THE FREEKS Ruben Romano: "With all the ideas set, we began tracking. Man, did I have a real big job ahead of me. Let me interrupt with the line up on our game plan at this point: John McBain - Producers Chair. Scott Reeder - Engineers Chair [with a badly injured finger]. Me - The Player. Now can you see that job I had. That job was to lay down all the basic tracks: Drums, Bass & Guitar. I was actually hoping for a more together jam type of session but this was the FREEKS Session so it had to be different. With Scotts finger the way it was and, due to baggage restraints, John had no lefty guitar I had no choice. I was really Freeking Out man!" The Freeks -- A conglomeration of highly respected Psych-Heads and Way-Outs into the one communal thing that moves us all....SOUND. Gathered together to capture and re-create exactly that one thing that drives us all psych-heads first into a heavy madness of the good kind. An amazing bunch that wish to now erase anonymity that avoided any interuptions it may have brought to the foundation pouring of this house that they build. The Union of: Ruben Romano [Nebula / Fu Manchu] John Mcbain [Monster Magnet / Wellwater Conspiracy] Scott Reeder [Kyuss ] Isaiha Mitchell [Earthless] Lorenzo Woodrose [Baby Woodrose] Jason Corbin [Bartenders Bible / The Casbah] John Cobett [Hammers of Misfortune] Jack Endino [Skin Yard / Earthworm] Mr. Bernie Worell [Funkadelic / Parliament] has finaly come into being. Construction is still not fully complete but is to the point of reception. [The final mix of the Freeks eagerly awaited debut is just days away!] Now all are welcome to slip inside this house as they pass by. All are welcome to do thou wilt and let the sounds move them to their newly found oneness. All are welcome to meet and join the new Tribal Council. All are welcome to sample the kool-aide. All together welcomed to FREEK-OUT. Thus, I bring forth onto you with the grandest of all welcomes... I give YOU...THE FREEKS! Words | Ruben Romano So, how do I find myself entering a studio with John McBain and Scott Reeder? Well, believe it or not but there is a beauty about a thing like MySpace. I have known these guys for quite sometime, thanks to my Fu Manchu / Nebula adventures, but it wasn’t until the MySpace contacts that things got started in working together. How cheesy is that!? Now of course, I am always working in my garage with my 8 channel digital multitracker and found that I had compiled quite a back-log of tunes and ideas. Tunes that both could have been but also very far off the path to bring forth in Nebula. This was my fork in the road. So, I decided to turn left, stick my thumb up in the air and hitch a ride to see what I could find. You see, I enjoy the unexpected that other minds can produce, so I decided to ask some friends to help me re-create these tunes and ideas in ways that they do best. I sent out some of the 8- track demos and was responded with yes from mostly all I sent them too. So I shot long and high and went for the best. I wanted the best and I got the best. There was to be four of us in the original plan. John, Scott, Isaiha Mitchell of Earthless and myself. Things were set, I dreamt the impossible dream and realized that I was still awake, that I never fell asleep. Than whoa!, an actual recording date set. Turning from pencil into ink with confirmed dates within the month of January 2007. We were headed to "The Sanctuary" for a 10 day session. It was sounding like things were going really easy and smooth but we all know the curve ball that life throws at us. Something was bound to happen and sure enough it did. I got a phone call from Isaiha who had realized a schedule conflict with shows booked for Earthless. He could not make the session. That’s O.K., I thought, I still got John and Scott there so Isaiha can overdub his parts later to be imported into the session before the mix, problem solved. Now The session was a week away when yet another call starts to ring my phone. This time it was Scott with news of a terrible freek accident. While trying to loosen a stuck window it suddenly broke free, dropping like a guillotine onto one of Scott’s fingers, smashing it very badly. Unfortunately we could not re-schedule the session since John already had a flight booked and paid for. We had to continue and figure it out as we just went for it. Back in San Francisco, before John was to fly over, he attended some fancy opera or symphony with some friends. One friend being Lori from Acid King. She showed up with some other friends and one in particular was said to be dressed all in Orange, for a suit and tie affair? This one was none other than John Cobbett. Somewhere in their conversations that evening the Freeks session was mentioned. Cobbett, an independent writer, thought it a great piece to contribute and submit for EQ magazine. So he asked if he could attend the session to photograph a piece intended on recording theory. You know, like, what kind of mics are