in the 80's who's singer decides 2 leave the band (like Halford did....I'm doing the voice 4 this character who is portrayed by Jayson Fleming of the English cult hit movie 'Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels') during their heyday. Wahlberg is a singer in a 'tribute' band of the 'Priest' band & just like Judas Priest did in real life, they get Wahlberg 2 replace the departed singer. Zakk Wylde, Jeff Pilson & Jason Bonham are in the 'main' band, both in the movie & on the soundtrack of the songs I'm singing on. I'll be doing 4 songs 4 the movie & 2 additional tracks 4 the soundtrack album. No confirmation on its' release date.

Jeff

BAND CENTRAL STATION

THUMP, THUMP, THUMP, THUMP, THUMP, THUMP !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Today we began recording the drum tracks for the final four songs for the New BCS CD "Now Arriving".
We normally record everthing at BCS studios, (otherwise known as Joe's basement). But this time we wanted to get a really good drum sound, and decided to record the drums at HNR studios in Bellerose, Long Island, New York.

Well, it all started out with Chris getting to HNR studios around 12:00 noon to record the drum tracks for "What's Your Name", "You Want It, You Got It", "I Can't Wait" and "Judgement Day". Chris called Larry and Joe to tell us he had arrived. He later called us around 1:30 saying the drum sounds were set and he's ready to record. Larry and Joe packed up a keyboard, a guitar and the Tascam 16 Tape deck and headed for the studio.

Larry and Joe and I (Rick) arrived at the studio around 2:15pm and brought the equipment in. Chris was already on the drums warming up and showing off as usual. We chatted with the engineers for awhile and came up with the game plan on how we were going to record. Chris was going to record from analog drums to digital tape and then we would drop that down to 1/2 inch analog tape on the Tascam. The Tascam records 16 tracks on 1/2 inch tape.

The drums would be recorded on 6 tracks. We also used a click track, a scratch guitar track, and one scratch vocal track. We were now all in the recording room getting setup. Larry and Chris were in the main room with Larry on guitar, and Joe was in the vocal booth, filling in for me (Rick), as I was feeling a bit under the weather (sore throat). We all had our headphones on and we were ready to go.

We did a practice run on the first song, "What's Your Name", an uptempo rocker,  and decided to give it a shot. Well, Chris got it down on the first try. We then ran through the next one, "You Want It, You Got It", a upbeat melodic rock song. We recorded it and went back to the sound room to listen to it. It sounded great. Again, Chris nailed it on the first try. This was great. Everything was going smoothly. The engineers started calling our drummer "One-Take Chris".

We now went back to record the third song, "I Can't Wait", another driving melodic rock song. We decided to leave "Judgement Day" for last, thinking it might give us the most trouble. Setting the
tempo on this song was a bit interesting. Chris thinking the tempo was too fast, and Joe thinking it was too slow. We eventually agreed on the tempo and gave it a try. Larry gave us a few laughs by hitting the wrong chords here and there. We also didn't make it on the first take this time. During the guitar solo of this song, Chris is used to hearing the rhythm guitar, but Larry was playing the lead. So this threw off the timing of the song. We decided to try it again after filling in Larry on what he should play. Joe also sang a keyboard part to que Chris back after the solo. We never did use the keyboards. Well, we finally got this after 2 or 3 tries.

We were now ready to record the final track, "Judgement Day". This song has a "blues" feel.  Running through it once, we realized what we needed to hear, and again Joe sang a bass line to que Chris at a certain point. This took us two tries as well, as Chris didn't like the feel of his fills on the first try. But it was perfect on the second try.

We then went back to the sound room and hooked up the digital deck to the Tascam. We then dubbed the 6 drum tracks, the scratch guitar, and the click track down to the Tascam, while Chris treated us to Dunkin Donuts and coffee.

The most difficult part of the recording process was now over. We are now ready to continue the rest of the recording back at BCS Studios.

More from the BCS studios to come......

