Rains will come

Hello. Here's some news for you folks. We're happy to inform you that our second album Rains is now being mastered. Once again it was a long and winding road but we're almost there now. We set out to do things totally differently compared to what we did with Diary but in the end the process was quite similar. So we ended up doing things only a bit differently. But it was a crucial bit. We kind of took the best parts of that method and left out the bad ones. Or so we'd like to think at least. Anyway, progress has been made and we're getting better at what we do. And the next time we'll do things completely different... 

But let's not get ahead of ourselves. As was said before, the title of the album is Rains and it will hold ten tracks. The track list will be as follows:


1. Strange Days
2. Cherbourg
3. Atlantic
4. She Had A Death Wish
5. Slow Dance
6. Marie Celeste
7. This Place Is Death
8. My Hands Are On Fire
9. Ocean Rain
10. Moon River 


Like Diary of a Dead Man Walking, Rains also tells a story in its own way and has a central theme. We don't want to say much about this though, because there really isn't a one right way to interpret things. Everyone of you will make your own journey with it and that is what we want. But in the heart of things there is love and the loss of it. Actually, it is very much like it was with the Diary, only the setting and the circumstances are different.


We're not yet sure when it will be released and who will release it, but of course we will  try make it happen as soon as possible. We want it to get out there in the world and start living a life of its own, making friends and enemies.


Stay tuned!

Summer is almost here

Just writing to tell you that we're still alive and the record is almost finished. Practicing for the shows in March and April took a lot of time and it might have delayed the release of this album a little bit, but it was totally worth it. The shows went well and were therapeutic for us in so many ways. Also playing some of these songs live gave us new ideas and therefore benefited the album. Anyway, 90% of the tracks are mixed and now we're taking a little break to rest our ears. In the end of May we're going to do some fine tuning and put the finishing touches on the mix. And that's that.

What's the score here? What's next?

Hi there!

So the last couple of weekends we've been practicing for our shows that will take place in March. Next week actually. We were hoping that we would wrap up the album before those gigs, but you know how it goes. Still, everything is pretty much under control; only a few guest performances needs to be recorded and that's it. Dates have been set and studio time has been booked so everything is looking good, I tell ya! Mostly we're talking about strings and woodwinds here, but maybe some vocals also. We'll be dropping some teasers for you as soon as possible to keep you interested!

Idiots trying to figure out how to use a keyboard.

Oh yes, the shows. We'll be playing in Pauke -festival, which is taking place in various venues around Finland. We'll participate in Tampere, Turku and Pori. In April we'll also play in Helsinki, but that's a different occasion and we'll talk about it more later on. So the dates are as follows.


07.03.2012 Yo-Talo, Tampere
09.03.2012 S-Osis, Turku
24.03.2012 Annis, Pori
27.4.2012 Semifinal Helsinki

We'll be playing mostly new stuff so come check us out!

betrayal at bespin @ facebook & www.betrayalatbespin.com

There is a light at the end of the tunnel...

...let's hope it's not a train.

We're not yet anywhere near finishing this album, but these last two weeks have made us carefully optimistic about the situation. The latest track list is a good candidate for being a final one and at the moment it consists of 10 songs. A nice round number. We have also been in talks with an artist friend of ours for the album art. Hopefully that works out!

Bandmates watches in awe as Heikki shreds.

During the holidays some of us spent three days in studio finishing up a few tracks. We recorded vocals and drums for four tracks. One of them was a brand new track that kind of appeared from nowhere. It came to be pretty effortlessly and almost by accident but it was very much needed. We feel it's the one to close the album, because it kind of concludes it both musically and storywise. I know we compared another track to Trinity before, but we were too hasty. This is the one. Musically it's nothing like Trinity, but as it was for Diary, this is the missing piece of puzzle for this album. As you can see, things are constantly evolving and changing, but that's just the way it is.

MacGyver came by and made a pop-filter 

out of readily available materials. 

The artist was not convinced.

Today I recorded a few sax parts with Lauri and then re-amped some keyboards and was very happy with the results. Speaking of keys, this album will have a lot of them compared to Diary. Of course there will be them good old electric piano and organ sounds, but there will also be synths. We're adding new sounds to our musical texture and hopefully we can incorporate them in the live act also. We have to make some investments and adjustments but we're determined to do so. We're not going to add more people to our roster because seven is enough, but we might have to swap some instruments during songs. Who knows how and what we do, but we're excited to try new things and evolve our sound and act.

