Tuesday 10.9.2013 Rehersal Day 7:

No new songs today :-( , actually we did chart a new faster song so at the moment, I think

we're missing like one or two songs...or something. Spent the day playing through the stuff and making notes, talking about the order of the songs on the album etc. At some point I'll start to go through the keyboard tracks one by one and lay down some more ideas and demo-stuff. We also spent some time trying to locate the Alone in Heaven-video, it's been done since last christmas or something and now when it's supposed to be put online nobody seems to have it or find it. Everything got sorted out so if everything goes as planned it should be up for you to watch tomorrow or the day after. Somehow I get the feeling that this video was not ment to be since there has been so much fuckin hassle with it.Keep your thumbs up that this will be the last of the trouble with that one. Btw didn't remember to take any pics...sorry about that, I'll give it another shot. The twitter guys, Elias and Pasi probably got something up or will do so....like usual. Can't wait to get into the studio btw, this is gonna be one cool album to make. Then again we're always excited when we work on new stuff so....you never know if you gonna like the end result or not....be that as it may, we all find out soon enough.

cheers,

Henkka

Monday 9.9.2013 Rehersal Day 6:

....ah Monday mornings, gotta love 'em. Elias flight was delayed so Tony,Tommy & I started out the day a bit earlier than the other guys. Anyway, we managed to make the charts for the 10 minute epic and play through it as well....we also made charts of another fast song (152bpm, for those of you who care). At the moment it looks like we're only missing a couple of tracks, then we'll fine tune the stuff and start recording...btw this was kinda funny:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3DlDPeurRw

...slow day at work, I bet we get something more done tomorrow. Elias and Pasi were once

again left in the woods to record some demo guitars and basses....good luck boys, I'll be 

in the sauna if you need me. Until tomorrow.

cheers,

Henkka

Friday 6.9.2013 Rehersal Day 5

Hola,
not too much to tell ya about today. Went through the songs and it seems we have around 4 tracks to check next week and then everything will be more or less in order. Worked on the arrangements for the 6 tracks we already know and learned this week. I don't remember us working this fast like....ever. It's really nice since we're gonna have some time to check and double check and triple check everything before entering the studio in a few weeks. As far as the music goes I hear a lot of "old school" Sonata in most of the songs.....maybe we start to become a power metal band again ;-) Anyways this was a really productive week and on that note it's nice to start spending the weekend at home and try not to think about this stuff for two days. We'll be back on Monday when we'll try to tackle a 10 minute epic, destined to become a SA classic....I hope ;-)

Have a nice weekend, I'll try to take some pics next week.

cheers,
Henkka

Thursday 5.9.2013 Rehersal Day 4 (lazy bastards)

Hi there,
jumped on the bike in the morning and hammered my way to Tony's house and from there we went to the SL to resume rehersals. We didn't check out any new songs today but went through the Demo stuff that Pasi and Elias had recorded last night. Since the guys live at the SL while up north, the don't have too much to do in the evening so they decided to record demo guitars and bass for the 6 songs we've already made ourselves familiar with. Since it was Tommy's birthday (btw he's getting old these days, like 50 or something) we sung for him and welcomed him in the "we're dudes over 20"-club. Go figure. Anyways it was more about chatting, making plans, talking about the songs and arrangements than actually playing something. I bet we get down 2-4 more songs tomorrow before it's time to have our weekend break. I got a call from our manager about some exciting thing in the making and I'll of course let you know as soon as I'm allowed to. Next year will be superfun (no I'm not 16) with all kinds of stuff happening.....Be that as it may when I rode my bike home after the day at the office, it fucking broke down and I had to walk the last 500m, dragging the damn thing while smoking and cursing. Wasn't too happy at that moment. I'm sure this has happend to someone else in the world as well so...
...fuck it, I'll drive tomorrow. Feeling more relaxed now after a refreshing sauna.

Until Tomorrow,
cheers,
Henkka

Wednesday 4.9.2013 Rehersal Day 3:

..and good morning to y'all. I actually took my bike to Tony's house (around 6km from my place)...that woke me up nicely. Then it was time to got to the SL and start working.Today we managed to go through two new songs, a heavy one and a faster one as well as make the charts for another 2, so at the moment we more or less have figured 6 songs out that will be on the album. At the moment it seems like we've never worked this fast before, well when it's clicking there's no reason to slow down. Other than that the day was a reasonably normal "day at the office" kinda thing. Had some noodles for lunch, Chicken & chili was todays flavour.Decent but not superb. Funny that someone actually asked for pics of my keys on the day that I did take some pics of my rehersal setup for these sessions. Check 'em out below. Until tomorrow...

cheers,

Henkka

The whole bunch: SV-1, M3(76), Zoom G-1 (borrowed from Elias) my old Kawai mixer and the DX7 triggering the live rack (with another M3, Alesis Quadraverb GT & Boss SuperOverdrive.

The Zoom and the mixer, you actually can't see shit, I thought B&W pics with a retrocam-app would look cool but this really sucks.....haha...

...and in the background there's one of the bands MacBooks running Cubase and our trusty Behringer mixer...cheap and durable....excellent for rehersals.

Tuesday 3.9.2013 Rehersal Day 2

Watched some Z-Rock last night, funny stuff ;-) Anyways at around 10 in the morning we congregated at the SL and made a quick soundcheck before starting to work on the first songs. The first song we worked on was a slow and mellow one, we pretty much got it down in an hour or so. After lunch we managed to learn another song, this time something heavier and faster. I'm not gonna try to explain how our new stuff sounds because there's no chance in hell that I get it right anyway. Be that as it may, by the end of the day we had two songs learned and I'm sure we get a couple more tomorrow. Tonight it's time to head out to Tonys place as soon as I get the little rascals to bed. We're gonna have a couple of beers and some sauna to officially open the album sessions.

cheers,

Henkka

ps. Don't forget to follow Elias and Pasi on twitter:

https://twitter.com/Elias_Viljanen

https://twitter.com/SonataKemi

Monday 2.9.2013 Rehersal Day 1

Alrighty, time for another album. So let's get to it. I met up with Tommy around noon at the secret location (from here on to be called SL). We spent a couple of hours setting things up. For those of you who are interested: I'm using two M3's, one with 76 keys and the other one triggered by an DX7. On top of that I have my SV-1 and a D-20 for Tony, actually I'm bringing him a Fantom XR for tomorrow, so he can get some cool sounds. Other than that we have a bunch of PA equipment and Pasi brought his computer him and Elias can do some demo-recordings and prepare for the studio sessions.  Today we just put up the gear, listened to some of Tonys demos and played through Alone in Heaven and Cinderblox....and decided that the guys would pick up two more speakers for the PA system from our rehersal place. Tomorrow we'll start working on the first songs, let's

see what happends.

comic relief of today: http://www.stara.fi/2013/09/01/24-hulvatonta-kylttia-maailmalta/

cheers,

Henkka