It was out of the question to just make a simple recording
with all the colors
and dimensions of our musical ideas missing. We wanted to bring in
additional brass, flutes and background-vocals. To find a sound and an atmosphere.
To make a recording that would be representive.
And we wouldn´t want the listener
to be caught guessing when explaining what we look for.
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Patrick plays.
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Gathering friends
We had the songs and found the right place.
On a low budget we went for a local
studio and gathered musical friends the band really
wanted to work with. Ola´s and my friend Frans Ebbesson were
asked to find an empty spot in his agenda to help us out on
technical matters and contribute with his live-recording and mixing
skills. Due to these circumstances we only had three days in the studio.
One day for the band. One day for the additional
musicians. And one day to mix. I guess you
can call it a hectic weekend. A time-table that of course weren´t ready
for breaking coffee-machines and alarms going off when forgetting to
turn off the new codes.
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Christoffer behind the drums.
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The Additional Musicians
For the recording session we hand-picked the musicians. Despite
an often busy schedule we found a way of getting it together. A lot of the
credit goes to Frans, the soundengineer, for his long working-hours and
patience. I assume he hasn´t had a falafel since...
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How a wellmade
falafel would look.
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On flute Mikael Ekholm. So essential that Urban Fantasy would
have ended up a different song without it.
Singing all those elaborate female vocals Miriam Aida.
She´s just stellar on parts like the bridge on the same song.
On trumpet and flugelhorn Niklas Fredin. We amazingly
enough even found an extra fifteen minutes to add background-vocals.
Wonderful musician.
On great trombone Matthias Eskilsson.
On tenorsaxophone Matt Keegan, coming all the way from Australia
to record with us. Well, not actually...End Solo on Willie´s Bike.
Robban Persson added
that soulful flavor with his vocals.
And I
was having a perfect weekend. Thanks to all of you.
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The CD.
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The Cover
The idea of Selfmademan is to do as much as possible yourself.
And surround ourselves with friends. We have been fortunate enough to
know Art Director Stefan Hartle for many years now.
He actually made the very first cover for a band we had called President.
It was an obvious choice to ask him. We sat down and listened
to the demo. He said he´d try something out and I think he came up with just the
right result.
Follow up
This is just a beginning. A demo.
But with it in hand we have set a course. A direction.
Except for that
a CD is very useful.
It can be sent to suspicious major labels. And to other ones.
It can be used when fishing for gigs and so on. More on this subject
later.
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Oskar and Carsten.
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I did enjoy the days in the studio and look forward
to the next time.
Personally I think you can´t top the feeling when
you are doing things to satisfy yourself.
This was that kind of occasion.
I´ve had good times playing covers and I have not.
Working with original material is totally
different. Special.
This was a great chance to discover that.
-Carsten
©2001-2002, Selfmademan. All Rights Reserved.