we gonna use and where are we gonna place them etc. etc. Again, we all agreed so Cobbett was to enter the studio in it’s early stages to do his own work. The day before the session finally arrived so I picked up John from the airport. We arrived at the Sanctuary some 3 hours later. We immediately unloaded and set things up, for the next day is the true first day of getting sounds and tracking. We than get shown to our quarters, a classic trailer trash like trailer straight out of a Russ Meyer film, down to the soap in the crapper, I shit you not. Even the refrigerator magnets gave homage to this fact. But, both this trailer and studio were settled inside a brilliant compound filled with enough animals to steal the song title away from Old MacDonald. There was like 5 horses, 11 dogs, 6 or 7 peacocks, turkeys, chickens, many different exotic birds like macaws and such, 1 pig [R.I.P. Portis] and 1 cat. There used to be a bunch of goats too but yes, they are the devil. We were told that they were jumping in and out, stealing everyone’s hay, food, and slop. True and perfect in their goatness, they could not be exorcized so they had to leave the property, banished. It was getting late and I personally was too excited to be tired. We were to start tracking at High Noon but all night long we watched countless hours of German Deutschrock videos and clips from 68-78. Some real classic stuff like Birth Control, Amon Duul II, Tritonus, Can, Petards, Xhol Caravan, Grobschnitt, Guru Guru, Tangerine Dream, Eloy, and yes, even Tiger B. Smith and his Tiger Bunch. All just so inspiring, but nothing inspired me more than watching Jacques Perrot & Kin Ping Meh doing a mozart piece,.... with his head? Next day we convened in the studio on time. We never had to question ourselves if we felt tardy. John had some great ideas and used some of that video footage to prove his point. I was so down with it all. This was a "FREEK SESSION!" The whole idea was to go beyond the usual recording session. To use all our ideas that always got shot down in our previous recording experiences, and that is exactly what we did!. There was never a "NO" or "I’m NOT doing that!" Not once was there a doubt in any pedal, effect or instrument used, not even when I wanted to use my own head like Jacques Perrot. It was more like bursts of laughter and a big "YEAH O.K." trying to get past and through that laughter. Our methods proved man. We all knew it. The most common thing said was, " I always wanted to try this!" That’s the way this session worked. It was fun!, we were young!, we were free!, we were wolves!, and the moon was always full. With these ideas all set, we began tracking. Man, did I have a real big job ahead of me. Let me interrupt with the line up on our game plan at this point: John McBain - Producers Chair. Scott Reeder - Engineers Chair [with a badly injured finger] Me - The Player Now can you see that job I had. That job was to lay down all the basic tracks: Drums, Bass & Guitar. I was actually hoping for a more together jam type of session but this was the FREEKS Session so it had to be different. With Scotts finger the way it was and, due to baggage restraints, John had no lefty guitar [Scott's a lefty too but only had lefty 4 stingers] I had no choice. I was really Freeking Out man! However, John re-assured me on the methods of file sharing and the obvious over-dub so a lot of his parts he could do back at home. Just like he did his "In-Flight Feature" disc [released by Duna records, Plug Plug, it kicks ass!]. Again the response from me was "O.K." Yet he did do some guitar work in the studio, playing a regular right handed guitar like butter. John and I did have our jams however. You see, it was January... very cold!, one night we even had snow fall. That trailer we were in had like 5 portable heaters and we had all of them running full blast. Thus, flipping and tripping the circuit breakers. We were never told were those circuit breakers were and we couldn’t find them. So, due to us not wanting to freeze we moved from cold trailer to warm studio. Now note, due to the animals all around, the studio was under a strict noise curfew. No more loud noise after 9pm. With all the big machines and computers turned off I recall seeing John, swinging his arms back and forth as I paced around like a caged tiger. He then said, "I can’t be in a studio without recording something!" This was the birth statement to what he and I dubbed "The Midnight to Six sessions." We had discovered some 8 year old weed hidden in a star wars head statue, topped it off with some wooden nickle shaped hashish and pulled out my portable 8 tracker to capture some jams. We limited ourselves to two tracks each, one basic track then one over-dub. We used mostly keyboards, effect pedals, and some guitars and bass. We would each run through the sound banks, pick our tones, plug in direct and hit record. We really freeked each other out! What came out was some great soundtracks