Recording our first album with Tim Green at Louder Studios

By Colin Del Rossi

Louder Diary - Day One
3/21/13
Heading out on the highway to go record at Tim Green's Louder Studios. Though we packed the beast like Fucking Champs (zing!), we barely fit everything in this mini van we've dubbed Mini Van Peebles. Actually left a couple things behind but they're Nate's so no loss. About to stop for the great Black Bear diner cuz Tobi's about to piss his pants. Step on it Mike!

Black Bear was great. As usual. Mike complained, or "Miked". As usual. Nate got chicken strips. As usual. We're doing a 3 song round robin in the Peebles where everyone has 3 songs to play for the rest and then we tell each other how awesome our tastes are. The support in this band, I tell ya. The Judgement Night soundtrack is on now so you know we fresh. Almost there. Tobi and Mike just got into a fight about metal. Testament was the only solution.

Arrived at Louder and it's gorgeous outside and in. Weatherwise outside and sweetwise in. You wouldn't believe the sheer amount of seminal and influential records Tim has worked on and they're proudly (?) displayed in the rocknroll hunting lodge that is the Louder guest house where we are staying. I mean, c'mon! Melvins?! Unwound?! Melon-farming KARP?! Leave some cool in the pool for the rest of us Mr. Green! Sheesh. We are all taking turns at getting fed up with the others' "He did this?!'s and "Damn! I have this and it's rad!"s . It's probably like listening to Tobi and Mike talk about Metallica or watching UHF with me. Or just looking at Nate's face. 

Thanks to a Sweet Renegade named Ben Thorne (who runs a delicious BBQ joint called Sneaky's while finding time to play in Minot AND Tartufi and who also owns a silk screening outfit - phew!) we were able to bring Tim a succulent meat bribe to help break the ice and earn us some brownie points. He also awesomely threw in a ton of amazing looking ribs for us! Tomorrow night we are gonna run a train on them suckas.

Tim is freakin Mike out with his calm low key demeanor. Which is funny considering that's Mike when you first meet him. Right away Tobi takes Tim aside and promises that he doesn't want to micromanage. Which precedes an in depth discussion of overdubs. After an awkward conversation about Orange amp tubes Tobi apologizes for his accent. That beautiful fuckin swede. Getting mics placed and guitars intonated. Can't wait to get started!

Spent about 4 hours tracking after Tim did all he could to politely wrest our evidently shitty gear from our grasp. Every one of us is using at least one piece of the Maestro's storied equipment. The only one we know for sure is the Marshall head Tobi is playing through. It was used on The Fucking Champs records! Holy Toledo! Someone's having fun. Which is crazy because anyone that knows Tobi knows how much he loves his Orange heads. The rest of us keep waiting for his neck vein to rupture. Tobi's Orange heads are being kept warm for leads and solos, but for now, the Marshall head is brutally heavy. Perfect for 2 pump chuggas!

Tim is like a hostage negotiator. A pale Samuel L. Jackson that still freaks Mike out with his low key and extremely dry humor. Does that make Mike Kevin Spacey? I think it does. Love it. Tim's graciously accepted offer of illegal Irish moonshine only makes this analogy more legit.

Anyway, the process was a little painful the first night, as expected of course, but I think we were able to get a few songs finished drum wise. Here's hoping. Have to relisten with fresh ears and fresh luck. It's Miller time! 

Nate fulfilled a promise to himself and stayed up until 3am listening to his buddy's album and drinking. Good for him. Proud of you buddy!

Louder Diary - Day Two
3/22/13

Waking up after a fitful, extremely hot night (thanks for putting the space heater right in my business Nate!). I had some Huxtability nightmares as well as a bad one about my wife going into labor but being really cavalier about the whole thing. Glad that didn't happen in reality. Mike is cooking his famous egg battalion for the troops. We're watching Masters of the Universe. Things are looking promising.

Got right into it today. Warmed up on our song Baron Fields while Tim was getting things ready for meltdown, with no intention of tracking it quite yet. Mostly because that song is close to our hearts and we want to give it the proper time, care and feeling. Plus a few beers to help the juice. Also we are cowards. Tim says, "That sounded pretty good. Why don't you just do that?" So we did. Happy to report I got a good drum take on the first run. Not perfect but no Baron ever is or else it sucks. Boom Snack!
 
