She Said Destroy recording, Day 6

Snorre, SSD

The last day of recording. More guitars and weird noises. This has been the most fun day so far, because all the hard parts are done, and we can just sit back, listen to what we have done, and toy around with sounds and small ideas. And draw cocks. We came up with some shocking sounds by combining a few random pedals, I think we have successfully duplicated the midi soundtrack sound from the first "Prince of Persia"-game. Which means that we've done something with 10000 pounds worth of pedals, guitars and amps that someone else did with an Amiga 500. In 1989. Yet again, we are victorious.

Victory

Also, the facial hair situation down here is getting out of control. Bjørn Tor has looked like the Unabomber for a while now, but he is now getting to a stage where he looks like the subject of an episode of "Animal Cops".

One of them are in my band

Meanwhile, my own facial hair has also reached critical mass. Unfortunately for me, this only means that I look like I've just entered puberty, or that I'm a ski jumper from the eighties. I should really have a better beard by this age. But I don't. As my understanding of toiletries is limited, I only brought one rusty razor with me, but not foam. After severely disfiguring my chin and cheeks with only this razor and water, I opted to leave my upper lip alone, which only made it worse.

After finishing the tracking, we went and did something really cool, which was to go to a wool mill situated in an old stone building nearby and record some reverberations. We pumped out the drum tracks into the room and set up a set of mics in the other end to record it. It sounds great, and adding it to the track really makes it gel. Corin, our engineer, really is a genius.

A genius.

So, it's all done. We will overdub some acoustic guitars at a later stage, and then we will record vocals and mix this whole thing in February. Hopefully we'll get a release date in not too long. Check our Facebook for updates. I promise, the record will be worth the wait.

Thanks so much to Corin for his expertise and endless patience. Thanks to DC for flying over from the States to record this thing, you've done an amazing job. And a special thanks to Corin's parents for letting us stay in their house and for helping out. You've been amazing.

Reverb, beard.

What will he do next?

Something subtle.


Possibly downloading something unclean onto Corin's computer

Drummer, documentarian, great tan.

facialhairfacialhairfacialhairfacialhairfacialhairfacialhairfacialhairfacialhairfacialhairfacialhair

She Said Destroy recording, Day 5

Snorre, SSD

We can now hear things starting to come together. A lot of time has been devoted to guitar sounds, trying to get all the parts as varied as possible, and trying to find a justification for me buying a ridiculous amount of effects pedals. We came up with a lot of very interesting things though, and we are now absolutely unlistenable to anyone in a Slayer t-shirt. Or just absolutely unlistenable. Being a metal guitarist, I am taking longer to record clean guitars than the distorted ones, because I just don't know how to play someting pretty. The concept of a guitar that isn't pointy confuses and scares me, to be honest.
But I'm learning

I'm very glad we brought all our equipment down, even though it looks like a joke when you stack it all up. It looks like we should be playing Wembley. However, being able to swap the amp around, or pick up a different guitar really gives the different parts personality. It's also a lot more inspiring than getting the sound you want and then playing everything with that one sound throughout.

More than 50 tracks of Pure Unlistenable.

The amount of pizzas consumed during the week is now intolerable. The locals are watching us in disgust when we buy our food now. But pizzas have one big advantage over other, less cardiac arrest-inducing food, which is that they come in a box that can be used instead of a plate. That way there is no washing up involved. Single men all over the world have known this for generations, of course, but we are perfecting the technique. Today I cut a pizza on the floor to avoid having to make room on the table. The kitchen smells a bit like poo, but we haven't tried to localize the source of the smell yet. It might come from me.

Smiling, because I don't understand

State of the art microphones

These two guys make the most unholy racket


This is all Corin needs to be happy

She Said Destroy recording, Day 4

Snorre, SSD

Today is when the distorted guitars happened, a high point for me as I am in many ways similar to Macaulay Culkin in the "Black and White" video.
Only much, much less cute


There is something primitively satisfying in cranking up a big amp as loud as you want. We had a few good references to compare our sound to, and after a lot of tweaking and crawling around with microphone stands we finally ended up with the massive, roaring sound that we wanted. The one that we have been geekily talking about for the last six months, possibly while wearing unfashionable clothes and being very, very uninteresting to non-guitarists.

