Notes from the band · Nick Triani · February 2004
Making of National Treasure
So, a new year. February nearing its end. Snow still falling here in Finland — and the new album by Treeball in the shops at last.
We started making the album in August 2003. I’d been writing songs for a while, stacking them up. We had one rehearsal to play the new songs. Everyone taped the tracks, went home and got familiar with the songs. A couple of weeks later me and Janne went to the rehearsal room, laid down a guide track of me playing the songs (Astrid did the same for her tracks), and in something like 2 four-hour sessions, we recorded all the main drum tracks for the record. We only used 4 mics for the drums — BD, snare and toms. The toms picked up enough overhead, nasty sound! I sensed Janne was a bit disappointed with his playing. It’s the usual Treeball way: knock it out, capture the moment. I thought the drums sounded great: loose-but-feeling. I was guiding this ship and I was satisfied.
A couple of weeks later, a good friend and a producer, Jyrki Tuovinen, lent me 2 mics and his computer with a 24-track Pro Tools system installed. We relocated to mine and Astrid’s living room, got a couple of small practice amps, a good pre-amp, a groovebox, a couple of acoustics, some guitars of mine and a few of Michael’s, a Danelectro bass and a Rhodes. The piano was already a permanent fixture. Over the next two weeks, our living room would give birth to the “National Treasure” album.
The process would normally start like this every day: I’d wake up and record some of my acoustic parts, Astrid would record some keyboards, after lunch we would try some singing, Michael would come over most evenings, play some guitar — we built the tracks up like this. Towards the end of the two weeks, Janne came and did some backing vocals. On the last day, Aleksi played bass on something like 12 songs — he’d not even heard some of them! Mixing took place in Tampere, at Headline studios. 5 long days. 15 songs mixed. Despite these limitations, I was satisfied.
There was no major idea but we knew what we wanted to achieve with the record: not record too many tracks, keep it simple, and work for the benefit of the songs. It was an uncluttered process — we trusted in ourselves. So many bands don’t trust what they do on recordings. You have to take the leap of faith that what you get down gets across.
Some songs like Bolivian Adventure and Noir really came to life during recording. Some captured a mood, like Astrid’s The Beginning. It was all good fun and relaxing. I think we succeeded.
This year sees a real possibility of Treeball breaking out of the stiff Finnish environments. Releases are planned in Canada and maybe Japan, gigs abroad in the pipeline etc.
We all live and play in Finland — by definition we are a Finnish band — but somehow I feel a wariness from the Finnish music media in general towards Treeball that seems unfounded; like we are a vanity project, that somehow we don’t mean this thing that we create and really love. This week has seen the record go out first to the Finnish media. Interest has been harder to gauge than the 1st album. Interviews are rolling, press interest somehow focusing on how on earth will the Finnish public ever like this!
We succeeded in making a great record I believe. We all love it and think you can’t get this kind of thing anywhere else made so lovingly and couldn’t give a shit free in Finland.
If you’re at this page, reading this far — good luck. You need it. If you like our record — thanks — we think we made a national treasure, something to hold on to.