JOHN TAGLIERI

Hey Gabor!! How's it going!!

Sound like the website is kicking ass! I'm on it a few times a month and it looks great. i really like the latest interview.

Things here are going great. I have actually sold out of the first 1,000 copies of Leap Of Faith and already have orders for the new run when i get it at the end of the month. Georg from AOR Heaven has decided to carry it and placed a big order, so that made me feel good!

My tour is going well. I'm actually recording the tour and will be releasing a live CD
at the end of the year. I'll actually be releasing two CD's at the end of the year. I am now starting pre-production on my next studio CD also, tentatively named "Your Eyes Tell. it will be 12 tracks and except for 2 ballads, all upbeat rockers. So i'm hoping to release the new studio album (You're Eyes Tell) and the live album at the same time.

I'm also playing at the Ultrasound 2000 Expo with the likes of Paul Shortino & Robin Brock! That's going to be a lot of fun!

Gotta run. I just wanted to say hi and see what was up and keep you up to date on the new happenings!! After all, if it wasn't for you and your review, who know's where i'd be today!

Later!
J.T.

TODD HOWARTH

FORMERLY 707/ACE FREHLEY, 'WEST OF EIGHT' - NEW SOLO-ALBUM TRAX 4 TRAX

1) ''West Of Eight'' This tune is an up tempo title track to the CD, where I describe my fondness for San Diego, California.  I've traveled extensively and I do in fact seem to prefer, (at this point in time) my current location.  Beautiful beaches, bays, the desert two and a half hours away for off roading, snowboarding again another two and a half hours away, and all the while a fantastic climate to live in.  West of eight, geographically is the beach in San Diego.

2) "Rough And Tumble'' A song about my recent discovery of the fact that someone very close to me, likes a little bit of the ol' bondage scene.  Not so much the real rough stuff, but mostly the high power fashion that sometimes comes with it.  I describe in short phrases, little subtleties that I began to notice while getting to know this person better, a lot of surprises going on here. Again, an up tempo tune.

3) ''Valley Of Artifice" A fictional song based on some real life experiences about getting stuck in the desert with an unreliable car, motorcycle, vehicle whatever, and discovering that you just might be up the proverbial shit creek without out a paddle or a sulfur match.  Fun stuff here, slower strong tempo.

4) "Day Down" A reflection of the fact that regardless, you always have to over come some obstacle or another in one's constant quest for the ultimate goal.  There's always going to be some clown trying to pull you back or fuck you up, but in the end your success is the ultimate revenge.  Up tempo.

5) "Misgivings" A tune about a former lover who opted to leave in troubled times, and cast a temporary shadow of doubt on the author.  Heartfelt song, with bottom and balls and one of my favorites to date of anything that I've ever written.  Slower tempo, melodramatic punch!

6) "Painting Spiders" This song is about just that, painting little spiders.  A while back I painted my grandmothers house and in doing so I was constantly challenged by these spiders trying to stand their ground.  After ignoring the little pests initially, they became so insistent that I just said the hell with it, and painted right over them.........like I've got enough challenges in my life without the tirade of an unmatched opponent.  Medium, rhythmic pace.

7) "Period Piece" This song starts out kind of alternative style and keeps that underlying theme through out.  Powerfully sung tune about the self demise of Kurt Cobain of Nirvana, and that says enough in it self.  Strong forward pulse tempo.

8) "Mr. King" Just a little acappella type short piece that leads into the next tune from which I borrowed the actual chorus.  An ode to Stephen King.

9) "Evil Clown Song" This song was written way before I ever heard about KISS' Psycho Circus.  I even had to change the intro to this tune because of it, and in no way is it about them, it's just about how clowns are indeed very scary, as in Stephen King's story, "IT".

10) "Severed Ties" An acoustic song about a previous lover and how I wish her well, although I don't know where she is, I say in this tune that I will, and have made it just fine without her.

