“It Sucks… RIGHT!?!”
I talked with Mikko about how important the opening and closing tracks of a record are for me. The song sequencing is a lost art, that’s been baffled since the shuffle option appeared on music players before becoming an almost archaic thing of the past now that DSP services came to dictate how we were supposed to consume music. As you probably know, I don’t really care about any of those exterior influences regarding how I’m doing things, especially not how I’m sharing my creative universe with you all. People can reimagine the voyage as they make it their own soon after, but at least, you’d know how I’d lived my initial journey stream before anyone starts to reassemble its different pieces into a whole new endeavor. It’s not truly the conceptual nature of what I do that comes into play here, but it’s how life has flown out of my heart and soul throughout the recording process that is important for me to stand for, as I’m communing its very first incarnation.
Therefore, regarding the album’s closing, Mikko had a vision for one particular song, an unfinished part of a writing rehearsal we had a few months back. If it wasn’t necessarily appealing for any of us, at least in its actual form, we were nonetheless disposed and willing to give it a shot. But before we did, since we were getting a little closer toward the end of the initial production phase, I reminded the band members of the album’s meaning. For me, it was an essential intervention since we were so deeply involved in its purposeful dimension since Mikko had arrived with us. I couldn’t care less about whatever might come after the record would be done. Would it be well received once released? Would it be appealing to the masses? My view was about honesty and relevancy, not the level it might bring to my career. That is completely elusive for me, as it’s alien to the reasons why I’m so invested in the record even though I feel like half-dead still. Don’t get me wrong, I want my music to go as far as it could go – to offer me the blessing to commune with as many people as possible – but it’s a soulful reason that inspires me to do so, not a promise of potential stardom. I tasted a sample of that poison before, it wasn’t for me at all, so it’s even more uncanny for me now, and I don’t think my literal content is too general-public-friendly anyway. Keeping the voyage’s affective authenticity is already quite an intense motion to be into. Emphasizing the journey of going ever deeper is the only thing I desire, and it demands everything from you.
That’s why I wanted the band to stay aligned with the emotional core of the record and to let its spiritual nature be the invisible force guiding us through. It wasn’t for us to define where it was going nor to pretend that we knew the essence of what it was all made of. Again, it is quite a challenge since we haven’t approached the production from a one-song-leading-to-the-next type of natural stream like we usually proceed. But it is an approach I might adopt once the foundation of the record is done in a week or so. At this point, we have to project ourselves into the different spiritual places we are being “dropped” at, as we’re specifically focussing on a fragment of its unclear ongoing flow.
We started to play the song and it wasn’t it. You have to believe in what you do to entirely abandon yourself to it. We tried to turn it around, to rewrite some of it, to do something completely remote from what we were supposed to rehearse until Mikko asked us what we were doing.
Therefore, regarding the album’s closing, Mikko had a vision for one particular song, an unfinished part of a writing rehearsal we had a few months back. If it wasn’t necessarily appealing for any of us, at least in its actual form, we were nonetheless disposed and willing to give it a shot. But before we did, since we were getting a little closer toward the end of the initial production phase, I reminded the band members of the album’s meaning. For me, it was an essential intervention since we were so deeply involved in its purposeful dimension since Mikko had arrived with us. I couldn’t care less about whatever might come after the record would be done. Would it be well received once released? Would it be appealing to the masses? My view was about honesty and relevancy, not the level it might bring to my career. That is completely elusive for me, as it’s alien to the reasons why I’m so invested in the record even though I feel like half-dead still. Don’t get me wrong, I want my music to go as far as it could go – to offer me the blessing to commune with as many people as possible – but it’s a soulful reason that inspires me to do so, not a promise of potential stardom. I tasted a sample of that poison before, it wasn’t for me at all, so it’s even more uncanny for me now, and I don’t think my literal content is too general-public-friendly anyway. Keeping the voyage’s affective authenticity is already quite an intense motion to be into. Emphasizing the journey of going ever deeper is the only thing I desire, and it demands everything from you.
That’s why I wanted the band to stay aligned with the emotional core of the record and to let its spiritual nature be the invisible force guiding us through. It wasn’t for us to define where it was going nor to pretend that we knew the essence of what it was all made of. Again, it is quite a challenge since we haven’t approached the production from a one-song-leading-to-the-next type of natural stream like we usually proceed. But it is an approach I might adopt once the foundation of the record is done in a week or so. At this point, we have to project ourselves into the different spiritual places we are being “dropped” at, as we’re specifically focussing on a fragment of its unclear ongoing flow.
We started to play the song and it wasn’t it. You have to believe in what you do to entirely abandon yourself to it. We tried to turn it around, to rewrite some of it, to do something completely remote from what we were supposed to rehearse until Mikko asked us what we were doing.
– Mikko: “Where are we guys?!? It doesn’t sound like the song we are supposed to work on, no?!?”
So we regrouped and restarted executing the initial plan, to no avail.
Jeff, stopped playing and said:
“Don’t tell me I’m the only one that thinks it’s not only way too far from what Alex has just shared, but it also sucks real bad. If you don’t tell Mikko, I will, it’s not the song we need.”
Mikko, who was in the studio control room, could feel some tension. You don’t need to speak French to figure out someone is pissed off.
– Mikko: “What’s going on, guys?”
– Jeff: “It sucks and it’s not the song we need.”
We all started laughing, looking at Mikko’s WTF silent facial expression. I explained to him what we had talked about before getting the song.
He then said:
“Ok, Ben, Sef, Miss Isabel, come in the studio for 2 minutes, let’s see how we can turn it around to make it real and right. If we can’t, we’ll move on. Let’s find out what we have here… ”
That’s when you know we are all in it for the same goal. There’s no ego, no power issues… we’re together, as one, at the service of the album’s specific identity.
So we regrouped and restarted executing the initial plan, to no avail.
Jeff, stopped playing and said:
“Don’t tell me I’m the only one that thinks it’s not only way too far from what Alex has just shared, but it also sucks real bad. If you don’t tell Mikko, I will, it’s not the song we need.”
Mikko, who was in the studio control room, could feel some tension. You don’t need to speak French to figure out someone is pissed off.
– Mikko: “What’s going on, guys?”
– Jeff: “It sucks and it’s not the song we need.”
We all started laughing, looking at Mikko’s WTF silent facial expression. I explained to him what we had talked about before getting the song.
He then said:
“Ok, Ben, Sef, Miss Isabel, come in the studio for 2 minutes, let’s see how we can turn it around to make it real and right. If we can’t, we’ll move on. Let’s find out what we have here… ”
That’s when you know we are all in it for the same goal. There’s no ego, no power issues… we’re together, as one, at the service of the album’s specific identity.