This is how the pros do it.

I'm happy to say that probably about 90% of the instruments are now recorded and the mixing phase can finally began. Or at least I think that's the case. But with us, you never know.

Cheers!

Back In Business

The journey continues.

We spent last weekend recording two "new" tracks and discussing what we've done so far and what is yet to be done. At this point things are looking pretty good and we're optimistic about finishing the album in next two/three months. We're aiming to release the album in March 2012, but we're not promising anything. Keep your fingers crossed.

It seems that we're taking our sweet time like we did on Diary, though we planned on making this album at a different pace. But we're not the ones to rush things. We have all the time in the world. But of course at some point we'll decide that enough is enough and that's it. Hopefully that will be sometime in February.

We're going back to studio during the Holidays and try to finish up few more tracks. Talk to you later.

Autumn Leaves

Seasons change and time goes by pretty fast. As the summer holidays ended, everybody scattered around the country and that has been slowing down the process once again. But fear not, though it might take some time, this record will be made. But I'm going ahead of myself. Since the last update, we've done a lot of things. Here's a little recap.

In July some of us got together in an old school building and recorded a few instruments there. There are some piano parts in these songs so naturally we decided to use the Grand Piano that was standing in a corner of one of the halls. It sounded pretty cool.

We played three songs with it, but later we decided not to include one of them on the album. It's a good composition, but at this point it just doesn't fit. We've been doing a lot of that lately. Killing our darlings. It's difficult but sometimes you have to make difficult decisions for the greater good.

For the greater good.

After that a friend of ours, Kari, came by and played some bass for us. Not just one bass but double bass. Since the first draft of this song, we knew we wanted double bass in it, and when we want something we get it. Most of the time. Well. almost most of the time. Okay, we usually never get what we want like a full size symphony orchestra, but we make do. The result is what matters, not how you get there.

Then let's fast forward to September. Last weekend we recorded saxophone and this Saturday we laid down some drum tracks once again. We didn't re-do anything, instead we did a whole new track and an ending to one song that was missing. We're pretty excited about this. It's always refreshing to have new track among the ones that you've heard and played so many times before. It's like a new kid in school. In Diary of a Dead Man Walking, the track 'Trinity' was a similar case. It came up really late and ended up being a crucial piece of the puzzle. Well, this new track in this album isn't a brand new song. It was considered to be included from the get-go, but got dropped out pretty early on. We forgot about it for about six months but then decided to make a new version out of it, and it ended up being awesome and probably just what the album needs. It was always important to have that song in that particular part of the album, regarding the concept and the theme, so it was a relief for us to get it to work the way it should. Most of the time this is the way it goes. Sometimes you have to let go and you can never force anything. If it really is a good idea it will come back again and find its rightful place.

There are about five tracks that are almost ready for mixing. The recording of the rest 3-4 tracks will hopefully be completed in next two months. We'll keep you posted!

The Shape of Things to Come

Last weekend we gathered in our makeshift studio and began to put the album together. We concentrated on seven tracks and three of them are now in pretty good shape and the rest are also well on the way. The exact number of tracks to be featured on the upcoming album remains a mystery for us too, but an educated guess would be something between 7 and 10. We don't want to make it too long, but we still want to include everything that we feel it needs. The record itself will be a concept album as the previous one was, but with different themes. What they are we're not ready to reveal, but it will have something to do with water.

If our music was uncategorizable (Is that a word? It is now!) before, it will be even more difficult to put us under a certain genre with this record. For us that is a good thing. With our last album, we were pretty much labeled as a metal band, though we've never really felt like one. Sure, it had some metal influences but the album itself wasn't a metal album, at least for us it wasn't. Neither will this one be. But who really gives a damn what it is, as long as it's good? We're pretty sure you'll recognize the sound but you will also hear a lot of new sounds as well. The album will feature one or two guest vocalists in the singing department, in addition to our own vocalists, and also some other guest appearances to give the songs what they need.

That has also been our guideline with this album in whole. To do justice for individual songs. Every track on this album will be different and have its own thing but also serve its purpose on the album. No more, no less.