to a spaghetti western / sci-fi / godzilla monster type movie. All first takes, mixed down to two stereo channels with no saving of any individual tracks for any further use or mixing. They are what they are and some will be included in the final mix of the entire session. These were some amazing moments and it was hard not to laugh through them, until we realized that we were plugged in direct. The laughter was not to effect any of the recordings so the laughter got really loud, These moments I will never forget! And I think that these are some of my favorite tracks of the whole session. Early on in the session, a couple of phone calls came in. Cobbett was somewhere lost in the desert yet he was about to arrive. I was already nervous enough having to play, solo, the parts in front of John and Scott but now also a total stranger!? In walks John Cobbett, a long hair with even a longer beard. I think it was a bit awkward for him as well coming in as an observer but everyone just kept on keepin on. In between takes and during beer brakes I did over hear John twanging some licks on a Nashville strung guitar. Hmmmm... let’s see what this Cobbett is all about? We then broke bread and all tension was eased due to a wonderfully home-cooked meal[thank you Rene]. John is a brilliant amazing wizard that thrives on algorithms and the random number not greater than 1. Stretching points past insanity he is truly a gifted genius. So with our bellies good and full we commenced again to listen to some play backs. A comfortable Cobbett chimed in with ideas and comments of what he would do on those certain parts . I listened to them all but felt this is not the song, I would know it when I heard it. We then started working on a song called "The Go-Go Get" [this will be the Freeks first release via a Poison Tree Records compilation called "Road to Nowhere." Yes, another myspace connection]. Things were going great. Most of the basic tracks were complete and upon the playback I knew. I said "Cobbett, grab a guitar of your choice [we had like 13 or 14 guitars, coincidentally all sunburst, except for the one impy black one] because your laying down a track!" He would have nailed it on the first take but his headphones feel off his head so we had to cut and went for a second take. "BINGO!" "FUCK YEAH!" It’s what your gonna hear, just truly amazing!, done in the Freek way! On the fly and extra large grade AA, free range! This was the beginning, the opening of the flood gates. The realization of the endless possibilities that can be harnessed. The more the merrier! Why the fuck not? The whole intention of no restrictions, no bounderies really came into being at that moment. John Cobbett is a good egg. Scott, I felt, was really getting kind of restless. He kept commenting on how bummed he was that his finger was all banged up. We all were, not just for his unableness to play but for our fallen comrade and the pain he must have endured. I would have cried like a baby for weeks, man, the way that thing looked. I responded with condolences as best I could but he wanted to play and be more a part than just engineer. I must say that he really did save my ass so much. I thought if Scott can’t play than what a bummer but he can still talk and for that matter sing. I, myself, do not claim to be a singer. In fact, I had a singer in mind for this project but that damn Atlantic Ocean made it impossible. That was to be the only sacrifice for this dream come true in my eyes, I guess? So again, I had to do it. Anyways, Scott did add a lot of backing vocals and that made me feel much more secure about mine. He has such a strong voice and is an automatic human harmonizer if I ever saw one. However, it did get to the point where he got so determined that he was definatly going to track bass on at least one song. There is a true plane that I ride with John in regards to the love of songs sung in foreign languages, other than English that is. So we decided to cover a song by a 70's Swedish band. When I presented it, this was the song that Scott wanted to play on. This is the one track that features John on Guitar, Scott on Bass / backing vocals and me on Drums / vocals. That love I spoke of led us to keep the song in it’s native Swedish language. More laughter due to the fact that we knew not one thing of what was being said. It was just a go and play with phonics. At this point I will keep this song a mystery but I will tell you that it sounds great! So, how does Jack Endino, Jason Corbin, Lorenzo Woodrose, and Bernie Worell get in on the action? Well, Jack was on my initial list of MySpace contacts, so I asked him if he would like to help out as well. Jack said that John mentioned it to him and yes, to just send him the files. At that time I had no idea of what he meant but John was, like, COOL! So we sent him a song called "The Earthworm Invasion: Uncle Jacks last Freek-Out!" which clocks in at over 8 minutes. Jason and Lorenzo have been great friends