Christian "D Lux" Nunnikhoven's studio diary
for Brutal Deluxe's 2nd album:
"MR KURTZ...HE DEAD!"
DAY 1 Tuesday 21st May
Well,we're finally recording that difficult second album at the New Rising Studio in Essex. Never been to the place before but I know Orange Goblin and Cradle of Filth did their most recent albums here, so It's gotta be pretty good...hasn't it ? Well it's got a swimming poll for starters....but more on that later.Anyway, I drive up with my gear, you know all the stuff,amps, speakers, guitars, groupies, twin speed vibrators.. and Jon and Mike (the Producer) are in front with his drums and sordid sexual equipment (they have the map and boy did we need it!! We now know the country roads of Essex very well) Maxximus is coming up this evening on his motorbike.
The studio's set amongst some very beautiful countryside and has a nice line in automated front gates (obviously to keep the groupies out...or more than likely in !) We're greeted by the owner Mark Daghorn and in house engineer Hugh ( I think...Shit! I still don't know his last name though!) and they show us round. The place has a very relaxed feel to it and I immediately pick up a good vibe.......phew! no demons left over from those Cradle sessions !! Jon immediately starts on his kit and within 1/2 hour he's beating the crap out of them....definitely time for me to retire to a more placid environment !
So here I am sitting in the kitchen (has a phone line so I can send out my words of wisdom to you lot) and I'm reflecting on having to not only record an album in 2 weeks, drink loadsa wine and beer, do a hundred lengths of the pool before breakfast but also do a bleeding diary for you lot ! You see I sound quite lucid now but you wait until the end of the first week !!
What did we achieve today ? Well, not a lot.The first day is nearly always a write off cos a lot of time is spent getting drum sounds (although Jon is using a lot of electronic stuff) and sorting out wires and of course getting the groupies drunk enough to perform unspeakable acts for us...that bit was going really well until the local farmer complained !!
Producer Mike Buchanan's approach was "burn all the clicktracks ! Get 'em out..we want feel...true artistic expression" Very peculiar we thought for someone who'd worked with Kylie !! Anyway, We did finally start on"Psycho industrial da da" which for some reason didn't wanna groove ( blooody drummers! ) I remedied this when I fed our Jon some superfudge and the shit suddenly rocked like a beast.Jon's a bit like a finely tuned drag car though..too much nitro and he blows, so no more superfudge for him !!
Maxximus slammed his part straight away with some virtuoso voodoo jazz in the middle eight and me, well I get to put my stuff on last, all on my own..sniff!
I think we got over the initial studio threshold and are now gonna finish the thing a week before scheduled (YEAH RIGHT!)
DAY 2
Ah ! Morning has broken,the birds are singing and bloody Jon's playing his drums !!! Oh Well, the swimming pool beckons, time for a few lengths before breakfast. The pool is fringed by trees and really warm,all we need is...well, not British weather!!
After a full English breakfast we're on the case. Maxximus and I are just laying down guide tracks at the moment, that means just playing so Jon has something to play to...apart from his imagination. What we're after is capturing the feel, that ultimate groove, very often difficult in a studio, listening through headphones with an uninspiring sound. Anyway after a few false starts we manage to get down our Sabbath-type stoner track,"life sentence"and "ėverything you know is wrong". A break for lunch with us all talking bollox to eachother. Mike is recounting tales of his session with Catatonia and being referred to as "Sphincter Boy'" We'll be watching our backs from now on !!!
Mark, the infamous studio owner has cleaned the pool. The bottom is nice and clean now ...before this, Maxximus and I were contesting how many leaves we could eat with every length underwater. Great fun but you do need some serious dental floss afterwards. Oh Jeez!...my turn for some more guide guitar...aah it's great to be a missing person.
That went great, Mike had decided that we should first sort out the chorus to "The Book that changed my life" we weren't happy with it either,,just didn't rock.We've now gone for a Faith No More feel and it sounds a lot better now, dark and tense. We're all impressed at how clever we are,let's hope everyone else does !!
