Day 16 in the studio........

July 11th

Veronica Freeman, Christopher Shrum, and, Pete Wells from Benedictum joined Rock Star and Super Star in the studio for an amazing session.

First, let me start by saying what an absolute pleasure it was to work with all three of these musicians on this day. Especially, Veronica. She blew me away!

The session started with Veronica laying down the vocals for the song “Mistress Insidious”, (formerly “Such a Bitch”). It is so funny that when I heard this track in my head, the only woman I thought could ever do it justice was Doro Pesch. Since Doro was busy in Germany, I decided I needed to really take some time and do some investigative research to find someone I thought might be as good. This was rather discouraging because I was not having any luck for quite some time finding someone I thought was comparable. That is until I walked into a music store in Illinois and overheard a track from a band called Benedictum on the overhead music. Immediately I was sold. Now jump forward another couple of months, here she was in the studio with me. Pretty cool how when your sober, you can make things happen.

Veronica did not waste anytime behind the mic. Its so funny that during the first second of her opening up her mouth, I realized I had found an even better fit for the song than what I had originally intended. (No offense Doro, I’ll get you for the next CD!). She blitzed through the song at a fiery pace and instantly won the hearts of everyone else in the studio. I must have heard the words “Amazing” 7 to 8 times. How a girl can sing like this, I have no idea. I know I have said this about 4 or 5 times now, but this may now be my favorite track. In fact, its so good that its now one of the first to be mixed. I think the Brett and Bob liked it so much that they wanted to get right on it. Thanks Veronica. Oh boy will we be working together again. Very professional and as far as I am concerned, the new queen of metal!

Pete! Where do I begin? Ok, Chris Caffery laid out most of the solo on the “Mistress Insidious” track but we had room for a weeee bit and thanks to Veronica, enter Pete. Pete’s is a funny guy! But beware, if you are around him, your on camera. He loves to video tape! He and I are a lot alike in that way. Life is too short, get it on film! When he did finally put the camera down it was his turn in the hot seat. There is no doubt the song needed a little extra something. Caffery did amazing, but there was one spot that we added later on that needed some fluff. Pete took his time and would not let up until he found just the right solo for the track. He tried a few different approaches but there was one in particular that was special. When we heard it, we all knew it was worth keeping. He’s such a technical player. Very speedy! I could not be happier with his performance and am so glad Veronica made the suggestion to bring him! Go get em’ Pete!

Now on to Chris. He was kind enough to lay out the bass on the track Serenity. It was a solid performance. So much so that it was pretty much done in one take. Chris obviously prepped for the track in advance and because of this helped us nail it out in no time. For someone like Chris to take the time out of his busy schedule and to drive the four hours to the studio to help Rock Star and Super Star on a project such as this really goes to show you what kind of a person he is. Very relaxed and very quick. What a great asset to Benedictum. Thanks again Chris

Another wonderful experience and these guys made it happen and took our song and made it into a masterpiece, I can’t wait for everyone to hear it!