Wednesday, September 24, 2014

Victoria Moralez and ...in these murky waters.


Victoria Moralez at the Pipeorgan

The day started with a visit from my old friend Victoria Moralez and Frank Sanderson. A great talk about first albums, sounds and general good times. And they had a chance to play with the bass Marimba and the Pipe Organ.


Ewik listening to the album so far.

Afterwards me and Ewik started taking apart the ...in these murky waters album and decided to push the release and releaseparty to November. If you havent heard any of it...its something extra. I wrote the songs using only my favorite instruments. The Optigan, the Mellotron, the Chamberlin, The Orchestron and the Chilton Talentmaker.

Here is a little taster....for you.


It looks like we will be doing a pesky digital release on the album and then a sexy LP.

Today me and Ewik will continue working on all those extra things you have to do when you make an album. Pictures, videos etc.

Now playing: Mogwai & a bit of Depeche Mode




Tuesday, September 23, 2014

Ill shove my smile in your face

Yesterday I finished drumming and other bits on a new track for Tom Doncourt. I really like the track. I did a blend of the old stuff and the new trying to bridge it somewhat as the choruses were very straightforward. I have started stacking drumkit tambourines and using that instead of hihats or rides. I have almost stopped using cymbals on the kit. I overdub them later often using several different ones so that the person mixing can tune the kit using whatever colours they feel like.

I have gotten rid of clicks in the studio which feels great. Its interesting to work with something until you are done. Take a short break and then start with something. Things dont really go all that faster because you know how long they have taken.

One thing is that I often wrestle with ideas and I always lose. If I get an idea I have to do it. Otherwise I feel like I have shortchanged myself.A couple ideas I did yesterday for Tom that I lost to were....


The real thing isnt as out of focus as this is.


1. A Casio SK-1 sample of the kit starting on the 1s of every second bar.
2. A vinyl crackle that coincides with the Casio sample to give it more framing.
3. A modular white noise rhythm.
4. A Icebell on the every 4 bars in the verses. I pulled it thru the AKG reverb and reversed the reverb so there are these long reverse builds in the verses. Pretty tasty.

After working on the Doncourt stuff I moved on to do percussion overdubs for Ketil. On Ural #3 I did a sort of fake 12/8 african pattern in the choruses. So to emphasize that I did a lot of hand drumming. Two or three dubs on every drum in different pitches to widen it. Polyrhythmic cowbells chattering away.

Today Ill be working with In these murky waters and trying to tie up some loose ends.

Now Playing: Dizzy Gillespie - Salt Peanuts

Monday, September 22, 2014

Putting together the puzzle that is the Akaba album


Yesterday we mastered the Akaba album at Cutting Room in Stockholm with Björn Engelman. Björn was a delight to work with, very fast and extremely attentive. Its been a very long ride but its wonderful to hear the album in its completed form. Kjahart built the scenery and took the pictures for the cover. Henning Lindahl will (as usual) sort out everything with the cover. It feels great. We have been sweating over the liner notes for a while now but we think we have figured out who plays what on what track. The Akaba album is the only album to have been recorded in all five versions of the Roth Händle studio. 

The interesting thing is that there is already one track almost finished for the next one so hopefully we will be a bit snappier on the second one.

Today Ill be wrapping up the Tom Doncourt song Ive been working on as well as a night session with Carl Hasselrot. Its gonna be fun. I love doing different things and different styles of music. They cross polinate.

Now playing: John Coltrane - My Favorite things

Sunday, September 21, 2014

Drumming for The shadow of Ketil Vestrum Einarsen

I think there is this Idea that all ones ideas should be these isolated Icebergs of immaculate beauty and artistic clarity. I wish it was like that. I am a lot simpler than that. Im more of a creative plumber than anything else. A lot of my computertime nowadays seems to be spent chatting away aimlessly with either Ketil (Vestrum Einarsen) or Jacob (Holm-lupo) in Norway. We bounce ideas and snippets of songs. Trying to figure out where we are going with his whole music thing. The other day Jacob sent me a link to the first UK album.


The dreaded 80s octoban


I hadnt heard it since the early 90s. I was surprised to hear how extremely dated it sounded. Bill Bruford was doing his early rototom stuff and it just had that weird feel and sound to it. Another thing that is really interesting about Rototoms is that sound pretty awful acoustically but record really well...When recording ideas for Ketils album Im letting all of these influences, sounds and ideas bleed in. Ive consciously broken up my playing using very few cymbals. I very seldom hit single hits on the snare drum and I avoid the 2 & 4. This opens up for using small tight drums that cut thru and are tonal and sharp....remembering my conversation with Jacob about UK I decided to get rid of the Hihat and throw in a 12" Rototom there instead. I do all the 8 note stuff with shakers and tambourines instead so that it can be edited sharper for effect.