11) "The Sound Of You Dancing" Another girlie tune.  At one time I had a girlfriend that was a stripper, imagine that!,....anyhow she was very much afraid of me ever seeing her dance and I never did, so in the end after the relationship was through I often thought about how she did, in fact, dance, but this was left up to my imagination.  Another up tempo song.

12) "Egyptian" Is a fictional tune about what it just might be like to be reincarnated and end up remembering your past while visiting a museum dedicated to the very era you were from,......interesting song, slower even tempo.

13) "Carl And Edna" A song about my maternal grandparents and how their lives were some what up and down at times, the fact that my grandfather became bitter to a degree and was sort of on the outs with my mother right till the end.  They should've had a better life, with less troubles, and I do miss them.  Slow Melodramatic tempo.

14) "They Blow" This one's about people who gossip and or spread rumors about you or anyone for that matter, and twist the truth, if any, to make a more interesting story.  Slanderous folk who in fact, do suck ass!

15) "Clarabelle" A little ditty for people to figure out just what in the hell it is anyway.................

16) "Thanks" Is just that..........

BIG SMILE

Just a few lines from Big Smile to let you know that things are Going Vertical in the studio. We finally are in the home stretch of recording our new CD. Mixing will begin in April and we anticipate a 12 song album with all new , what we consider to be our best stuff. We will start playing some dates early summer to coincide with the CD release. We will keep you posted on all of this info as it gets closer to release time. Our web site is now officially under construction, so things will be rapidly changing over the next short while. We are anxious to play our new songs for your audience , and know that you will love this one."Going Vertical" will be out soon!

Thank you for your continued support. We truly appreciate it! A Big Smile for all of our friends in Holland.

Chris Brockway for Big Smile

STALKING HORSE

Stalking Horse is currently in the studio, recording the full-length follow-up to the 1997 EP, "Half In Shadow". No working title, but there are about 6 songs completed, with some of the song titles as follows:
"In The Fire" - Straight-ahead rocker, pretty much like "Fear". "Save Me" - Rock/industrial hybrid, heavy on the guitars, but with electronic beats, and some tasty keyboards, ala NIN. "Rain" - Instrumental tune, delay gone wild.

In addition to these and other tunes to be completed, I'm also including remixed versions of "Fear" and "Half In Shadow" as a bonus for those who don't have the EP. Recording is underway at my studio, "Bloodspoint Studio". In addition to the ADAT and Mackie setup I used to record "Half In Shadow", I'm also using my new DAW rig, which allows me to do some cool editing things I couldn't do with tape alone.

Although there's no set release date yet, I'm expecting to be done in early summer.

Thanks,

Sean/STALKING HORSE

POSITION

Hi Al from Position here.

Studio Report:

The group Position has been recording over the last year (March '99 to Feb. '00 at RightCoast studios Columbia, Pa USA with engineer Dave Wilkenson (Yes, Steve Howe, Billy Joel) and producer Dave Natale (Plant/Page, Van Halen, Monsters of Rock Tour). Nine songs were recorded, and the cd should be released in April '00. The songs: Nobody's Hero/Out of Reach/Take the Time/In My Heart/Johnny Blues/K.T./Philly Stomp/LR 2000/Drivin On/

                                                      Thanks,
                                                     Lil Al/Position

CHALLENGE

Monday, March 13, 2000

Studio Report for Challenge

Hi everyone,

This week was a bit rough for recording.  We're in the middle of making a lot of changes in our studio.  We are getting rid of our recorders and replacing it with a state of the art computer recording system.  We
appreciate the flexiblility of computer recording as well as the superior sound quality.  This is the way of the future, in our opinion anyway.

In spite of the disruptions, we did succeed in getting some recording done. Mainly rhythm guitars on yet another song.  Which means we now have guitar parts done for 8 out of the 10 tunes.  The guitars are coming along very nicely.  It's really great to play some heavier stuff after "Acoustic Universe" and all of the Acoustic coffee house gigs we have done the past few years. Since there is so much ahead of us this week we will sign off for now.

