Between Sweden and Frankfurt
Recording in a cabin in the woods
Mikael Sundin is a songwriter and keyboardist of Frankfurt - and developer at Klevgrand. Last week Frankfurt released a new single - Streets of Frankfurt. We wanted him to share some thoughts about the project and the wonders and troubles that comes with recording an album in a far away country cabin.
The whole album was recorded up north in Sweden in our "cabin in the woods". There was a lot of iPhone-recordings and lengthy auto-comp-stuff that got shuffled around and fitted into different parts. Sometimes we just let the recording go for hours at a time.
You've got to take the opportunities
I often imagine going to the cabin and having a lot of time to make music. But you always do so many other things, grilling, fishing, watch old tv-series etc. So you've got to take the opportunities when you get them - And for example solve any noise issues later. I remember once while recording, my piano wasn’t tuned, so we were going with car to another cabin where I had a somewhat tuned one. But on our way there I found a combo-organ at a yard sale instead! It wasn't in great shape. You kind of got the feeling you'd get electrified by pushing the on-switch. But very soon we were goofing around with it, making funny covers and just vibing. Even though the organ was super noisy and barely hanging on, we ended up recording a bunch of stuff the we cleaned later and used at the album.
An ever going clash of two worlds
I find that a lot of the time when it comes to good or bad noise, it’s a matter of context. When you make a song by adding one thing after the other - you try to make everything fit together! I record a lot of stuff using software instruments and other things in a clinically clean DAW-enviroment. And when adding a live performance, even when record in a great studio that doesn’t appear to sound noisy, when you put it in the clean context of a DAW - the combination can sound really weird. It’s quite interesting actually. There seems to be an ever going clash between the programmed software and the living recording.
At Klevgrand we make what we want to use ourselves
I like that our Klevgrand products often originate from situations and creative needs that occur in our lives as musicians. And it was all those recordings at our cabin that led to the idea for Brusfri. We started out wanting to make an easy noise reducer that worked well for keyboards and organs and stuff. First I did something that worked terrible. We were about to drop the hole idea completely, when I realised a single variable in the code was off. So it was very close that Brusfri didn’t happen. And now that Brusfri has become a popular plug-in and we’ve even put its algorithm directly a mic, we’re thinking about other uses of Brusfri and making hardware. Maybe. Like with all our stuff we make what we want to use ourselves. Like with all our stuff, we make what we want to use ourselves. I’m personally looking forward to the day our CEO accidentally orders 2 000 000 prototypes filling up the whole office. At Klevgrand these things definitely can happen.
Footnotes
- Frankfurt releases their first full album on April 16
- The band members are: Mikael Sundin, Petter Winnberg & Pierre Riddez
- The noise canceller Brusfri can be purchased here.