Deliverance Session diary

We arrived in Gothenbourg and Nacksving studios on the evening of the 22nd of July. Tired from the drive, nervous and excited at the same time. I had about 2 songs ready, both for the heavy albums. The rest 3 heavy songs and 10 or so mellow songs we're not done, and not a single word for the lyrics. One rehearsal. Nervous? You bet! Isak Edh, the owner of Nacksving studios met up and waved his hands from the porch of the local pizzeria/bar. A sight we'd see more than once during this stay.

We got all the gear into the studio and just went to bed basically. The bed however, meant the floor. We had some air matresses with us to keep us from the floor and the roaches that we're infesting the place (hmm, sorry got carried away, no roaches here). We had sacrificed whatever normal lives we lead at home for this recording. Sleeping on the floor, the studio has no windows and outside is the warmest Swedish Summer for 3000 (!) years. There was no rest or days off in sight, so we pretty much started working early the next day.

We always use a click track to keep the same or whatever desired pace throughout the song. No more "Under the weeping moon" endings for us. In Nacksving we were surprised to see that the preferred computer of choice was a PC while nearly all other studios have a Macintosh. The software within wasn't real originals either.

Hmmm, we haven't even started and we are suspicious already. Isak however had quote: "Never had any problems before". Obviously we had to trust him. We started working, and every now and then small things started to happen...things we're breaking down, the computer went on a strike, the tape machine broke down, the sync signal wasn't synching, the drum mics mysteriously changed positions or disappeared. Although we have to give Isak credit for sorting out most of the technical problems that occurred we got a growing suspicion about the guy...does he really know what he's doing?

He spent most of his time down at the local bar drinking beer, literally almost every time we called him on his cell phone he was down in the bar. I had had a serious conversation about his role in this recording. That we needed his help as there was no help from anyone else. Writing this, it feels like I'm playing a joke on myself. Isak's "help" was utterly vague. In the end he was more "in the way". We had several "band-meetings" about "what the hell should we do?". We're there to record our music, not to fix technical shit or to learn about the studio parts. On top of that I had the music to think of, and the rest of the guys too. They need to concentrate on their playing and not on whether the mics will work or the tape machine will work.