After that we ran through the other 6 songs we had planned on recording over all. I got most of them within 3 takes. 10 songs in under 10 hours, with plenty of breaks.  I ain't a playa, I just crush a lot. So unless a couple tunes are a tad too fast or something, I'm done with my drum tracking!  The rest of the fellas are killing it as well. Nate earned himself an adult beverage for his work today, as well as a manly pat on the butt. Mike and Tobi have some work ahead of them, but mostly overdubs and cleaning/doubling their tracks, which is completely to be expected. As far as I'm concerned we are half a day ahead of schedule.  Gotta warm up the pipes for some hollerin tomorrow. Maybe beer will help...

Beginning the guitar magic now with Nate pounding the bass into submission and Tobi shredding away like a Fucking Champ (zang!). He's finally back in his Orange element. We always knew Tobi had a reason for loving the tone of those heads, now we have ample proof. Tough Tommy Thompson was a breeze for these fools. Likewise Past Them Trees. Although Tobi wasn't sure if Tim wanted him to go over “the solo part, or the solo part”? He went over the solo part and it was tight. Way to go special guy!

Nate blowing some bass over The Baron Fields. Sounds great. I was in charge of conducting him on parts and despite my best efforts he totally kicked out the jams. Everybody has really stepped it up today and I feel like we are doing our best to maximize the maximum. Blast backs kudos all around. I'm pretty sure that's a saying. Regardless, Bulleit makes some great rye whiskey.


Going over lyrics with Nate while Tobi continues the onslaught. He's playing and looking like a million quatloos. Mike is on deck as we push into "quiet time" meaning I'm really done with drums for the night. I like it! As always, when Nate and I go over our respective lyrics, it's a revelation to the other one just what in the hell we are saying. We never really know what's going on when we rehearse and just kind of try to out holler and out ad lib the other guy  That's a healthy practice for a band right? Anyway, our lyrics about the Rock Biter from The Neverending Story are right on.


 Sneaky's BBQ is gorgeous! Thanks Ben!

Louder Diary - Day Three
3/23/13

Same routine this morning with the only exception being Tobi showered and swapped his Master of Puppies shirt for an Iron Maiden (finally!). Mike's eggs are even better with the leftover Sneaky's BBQ sauce. Got right to it again today and Mike was able to nail his punch-ins on Baron and Jumanji even though his fingernail is coming off. Turns out his pick doesn't quite make it to the strings.
He went to the store for super glue and beer while Nate finishes up his bassing. Solid. Tim even called him a "pro" with only a minimal amount of sarcasm. I guess it's time for me to do a little more work now. Vocals are about to commence so Nate and I need to beard up the voices with some good ole fashioned alcohol! It really synergizes the T zone.

4 out of 8 vocal tracks done! Only took about 2 hours. Nate and I both did well I think, even though much to my displeasure Rad Racer will go without the pseudo-racist, broken English vocal interlude by Nate. I'm sorry, it just cracks me up. What he did instead is good so i suppose it's cool. Trying to have a smidgen of class I guess. Yr welcome world!

I'm just gonna go ahead and say it: Fortress is adorable. We do our parts in pairs, except for the initial tracking which is done as a unit. It just seemed to happen; when there is guitar work to be done, whether it's Tobi or Mike on the line, the other one is in the recording room rocking/helping out and lending morale support/advice. Mostly rocking out though which is nice. 

Same thing goes with vocals. Nate and I are in the room together, barely missing each others faces and/or groins with rocknroll fists. I really love these guys. Want to fight about it?!

I think we're finally starting to crack Tim, which is no small feat it seems, and I'm proud of us. Did I mention our lyrics are ridiculous? Well they are. As Tobi would say:  “I don't like it. I love it!” Thanks fantasy Tobi!

Racing against time now to hopefully finish up everything by tonight, just so we have all of tomorrow to mix. Mike and Tobi are hard at work overrunning the borders of the Nation of Rock and starting a Revolution. That's stupid. Lets just say they're hitching up their rock pants and wading hip deep into the slop. Feh. Still no good. Anyway, you get the picture wise guys. Want to fight about it?

