apskarp
424 posts
Mar 14, 2011
6:04 AM
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Last year in November we had a pleasure to play at a "Finnish Blues” -night organized by Ou’Blues society in a local club here at Oulu. The theme of the night was bands playing blues songs in Finnish language. There were three such bands: Hoodoo Sauna, Juurus-Texas and Pepe Ahlqvist, who played acoustic solo gig. The night was really nice - the venue was great (an old movie theatre turned into a club) and there were lots of blues lovers listening to the bands in a good atmosphere.
As there were many people in the audience asking for our records, we decided to start planning for a Hoodoo Sauna record seriously. Somewhere in the process we had an idea to call Pepe to see if he'd be interested to produce our record - we knew that in order to make a great record a good producer would be really important. Who would have been a better producer for a Finnish blues record than Pepe Ahlqvist who is a multi-instrumentalist that has more than 40 years of experience in the field – and who is also one of the rare Blues artists that have recorded a Blues record in Finnish language? So we decided to go for it. I called Pepe and he was happy to become an artistic producer for the record if we'd just find a suitable time for the recording sessions. We had already looked at the local studio's and decided to go for a small "Studio Wah Wah" that is into root music (there are loads of heavy rock bands around here and so most of the studios are specialized for heavy rock). We managed to find a suitable time for all of us and thus set the date.
So at Friday 11th of March 2011 Pepe drove here at Oulu from southern Finland (600km in a middle of a snow storm) and at Noon we were ready to start! We already had started the producing couple of weeks back by sending the lyrics, demo recordings and some live videos to Pepe for commenting and getting to know the material. So we started by recording the rhythm sections. The work was a lot faster that we would have expected. The band played really well together and so we didn't have to take many shots to get the bass & drum tracks recorded.
Most of the songs were written and composed by me and arranged by the Hoodoo Sauna (one song was made by our guitarist and there was also one cover arranged in Finnish by me). Pepe had a few really good ideas for the arrangements and we tried those out. I was really excited to see how we managed to bring a new soul (or perhaps a blues?) to those songs! There were also some ideas that we had already thought of ourselves but it wasn't until Pepe pointed out some rhythmic changes and other ideas that we finally got it.
The Friday went by fast and at the evening we had a gig with Pepe at the local club. Pepe played an acoustic solo gig and then we played our thing. The highlight of the evening for me was when we ended the night by jamming a few songs together with Pepe. The atmosphere was really good both at the stage and in the audience!
At Saturday we started a little later as we finished the gig just at 1am. On Saturday we recorded the rest of the rhythm sections and then started to record the harp solos. We managed to get all the amplified harps recorded that evening. I played through my Greg Heumann wooden custom bullet mic with 1974 Fender Vibro Champ. I think we managed to get a really good sound out of it!
On Sunday we started with acoustic harps and then recorded one acoustic ballad that had only vocals and acoustic guitars in it. Pepe played really nice acoustic fills that I think really put the blues in that song... Rest of the Sunday went with guitars and vocals for a few songs. Pepe even played electric guitar solo for one song and some backing vocals for two more songs!
The weekend had a really good atmosphere and it was a success in many ways. In total we managed to get the rhythm sections recorded for all the 12 songs and also all the harps. On top of that we managed to get vocals and guitars ready for couple of songs. That was a lot more that we had anticipated. Also the new arrangements and Pepe's visits to the songs were superb! When you put common the gig we had on top of that - it couldn't have been a better weekend!
We'll probably get the record ready by the end of May if there won't be any major surprises. So be prepared - there will be a really unique record coming! All the songs are written and performed in Finnish and there will definitely be some Finnish influences in the music – without forgetting the Blues either, of course.
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apskarp
425 posts
Mar 15, 2011
12:07 AM
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Hmmm, no comments from anybody?
For me this is pretty big deal. I don't know if you are aware of it, but Pepe Ahlqvist is one of the best blues harpists in Finland. I guess he is pretty well known in the Europe too. He did tour in the US also, but perhaps he's not so well known there. Although he was invited as a guest soloist in B.B.King's concerts here in Finland.
And you know, making an album would be a big deal for me even if there wouldn't be any blues legends involved.. :) Perhaps I will update this thread with some videos from our gig (if I find some, the camera man was a little tanked up.. ;)
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Hoodoo Sauna
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Rubes
249 posts
Mar 15, 2011
4:41 AM
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Good job apskarp! Sounds like you had a ball!
Opportunities like that are gold, good to hear you went for it. Keep us posted when you're Finnished (sorry, had to use that opprtunity :~) )
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Matzen
73 posts
Mar 15, 2011
4:47 AM
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Sounds cool! I'd like to give it a listen when it comes out!
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apskarp
428 posts
Mar 15, 2011
10:12 PM
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Thank's! It seems that I will have some material from the gig so perhaps I'll put something up here. It will be perfect opportunity criticize my louse harp playing.. ;) Seriously, the gig was a good opportunity to learn as I haven't really played accompanying harp before (on a gig)..
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Hoodoo Sauna
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