of mine for some time now. I really dig the way they can control their voices so upon asking them, they came back with a Yes. I met with Jason and we tracked his parts, a lead vocal on "Excuses", in my friends small studio trailer. When we entered this small shack found on an R.V/ Boat storage parking to suddenly realise that he was robbed! All his guitars [even the one I borrowed and that Cobbett cranked on!] Amps and pedals were gone. We felt bad but we continued on and hit record, again with my 8 tracker. Lorenzo, at the time, was about to enter a Danish studio to begin work on a new Baby Woodrose record. I sent files back with Ralph the Killer, who was vacationing with me down in Mexico. Lorenzo could do his thing in some spare moments while together in that studio with Ralph, and also with no directions. I told him to just do your thing. So he did some backing vocals on "Coming On." In fact, that’s how it was for everyone involved, no one got directions, I dictated to no one, everyone was free to FREEK-OUT!, I trusted them. I did want some female backing vocals for "The Go-Go Get" though so the only directions given here was, "you know, like, some young Japanese girls wearing white knee-high boots!" so John’s wife Robin helped out with that even though she isn’t Japanese. I told my friend Steve the JuggleSlugg about our Freek plan so he also was knocking on the door prior to the session. He told me that he had started to work with Bernie Worell from Funkadelic and wanted to know if Bernie could take part in this. I must be honest, I shrugged it at first, thinking yeah this can’t be for real. However he kept on pitching Bernie our way. I mean, I believed he was working with Bernie but I thought it un-real for it to become a reality, that is, for Bernie to be involved with The Freeks [I mean the guy played with Eddie Hazel & FUNKADELIC and with George Clinton & Parliament, like majorly way out of my league, Ya dig what I’m saying!]. Steve then invited me to the scoring of a film to be named "SUPERBAD" at the Capital Records Studios A&B [the Sinatra studios!] This Session was to include some of the funkiest players this world has ever seen! Players like Catfish Collins, Jabo Starks, Clyde Stubblefield, and of course Bernie Worrell, but check this out, also with Bootsy Collins! What the FUCK!? I R.S.V.P’d with a Fuck Yeah! I will be there! And Man! what an experience, I will never eat Chinese food the same way! So Steve was serious and Bernie told me he was anxious to hear the stuff. I couldn’t believe it, man, like no way! but just as our FREEK SESSION motto, in the words of Bruce Lee, "No Way Is The Way!" We were able to figured it out and the files for "Coming On" were sent and the un-believable made believable... Bernie Worrell is now gonna forever be a FELLOW FREEK! Still un-believable but check out this Youtube trailer to see what I saw in person at that superbad session... Soon after, Isaiha [of Earthless] became available so he came over to my house to track some guitars. My wife and daughter packed up for the day and left us alone, un-interrupted. We got set up and started tracking but really we started drinking instead. My wife returned to pick me up for a dinner that evening so eventually we ran out of time. However, this drunk-out did produced parts to be placed into "The Earthworm Invasion" and man did we get drunk! I couldn’t let him drive home in his condition so we took him with us over to my sister’s house for a turkey dinner. My whole family fell in love with a drunk Isaiha Mitchell, just like everybody falls in love with a drunk Isaiha Mitchell, but that is a story for another time. We did get together a second time down at his place and he refused the drinks I offered, so we got his parts down in less than an hour. This time he added parts to the tunes "Excuses", "Lunette", and "No Name No Nothing." Isaiha is another truly gifted individual, there’s no one else like him. He is a brother FREEK for LIFE! So all the parts are done, Thus, I sat on the killing floor of patience and survived. You see, passing files takes time and patience can really start to wear thin. However, I found myself in a position to where I can withstand the game of waiting. I had a certain faith in all of my FREEK brothers. The flood gates opened, all the parts started to show up and all the sent files started to return. What I got was the wonderful truth. That my FREEK brothers took my notions and turned them into sounds of beauty, that they made my songs so much more than beautiful! I feel that they will one day get me into my very own Mariachi Suit! This might not make sense to all of you but these dear friends of mine made me a true believer in possibilities. I feel I will be forever thanking them to the point that they need to punch me smack dab in the nose to stop. Yet again, I thank them for making this FREEK-SCENE exactly what it needed to be!... A TOTAL FREEK-OUT!! Now off to the mix. PORTIS THE PIG [R.I.P.]