NIGHTWISH: Kimmo Ahola's Studiodiary from Abbey Road.

Kimmo Ahola, the sound engineer for Nightwish has written a studio diary for Nightwish's official website at www.nightwish.com.

Below are some excerpts from the diary:

Day 1
21.2.2007
Wake-up at 5:45 a.m.
 
It was –29 degrees outside. Oh, darn it. I wondered if the old LT would start up, because it didn’t have an engine block heater. …Or actually it did, but typically it was taken for maintenance mere three weeks ago, just in time for freezing weathers to start – when it was known already in last springtime that the current piece of machinery was malfunctioning. Luckily it started up, so after a drive to the station and a train to Helsinki,  I was in Seutula waiting for the plane to take off. The “stars” were on a different flight than I was, but that was my entire fault because I booked the trip way too late. The others flew straight to London, but I was going via Oslo. The departure was approximately at the same time, at 2PM, but the boys arrived two hours earlier. Only now have I actually had time to think about what’s to be expected: possibly the most legendary studio in the world?!  Wait, scratch that last one. In these few days I’d have to siphon all the know-how possible. It could very well be that I become a public nuisance there.
 
6 p.m. Finally in London
 
…Yes, finally. The flights were late and Heathrow was packed. The plane from Oslo was late 45 minutes to start with, and more was to follow: we circled above London for 30 more minutes waiting to be landed, and there was still more. When we finally touched down we had to sit on our asses for 45 minutes waiting for a place for the plane to open up in the terminal.
 
Thanks to the excellent networking of the London tubes, the rest of the journey from the airport to the hotel was easy. Only a couple of switches and I was 300 meters from my hotel. The time was already past eight in the evening, so I decided to skip the visit to the studio. There would have been only the transferring of materials tonight, so it really didn’t matter. Tomorrow at 9:30 a.m. the proper sessions would start and I’d be watching and learning.

The the entire diary at this location.