But to us unhip people...

The day also saw us recording some bass overdubs, mostly effects. We thought it was a good idea to hook up all the fuzz pedals and amps that we had, and have DC play through it all at the same time. It sounded pretty awesome. Another mic blown.

My rhythm guitars are all done now, which is nice. We are now completely on schedule, which has probably never happened in the history of recording music, but I'm sure I can do something about that tomorrow, when I am doing all the clean guitars.

On a different note, Lampeter might very well be the nicest place in the UK. Despite the astonishingly bad weather we've had, I don't think I've seen prettier nature over here. And the people are so friendly. They actively try to help us wherever we go, whether it be to find beer, find pizza or find steak. I haven't been afraid of being stabbed in the eye with a stolen screwdriver even once, and that is an unusual feeling of freedom for someone living in the Liverpool city centre. I'm definitely coming back here.


The watchful eye of a fellow guitar player

Our secret weapon

The jury, listening to what I did. Corin is laughing.


Guitar/waterboarding corner

God i hate Kassabian and their shitty, shitty music.

She Said Destroy recording, Day 2+3

Snorre SSD

Ok, this should've been updated ages ago, obviously, but when lightning strikes and fries your internet connection, what can you do? Apart from the house it also hit the studio and my car, which was nice. We didn't need those microphones anyway.

So, the recording is sounding great. And i do mean great. Our fan will love this. He might even think it is the best thing we've ever done. Cause it is. I'd say that our drum and bass sound is incredibly heavy. I dread to use the word, cause I hate Zeppelin, but it really has that feel to it. Big, filthy, and natural sounding. Incidentally, two of those words also apply to our drummer.


We have been incredibly lucky with everything so far, apart from the lightning incident, which was probably due to me making Jesus jokes in the previous blog post. I promise I won't do it again.
I promise, Jesus

Working with Corin is always a pleasure, and my suspicions that he is in fact the most versatile engineer/producer in the UK at the moment are growing stronger by the hour. He also insists on wearing those nice orange trousers, which I find highly arousing. I honestly do not think we could have gotten a better result in terms of sound than we have been getting so far down here in Lllwwwllwaffllffllwwlfyynnggnlllffwwlingg, even if we went to a professional studio. It's incredible how far you can get with limited equipment as long as you (not me, I've no idea) know how to use it.

Her name is Glyn, she's Welsh, and her eyes are like stars in the sky.
She doesn't mind our limited equipment.

I honestly, again, do not know what we would have done without the Orange amps. They sound so heavy, and at the same time so clear, and thinking back at the sound that we have been getting from our amps earlier, I don't understand what we've been doing. The fact that we have just recently discovered the joys of playing at civilized tempos might add to my wide eyed wonder at how this is sounding, but it is nice not having to force the instruments to sit well together in the mix. This might all change when I waddle in with my guitars, though. In the meantime I'm enjoying the timeless sound of two bass amps screaming for mercy and an old Ludwig kit being beaten to submission.

Yes.

The manliest of all pictures

Yes. Yes.
Posing, Grevey style pt.1
Posing, Grevey style pt.2

Sometimes we let him run free in the garden

The sophisticated humor of men in studios

And again.

She Said Destroy recording, Day 1

Snorre, SSD

As part of our neverending quest to alienate music listeners all over the world, we are now in the process of recording a 25 minute long doom/noise/J-pop masterpiece. We are no strangers to giving our dedicated fan base what they want, so as a gesture to the 7 people that bought our last record we are going to tell you all about how we are going about making this one.

