It's Friday and another work week is coming to its end. I’m on the train and take a sip of the steaming coffee. The weekend is at the door and the sun has made its way into the dark Finnish autumn. It almost feels a bit like spring ...
The same goes for the Dark Ride Brothers at the moment. There are lots of events behind us, and yet we are relaxed and look forward to what lies ahead. In a month from now, we’ll be in the studio again and record new songs for you. Meanwhile, we can look back on the first gig with our new bassman. Henkka made a perfect debut on our Alppimaja gig in Ruokolahti. With his bass, he has added a kind of sharpness to our sound that had been missing before. We owe all this to a particular weekend.
For a long time, we had had the idea to take the band to a cottage near a lake (in Finnish: mökki) for one weekend. We started planning the session in summer, and when Henkka took over our bass department, we suddenly had an urgent reason to organize it. The location of the event was a traditional environment in Ruokolahti. The so-called Dark Ride Bootcamp also included a smoke sauna, good company and above all: rehearsals, rehearsals and rehearsals.
Our band rehearsals are usually very well planned and scheduled. We don’t stress ourselves, but there is no idle time either. This time we took a lot of time because we also wanted to spend time on our new songs and prepare them for the studio.
We went to the mökki on Saturday and fixed our equipment in the living room, which had been chosen as location for our rehearsals. The thick walls made of wood, the massive stove and the room itself, which has seen both everyday life and festivities for decades, created a very special atmosphere.
Our audio minister Heny was on site, too, and created us a breathtaking sound. The acoustics in this old building were so impressive that we'll probably record it for you someday. In short: the conditions were perfect.
Real Dark Ride Sauna
At the end of a long day we went to the smoke sauna, which our host had been heating for us for many hours. The autumn evening was pitch black and offered us a unique scenery. Not all brothers dared to go into the ice-cold water of the silent lake, but they are forgiven this time.
The rehearsals continued on Sunday and "Our Song", "Stetson Power" and "Burden" were brought in shape. The purpose of our Dark Ride Bootcamp was also to prepare the studio session, and so we sent the songs to Teemu for pre-production.
The boot camp was a great experience for us and we hope you can perceive a little of the inspiring atmosphere.