We will elaborate more on next week's installment.

Till then, Sincerely,

Allison Lindsay & Arno Verstappen
Challenge
http://home.earthlink.net/~challenge

CHAPTER 23

Don Nafe, the drummer & principle songwriter in Chapter 23 (along with a couple of good friends) is presently building a recording studio based around the EMU-Ensoniq Paris system. With any luck the studio should be fully operational by the end of April.

Up until now Chapter 23 had been demoing their new material on their older setup which included a Layla I/O into Cool Edit Pro with excellent results. With the addition of the Paris system, new mics, preamps and midi gear, along with the construction of a LEDE control room and variable surface main room the band expects the quality of their recordings to improve significantly. The band's new material cam be found on their 23 Sound Bytes page at http://www.magma.ca/~dnafe/cd-demos.htm

The band will begin formal recording of their new CD sometime this summer but don't expect a new release until this time next year.

ciao for now

Don Nafe for
Chapter 23

KEVIN CHALFANT

Well today I spent almost the entire day working on a show that I am doing over the weekend. It is a benefit for a local children's charity. We do this event every year to help raise awarness and money to fund the center. The studio was buzzing last though. With a Clique Records blues project called the "Blue Crew". Much like Stevie Ray or ZZTopp, they pump. I am producing and co writing this project for release sometime mid summer. Two Fires will be taking up much of my time later in the year, so I am trying to tie up all of the loose ends now. That is all I have to report to you all right now. I'll be back!

Kevin

INTRUDER

It is george karak...today went a little bit slower, during basic tracks of the 3rd song 2 of ron's spare heads on his drums broke.... he hits the drums so hard........anyway we had to go get new ones.........we are
halfway complete with the basic tracks ...it is really great to be in the studio again recording Intruder music......steve d is producing.....and we are both again playing the guitars on the cd........ benny harrison the keyboard player is working out his parts as I type this to you...he is a fantastic player...he use to play with FRANKE AND THE KNOCKOUTS way back in the day..........sunday report...tonight we start again...talk to u soon gk

INTRUDER

Today we had a fantastic session.......The drum sound is huge....an the bass is bigger and better then the first cd.....we are using a nice combination of new and vintage gear ........I am operating the sound board as steve, ron and ed in the studio to get the live feel.......there is a lot of on the spot creativity happening musically and lyrically. we are shooting for all the rythym tracks this weekend or at least 90 percent of the record as steve is laying down a reference guitar track to guide the rhythm section through the arrangements. Steve will go back and redo all the guitars as overdubs. tracy stopped by to check up on things and was pleased with what he heard.

talk tomorrow....INTRUDER

DAVID MIKAEL

Week of March 5-11 2000 Difference Studios

3 days this week were working with an artist from Switzerland. His name is Michael Boren Williams and he actually grew up in England. His stuff is very melodic with quite a bit of Beatle influence. I have been hired to do alot of the instrumental tracks and produce and finish mix his stuff as well. I got to know him thru the internet and the fact that I'm a bit of a Beatle fanatic as well. We were working on 2 songs this week to be on his upcoming GHOSTWRITER cd release.

The song titles were Long Time Ago and Ghostwriter. He emails me a midi file for each song which we use as a guide track mostly. He also sends me fedex his vocals and other guitar tracks that were done in Europe usually on DAT tape or cd which I reinsert into the new music as it's done. I usually record new live drums, bass, lead guitars and backup vocals.We usually use at least 8 tracks on the drum kit, two tracks on the bass (one off the guitar directly and one microphone on the bass amplifier speaker) Most of the lead guitars and vocals are usually double tracked on two tracks to make it in stereo.

