OCTOBER 2000
Friday 27 October - Zen Arcade dropped off their gear at M3 suite, RP (Radio Park) Studios in Auckland Park. Recording began the next day, with Neal Snyman behind the desk. Neal's fastidious approach had already produced the excellent results heard on Crazy Over You, Step Back and Sister. New songs recorded were Not About You, Take Out The Trash, Up and Ode. Listening back with fresh ears on Sunday morning it was obvious that Up was way too fast - more like Uptempo. The rest of the morning was taken up with re-recording the song. The remainder of the day was devoted to guitar parts. Although laborious, Neal insisted on putting down up to 3 tracks of each guitar part. This would bear dividends in the final mix, with an incredibly fattened guitar sound. Studio Fever took hold. In the process, Neal almost lost a finger being wheeled at high speed in his chair up and down the corridors of the labyrinthine Radio Park. By close of play, we still hadn't put down vocals and the additional drums for Sister, so Friday 3 November was booked for that.
Tuesday 31 October - Hallowe'en. Our first proper gig at The Big Easy in Kensington. James did up some cheesy B-grade Horror-type posters. We played sandwiched between two sets by the resident Diamond Dogs. The gig went down well, although the stage sound was very bad and thus quite off-putting. Nonetheless, this broke the ice for future appearances at the venue.
Friday 27 October - Iain laid down vocal tracks for tghe songs.
Saturday 28 October - now in the super-duper muthafucka M2 Suite to mix down, the band went went quietly - actually not so quietly - stir crazy. Neal twiddled his knobs endlessly (ho ho ho) while the rest of the band did everything to stay awake. This included the Olympic Shopping Trolley Shove Event (Andrew: Gold, Iain: Silver, Alistair: Bronze), the Hide the Rancid Lasagna Event (Andrew and Iain tied for Gold) and the Intoxicant Event (results are hazy to recall). Classic chirps were exchanged, e.g a boner in the bush is worth two in the hand. |
