Adam Jarvis and Misery Index entered Wrightway studios in Baltimore MD on January 2nd, to start recording their fourth coming album entitled "Heirs To Thievery" with producer/engineer Steve Wright. The album is scheduled for release in May 2010 via Relapse Records.
Some insight on the recording process from Adam:
"As always we started with drums first. This time around recording at home allowed me to use some different drums and make to sure I had the best drums for the sound we were going for… HUGE!!! I had help from a good friend of mine; drum tech, JonJohn Michaud from the band "Swarm of The Lotus", and having him involved helped getting the process of finding the right drum sounds fly by, and I tracked 3 songs the first day.
Now for the breakdown of the drums used on "Heirs To Thievery": The toms I used on the record are from another buddy of mine, Keith Larson at The Baltimore Drum Company. Sizes used 10",12" and 16" solid Maple shells, with clear Emperor Heads. I used my Ddrum Dominion maple kicks 20"x20" and a hand-hammered brass Worldmax snare 6.5"x14", which is the best sounding snare I have ever used in the studio. We tried out a couple different snare drums and the Worldmax with an Emperor X head had the crack we were looking for! The cymbals I used on the recording were mostly Meinl cymbals, which I have an endorsement with. A lot of times when you get in the studio everything sounds totally different once you hear it recorded… Especially the cymbals. Since I’m a pretty heavy cymbal hitter, they are the most important part of the record, next to the snare of course!
I used a total of 4 crash cymbals (mostly MB10’s): 3 chinas, one being a 18" Wuhan, which I recommend for any drummer in the studio. They cut and sound amazing recorded (as long as they last). I used 2 sets of hi-hats: one 14" Byzance heavy hats for my main, and a set of 13" Byzance fast hats, which cut and are great for blasting fast 16th note thrash parts. I used a 20" K custom ride and a Byzance splash for a total of 11 cymbals. 8 overhead mics and a total of 23 mics on the kit! That includes 4 room mics to get the natural sounds from the massive room I recorded in.
This time around we were well prepared with extensive hours of pre-production, which all took place at the house of Darin Morris in Maryland. Darin is a good friend and fellow band-mate in Criminal Element. Many nights were spent there over the months of October, November and December, trying out ideas and really perfecting the songs to make them what they are now. One song in particular took over 60 hours of writing and trying different ideas to finally get it right! So having all the tempos mapped out and order of the riffs in place, we knew exactly how we wanted the songs to go, and there is no second guessing when your in the actual studio… It saved a lot of time.
The way we recorded the drums for the pre-production was on a TD-3 Roland electronic kit running midi sounds from Superior Drummer into the brain, which is absolutely amazing software to use. The sounds are natural and are a good representation of what the song is gonna sound like when it’s all said and done. Compared to the old days when I used to record on a cassette tape, then listen back and critique. Technology… ya gotta love it.
The actual tracking of the drums took 5 days for a11 songs + one bonus track. Usually I would get 3 songs a day, starting with an easier track and working my way up to the harder songs. The tempos vary on this album from 185 to 260. The 260 song, which is the title track and fastest song I’ve ever recorded, was a challenge but it’s the second time I recorded it. When we were on tour with The Faceless back in March last year, we stopped by Eyal Levi’s studio (Daath) in Atlanta to record the track. We also recorded "You Lose" on that tour in Phoenix, Arizona with our buddy Ryan Butler from Landmine Marathon, which has a 250 part in it!
Now with the drums done, we’re currently working on the guitar tracks and will have more news soon along with a video clip of some studio footage in the March issue of Sick Drummer Magazine! Cheers…
Adam Jarvis
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