DAY 3
Ohhhhhhh..........head hurts. Session ended in a blur last night. Why on Gods earth am I doing this, it's not fair. Why didn't me mum and dad tell me to get a proper job in some nice,quiet non-smoking environment. No, they always had to encourage me to chase and follow my dreams no matter what they were.....God! I'm so Dutch suddenly.
One of the consoling things is that the whole Brutal gang seems to be suffering in equal measures. Realising this gets me over my hang -over pretty quickly and I start turning up the volume of the takes we did last night.
- Fuck man! this sounds wicked, Owen (the engineer is actually called Owen Skinner instead of Hugh) give us some more volume!
(Max) - Nooooooooo!!!!
(Jon)- Anyone want coffee I'll go and get it.
(Mike)- These speakers are soooo ugly in the morning. - Come on lads lets have fun (Marshall-amp on ten is gonna be the Knock out) I burst into the riff of Aardman which is a real heavy mother and I think Mike is vomitting. Aaaah this is gonna be a lovely day. Speak to ya later.
DAY 3 (later)
Yes, they did make me pay for my antics. First it was an all clothed visit to the swimming pool and then of course there wasn't a single note I played that wasn't commented on. It wasn't too bad. We've got tonight off and it's that time of day that sees the local hostelry beckoning.The Peldon arms or something...real ale,loose women and our own vivid imaginations.We have a studio reputation to live up to apparently...One Minute Silence caused chaos on a previous visit. 'till later you sexy laptop christian
DAY 4
Why do we do it? The evils of drink plague us once more. Thank God for the revitalising properties of the swimming pool...and a cooked breakfast. Anyway,the drums are done, Jon got on a roll and we knocked the remaining numbers out in pronto time...trouble is Jon's ego has exploded, he thinks he's a human metronome now!! Then late at night by some sick trick of fate I start playing some bluesy notes on the acoustic and Marcus starts singing this what sounds like some spiritual. Suddenly we all join' in in what we believe to be hallowed blues and Man! "we got the vibe". Sober we were not. Sneakily Mike's recorded it ( OH HELL!). The song turns out to be "Dragnet for Jesus", a track originally done by sister Wynona Carr somewhere in the 60's. All completely ratted, I think it's best described as a comedy piece...we haven't dared listen to it yet...I think you'll just have to wait and see if it makes it onto the album.........as a hidden track.
DAY 5 part 2
BwooooooaaaarghslamslamslamsladoodoodoodoodoodoodoodoKAA!.......... BaadoodooKAAKAA...........BaadoodooKAAKAAKAA...........BaadoodooKAAKAAKAA........ Oooooooh what a riff, one should always be extremely content with one's music, it's about time. I'm happy..................... I can't even think of what the song is called at the moment but that'll come to me in a you second. Jon looks over my shoulder telling me it's Symbiosis. Our Jon is in fine form, underneath the drumkit, the floor now has a very fetching woodchip finish, Ikea would be proud...very decorative. I'm one big pile of sweat... "Jorrido perro contente"as they say in Spain ...Ah! Time to unwind.
DAY 5
Everything full blown Maxximus at the moment when I stick my head underwater in the pool I can feel the bass vibrating through my skull which is oddly enough quite pleasant. Oh he's a bit out of time there I shall tell him so when I get out. I think I'm pushing it at the moment.
Yayzas chris
DAY 6
Sshhh.........(whispers) it's Jon here it's best that we leave Chris alone.
DAY 7
Our lovely manager rang us at ten this morning:
- "What are all you female body parts still doin' in bed? (he's very polite!)... If I was in your position I'd take so many drugs that I wouldn't need sleep for two weeks!!
- Thanks for the career advice Roy
- Yeah and what's happening with that bastard-website of yours, and who's gonna pay for those sets of drumsticks I stuck on my visa last week, by the way, I actually liked the Ozzfest
- Why, was it shit?
- Dunno, it's weird Chris, everyone I spoke to was complaining, I loved it anyway, what did you do yesterday?
Our manager's a great guy but he seems to have consumed too much sugar as a kid. Him talking to me this morning feels like a chainsaw cutting up a blancmange.
