Head Not Found (Second Album Studio Journal)
By: Andrew C. Zinn
After Head Not Found played the Slave to the Metal Music Festival, I wrote a piece about our experience and sent it to the people who put on the tour. The article received a favorable response. I told the band about it and our drummer wanted to read it. Evidently, he liked what he read.
Head Not Found is about to go into the studio. Josh decided it would be good if I would keep a studio journal of what goes on each day during the recording process. We can keep people who are interested in us up to date with our progress. I also believe that keeping a record of what works and does not work in the studio will be a good way for us to learn from the experience, get us done in the studio quicker, and give us more wisdom about ourselves and the recording game.
I intend to keep up with the journal each day we record and date each entry. I hope the Head Not Found Myspace will keep it as part of the blog each time I make an entry. If it doesn’t, we are sorry, we are busy guys. I also intend to write a kind of epilogue after we finish to bring the whole piece together and give the reader a better overview of our experience while in the studio. This epilogue should also contain our release date information. I hope Head Not Found fans will keep reading and keep supporting Head Not Found. Cheers and Hails!
Day 1: Dec. 26th, 2010
Head Not Found does not fuck around when we have work to do.
We talked to a gentleman named Wes Corn about recording us. He has been in many local metal and hard rock acts in the Anniston/Oxford area. He is also about to start a project with our guitar player that I hope you all will be on the lookout for when they hit the stage. Wes had transformed his house into a studio. He came to our practice space one day to tell us what his plans were for recording Head Not Found. We liked what we heard, he knew his shit, and he knew how we wanted to sound. It also happened that Wes owned the equipment that we lacked to record ourselves. We knew that Wes was the right fit for us. We decided to wait after Christmas to start recording because of a show date we had coming up.
On December 26th, one day after Christmas, we loaded up our equipment and moved our practice space to Wes’s recording studio. Let me remind you locals that it snowed on Christmas and we loaded up anyway. For those around the states and world, it doesn’t snow very often in Alabama, most everything shuts down when it does.
We got to Wes’s and unloaded. He showed us around. He had a separate room set up for the computer and mixer. He had another room for drums, and a third room, for the guitars, bass, and vocals. It’s a killer set up.
We didn’t plug in or anything that night. We had gotten started late and decided to call it a day after unloading. We agreed to meet up again, a week from that day, to practice for an upcoming show we had been invited to in Birmingham called the “Wintour” and to begin our recording journey.
Day 2: Jan. 2nd, 2011
The New Year came and Head Not Found had its first war with illness to start the year off right. Our drummer and bass player were devastatingly sick. It was some kind of bazaar cold that had flu like symptoms. However, we are tougher than we should be. Both guys showed up to practice. If you can’t be smart you have to be tough.
We started to get the microphones and such set up to record and to practice a bit for the show while we did it. That works out good because you’re practicing and finding out what works and doesn’t work with the PA. It was new to us to have the drummer in a different room. Of course, the guitars had to be turned up so the drummer could hear the guitars. My microphone was too loud. I had to pull away from it to keep from being louder than everyone in the room. This made me learn I had grown accustomed to not having a very good PA. I have trained myself to be the quietest in the room and project my voice with more thrust to compensate. Our guitar could see the problems this was causing me in having to pull back and alter my vocal style. He referred to it as me being an aggressive vocalist. I hope he is right. He talked to Wes, our producer, and they got me coming through the PA in a way that was natural and comfortable to me. At that point, I felt good and ready to go. It was also at this point that our drummer couldn’t take anymore. He was looking pale and sweaty. He had to go home. The microphones were pretty much in place, so the day was well spent.
After the bass player and drummer went home to get in their beds, our guitar player and Wes decided to use the time to jam a little. They had a good jam session. After that, we all bullshitted about music equipment. It got to be late and I had to head home. I left them with their conversations.
As I pulled out of the parking lot, I had a realization. The area that we were recording in was were my local metal involvement began. I had been in many jam sessions in that part of Alabama. I had been in several bands that practiced there too. I got the feeling like my career was coming full circle. I felt like I had come home to record this new album. This made me feel young again and I’m an old man.