I prefer a Sennheiser 421 mic especially on rock guitar sounds and use a Neumann M 147 vintage tube mic almost exclusively on vocals. Michael's album when finished will probably be available world wide. Also in upcoming editions of the studio update I will be giving you more details of further Michael Boren Williams songs . We also worked on a new young group who sound alot like REM.. their name is Where's Moo? We were just doing a demo couple songs on them and spent only one evening recording. Being a demo I don't think this project will be released until they cut another 5 or 6 songs.

We also just finished mixing and mastering a 5 song ep for a new group called Prayer Garden who are led by ex Lapis Lazuli drummer Alex Denillo from california originally. His stuff is very modern and cutting edge, kinda like Cake or the Cure. Coming uo next week we are working with a christian rock group called Connery Faire headed up by lead singer Conni Whitley. She is a very powerful vocalist with a real raspy voice similar to Janis Joplin, Melissa Etheridge etc.

Also next week is a new group called Son Of Mercury and Lou Gibaldi (Jesse Cutler) who was one of the original cast of GODSPELL the musical. Also in 3 weeks we will be starting on the new John Babcock album which is to be called Chiller Theatre. Liberty DeVito (Billy Joel's drummer) who now lives in Winter Park which is where our studio is (suburb of Orlando) will be playing drums on the session with John Babcock on Bass, and me on lead guitar. Well Gabor that's it for this time and I'll talk to you next week with that week's update. If anyone wants further info on the studi they can always go to my website at www.davidmikeal.com or if they have any questions or info required from any of our artists they can email me at diff@magicnet.net.

KEVIN CHALFANT

Today is Monday, March 6, 2000. I am preparing to work in my studio, but first I MUST make my coffee. Over the weekend, I video taped a friends wedding with my videographer Steven Turner. It was fun and the family will love the gift. The band was terrible though, they usually are at wedding receptions.
I will be working in the studio alone today on lyrics and vocals. I think that this idea of writing from the studio is a good idea. It gives fans the opportunity to see another side of the artist, maybe a bit more personal. I spoke to Serafino from Frontiers on the phone on Friday. He expressed his desire to have us come to the gods 2000 in November. He said that some people were not happy that we cut our set short.

I want to explain this to everyone. When I was asked to perform at gods99, I was told to cut my set to a certain time and get off. The band before us went slightly over and I made the call to get off for respect to the group coming on after us, as they were the headliners of the evening. I appreciate the people wishing that we would have played longer. Many have sent emails saying that we should have headlined. Well, thanks! If you want Two Fires to headline gods, send Frontiers and Now & Then email asking them for this. It is out of our control. Have a great day and do something good for someone today!

Kevin Chalfant
http://www.CliqueRecords.com

CHALLENGE

Sunday, March 5, 2000

Hello and welcome to the first of our weekly recording updates for the latest Challenge CD.  Which is scheduled for release this summer. In the weeks to come, we'll talk about recording various instruments, the recording process itself, mixing, mastering and what we as musicians go through to make it happen.

Those familiar with our last CD "Acoustic Universe" will hear a bit of a departure from the stripped down acoustic sound.  The new songs will be heavier with layered arrangements. However, we are still staying true to our back-to-basics approach.  This really means, lots of "classic" instruments such as Grand Piano and Hammond B3.  As well as clean/open arrangements rather than a cluttered over- produced production.

Our recording process is slightly different than usual.  We have to record on an irregular basis.  This is due to the fact that our studio, ALV Music, is often booked for other acts.  Therefore, our album is taking a lot longer than it would otherwise.  It's not exactly ideal but this is how the bills get paid. Let's bring you up to speed on how far along the CD is now.  So far, all the bass and drum tracks as well as most of the electric guitar parts have been recorded.

We are using the same rhythm section that we did on "Acoustic Universe": Fernand Bos (bass) and Toss Panos (drums).  Fernand is originally from Holland, where he has played with the likes of Hans Dulfer.  Now in LA, he mostly works on music from TV shows such as "Buffy The Vampire Slayer" and "Sliders."  While Toss has played with Steve Vai and Toy Matinee.

