16 May 2013

Saturnine Valentines

Saturnine Valentines is the first full-length studio album by Dawnstar, released in 2013. The topic of the lyrics is centered around the topics of relationship, love and sadness. While the lyrics of their previous EP, Change The World, focused on global issues dealing with social issues such as anti-globalism (Change The World), terrorism (Don't Die A Martyr For Me) and prostitution (Scarlet), the band's sophomore record is rather ego-centrist, concentrating on more personal topics. In an interview, Wind said that "I have just become fed up with the lyrics of Change The World and globalism, and politics. I only wanted a more personal record which I have strong emotions about and I think Saturnine Valentines truthfully summarises my current emotional status. Obviously the record is about the things which happened with me in the past years, including the loss of my father and my relationships with women". 

 Infobox
Released: 16 May 2013
Recorded: August 2012 - January 2013
Studio 1: Abnormal Studio, Budapest, Hungary
Studio 2: Dürer Studio, Budapest, Hungary
Genre: Indie rock
Length:
Language: English
Label: None
Producer: Dawnstar
Music: Dawnstar
Lyrics: Attila Wind

Track listing 
2. Ophelia 3:39 
3. Almost Every Flame Will Fade Away 4:29
4. In Heaven We Meet Again 3:34
5. Cougar De Luxe 3:23
6. London Nights 3:34
7. Live Today 3:23
8. Aphrodite 5:25   


Personnel
Attila Wind - vocals and guitars
Bálint Hamvas - bass
Viktor Albert - drums 

Technical staff and artwork
László Philipp: recording
Dávid Schram: mixing and mastering
Annamária Hamvas & Attila Wind - cover design
Judit Székely - band photography

Background
The idea of recording new songs dates back to 2009. After finishing the recording of Change The World in 2007, the band was working on three new songs: In Heaven We Meet Again, London Nights (at that time only London), and Live Today (at that time Live Today and Die Tomorrow). Due to the worsening relationship between Bálint Hamvas and Anna Mitropulos the band decided to postpone the recording of the new songs. In early 2012 Dawnstar became a trio group again after the "unofficial" departure of Anna Mitropulos. In 2011 Wind was working on several songs which he wanted to record but he did not discuss it with the band as early as spring 2012 when the band started to rehearse again. During the composition of Saturnine Valentines Wind was listening to pop artists including Hurts, Lana Del Rey and pop from the 1980s such as Wham!. The influence of these artist can be felt to some extent. Obviously, Wind worked a lot on the songs to obscure and blur the direct influence of these artist. Wind said that Love's Gonna Be Tender was inspired by Wham!'s Freedom, Ophelia (originally Laura) by Wham!'s If You Were There, Almost Every Flame Will Fade Away  by Careless Whisper. "I do like listening to artist who are far from our band's style and I think George Micheal is somebody that you would never associate with Dawnstar. Well I do think he is an excellent songwriter." "I was also listening to Lana Del Rey at that time and I was amazed by her style and elegance in songwriting. 

 Recording 
The recording of the album took place in two different studios: (1) Abnormal Studio, (2) Dürer Studio.  


 Abbreviations:
AEFWFA: Almost Every Flame Will Fade Away
APH: Aphrodite
CDL: Cougar De Luxe
IHWMA: In Heaven We Meet Again
LGBT: Love's Gonna Be Tender
LN: London Nights
LT: Live Today

 First stage
04.08.2012. - 13:30-20:30 - Guitars Recording
16.08.2012. - 17:30-20:30 - Bass Recording
17.08.2012. - 17:30-19:30 - Vocals - LGBT/LN/CDL 
19.08.2012. - 10:00-12:00 - Vocals - Laura/IHWMA/LT/AEFWFA
Total cost of recording:46 000 HUF

Second stage 
The second stage of the recording took place at the Dürer Studio.

Programs Used
1. Pro Tools
2. Telefunken microphone
3. Antares (auto-tune)
4. Indigo (AmblRgm zs/AerSynth/FourSaw/FluteS)
5. Addictive Drums

Preparation Period
02.10.2012. - 13:00 - Discussion of the project
09.10.2012. - 09:00-12:00 - Drums
12.10.2012. - 10:00-13:00 - Drums
16.10.2012. - 09:00-12:00 - Premixing
19.10.2012. - 09:00 - Reschedule
01.11.2012. - 09:00-12:00 - Cancelled

Vocals Recording 
02.11.2012. - 10:00-13:00 - Vocals - LT
03.11.2012. - 15:00-18:00 - Vocals - IHWMA
08.11.2012. - 09:00-12:00 - Vocals - LT
09.11.2012. - 09:00-12:00 - Vocals - CDL
10.11.2012. - 11:00-15:00 - Vocals - LGBT
13.11.2012. - 09:00-12:00 - Cancelled
15.11.2012. - 09:00-12:00 - Vocals - OPH
16.11.2012. - 10:00-12:00 - Vocals - OPH (Chorus)
20.11.2012. - 09:00-12:00 - Vocals - AEFWFA

Vocals Editing and Tuning
22.11.2012. - 09:00-12:00 - Tune - LT/IHWMA
27.11.2012. - 09:00-12:00 - Tune - IHWMA/LN
29.11.2012. - 09:00-12:00 - Tune - LN
04.12.2012. - 09:00-12:00 - Tune - LGBT
07.12.2012. - 10:00-15:00 - Tune - OPH/CDL 
08.12.2012. - 15:00-18:00 - Tune - AEFWFA
11.12.2012. - 11:00-16:00 - Tune - AEFWFA

Drums Editing
13.12.2012. - 09:00-16:00 - Drums - All songs

Pre-Mixing
14.12.2012. - 09:00-16:00 - AEFWFA/LN/LT
18.12.2012. - 09:00-16:00 - CDL /IHWMA/OPH
20.12.2012. - 09:00-16:00 - LGBT
21.12.2012. - 09:00-16:00 - LGBT

Mixing
27.12.2012. - 10:00-18:00 - Mixing
28.12.2012. - 10:00-16:00 - Mixing
09.12.2012. - 11:00-18:00 - Mixing
04.01.2013. - 10:00-16:00 - Mixing
10.01.2013. - 09:00-13:00 - Mixing
11.01.2013. - 10:30-14:00 - Mixing

Master David alone - (the time spent with master is unknown) (minimum estimated time is 2 hours per song) (116 h)

Post Master Changes
23.01.2013. - 20:30-00:30 - Post Master Changes & Mixing and Mastering of the song Aphrodite

Costs agreed = 250 000 HUF
circa 120 hours x 4000 = 480 000 HUF

Total Cost Paid
23.01.2013. 309 000 HUF
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