Retro rock fans everywhere are getting excited about the release of Laser Graffiti, the debut album from The Galvatrons next month. Today I received the band’s studio diary from Warner Music and was told I could share it with you all. It’s definitely whetted my appetite for the long-play!
Studio Diary for the making of Laser Graffiti Or When Keyboards try to be Guitars
Chapter 1 – Pre- Production, or how the bloody hell are we gonna do this?
The first week of December 2008 we spent doing pre‐ production for the album at Deluxe Studios in South Melbourne. During this time we met with great anticipation and trepidation our producer, Scott Horscroft. Scott previously worked with The Presets, The Panics, and silverchair, and we were keen to see what would come of our collaboration with this eccentric man (which for all descriptions he is …)
Scott flew down from Sydney for the week to get a vibe for what we wanted to do for the record, telling us his vibe, just a lot of vibing really in South Melbourne, which really has no vibe at all. Most of what we worked at was re‐ jigging structures for the songs, and where the extra bits would come into it. It was a fairly relaxed week, jamming in the studio live and getting the structure right for tracking. Notable was the writing of “Molotov Cocktail” during this time (the albums “party” track … maybe the chorus lyrics have something to do with that … moving on …)
Chapter 2 – Introducing Big Jesus Burger Studios, Surry Hills
We drove up to Sydney this week to take up our new residency in Surry Hills, Sydney. We recorded at Big Jesus Burger Studios, or BJB, which is a sweet little studio in Surry Hills, just down from Oxford St, and the Brighton Hotel, which became a haunt of sorts due to the cheap beer and an awesome jukebox with quality tunes by Stray Cats, Pink Floyd, and Bruce Springsteen. The apartment we rented for this period was also just down the road, making the stumble home quite enjoyable (or enjoyably brief‐ Oxford Street at five in the morning can
resemble a war zone). But I digress …
The first three weeks were spent mainly in the Quad Eight room, although the fish tank in the kitchen provided ample distraction, and an insight to miniature marine life (always important just after waking up, or around nine thirty at night). There are little stir crazy things which happen, but that is all part of the process ‐ working in the same space for extended period times tends to breed stupid jokes, the need to find the nearest pub and have a well intentioned half hour break (read: two to three hours), and the devouring of whatever average to
mediocre reading material lying around. (Yet again, I digress. Time to end this …)
Chapter 3 – Vinnie Paul and the Ivy
Recording is a quite arduous process; you do several takes, listen back, make improvements, listen back to those, go back to a previous versions on a whim, gut instinct, or the simple fact that hours in the studio have dulled your senses and the ‘genius’ you thought you were in the process of creating turned out to be a load of bollocks. With the drum sound on the record, we were spoiled for choice. Bozza, our drummer concocted this mammoth kit involving mainly tom drums and an array of cymbals, including a gratuitous china cymbal (versatile creatures are the china, used either sparingly for good use, or slightly more than sparingly for risible effect). Through the seemingly endless choice of drum fills and cymbal hits, however, Vinnie Paul was there to see us through, looking over Boz with stern disapproval when things went too far in the wrong direction. (Admittedly, it was with the use of the china cymbal that Vinnie seemed to arc up the most‐ it seems that none is more involving these wonders of cymbal technology) Bozza blitzed through his tracks, pulling crazy fills out of thin air, which was awesome‐ just tell him something vague, and he’d come up with gold.
Warner had their Christmas party when we were in Sydney at Ivy Pool Bar, which resulted in a) diving into the swimming fully clothed with mojitos; b) going back to BJB and ending up with a combination of beer, vitamins and limbs on the floor, of which our long suffering assistant had to clean up the next day. Still with the smell of vitamins and stale beer on his person, Condor was the next to track, and blitzed through with ease. Simple really‐ take one Condor, add bass, check out the results. By the time we went drove back to Melbourne for
Christmas, everything was looking good.
Intermission
The break over Christmas/ New Years saw us playing a number of shows: Christmas Eve @ the Nash, Geelong (déjà vu), Pyramid Rock (windy), Summadayze, Perth (hmmm), The Hives @ the Metro, Sydney (fun), Schutzenfest
(strange German beer drinking festival in Adelaide, fun as well). During this time also moved accommodation to a great little Hotel called the Cambridge, two minutes from the studio (even closer than before), and the loss of Bozza and Condor to Melbourne town, so just me, Johnny and the album …
Chapter 4 – Do Keyboards Dream of Electric Sheep?
Keyboards are fun, yeah? You turn knobs and dials to tweak sounds, press buttons to get different presets or demos (demos functions have always been a guilty pleasure‐ many a music class at school spent with the bossanova drum beat and the automated bass line pumping on the Casio; hours of fun, cheese and
detention).
For the album we ended up using ten different synths layered to create the sound for each track, including my new baby the Arturia Origin, plugging them through guitar and bass amps, effects pedals and distortion units to create this dense, textured sound. The console room of the Quad Eight Room was a bit impossible to navigate at times, wire trails and analogue synthesizers getting in the way of almost everything. We used these throughout the record, recording extra bass synth lines, pad parts that are impossible to play live unless I had another two keyboards and six hands, and sometimes doubling the guitar solo for fun.
Chapter 5 – Johnny and the Choir of God
I must admit that the next part of the recording process for me was a bit of a blur. After 5‐6 weeks in the Quad Eight room I was a bit stir crazied out, so I decide to take some time out in the Play Room, which had many great things, Tonka trucks, a train set, etc. I needed about two weeks in there to regain my senses. Also in said Play Room is a separate ProTools rig and small recording room, in which I spent a bit of time away from Bob and his building friends to write the strings parts for “Curse Light Speed,” “Stella,” “And So They Invade,” “We were Kids” and “Galaxy Destroyer,” as well as the choir parts for “Laser Graffiti,” “Galaxy Destroyer,” “And So They Invade”, and for “The First Starfighter.” Fun really. We got some guest vocalists to help out with our choir parts, including the ever‐amazing Sophie Brous, who lent a day of amazing vocals to our recording session.
During this time Johnny was in the other room recording vocals and guitar. As a result I tended to here the results at the end of the day, or when I was whisked in to provide some backing vox. Johnny had an intense time of it, long singing days and long playing days, whilst I spent time noodling on a computer and drinking
tea…
Chapter 6 – Big Day Out, Sidney Myer and Rupert Neve
Condor’s birthday was happened towards the end of recording, coinciding with the Sydney Big Day Out. Some of our friends wee doing a mini‐ East Coast‐ chase of Neil Young, so Condor came up to Sydney to go to the BDO, at which Mr Young was amazing, other highlights being Hot Chip, TV on the Radio and The Arctic Monkeys. We had a few shows during this last part of recording, including St. Kilda Festival (which was a blast) and at Rockwiz Salutes the Bowl ‐ the ever-irrepressible Julia Zemiro providing tea and scones for our weary souls.
February was mainly spent mixing the record in the Neve Room (the last place in which to get stir crazy during our recording journey); hours spent on Addicting Games (Google it‐ it will waste hours of your life), cups of tea, and wandering through Glebe in the wee hours of the morning searching for a quick way home being highlights (?) of the final process of making the record.
Chapter 7 – And So…
“Cassandra”, the first single off the new album Laser Graffiti is out now through Warner through myspace.com/thegalvatrons. Laser Graffiti is released on the 3rd of July 2009.
Image used with permission from Warner Music Australia