The bass and drums were recorded at Cook Studios in Glendale, California a few months ago.  It has a great "live room", which is very suitable for recording drums as well as grand piano and Hammond organ.   Studio owner Wayne Cook is an excellent keyboard player and will be adding his talents by
laying down Piano and Hammond tracks in the near future.  We will save that for another report down the road.  The rhythm section tracks came out great. We've layed down an excellent foundation for making one hell of a CD.

All the guitars and vocals, as well as mixing and mastering will be done in our own studio, ALV Music. The guitar parts are coming along nicely and we will talk about that next week.

'till then,

Many Thanks to Gabor and Strutter Magazine for inviting us to share our recording process with you.  We welcome any feedback or questions you might have.

Allison Lindsay and Arno Verstappen
Challenge
E-mail:  challenge@earthlink.net
Website: http://home.earthlink.net/~challenge

KEVIN CHALFANT

Hello from Power House Studio. Today I worked on a song for the brand new Two Fires CD. The song will be included on the Japanese version of the CD. The song is entitled "Teasing You-Pleasing You". Vocals are not finished and I am honing the lyrics right now. It is a swing shuffle with big guitars (ala Lenny Kravitz) Josh played very cool riffs on this track. I also worked on another track with Alby Odum. It is a strong dance track for a young artist that I am producing. Her name is Jenny Way and she is 17 years old. She sounds like Celine Dion, only younger and very powerful. It is late here right now and I am growing tired as the day comes to an end. I am finishing my book work and emails. When I lay my head down, I will sleep good tonight. I will check in with you tomorrow. My best wishes to you all,

Kevin Chalfant
Two Fires
http://www.CliqueRecords.com

PUSH

01) On The Run - The perfect opener! We had this guitar riff with the double bass drum beat that we used at the end of the shows on the "Shaken..." tour. It just needed a little structure and some lyrics and we had a rocker!  

02) Waitin' In Line - This is what PUSH is all about, heavy guitars and a catchy melody on top. Inspired by a lousy american B-film and some real life experiences.  

03) Too Late - This was written and recorded only a month after Tommy joined the band in late '99. He lays a heavy backbeat and puts his mark on the album for sure.  

04) Broken Down - Again the heavy guitars and the melody combines on this track about broken love. A true PUSH anthem...  

05) One Reason - Not a PUSH album without a couple of ballads. One Reason is the first and it has a real "I'll have another whiskey..." feel to it. Truly one of our better moments.  

06) Believe In Love - Times are tough, but we've got to believe in love these days!!!  

07) Jokerman - Good old Bob Dylan wrote this. Not quite like the original though... He is a great storyteller, and try to analyze the words for this one!   

08) Changes - These are my (Martie) most personal lyrics to date. Describing the feelings I went through knowing that I would become father of twins in may last year. I also tried to convince myself that nothing would change - obviously I wasn't quite right on that one, he, he!     

09) Never Too Loud - This is a good old kick ass rock and roll tune to get you in the mood on a friday night!!! Some of us still "Raise Our Hands To Rock"  

10) Better Late Than Never - Another track to get you going as the weekend approaches. Ain't never too late to rock.  

11) Miracles - A rather personal moment here. I know it sounds cliché but to see your own children being born beats everything - even Lyngby FC beating FC Copenhagen (that's local soccer for you!).

FREAK KITCHEN

FREAK KITCHEN STUDIO UPDATE FEBUARY 2000

Christian Gronlund shares the daily studio mayhem of a recording band, as Sweden's finest FREAK KITCHEN continue working on their fourth studio album, which is again being produced by ex SKAGARACK frontman Torben Schmidt....  

