After a successful recording session at Candle Recording in November, we opted for the much larger Union Sound Company, a studio on the east end of Toronto, to complete Madame Psychosis’ debut album. Though there is still a lot of work to be done, including final mixing and mastering, we wrapped up the recording process this past weekend. Here’s a short sample of what to expect on the album. Enjoy!

The day was full of fun for all members of the band, complete with coffee, beer, coffee, good eats, coffee and of course lots of music. We managed to complete five songs during the session, bringing our total to 12 including our work at Candle Studio.

Here’s a gallery of photos capturing the highlights of the day.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

We want to send out a special thank you to Mariana Versiani for making the band look good in many of these photos. We also want to thank our talented recording engineer Alex Gamble, who has been batting .1000 with his sage songwriting and recording advice. We’re learning so much about the recording process from him, including the importance of toilet paper in making drums sound better. That’s a true story. He makes the studio space a fun place to explore (with or without the cow bell), even if all of those buttons and knobs on the control panel leave you scratching your head.

Alex Gamble with Madame Psychosis at Union Sound Company

We’ll finish off this post with a few things we learned during the recording process at Union Sound Company that we’d like to pass on to other bands:

1. Ease up on the coffee consumption before recording. It’s hard to be technically proficient with shaky hands!
2. Don’t get too caught up in sounding flawless. Emotion and feel are just as important, and without it your recording will sound empty.
3. Tune up before every single take. You read that. Every. Single. Take. You don’t want to be the one who sounds out of tune when the rest of the band nails their part.
4. Be open to feedback from other band members and your sound engineer/producer. They’re hearing what you are doing from a different perspective and they’ll unquestionably make you and your songs better – as long as you’re open to it.
5. Take breaks. As fun as recording is, the days are long. Go outside and be sure to eat. Talk about things that have nothing to do with music.
6. Record another take even when the band thinks the last one was perfect. You want to be sure you’re covered in post-production.

Now that our debut album is in the can, we can return our focus to our upcoming live gigs at The Opera House, The Cavern, The Hard Luck Bar and The Horseshoe Tavern. Check out our full calendar. We’re also organizing an album release party at Junction City Music Hall on June 16th, 2017, so stay tuned for more details!

Thanks for all of the support.

MP

p.s. look at how exciting recording can be 😉

Madame Psychosis waiting for the drums to be set up