We've gathered all our equipment and brought it to beautiful Cellan, Wales. We did this utilizing the technique of log driving, only instead of logs we moved musical equipment and instead of a river we had thousands of sheep. Eschewing our normal recording process of tracking every instrument separately in a studio, we have instead decided to get down and dirty and are recording us playing together as live as possible, just as we said we would never do 5 years ago. So here we are, with our unnecessary amounts of equipment and an unhealthy obsession with distorted bass.

Getting to Wales in the middle of the night in the worst storm of the year and with more than 100 flood warnings in the area was not the most pleasant of experiences. However, a few pit stops on the way to get some healthy food gave us energy and helped us stay fresh and alert.
Pictured above: Freshness

We arrived at 8 in the morning, and after way too little sleep we went to work. Our bass and drum sound is now the filthiest thing ever, and we cannot wait to start tracking tomorrow. Thank you, Sindre Bjarne Skeie, for letting us use your drum kit. And thank you, Baby Jesus, for Orange Amps. We want more of them. Please give us more amps, Jesus.

Anyway, we would make Steve Albini proud with this record. No clicky typewriter-sounding kick drums, and most importantly no thousands of overdubs on the guitars. I guess all those people that I have been shaking my head over, all those people talking about "capturing the live feel, the sound of four guys in a room" were really onto something. Am I getting old? And possibly more ugly? Probably.

While what's left of my youth and beauty is rapidly fading, our handsome and talented engineer, Corin, is climbing on walls and ceilings, putting microphones in unorthodox places, ensuring that at least one serious injury will occur during this week. Dangling expensive electronic equipment from old wooden structures 3 metres above the floor? Why yes, of course. Anything to make the drums sound just a little bit less like they belong on a metal record.

We'll be back with less rambling and more information tomorrow, when we have actually recorded something, and probably also when things, as they always will, start going wrong.

Every bass player should at least once in his lifetime try and hook up two amps together and distort one of them.

Also, more people should speak with a Welsh accent.


The man, his pedals, his wedding dress


Comforting the snare

Anders
orangetrousersorangetrousersorangetrousersorangetrousersorangetrousers

Garage/studio

Drummer/model

Things are stirring in the She Said Destroy camp

hey people,

a short update from She Said Destroy can be found here

SSD will blog during the recording here at Promo Erectus HQ.

More info to follow.

Anders

Grünerlökken Hurtigmatforretning presenterer: Elephan9, DU, Spurtbass. 9. Oktober, Parkteatret Scene

Parkteatret Scene i samarbeid med Grünerlökkens Hurtigmatforretning presenterer med stolthet:

Elephant9
DU(Det är jag som är döden)
Sprutbass

9.oktober på Parkteatret Scene
CC: Kr. 150,-
Forsalg på billettservice.no og i baren på Parkteatret.

Dette kommer til å bli en av høstens deiligste konsertopplevelser i hovedstaden.

Elephant9 er en fantastisk trio bestående av Ståle Storløkken(Supersilent), Torstein Lofthus(Shining) og Nikolai Eilertsen(The National Bank). Intens psykedelisk jazzprog med mer enn et hint av 60- og 70-tallet. Kanskje norges drøyeste liveband.

DU
Det er DU som er Det är jag som är döden.
Bandet har spilt en mengde konserter på Parkteatret og vi liker å regne dem som vårt husband. Det er høye forventninger knyttet til deres kommende album. DU vil åpne kvelden med sin helt særegne form for synthpop og det er garantert duket for smakebiter fra nevnte album.

Sprutbass
Sprutbass aka Eivind Henjum fra Dødpop-kollektivet har begynt å gjøre seg gjeldende i den norske elektronikascena som Skwee-sjangerens fremste ambassadør. Sprutbass vil lime sammen kvelden med diggbare beats og frysningsfremmende synthlyder.

Grünerlökken Hurtigmatforretning er et samarbeid mellom artistrådgivningsbyrået Promo Erectus og ansatte i Parkteatret Bar.

for spørsmål, kontakt Promo Erectus(Anders Ugmod): promoerectus@gmail.com
tel: 92417588