Monday 14:th of February
Left Sweden (early as hell) for Kolding, Denmark and our own Torben Schmidt´s brand new Crocodile Inn-studio (so new he actually was working with insulating the drum room when we got there). Joakim got mad while driving on the ferry between Gothenburg and Fredrikshaven since he spent a good chunk of the Sunday making pancakes for the trip, which he forgot in the fridge. Darn. Mattias rigged the gear, programmed click-track, Joakim changed drum heads, e t c.
We´re using the Paris hard disk recording system by Ensoniq for this record, A very user-friendly and overall swell system.


Tuesday 15:th of February
Torben moved around mikes while Joakim warmed up for the first track. Christian got his camera with him, hoping for some kind of "battle zone"-photosession but Mattias was more or less glued to the computer the entire week, crawling up early, greasy hair in a pony-tail which pretty much eliminated it all. There are million administrative things to do in a recording like this; the actual playing is the minor part of it all. You always got to back-up the stuff, clean up files and a lot of editing and it´s all extremely time consuming. Joakim nailed two groovy songs this day with his unique style of playing and the sound of the drums was very rich and natural.


Wednesday 16:th of February
Hard-core day! Another two tracks were laid down. The style and intensity of the two is kinda furious; lots of odd-time meter and overall pretty fast. Joakim had to build up a of energy since it´s not a matter of just getting through the tune, you´re always looking for the take with the attitude. The annoying voice of Mattias from the control room ("again dude, from the top") could drive any person insane. But then again, Joakim isn´t just anybody and the "drummer from hell" played some heavy shit this day.


Thursday 17:th of February
Arghh!!! Computer fuck-up day! As the hard disk is getting stuffed everything slows down and gee, did it slow down this day... There are few things that can drive Mattias out of his mind more than this irritating shit. Joakim was patient, for a while, trying to record even though the entire system broke down, time after time. Every trick in the book was tried but the basic fact was quite simple: there simply wasn´t enough room on the disk for the program to work properly.
Mattias spent the day inside the computer since not only did the software collapse, all of a sudden the hard ware too decided to take a nap. Verdammt! After hours and hours of re-thinking, patching around cables, making back-ups, the decision was made: the show had to go on, one way or another. Therefore we used Torben´s Pro-Tools system for the rest of the session, converting the files afterwards to Paris. The better half of two tracks were recorded this day. To "ease the pain" we all sat down in the evening and watched "National Lampoon´s Vacation" with good ol´ Chevy Chase and had a glass of wine. Joakim had a semi-crush in his teens on actress/model Christie Brinkley and seeing her again in the movie seemed to cheer him up a bit.


Friday the 18:th of February
Finally things began working again and Joakim managed to squeeze down three tunes excellent. Mattias is working with the lyrics and there will be a list of the titles soon (as well as pictures once we´ve developed the films). Joakim and Christian were thinking about going to town in the evening, having a beer and hanging out. At first, Chris wasn´t up to it but Joakim convinced him they´d have a good time. Once Chris agreed Joakim got tired and decided not to go. It all ended up they both went to sleep around 22:00, half-drunk, farting and telling corny jokes while Mattias stayed up ´til 04:00 am, head in the computer-screen, as usual. What a band!


Saturday the 19:th of February
Yepp, the drummer did it again. Not only did he play some ass-kicking drums on three tunes before noon, he also fixed what was left of the two messed up previous ones and everybody was relieved. The rest of the day was dedicated to shopping and relaxing (while Mattias, of course, lived his so called life in the computer, always working, but you knew that already). In the evening we watched "Office Space", a very funny movie by Mike Judge. I guess everybody got a bit plastered. We were given various pressings and cassettes of the previous Freak Kitchen album from Indonesia, South Korea, e t c, and like little kids we examined them carefully, full of admiration (and a bit of pride).


Sunday the 20:th of February
Going back to Sweden.  

Monday  the 21:th of February Christian just found of a freaky location in Gothenburg which we will rent for some month or two. We are going to continue the recordings of guitars, bass and vocals starting monday the 28:th of febuary. This week is rigging week.

VISIT THEIR WEBSITE HTTP://WWW.FREAKKITCHEN.NU