Well poop. It's looking like we won't be able to get everything done by the end of today. So I guess we will be coming up at a later date to mix. So it goes. At least we will have a proper 10 song album all ready to go and a rocking one at that. Mike is busy finishing his punch-ins/overdubs as we speak and then he'll be done. 3 more songs to vocalize and then a shit load of leads for Tobi. It will be great. You love it!

Tobi is rockin some leads as we move closer to putting Reel #2 in the can. I went outside to take a leak and as the motion sensor light came on I was almost taken out by a deer. Seems that Fortress is speaking to the animals. That's why we come up here.

By the way, Mike's fingernail is hanging on, barely, thanks to the magic of super glue. He found a brush on one so he's quite the fancy man. Fabulous! Seriously fabulous, because he's got more work to do. Running dualies on his tracks. I feel better now that we know we won't be mixing tomorrow. The sense of urgency, the weight, has been lessened and it feels like the mood has lifted in the past few hours. Feels good and it's nice to know that when all is said and done we will have a full, pure document of Fortress as it exists now. And with the extra time, I'm sure the guitarists feel the same. Those diddling freaks.

Nate and I only have one more vocal to do tomorrow. Somehow I got Tough Tommy on the first take. Nate and I held hands during some overdubs on Hot Singu (affectionately known as The Gu). I think crossing the streams allowed us to holler like Fucking Champs (zung!). I guess I also crushed Nate's hand, but he used it cuz he's an artiste.  This one was called Hit Singu up until Tim wrote Hot on the white board. Whether it was an honest mistake or a Freudian slip of his true feelings, we all think it's better. Sometimes you just take it when it comes. 

Some sort of fever is the only possible excuse for the new lyric we added to Jumanji. We will see if it makes the final mix. I'm at a loss. Want to fight about it?!

Louder Diary - Day Four
3/24/13

Everyone is feeling a bit thick headed and out of it this morning. Tim included. It's our last day up here so I guess it's alright to be a little punchy. Spent the morning watching Thin Lizzy videos with our coffee and eggs. Mike is tuning up the 12 string he brought for a little extra beauty to part of Goblin III. His glued finger is making it difficult.

Still a lot of guitar work to be done, mostly for Tobi, and the Goblin vocals for Nate and I. Tim's dog Sherman (or Falcor as he is known to us - nice one Early Graves!) is our twirling spirit guide on the porch. He's blind in one eye so he's constantly spinning and growling. Poor bastard. He makes it work though so it's cool.

On the threshold! Tobi wailing some Valhalla leads which will fittingly finish everything off. Tim is pushing Tobi to achieve steak where we would've been happy with sausage. He landed an awesome take of a lead on Baron which Tim calls "mega stank" but Tobi's a bit conservative and requests another try. The result is, in Tim's words, "mini stank". Everyone but Tobi agrees "mega" is better. Tim even illustrates the difference with an air guitar face that says it all. We couldn't ask for more. 

The vocals were in the can a couple of hours ago, signaling the end of Nate and my contributions to this part of the process. Mike completely exceeded all expectations with his haunting 12 string overdubs. So rad. He's on to double tracking his rhythms and then we are done.

We are finally finished with the recording! The cathartic yet intense process of mixing and mastering is next, and then on to pressing to vinyl. I find it fitting that the last thing we did was Nate screaming "giant desert creatures". Love it.

We pack up the van with all the gear and bags as Tim makes us a doggy bag of rough mixes. We finish first so we hang out in the control room as the past few days rolls over us from the speakers. When Baron arises, Tim presses "mega stank" into the mix and on to Tobi just so he can bathe in it for a while until we come back and finish the final touches. Tobi's a little skeptical but he can sit on it. Everything is sounding better than we could've hoped for and even better than that.

This whole experience: the time we've spent up here together, the entire recording process with Tim and ultimately what we've achieved, has been fantastic. I wouldn't trade it for anything and I'm pretty sure the Renegades feel the same. I am truly grateful for these dudes, for this opportunity and for this moment in my life. We hope everyone who has helped us get here, those that will hear our record and those that just want the best for us (but don't necessarily enjoy awesome stuff), will feel the feeling we put into it. There are no words for the gratitude we feel to them and to Tim. We just hope they'll be able to find their faces after we melt them off. Anyway, enough of the sappy crappy. Enjoy our brand of quasi-metal songs about movies we like. We hope to come into yr town and help you party down real soon.


Thank you and good night!