The Basic - The Mikko Method 101
Once the technicals were set and ready to go, Mikko gave us a little overview of how he wanted to proceed for the rest of the day. We were all very mellow, until he said, “Alright, pick one of your songs, and we’ll go play the very barebones melodic part without frills or arrangements to see what we have to work with.” We all looked at each other, wondering what language he was speaking in. He saw in our interrogative faces that we didn’t have a clue what he was talking about, so he dropped the hammer down: “You’re amazing in the context of a 15-minute song. This, you have it down 100%. So we will go the exact opposite direction and try to make one of your songs as short as possible, like 3 minutes top.” Our faces went from puzzled to terrified. Mikko was smiling. He had us exactly where he needed to bring us; back to the basics. We picked a song nobody quite remembered how to play in a simplified version, took a few minutes to review the structure, and started playing live. There went my reflective process of looking into the invisible to find direction, I told myself. What’s going on, exactly?!
There we were, in our rehearsal space, trying to figure out how in the name of our good Lord it would be possible for us to even try and play a 3-minute song. Is it even possible? Should we rebel right away on day one, take control of this whole nonsense back? It was crazy. Everyone looked at each other thinking the very same thing: HELP!!!!!! It was dead silent, until Ben said: “Every man for himself, see you on the other side, good luck!” Jeff added “It will be a short journey, see you in 3 minutes, guys!” We all laughed. We heard Jojo in our headphones: “Alright, we are recording.” WHAT??? We are recording as well? S.O.S!
We did play the song barebones a couple of times. I jumped right in… After a year and a half without screaming, there I was. I didn’t want to wait, it would have only set a motion of doubt in my head and when it happens, I know it will be difficult for me to beat that out of my system. So let’s go… It’s only 3 minutes anyway, right?!
The process wasn’t creatively rewarding, but we all knew it was an important stepping stone for us all to invest ourselves in, to know what were the song’s musical center points, to highlight them rather than blur them all with a ton of sonic layers and other complex arrangements. That was a very interesting exercise for us to embrace, even if I had told Mikko that the reason I decided to migrate from Your Favorite Enemies’ conventional song architecture was based exactly on what we had been doing for the last couple of hours: writing with a time code. This was one of the reasons why I always felt restrained and stuck during my 10+ year tenure as YFE’s singer… Going back “there” wasn’t necessarily good news for any of us, but in terms of breaking our molded comfort, I guess it was a necessary start, a type of call for us to go play and stop worrying about all the rest… Again, it was a deeply interesting get-go. And like I told the others after dinner, “No freaking out is allowed before day 4, otherwise we will miss Mikko’s whole point.” No countdown needed, it is more figurative than anything else… JENGA!!!
