Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Last Long Hurrah

I'm sitting in the corner of a really brightly lit room at the "Dockyards Studios" in the southern port of Helsinki. The shoot for our new music video is going on in front of my eyes, and it's hard to contain the excitement. We have less than two weeks left to complete the final mixes before mastering the album, and there's still a lot of work left. But right now, it's hard to focus on anything else besides this incredible shoot going on. To top it all off, I've managed to catch one b*tch of a flu, although the present adrenaline rush is making it easy to just forget about any physical worries.

We can't really share all the info concerning the video yet, but for now let's just say the words "third time's a charm" seem to ring very true. We have managed to persuade even the record company to go along with a video concept that is pretty artistic in that there are hardly any shots of the band or it's lead singer featured. It's also an artistic collaboration that will hopefully blur the much too prevalent distinction between "popular" and "fine" art.

For the first time, we feel absolutely convinced about a video and its potential to give the music new life. If all goes well, the end result will be intense, funny, artistic, simple, and beautiful in a slightly contorted way. At the moment it seems likely the video will be online for your viewing pleasure sometime during the final week of March.

The original concept for this video is the band's own - or more precisely that of our graphic designer Matti Sipiläinen. Maybe that's why we really believe in it. Right now all we can do is trust in the pros and their ability to make it work on screen. The director/d.o.p. duo at work is the same as with our previous "Road" video, Akseli Tuomivaara and Aleksi Koskinen. Both these guys have been going at it today with an equally impressive drive and tempo as the yet-unnamed star of the video.

And what about the song, then? L.L.H. has now been playing on the radio for a little less than a week. Apparently going to the YleX Radio morning show to premiere the track was such an intense experience for me, I wound up getting sick soon thereafter. But let's just say we've been thrilled at the early response, which has been overwhelmingly positive. We can only hope it gets similar attention on other radio stations. This time, we chose not to release an actual physical single record for sales, but from Monday 16 March onward, the song will be hitting digital online shops all over. So go crazy, spend a euro, and rock to that joint, yes? (Naturally, the song is also streamed on our MySpace page.)

These are truly exciting and crazy days and nights. Right now, putting the final mixes together is resulting in a LOT of work, particularly for Kari and Johannes. In addition to this final 24/7 mixing effort, we still have some guests coming into the Tank this week to record some final takes. One of only two remaining weeks is now underway. And then the ultimate climax - a mastering trip to Chris Athens and Sterling Sound. Please keep all your fingers crossed for us. We're gonna need it.

Yours with a loving cough,

Tommy

11 comments:

  1. Uijui... videosta tulossa siis loistava. Kivaa kun vastailette täällä ja pidätte ajan tasalla missä mennään. Jännää seurata. Tsemppiä!

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  2. hienoo... oon käyny ylexillä äänestämässä monta kertaa päivässä. oon niin huippu toi uus piisi!

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  3. Nyt pelottaa. Eihän tuo Brian Emo ole tippumassa albumilta pois? Vaikuttaa kaikista omituisimmalle kipaleelle noista kaikista.

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  4. Terkkuja studion sohvalta.

    Ei syytä kovin suureen huoleen - Brian Emon oleellisin asia, eli syntetisoitu ääni lukemassa runoutta tullaan kyllä levylle saamaan. Se taitaa kuitenkin siirtyä osaksi toista biisiä, yhden hiukan pidemmän eepoksen outroon.

    Tommy

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  5. Huh, mahtavaa! Niin, ja L.L.H. on loistava. Mediasoitin huudattaa sitä yötä päivää.

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  6. Kiitos, kiva kuulla. Toivotaan että muukin albumi päätyy aikanaan kovaan luukutukseen.

    Tommy

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  7. L.L.H. on ihan sairaan kova. Tullu äänesteltyä sitä nyt NRJllä ja Ylexillä. Voimia studioon.

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  8. The song L.L.H. rocks. Keep up the good work. Will be following this site from now on... M.

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  9. hei vau mikä biisi! ihan uudenlaista. pakko ostaa myös levy kunhan se tulee kauppoihin.

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  10. Peukut on pystyssä. Hieno levy tulossa kaiken perusteella!

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