Tag Archives: music

EP! (and tour…)

Hey there people!

I’ve finally booked a professional studio for my EP recordings. Yesyesyes! First proper band rehearsal will be this weekend. We’re doing drums and bass in June. After that, I’ll do piano somewhere – I’m looking for a good space with a grand piano. So that’s what’s going on!

Release is planned for September. I’ll post in Where’s Rut when I’ve set the date for the release party.

But between the recording sessions and the release, I’ve also got an exciting summer coming up. A European tour is in the making…

Gigs and studio project plans

Six months have passed since my last update. Bad blogging behaviour. Though posting just for the sake of posting is equally bad behaviour, in my (not so humble) opinion.

The main reason for the lack of updates is my commuting to music college. Leaves little time for administration. Until now; we have started working in Uni on tour booking, press kit, marketing, etc.

Tour booking?! Yes. I’ll soon be on tour in Sweden with a band consisting of me and two or three other musicians from my class. Check Where’s Rut in the next few weeks for details.

Apart from the tour, I’ve got two gigs at JAK members bank with my classmate Miguel Ganzo booked. They are for members of the cooperative bank, so if you’re one of those, you can look forward to a couple of amazing gigs. (If not, you’ll have to wait for the tour. And if you’re a UK resident, you’ll have to wait a bit longer still. I’ll come over as soon as possible! I miss you and your friendly ways.)

I’m also writing a lot, as always. Writer’s block? Don’t know what that is. This leads to a luxury problem – I don’t know what to do with all the material and creativity. I’ve got a couple of co-writing projects going, which is good.

But, more importantly, I’m finally working on a proper studio project. I’ve got a brilliantly creative and innovative musician friend who has agreed to be my co-producer for the project. We’re working on arrangement and basic production ideas and are getting a band together for rehearsals soon.

Oh, and I’ve applied for the doctoral program at Gothenburg Uni. English lit. Sf and fantasy and sustainability and transition. I’ll write more about that soon.

I got in! And other news.

A week ago I went to Gamleby Folkhögskola for my last audition. This is Gamleby Railway Station. You can barely see the sign. The platform is like 20 meters long and that’s it.

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Anyway, I got in. Yay! And then, a few days later, I got the acceptance letter from the college I’ve been wanting to get in to the most – Löftadalen. Yay again!

So I needed to make up my mind. As always when you need to choose, there are benefits and drawbacks to every alternative. I refused to make a pro con list. I might have made one in my head though. Secretly. Shush! I eventually decided to go to Löftadalen and I’ve now paid the tiny symbolic registration fee. (There are no tuition fees in Sweden, unless you’re a non-EU citizen. For your information.)

Before the Gamleby and Löftadalen auditions, I had a gig in Gothenburg that I haven’t written about. It was at Dirty Records, a record store with a nice little café.

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I daresay it was my best gig so far. I’m feeling more and more relaxed about it and that’s a good thing for me. Some people claim that nervousness is good, that you get focused. That’s not how it works for me. If I’m nervous, it’s because I honestly believe I’m shit, and I then perform accordingly – or at least feel that I did, even if everyone else thought it was good. If I’m exited and eager to play, I focus and sort of remain in the moment. That’s when I feel that I get, like, a connection with people in the audience, that I’m there and they are too and it becomes a meeting and something we share. Being nervous and anxious makes me insulated from others. That’s not the kind of performance I want to make. I want to be out there – not afraid of failure, but invested in making something that matters.

Now that the auditions and the booked gigs are done I can focus on recording again. The reason I haven’t updated my gig schedule on the website in a while is that I haven’t booked any more gigs for now. I’m making plans for an EP. More info coming soon …

I’m also considering artwork options. I want to make something meaningful, something that adds to the music. On my facebook, I’ve got pictures with the lyrics and some drawings, but my drawing skills only go so far and I think I need to involve some other people in this. I’ve got a couple of names in mind for the artwork. (Names of some talented friends, that is. Haven’t talked to them yet so don’t feel left out if you’re a talented friend of mine whom I haven’t asked. I will, certainly, ask you.)

This is how far my drawing skills go, by the way:

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(Drawing session in a pub in Gamleby.)

On that topic, I’ll make sure to upload my artwork lyrics things to the website too. I wonder why I haven’t done that.

Oh, and by the way, my and Simon’s tomato and chilli plants and lettuce and herbs are happy and growing in the June sunshine. Look! (The stupid Spanish slugs ate most of our lettuce down here though. The flower box lettuce is happier.)

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Imagine if life could be only music and tomatoes.

I’m imagining it. I’m going there, slowly. Which is nice.

Tour update (with interrail anecdote)

The tour has started.

(Although I feel a bit self-conscious calling it a tour since I only have one paid gig, one short free gig, a few open mics, and some busking planned. But what the heck. I’m travelling between cities and I am playing music. What is that if not touring?)

Getting to the UK was fairly unproblematic. German trains are awesome. Swedish Öresundståg from Gothenburg to Copenhagen first stopped halfway down the west coast (not the train operator’s fault though, the police where hunting someone on the tracks—or at least that was the fast-spreading rumour on the train) and then it took ages to reach Malmö since the engine sort of broke down and they could only use 45 percent of its capacity. So I had to change trains in Malmö, but I got to Copenhagen in time to change for my night train.

After the night train from Copenhagen to Cologne—a fairly comfortable experience—I sat on the steps of Cologne Dome having breakfast as the day dawned. It was like 20 degrees out. It is not as hot in the UK, which is where I am now. My feet are cold.

I met a couple of Irish musicians on the night train. They had just been to Sweden, even played in Gothenburg (at Dubliner’s, of course) last week. What I like about travelling like this is that it breaks down the barriers between people. You get to talk to people you wouldn’t normally start a conversation with. And it brings out nice things in people, even though the vulnerability of someone on the road can be immense and it would be really easy to take advantage of that.

I remember when I was on an interrail when I was 20. Me and my travel buddy Anna where on our way back to Sweden and we were both really tired. Anna took out her sleeping bag and laid down on the floor of the station under a staircase. I couldn’t sleep so I went for a short walk, leaving Anna with all our luggage except my passport and wallet. When I got back someone had put a cup with €20 next to her. They could have stolen something, but they gave her money instead.

In any case, I arrived in Brighton yesterday (Tuesday) and I did an open mic in the evening. It was good—even though they, for some inexplicable reason, had a muted Harry Potter film on the TV above the stage. Kind of surreal listening to music with Harry Potter actors doing a bad job in the background.

Today I went busking in Brighton for a couple of hours (between crazy rain showers). That was good to. It paid for food today and I’ve still got enough money for a pint. But I’m going to bed now, saving that pint for another night.

Until next time.

Welcome to my world

Hello and welcome to my blog.

I’ll post stuff about living as a musician and still trying not to be stressed out and unwell all the time. It will also be about what art can do, how it can change us and help us make things right. Like, make things right as a species. That’s big. That matters.

Let me quote myself to explain. These are (part of) the lyrics for my song Stories (which I’ve started recording and will upload as soon as possible):

I don’t know where to turn for answers
I don’t know where I am
I coat my life in lies that comfort me
Don’t scorn me ’cause I turn to stories
We all do that

We don’t know where to turn for comfort
We don’t know where we are
We need a sense that there is hope for us
Some stories make things worse, some help us
To make things right