GdM studio report - a little chat with Jukka
Giardini di Mirò started working on a new album. Here’s a little chat with Jukka, guitarist of GdM, about the recording session.
Hey Jukka, where did you spent the last days?
At the Bunker studio, which is the “b” room of Esagono Recordings.
Can you tell me a little bit about this place?
Some years ago it was one of the leading studios mostly used for major productions, but actually they are open to different kinds of music. We are working in the cheaper place, which is called Bunker, because it was a “big refrigerator” in a warehouse. To get in you have to pass this big, heavy door and the only window is very, very little. It was used by the people that used to work in that refrigerated cell to look what is inside… weird. Anyway, it’s a very small place, but it is run by two guys who know how to work with people…. passion and kindly mode are their best qualitities. Of course they also got a good outboard mic and all the stuff that makes a professional studio.
You’ve also recorded your last album “Punk… not Diet!” there, haven’t you?
Yes, we did the main recording in that studio, because it’s run by a friend and it’s close to our home town. We could sleep at home and eat for cheap in the area. Being near at home means that you can still go to work, meet your girlfriend, go to the supermarket, doing laundry and walk the dog, while you work on recordings.
But we will definitely do the mixing at Alpha Dept., Francesco’s studio. Because the mix is very import for our music, so we go to a better equipped studio for that.
How many songs did you record during this session?
To be honest, I’m not sure. Recording is always so hard for me, i really can’t remember. I’m not joking. But i think we put our hands on 6 songs, but none is finished yet… this was just the first step, a very important one, but just the beginning.
When you did “Punk..not Diet!” you went back to the studio several times, always changing something, adding this and that…
Indeed, but this time it will be an even longer process. For “Punk… not Diet” we’ve written and rehearsed all the songs before we went to the studio. Now we have developed the songs in the studio and add some homerecordings. We only had a vague idea of the songs before we started recording. In the studio the songs got their driving license. So this is new for us.
I know it’s a bit early to say which direction the new album will take, but telling from the demo recordings you gave me, it’s - once again - a new step for GdM. Do you agree?
I can’t tell you what we will have in your hands at the end. But for sure it’ll be one hundred percent bloody GdM. Maybe we will have more electronics and more vocals, but it’s still an album written by us, so i don’t think it will be something totally different from the previous albums.
But a major difference to your previous work are the vocals. You’ve had vocals before, but now you and Corrado sing on a couple of songs.
Yes, but we will also have guests again. Doing the vocals ourselves is new, but Corrado and I are “old history” for GdM. I can’t speak for Corrado here, but i never sung because i don’t like doing it, but now i’m kind of “forced” since this is the direction we took with our first album by starting to add vocals to our songs. Now we decided to work with that line up (without Alessandro), so the old guard has to sing.
I was surprised to find out that you can sing pretty well. You might remember that i didn’t believe it was you singing on one of the first demos you gave me.
Yeah, I remember. Actually that demo was meant as a joke for a friend, but then it seemed to work out. We’ve got some appreciation for that song from you, Hood, Apparat, Ellen Alien (via Apparat)… people seem to like that song, which surprised me, because it started as silly stuff I did with Corrado, to make a joke to a friend…so…funny!
