Germany is Getting It!
So - Amaterasu is now released in Germany and some reviews have come, including this one: the album is Album of the Week over at Unicc Radio.
You can listen/download the jingle here. It's in German though so unless you speak German you won't understand a whole lot. But what the hell...if you feel like listening to some short samples of my songs and a guy speaking "deutch" about them, then you know where to click!
You can listen/download the jingle here. It's in German though so unless you speak German you won't understand a whole lot. But what the hell...if you feel like listening to some short samples of my songs and a guy speaking "deutch" about them, then you know where to click!
Bad News, Good News
:-(
Bad News;
Sunday afternoon and I'm trapped in the apartment with a case of pneumonia. It takes a lot before I go to the doctor but after three days of fever and coughing and blowing my nose, I finally agreed to go to the health centre to see what was the matter with me. So - pneumonia, not the third degree but still...enough to keep me in bed for at least a day or two still. Penicillin will do the trick hopefully.
Pneumonia
:-)
Good News;
The other day I was reading the paper when all the sudden I saw my name in it. It turned out I have been rewarded a scholarship! The city of Malmö (where I live) has a scholarship for musicians, artists, actors and so on that they give out every year and this year I was one of the holders of this scholarsip! I applied for it a couple of months ago and had almost forgot about it, so it was a great surprice for me! Maybe my financial problems are over for a while.(knock on wood) In any case, it certainly is a recognition of my work the past years and it allows me to keep doing what I'm doing!
Malmö stad kulturstipendium
Bad News;
Sunday afternoon and I'm trapped in the apartment with a case of pneumonia. It takes a lot before I go to the doctor but after three days of fever and coughing and blowing my nose, I finally agreed to go to the health centre to see what was the matter with me. So - pneumonia, not the third degree but still...enough to keep me in bed for at least a day or two still. Penicillin will do the trick hopefully.
Pneumonia
:-)
Good News;
The other day I was reading the paper when all the sudden I saw my name in it. It turned out I have been rewarded a scholarship! The city of Malmö (where I live) has a scholarship for musicians, artists, actors and so on that they give out every year and this year I was one of the holders of this scholarsip! I applied for it a couple of months ago and had almost forgot about it, so it was a great surprice for me! Maybe my financial problems are over for a while.(knock on wood) In any case, it certainly is a recognition of my work the past years and it allows me to keep doing what I'm doing!
Malmö stad kulturstipendium
The Worst Gig Ever
So, our american friends left town yesterday and now everything's back to normal again.
We got some pictures on a disc that was taken four months ago, including some pics from a gig Sara and I did on the 21 of December at this great place in Växjö. The venue is one of the nicest ones I've played at, but the audience...well, I had to ask them to shut up. Twice. I don't usually do that, but I couldn't hear myself sing and it' s kind of hard performing when you can't hear your own voice or even the piano. So - I stood up after the first song and kindly asked for everyones attention for a while but it really made no difference and after we had done most songs, the noise from the crowd had grown even worse and I told them to please shut the fuck up. And somebody screamed at us to get off the stage, so we finished in the best way we could, then got off the stage and had a few beers instead.
A cosy and beautiful little stage, but a nightmare audience.
We got some pictures on a disc that was taken four months ago, including some pics from a gig Sara and I did on the 21 of December at this great place in Växjö. The venue is one of the nicest ones I've played at, but the audience...well, I had to ask them to shut up. Twice. I don't usually do that, but I couldn't hear myself sing and it' s kind of hard performing when you can't hear your own voice or even the piano. So - I stood up after the first song and kindly asked for everyones attention for a while but it really made no difference and after we had done most songs, the noise from the crowd had grown even worse and I told them to please shut the fuck up. And somebody screamed at us to get off the stage, so we finished in the best way we could, then got off the stage and had a few beers instead.
A cosy and beautiful little stage, but a nightmare audience.
Another Day In Life
Friday afternoon. Easter. I think today is the looong Friday? It seems the whole neighbourhood had a party last night, somebody was playing the entire Nirvana catalogue until really late. That's ok, I can sleep no matter what noise.Almost. Today the streets have been quiet, I guess everybody is home, taking care of the hangover. I'm drinking coffee all day, playing the piano trying to write songs which I haven't done for a couple of months. I haven't had the time or even felt like it. Those things come and go I guess.
I feel frustrated - I want to record, but there is never time, my brother is always working and it seems there are a million other things do do. I have all these great songs that I just want to get down on tape. Or on a disc...
Time time time... time is all I have and still it's not enough.
We rehearsed again yesterday and the pieces are slowly falling into place. We've worked on three new ones and refreshed our collective memory of the old ones and I love playing these songs. I love being on the road, I love doing what I'm doing, still I always feel like I'm missing out on something else...why is that? How come we're always looking for something else? Is it just the human nature or am I an idiot? ;-)
I feel frustrated - I want to record, but there is never time, my brother is always working and it seems there are a million other things do do. I have all these great songs that I just want to get down on tape. Or on a disc...
Time time time... time is all I have and still it's not enough.
We rehearsed again yesterday and the pieces are slowly falling into place. We've worked on three new ones and refreshed our collective memory of the old ones and I love playing these songs. I love being on the road, I love doing what I'm doing, still I always feel like I'm missing out on something else...why is that? How come we're always looking for something else? Is it just the human nature or am I an idiot? ;-)
The sun is shining over Malmö. It is beautiful. I have to go clean the apartment as we're having guests over frm the US.
The man with the knives
Went out to eat some good low prize Vietnamese food yesterday, and as we were paying the bill a man, about 65 years old, middle east - looking, came in and said to one of the owners, a woman:
"I sell really good chef knives. Cheap."
"No thanx", she replied
"Very cheap!", said the man
"No thanx"'
"Supercheap!!"
"No, I'm not buying"
"I need money!!!" said the man. But the woman had a face of stone and he turned around and walked out...
Desperate last try. You've got to give him some credit for trying!
No knives sold, he should have tried the food instead, would've made him 65 swedish crowns poorer, but a little happier!
"I sell really good chef knives. Cheap."
"No thanx", she replied
"Very cheap!", said the man
"No thanx"'
"Supercheap!!"
"No, I'm not buying"
"I need money!!!" said the man. But the woman had a face of stone and he turned around and walked out...
Desperate last try. You've got to give him some credit for trying!
No knives sold, he should have tried the food instead, would've made him 65 swedish crowns poorer, but a little happier!
Chasing the Dream
Who's this angry young man? Would you pick a fight with him if you met him in a dark alley?
We're rehearsing again tonight at 7 with the band. We tried out a new song the day before yesterday - "Chasing the Dream" - and I sounded really good, almost too good to be the first time we played it... I'll be playing the trumpet in the intro... so that's something for you Germans to look forward to on the tour in May.
In an hour I'm going to an interview for a job. I won't tell you what kind of a job, 'cos it's really something I have sworn I would never do, but what can you do when you're always broke broke broke? (it's not porn, if you thought so ;-)
Also, we're working on making some nice t-shirts with the "Amaterasu - butterflies" on. I think it will look really good and I'll bring some with me on the tour.
I read on It's A Trap that Radio Department (also from Malmö) were threatened by swedish evening paper "Expressen" after they turned down an interview...Way to go Radio dpt! More bands should boycott those papers - they only write crap anyway. Crap crap crap, day after day after day. Boycott more! I mean, the world is such a beautiful place, but there is so much crap in it, so much hate, so much of everything. Do we really need to read those lousy gossip tabloids to realize the world sucks? I don't think so, but who am I to tell? What do you think?