Aaah wake up it's "Discipline" today nice and fast 162 bpm. Mike has beaten us up a few times over being sloppy and not aggresive enough so we're starting straight away. Ze track ist called Discipline und das ist was Ich will, Discipline!!!! Mike's like a pitbull he just won't let go until you get your stuff dead on. I think he wants to see us bleed he's a strangely nice but sadistic individual. Then again he himself suffers from this sturmbahn-attitude the most I think. He never stops. The sun's out and we have the biggest rainbow ever seen over Essex skies right above the studio. Magic. All we need now is to find that pot of Gold !!
Aloha
Christian
Day ?? Umm 5, 6 or something
Dear All,
Unfortunately,Chris has descended into total madness during the process of laying his guitar tracks down and feels unable to communicate with the outside world or indeed other band members, apart from when ingesting food.So here I am keeping you good people informed as to "Mistah Kurtz's..." progress and of course Chris'!!
Although we're laying stuff down a track at a time, we're trying to keep a "live" feel by getting Chris to play it through in one take, warts an' all and then of course removing the warts.His guitar sound conjures up severed heads...not removed with surgical precision but rather torn from the owner's torso,flung to the ground and crushed by a very agitated buffalo.We're not sure if it's the sound, the sheer volume or a mix of both that has angered the studio's next door neighbour but we are stopped in our tracks, without fail,at 11pm every night by threats of police action and bodily harm.
I can hear you asking,"well if Chris is doing his guitar tracks ...what are you and Maxximus up to?"....Well tuff luck fascists,keep on guessing!...There are some things best left to the imagination.
For all you people who are interested in techy/muso type bollox you might be interested to know what gear Chris, Maxximus and myself use.If not, then don't read the next part, you'll fall asleep.
Chris uses 2 guitars, his main one being a Gibson Les Paul Custom (one of the old ones) with a Seymour Duncan Invader pick up to achieve that special face ripping quality...unsubtle but it works.His other one is custom made by some Dutch/Italian geezer...Bronzi, who's father made Ice Cream back in Italy.(what sort of accent must've he had?!!!) and is basically a Telecaster type copy with some very nifty EMG pickups ....any feedback you hear on the album, chances are it's his beloved Bronzi.
As for amps, he's using a Marshall AVT150H (Check out Marshall website for his views) and Marshall have given him one of the reissue straight valve 100 watt series(basically it's the same type Jimi Hendrix and Eddie Van Halen used) Pure power, no frills.We're recording through two cabs, a real ancient Marshall 4 x 12 and one of the new Marshall 4 x 10's.Mike, the producer has also got him using a Sansamp,a clever Gizmo that recreates different amp sounds through some wicked presets and adjustable parameters.The four songs he's done up to now ( Psycho Industrial da da, Discipline, Crime & Punishment and Sado Masochistic Narcissist utilise all this gear in some shape or form.Chris will probably get all upset for me not mentioning his strings and plectrums but I think you've had more than enough excitement for one day!!
Till Tomorrow,same Bat time, and the inner workings of a bassist and his equipment (Ooh Sir!)
Jon
Day 9
This is going to be really brief cos we're very bizee at the moment.....yeah we actually have to work at this !!! So the drum bits going to have to wait....I know you're all really disappointed.
Things are going well but we have our work cut out for us to get it all done in time...hopefully have more time tomorrow.
Jon
Day x
Dear All,
Well we missed a few days............we were toooo busy , honest! But it's all over. Our record company boss and manager came down and we aired a few rough mixes to them.They seemed very happy with what we'd done and commented that it sounded very different from our first album and seemed quite excited about it.mixing now is in the hands of Mike and we hope to have it ready by the end of June for release September.
We hope you've enjoyed this little insight into the album's making........we hope you didn't find it too boring........we were thinking of making a few stories up, "kidnapped by fundamentalists", "swam with white sharks "etc etc but It was really just three blokes recording an album, drinking too much and a swimming pool !! How exciting can it get ?! We all get on, no one tried to kill eachother, we don't sleep with eachother's girlfriends (yet !!) We just had a great time and I think we managed to record a pretty damn good album in the process....and what's more I didn't bore you with tales of my drumkit Ha !!.........I'm saving that for another day !!
See you all soon ..maybe.......and remember "Mistah Kurtz...he dead"
Jon
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