Steelfinger's First Album Barn Find
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The album was recorded in the basement of an 100 year old house at Itä-Pakila, Helsinki, Finland. Hundred years ago every house had to be given a name. This one was called Rock Bottom (Kallipohja). I guess because it was built on the solid rock.
The songs are written to be performed by one-man-band. The expression has to be minimalist and straightforward. A thumb is picking the bass line, while the rest of the fingers are taking care of the melody by picking the high notes. Feet keep strumming the rythm. All the vocals share the same soulful and raw voice.
Steelfinger has been refining his art and expression at a slow pace during the last decade. He has turned a weakness to a strength, limitations to a safe haven of creativity. The lack of other band members has pushed him to develop his own unique style. He has developed a talent to fill the room with limited resources of a one-man-band.
Overdubs were used to beef up the record. But the lead guitar and the lead vocals are the most prominent components.
Barn Find Tracks
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White Lies
This is an odd one. Powerful finger picked riff drives the story.
The unique overdive sound was created using the home made tube amp which was turned to 10 and miked in the sauna.
The song was recorded already two years ago but it was remastered for this release.
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Change The Plan
Sooner or later you have to rethink the plan of your life.
Gibson ES-225 played through both tape echo and home-made spring reverb is driving hard the '48 Gibson GA-25 tube amplifier.
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Feeling A Little Blue
Life is getting harder for white working men. Well, we kind of had it coming.
Home-made Rangemaster pedal was used to add some nasty growl to the guitar sound.
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I Knew No Fear (Before I Got You)
With love comes the fear of losing the one you love. The more you love the more you are afraid.
It's not about the sound but the smell of an old guitar pushing and old tube amp with big chords.
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Me And The Devil Blues
Steelfinger's humble version on Robert Johnson's classic. Played with a cheap HB resonator unplugged.
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My Heart Was Wrong
Soulful blues about bad choices in love.
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(I Didn't Come Here) Out Of The Blue
On this one Steelfinger may have dug a little too deep.
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Some Win Some Lose
Original working name of the song was Kiss.My.Wealthy.A**. You get the idea?
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Splendid Honey
There is some broken english in the lyrics (Spended ins not a word!) but is there anything you wouldn't do for a rhyme?
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What A Blessed Mess
An instrumental that's actually played twice. How clever is that? Double clever?
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Teardrop In The Ocean
Too many people are forced to leave their home. They run away from war just to end up in the bottom of the sea.
All the songs are recorded in November 2017, except White Lies was recorded in September 2015 and Teardrop In The Ocean in March 2017
Steelfinger's Rig Picks
Gibson ES-225 '58
Gibson ES-225 ’58 Single P-90 in the middle position and the hollow maple body give the guitar very special sound, a unique mix of bite and roundness.
Hand-crafted guitar with built-in amp
Design by Tero Aarnio, build by Hannu 'Vito' Laurinen.
Gibson GA-25 ’48
Quite bright sounding amp with pentode preamp tube running push and pull power amp of about 15 watts
Gibson GA-20 ’51
Lots of bass on this one. Totally different tone from GA-25 mainly due to larger filter caps and phase inverter tube. I'm using home-made high pass filter with this beast to tame down the bass. With two 6V6s it puts out about 15 watts.
Home-made Mini Tube Spring Reverb
Mini Tube Reverb is used in every song. It's a compact and simple all tube spring reverb imitating legendary Fender sounds. It's standing on top of the Gibson GA-25 in the picture.