Day 3: Jan. 9th, 2011
It was the day before the worst weather Alabama had seen the whole year. It was the day before the rain that turned to snow and then ice to icy roads.
Practice started with us discussing upcoming weather and all hoping we might get a day or two off from work. After cigarettes and conversations, we got to work.
We decided to practice some older material. It was older material, but will be new for the album. Our drummer also decided to use the producer’s drum kit. He liked it. This allowed all band members to be in the same room while we polished up songs we were rusty on. This is how we normally practice, in a circle. This made us feel more comfortable and got our sound the way we like.
After feeling satisfied with what we had practiced, we decided to finish writing a song we’d been working on and had not yet finished. The song came together quickly with the material we already had for it. The song really plays well off of preexisting riffs. As I listened to the end of the song materialize, I got a smile on my face. It was a step further for Head Not Found, yet kept true to the sound we have established. Hearing it complete, minus lyrics, made me elated and impressed at how heavy the song turned out to be. Now, all I have to do is get the lyrics in place. I have vocal patterns, but the lyrics have to be forced in. I look forward to that.
Our drummer had also written and recorded another song. It has vocal patterns as well. He emailed it to me and it will be my homework to get lyrics for it. We have an instrumental to work on and that should be it as far as writing and rehearsing goes.
Ignoring inclement weather troubles, the recording process continues.
Day 4: Jan 16th, 2011
The fourth day of recording came and we genuinely tried to work on the scratch track. For those who don’t know, a scratch track is a rough recording of the material that is used as a pattern for more isolated recordings to be built from. The band records the scratch track so the drummer has something to listen to, while Wes records him playing alone. After that, it’s the bass, then guitars, and myself.
We recorded a few songs and Wes heard some bugs. Something was causing cutouts to happen and some channels would not come in at all. Now, this means you have bad equipment or bad cords. This leaves a lot to sort through. Each item had to be checked, which means that one guy is mindlessly playing his instrument, and everyone else waits for the bugs to be found. This can take awhile. Needless to say, I was bored. The last time we recorded, we had the luxury of DVD’s and Guitar Hero. I don’t play video games that much, but the DVD player was nice. This time we don’t have those things. I was glad that Wes had a basketball goal and a basketball. I had time to work on my jump shot as my band-mates made fun of me, told me I sucked, and smoked cigarettes.
At the end of the day, Wes let us hear what he had. It wasn’t bad, but we could all stand to tighten up a bit. There were also noticeable problems with microphones and cords causing input errors. That will be our goal for next week, to find those problems and move on to the scratch track.
Day 5: Jan 23rd, 2011
Guaranteeing a weekly update has posed quite a challenge for the last couple of trips to the studio. As some of you may or may not know, recording can be very boring at times. This week the band did absolutely nothing. Yes, we showed up to the studio with intent of recording a scratch track, but there were many complications. Technology sucks from time to time and this day was no exception. It started off as usual, the band gathered with tales of humor and life, a few updates on previous stories, and “shooting the shit”. When it was time to record, everyone took their appropriate positions and began the warm up process. The warm up process in this specific studio (Ember Studios) is a typical Head Not Found practice where we run over all of the songs we intend to put on the new album in order to hone them or sort out issues, but the producer (Wes Corn) is running his sound checks and tests during the same time. One after another, the problems began to pile up into an annoying heap. “Pops” on the tracks, recently deceased microphones and cables, you name it… It went wrong. We spent most of the day running back and forward to the drum kit, trying to get the sounds corrected with adjustments. The problems kept coming until after 5 hours of anger, boredom, and fatigue we called it a night. Hey, sometimes you have to know when to say when.
