Frames Index
Producers and sound engineers:
We asked our friends to follow us in the studioTHE GREATEST SOUND ENGINEER IN THE WORLD: NOT TOMAS JONSON...
- Tomas Jonson pulling and pushing on the controls. Pasi listening carefully in the background. The final recording session of " Mono Sapiens' Sixteen Frog Vomits - You Need Them Like A Hole In The Head", may 1993. Photo © Jarmo Haapamäki
Studio Skyline, Eskilstuna
The recordings we've made in the low-cost studio Skyline in Eskilstuna haven't always sounded so great. The first maxi The Correct Use Of Hope was recorded there 1988, a guy called Bo Edving was working there as a sound engineer. The incredible thing was that we weren't allowed to touch the mixing table at all. "Don't touch it, you don't know what to do!" It didn't sound like we wanted, but that's yesterday. Next time (1992) we decided to use the studio (it was cheap) we made sure that Mr. Edving didn't come near the place while we were there. Instead there was a guy called Peter Rosenbach who put the mike stands and microphones where they should, switched on everything, helped us to find proper sounds and --- he went home! It suited us fine, we could make fools of ourselves without anybody watching behing our backs.
But we needed someone to push that red rec-button and make adjustments and so on. And what's more important: We wanted someone who could say if it sounded good. Or: someone who could say stop when it started to sound too awful.
Bulls Eye
The sound engineer/producer (sort of) for the Bulls Eye songs was John Freytag, the guitar player of Dorian Gray, another group from Hälleforsnäs. He was a fine guy to work with, he wanted to put more and more distortion in everything and made sure that we didn't use any unneccessary echoes or tremoloes or that kind of wimpy toys on the record. The resultat sounded hard and uncut, like it was supposed to do.
We never thanked him on the CD sleeve. We thank him now. He did a great job.
John helped us a couple of times in Skyline studio. A month of so after the CD was released we returned to the studio to finish the rest of the songs we had recorded hastly in the autumn (we recorded ten songs at the same day but finished only the four that ended up on Bulls Eye). We wanted to play a few other songs before we touched the songs that would end up on the record. We usually sound much better after we are really warmed up. At the time we were playing really fysical rock'n'roll.
Mono Sapiens' Sixteen Frog Vomits - You Need Them Like A Hole In The Head
After recording the songs for the Bulls Eye compilation (and couple of other tunes as well...) we wrote some new songs and the first of May 1993 we returned to the very same studio to record those new songs. Alltogether there were 17 songs we recorded during that winter. The songs ended up on the cassette: Mono Sapiens' Sixteen Frog Vomits - You Need Them Like A Hole In The Head.
John didn't follow us to the studio this time. We asked a guy from the local motorcycle club called Tomas Jonson instead. We chose him 'cause we knew that we would get totally free hands. He wouldn't tell us what to do and what not to do. We knew that he didn't know anything about recording music. He has problems with handling the stereo player at home. He doesn't play any instrument. He has absolutely nothing to do in a recording studio.
Tomas is a great guy. We used to hire him to come to our concerts (well, we didn't have to, he came along anyway) 'cause he usually got the rest of the audience going. He was yelling and jumping and exited by the music. He showed everybody else that they didn't have to be quiet and check out what everybody else in the audience is doing.
We thought it would be cool to have that kind of guy as a sound engineer and producer.
The studio owner (well, he opened the doors for us anyway) showed Tomas where all the buttons were. "Here is the switch for the gate to the snare drum. In a rim shot section you may have to turn this down so that the snare drum can be heard at all", the man explained to Tomas. "Do you think I'm an idiot? Get lost! I tell you, it isn't the first time I am in a recording studio!" Tomas replied and made the man dissapear. After he'd left Tomas asked us what the heck the guy was talking about. "Gate? What's that?" We told Tomas he didn't have to worry about that sort of things. "Just put the rec button when we're ready to play".
That's why you can't hear the snare drum (rim shot) in the quiet section of No Soul.
Tomas wasn't that much of a producer for us, but he thought he was. Every now and then he urged us to put "more feeling" into it. And then he pushed that red button again and the tape continued to roll...
We recorded and mixed seven songs in two days. Tomas was already fed up with his work after one day, he didn't want to follow us to the studio on the second day. "First it was fun when you played all together. Then it became so boring when it was time to dub more guitars and vocals. I wanted to stay home instead", he declared.
So we finished the recordings and mixed the whole stuff all by ourselves.
Bulls Eye was a CD-project (1992-1993) of four Swedish rock bands who decided to make a CD together, four songs from each band.
The bands were: Dirt U, Dorian Gray, Candy Kicks Ass and The Soul Preachers.
The record was released in April 1993. The Soul Preachers songs were recorded in october 1992.
- If you're interested in buying the CD, e-mail the.soul.preachers@tough.com But don't wait too long, there's only a few copies left.
TOMAS JONSON FANS, TAKE A LOOK AT THE SOUL MATES PAGE TOO!
The Soul Preachers site is updated every now and then. At the end we've revealed everything about the band... - -visitors on this very page since October 14th, 1997.
- Webmaster: Jarmo Haapamäki (Sweden)