‘The Doug Conspiracy’ was the second demo from The Voorhees (now Jason Lives). It was recorded over the Easter holidays in 1998 and released in early August. Musically it is much better than Sprich Nomed.
So why did we call the demo ‘The Doug Conspiracy’ and who is this Doug fellow? Well, Doug was a friend of ours, who use put on masks and get up on stage to act and dance when we played. I guess you could say that he provided the visual entertainment, while we provided the music. We put him on the cover cause he was funny and we named it after him because we couldn’t think of anything better to call it. I'm not sure what Doug is up to these days (hey Doug if you ever read this, get in contact).
Bellow is a fairly detailed account of the days we spent recording it.
We began recording the ‘The Doug Conspiracy’ before the Easter holidays, but none of those recordings were worth using on the demo. It was on the Easter holidays that we decided it was time to get it done properly and when we heard that one of our friend’s parents were going away for the week, we decided that that would be the perfect time to do it. Our friend in this case, was Evan, and he lives in small country town called Neerim South which is out in the middle of nowhere.
Ross recording the demo
Ross and Daniel had got there the night before which was a Sunday and got the drums, microphones and 4 track set up. I caught the bus to Neerim South the next morning and met Daniel and Brendan (a friend of the band who also plays in Pensive) at the bus stop, then went back to Evan’s house. When we got there, I got settled in, then went out to the shed to begin recording the drum tracks with Ross and Daniel.
Daniel laying down drum tracks
It took us quite a few hours to record the drum tracks, during which time Ross and Daniel had quite a bitter dispute over the placement of a cymbal. While in the middle of recording the drum track for a song, which had already taken up enough time, Ross moved a cymbal stand, which he did not like the placing of, and in doing so caused Daniel to loose time. Daniel responded by yelling at Ross and rearranging his whole drum kit. The argument went for quite a few minutes and was recorded on tape. Once the argument had stopped, we played back the tape, which caused it to start up again and get even bigger than before. Unfortunately, this time it was not recorded. Occasionally I would go up the street with the others and make some calls while Ross and Daniel were doing drum tracks.
Me laying down bass tracks
Next it was time to do the bass tracks. During the recording of Candle, I forgot where I was up too and went to change into another section a few bars to early. I realised this mistake but kept playing, making it sound as though it was meant to be this way. It was then decided that we would keep it that way and the song in fact now sounds much better.
The Voorhees and Penisive. left to right: Ross, Brendan, Me, Ben, Aaron, Evan and Daniel.
By the time the bass tracks were done, it was getting dark. I joined the others inside while Ross began on the guitar tracks. Once he had finished a few songs, he came in and the party began. During the party, a few of us left and went to the phone box and made a ‘Scream’ like call back to the house. I put on the Ghostface mask and a friend banged on the house window. We then acted out a death scene and began trying to force our way into the house. Much screaming, yelling, panic and fake blood followed, before everything settled down again. Once everyone was worn out, we all crashed in front of the TV and watched Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3, followed by Shocker. The next day we got up and Ross finished the guitar tracks. Then we began doing the vocal tracks, but did not finish them.
Daniel, Me and Ross doing vocal tracks
in my room.
Later on in the week Ross, Daniel and a few others came around to my house, to
finish the vocal tracks. We gave our friend Shaun a call, and he came
around to contribute extra vocals to Mastermind. The vocal tracks took a
while to do as one of us would either be too soft or out of key in the
harmonies. Once they were done, Ross put it all on to his computer and began mixing it over the next few weeks and I began designing the demo cover. The final mix was then put onto CDs by Steph and Danny, then we copied them on to tape, resulting in the final product.
Shaun, Me and Ross recording vocal tracks.