Day 6: Jan 30th, 2011
Going back to the studio this week after the events from the previous attempt seemed to be a drag for all of the members. Bound and determined to make something happen, we all sucked it up and did our part. Again, we met up and did our usual bull shitting routine until we decided that it was time to work. Wes, the producer, spent some time over the week cleaning up the sounds and laying to rest any worthless cables. Despite his efforts, there was still an annoying “pop” in the tracks. Even though this was just a scratch track, the “pops” were taking the tracks and jumping the timing off about a quarter of a second. Timing is a big deal when you are playing the fast and sometimes intricate beats that Head Not Found plays. Let’s do the math; if you have a five minute song and there are 12 quarter of a second “pops” that cause the music to skip, you lose 3 seconds of rhythm. That may work when you’re playing a standard 4/4 beat, but not metal. The session posed the same as previously… A pissed off fuck hole of a day, wasted yet again. Finally after 3 hours, Wes decided to try removing a piece of recording equipment. The problem was fixed! Head Not Found is now ready to record the scratch tracks.
We will not be posting an update next week, unfortunately, the life of a musician causes for sacrifices and all of our members have jobs to attend to. We will be back in the studio February 13th for more. Also, a quick shout out to Joseph, we’re sorry shit went wrong and we’re going to make it up to you on the 19th.
Day 7: Feb 13th, 2011
We had to take a week off for the Super Bowl, but we are back. The studio went great. Everything seemed to be working fine and there weren’t any technical difficulties. We got to the studio and partook in the ritual “bull shitting” until we were able to throw down some tunes. Today we were going to lay down a few scratch tracks, but things were going so well, we kept going. We threw down a couple of keeper scratch tracks (“A Severe Beating” and “Invitation For Downfall”) in one take. Everyone was feeling the energy as we recorded “For What It’s Worth” and “Turning Point” scratches as well. Again, the vibe was on and when it’s on you keep going. We attempted a newer song, “Extraordinary Hatred For Ordinary People”, but kind of pissed it out. The second attempt was better, but still not good enough. Hey, we are not the kind of band that settles. Finally, we decided to try another new one, “The Antagonist”. It wasn’t working out that well either. The second attempt was pretty flawless and a keeper for a scratch track. The day was getting tired and so were we, so we attempted “Extraordinary Hatred…” again. We nailed it… All in all, today was a great and very productive day for Head Not Found. We came in the studio expecting to lay down two or three scratch tracks and we knocked out 7:
“Invitation For Downfall”
“A Severe Beating”
“Extraordinary Hatred For Ordinary People”
“For What It’s Worth”
“The Antagonist”
“Turning Point”
“Morbidity & Mortality”
Day 8: Feb 19th, 2011
We didn’t go into the studio today, but we have to mention the show we played tonight. Last week we were supposed to play a show for Joseph Lipham. This dude wanted Head Not Found to play a show for his birthday and we wanted to do it. Well, weather is a bitch and we couldn’t risk fucking up our equipment. So we rescheduled for tonight. The show was a blast, but as usual, the bad HNF luck happened. During set-up, Monster and John were fucked out of their amp heads. The electric outlet shorted out the heads and blew John’s fuse. It was replaced, but Monster wasn’t as lucky. The incident completely fried Monster’s Behringer Vamp head. Don’t feel bad though, Monster hated that head and used this as an excuse to get a newer, better head. On a lesser and more stupid note, Josh left his bass drum pedals at his house and delayed the show a bit. Either way, the show was a blast and the people there were feeling the new material and some older shit. It was good to see some old HNF fans show up for a great night of metal. Talk about a cool birthday party…
Day 9: Feb 22nd, 2011
Josh here, drummer for Head Not Found. Today was my day to “shine”… Or at least put my two senses in. I went to the studio flying solo for a consultation type deal with Wes, or producer. It seems the other members of the band are stuck sitting around with their thumbs up their bums until I get these tracks rolling. Wes and I had to go over timing issues and pretty much pick out anything that wasn’t up to par with the scratch tracks we recorded a couple of weeks ago. There were a few, minor mistakes in some of the recordings, but we picked out the best takes of the 10 tracks and there are 7 good ones (the 7 tracks listed for February 13th’s blog). We discussed tracking options and of course the different ways and steps left for the near future. No recording took place, but it will soon. Expect a new blog either Sunday or next Tuesday… If there is anything to talk about. Until then… Keep it metal! -Josh
More entries coming soon!