2004, Sept 6, 2.29 PM

We are here! Finally! Man it feels fantastic to be back in Revsund with Gustav, Kerstin & Martin. With the fantastic energy of Dalhalla still fresh in minds and bodies we´re all excited to begin work on our new album. We arrived early today to set everything up, and right now soundcheck is well on it´s way. Martin is thinking hard where to place all the michrophones to capture the room properly, Kerstin has just made us the first meal of this session (delicious as always) and Gustav (who is in charge of recreational activities during this recording) is wondering how to amuse us the most. If everything works we should be able to begin cutting tracks very soon. So far so good !!

6.05 PM
It´s just after six o clock, and we have just completed the first track of the album. Overdubs and all! See how this is gonna work ? We´re on a roll ... 
 

2004, Sept 7, 10.02 AM
After a few attempts at a second song last night, we decided we needed to have dinner, (we always need to have dinner ...), and Jens decided he had to go back to town. So that was that. Yet satisfied with a good days work, we ended up in the sauna with some interesting local brew. Jens just got back and now we´re ready to go again! The second song shouldn´t be too far away from completion. In other worthless news; Björn just sat on his favourite sunglasses. They didn´t make it.
 

00.14 AM
Today we learned many things. We learned that Kerstin makes the best broccoli pie in the world, though we sort of knew that already ... We also learned that nothing makes six grown men run like the sound of the ice cream truck pulling up on the front yard. We bought two mixed bags, then we went back to work. We finished three tracks today, before Jens decided he needed to go back to town. After listening back on all of todays achievements Björn got grumpy and decided that the last song was crap. Nobody agreed, but hopefully weĺl have time to go back to that one. Work starts tomorrow at 10 AM.

2004, Sept 8, 12.20 PM
So it's right after noon, and we have just cut the first track of the day. One of Bo's more hopeless compositions called "Påpp". It was a bit of a struggle. But not as much as last night when producer Martin and Bo desperatly tried to get Björns iPod to sound though the TV set that refused to show anything of value. It didn't work. Some pictures were taken, but they included underwear, so we choose to show you this picture of Martin instead. You don't wanna piss the producer off when you're not even halfway through the album !  Martin also won the card game last night and we think he is fantastic and we love him very much.
 

2.33 PM
With much amusement (and pride!!) we just read what Stefan Sundström had to say about the latest low point in the major record companies unavoidable fall; "Idol 2004". We couldn´t agree more. More power to ya´Stefan !! 
 

6.44 PM
It's almost seven and we were able to cut one more track before Jens decided he had to go back to town. The rest of the evening we will entertain ourselves with some minor overdubs. (Almost NO overdubs on this album!) and maybe revisit the sauna. Bo has been preparing himself the whole day to go back to one of the first tracks we cut and redo his guitar solo. Wich the rest of us see abolutely no point in, since he did about 20 different solos the first time, and ALL were good. But since Bo is older than all of us (together..) we really can't say no to him. And oh, Björn is not grumpy anymore! See how happy he is !!?
{mospagebreak}
 

2004, Sept 9, 10.38 AM
Morning has broken! ...  and so has our servers. Sorry for those of you who tried to stop by here this morning. Last night we had a power failure, and it seems like we were not the only ones. Servers has been acting wierd all over the country this morning. Everything is back to normal now though. This morning started with us going horse hunting. Tequila, one of the studio horses escaped from the stable. After Bo's and Pedro's complete failure at capture her Martin stepped in and proved that not only can he produce records, he is also a handy man with farm animals. Back to work now ! One of Jens compositions is next on the list.

10.58 AM
Jens has been stung by a wasp....
 

1.36 PM
One more song down, and we're up for lunch. Gustav will be joining us on the next track, and there's a rumour that he has prepared a little trip for us tonight ! =)

6.38 PM
One more song down, and we´re a tired bunch now. The last song though was an adrenaline boost! Gustav came in and showed us how a party trumpet should be handled. Standing ovations from everyone. But now we´re really starting to feel that we have been working non stop for four days, so we´re not starting another song tonight. Instead we´re having dinner out in the open! That´s right. Tonight we´re having "kolbullar". (Pancakes on acid. Flour, water & bacon fried over open fire with LOTS of grease !! ) Some more local brew will probably be used aswell. Jens & Martin just went on a jogging trip, but not because they felt like it. They only had to prove themselves because Pedro and Björn went jogging yesterday. That´s it for now. One more day of work left before vacation!

2004, Sept 10, 10.28 AM
Another day another song. Yesterdays field trip did us good, cuz today we´re sharp again. Ready to go ! .. or it mighth be our weekend off that´s just around the corner that inspire us .. Anyway; one of Bo´s songs is on the table, and in a couple of hours we´ll have our friend Robin coming over to take some pictures of us that might end up on the album. Hopefully we´ll have time to cut two songs today before Martin have to leave at 4 PM. Gotta go now.

7.33 PM
It´s almost 8 PM, and we´ve all gone home for two much needed days off. Everything has been pretty hectic since we left for Falun over one week ago. But a lot of fun stuff has happened, and we all have a good feeling about this album! We managed to lay down two tracks today, and that´s not too shabby! We´re all home now, and everybody is laying low this weekend. Everybody except Björn who is flying to Ängelholm to do a show with Marmeladorkestern. A coverband, and good friends from Östersund, who had a crisis and suddenly found themselves without a drummer this weekend ... For all of you who has been keeping up on current Hoven Droven events; pictures from Dalhalla will be up in the picture gallery later this weekend. But for now we leave you with this picture from our ice cream adventure earlier this week. See you all very early on Monday !


Sept 13, 12.52 PM
Aaaaaaaaand we´re back! We checked in at ten this morning, all relaxed after a nice weekend off, all ready to get back to work. Then the sound board broke down after a few atempts at a song called "Skuffen". Luckily studio owner Gustav knows his stuff very well and put us back on track after ten minutes of sweat. So right now Bo is laying down one extra guitar track, and after that we have ten songs down after a little over five days work! Next up; a little rocker called "Morsepolska". But first; Kerstin has prepared lunch outside. We´re happy campers.

4.53 PM
Funny how somedays everything just flows right. "Morsepolska" went by in about three takes (no overdubs) and before we knew it; we had nailed one of Jens songs too! One that we feared a bit .. by far the most tricky song to play, but we got a killer take! You´ll like it. Kjell just went to bed, (he thinks he has fever, and Björn sais his throat is starting to feel soar ...), and Martin, Bo and Björn are working on overdubs on Jens´s song. After that we´re all going on a little drive to the store. We need candy.

10.36 PM
We managed to put down three songs today ! .. then Jens decided he had to go back into town. Tonight we´re renting a video. Making records is a dirty job, but someone has to do it.

2004, Sept. 14, 10.31 AM
Day seven. Only three days of recording left. Björn has got the flu and can hardly breath, and Pedro is feeling it too, so Kerstin is feeding everybody vitamins. Last nights movie "Jackass" made everybody laugh though. (even though we fast forwarded through the sickest parts .. whats funny about seeing people throw up ?) Right now Gustav is in the studio rehearsing one of Bo´s songs called "Dansen" ("The dance") You know, the sort of ballad that cries out for Gustavs horn. Martin is convinced he´s gonna succeed in tuning Björns snare in the right note for the songs key. We´ll probably have coffee soon.

13.50 PM
Lunch. Work is kind of slow today. Still struggeling with "Dansen". But that´s OK. We have lots of time.

21.27 PM
We only completed one song today. We finally got "Dansen" right. Then we did a couple attempts at a song we recorded last week that everybody wasn´t quite satisfied with. By the fourth take everybody was too tired to care anymore, and Björn wasn´t feeling well at all, so we decided it was best to quit. Jens, Björn and Kjell decided they had to back into town, but tomorrow it´s back to the mines at 10 PM. Two days to go.

Sept. 15, 12.16 PM
Day eight. We have just listened to a playback of all the songs that we have recorded, and right now we´re just redoing some minor details before dealing with the one song that we haven´t recorded yet. AND deciding wich take to use of the song "Bjekkergauken", ...or just re-record it. We don´t know yet. Things are going smoothly and we feel like we have everything in the can well in time. If no major f**kup happens today we should have everything ready by tomorrow afternoon when the big wrap party starts! That´s right. Gustav has prepared a long day of activities. More on that later, now back to work.

4.44 PM
Almost five o clock, and we might just have recorded the last song for the album! Gustav joined us for a version of an old favourite. A song we have played live for many years, but it has never found a place on any of our previous albums. This time it might just make it !

2004, Sept 16, 9.47 AM
It´s our last day in the studio, and actuallly, .. we were done yesterday afternoon. Last night we had a great dinner (thanks to Kerstin, as always) and then we spent the whole evening looking at old tour videos and TV performances. Man, a lot of things changes in ten years.. And some things don´t ! Bad jokes on the road for example.. Kjell had also dug up the very first recording ever made with Hoven Droven in 1989! Of course then we were known (not known) as "Kreka" and Martin was our guitarist! You did know that our now producer, was our original guitarist ? That´s something he has made very clear to Bosse during this recording .. Anyway; today we´re doing one last attempt at one song that we have already recorded, but that we MIGHT get a better take at. If not; no big deal. Björn is still sick, and Jens has a hang over. The wrap party starts in 6 hrs!

1.27 PM
So we did one last take on "Bjekkergauken", then we took a walk down to the lake for a cup of coffee. Needed to clear our heads. Just a few things left to do; some overdubs on "Bjekkergauken", then WRAP PARTY! We MIGHT record one more song, one that we discovered last night on our trip down memory lane and realised "wow .. cool song! Why haven´t we played that one since 1999 !?", but we´ll see. We´re starting to get tired ..

3.11 PM
WRAP PARTY !!

2004, Sept. 17, 10.13 AM
It´s over. Done. Wrapped. In the can. No return. Hoven Droven have recorded their fifth album in a little over eight days.  Yesterday ended with a field trip to the local brewery (that happens to be award winning and maybe Swedens finest) and we spent about three hours there. Back in Revsund we ended with a few hours in the outdoor hot tub and Gustav´s fine sauna. Martin took the train back to Stockholm at 6.45 this morning (we have no idea how he got to the train station ..) and he will begin mixing the album at his home studio next week. It´s been eight intense days, but we feel like we have accomplished what we came for.  I think we managed to get 14 songs down in the end, though maybe a few will drop out along the way, but we are confident that we have made an album that you will enjoy.More pictures will be up in the picture gallery. Thanks for stopping by! / The Hovens