A tambourine pile

Yesterday I recorded the drums for the third track on the album...weirdly enough called #3 for the timebeing. I started thinking about my childhood and the drummers I liked and as a kid I loved Duran Duran. Roger Taylor was my favorite drummer. He always looked like he was struggling. But always overdubbed these cool accents on rototoms.


One of my childhood heroes with a rototom.

The track starts with a really quiet opening section so I decided to do something extreme for a prog song....played brushes. I love the sound even though I am always struggling when recording. It has to have that feel. Then I started thinking of another of my favorite drummers Stewart Copeland and brought out one of my Octobans and built the 16th note rhythms around that configuration. As I am avoiding the snare on the 2 and 4 I built a sort of tambourine pile on the hihat stand that plays that part. 

So it all came from hearing a bit of UK and thinking about what drummers I liked as a kid. 

Today Ill be working on a new Tom Doncourt track and the Akaba album will be mastered at Cutting room.

NP: Björk - Biophilia

Saturday, September 20, 2014

" We dont do Dancing Queen " - Marty & Elaine at the Dresden Bar

In a weak and slightly confused moment I told the barmanager at the Hotel I frequent that their music is sub par and they need to sharpen the game. They responded "sure thing....can you spin some records here on the 11th of October?"

And I said of course I can.

And now its turned into some kind of small monster that both entices and terrorizes me. Before I go to sleep I start thinking of the first song Ill be playing or the last one.

What should I play? Ill be bringing my 7" collection which is probably 4-500 singles now. I need a single roadie. That sounds weird.


People drink and mingle but it still needs to have that kind of hotel bar classiness to it. Modern and old. I love the fact that just playing vinyl limits a couple of things. What songs I play and also how long my pee breaks will be. Do you take requestes..."No we dont do Dancing Queen". The other day I looked at Alannah Myles Black velvet on 7" and a voice in my head kind of spluttered and said NO.

Åsa is getting closer to finishing the Akaba album which feels great. Yesterday she mastered 94 with Björn Engelman. This Picture means next to nothing but it breaks up the words in a way that makes my rambling easier to tolerate.


Here is another picture from the Akaba "finishing the album sessions" please note the difference.


Yes! You guessed it! Åsa is on the right side of the man in front of a computer.

We also received two mixes of Lifetimespenders from Giles Martin. This track features one of Swedens best guitarists, Einar Baldursson. I also apparently play the Cabasa on the track which is interesting as I despise the Cabasa just as much as it despises me. Its not a love-hate relationship. Its all hate. Problem is that it sounds really nice...So apart from my troublesome Cabasa playing things are moving forward rapidly. I think the idea is to have the album mastered and done next Friday. It is the only album that has had parts recorded in all 5 Roth Händle studios.

Now playing: John Coltrane - My Favorite Things

Friday, September 19, 2014

Im sorry but we have to let you go.

Yesterday I finished sorting out the final track for Ketil. Not that I dont have anymore Ideas. I just feel that I need to move on because I could probably spend a week on the track. Would it be better if I spent a week adding different sounds and textures? Probably not.

¨

One of my favorite things to do is to record multiple overdubs with triangles. You get a sort of weird pingy mosaic that can easily replace other 8th note stuff. I did that for Ketil yesterday. I also added african shakers, Maracas, chimes, finger cymbals, crickets (with the AKG reverb), tambourines, jingle sticks and bells, six snaredrums, castanets, gran cassas.


A picture from last nights cover shoot with Akaba.

Need to run....Ive got a 8 o clock mastering appointment with Akaba.

Now Playing: Mark Eitzel

Thursday, September 18, 2014

Headlines




Yesterday I continued working on Ketils album adding more percussion and colours. I also edited in Roland TR-707 Handclaps on all of my Snaredrum hits for the first section. Why? Because Ketil is worth it. Today Ill be finishing the end Orchestral section multidubbing snaredrums, Becken etc. Hopefully Ill have time to add some Celestes and Glockenspiels as well.

Tonight Akaba will be in the studio taking pictures with Kjahart for her debut solo album. The cover is the first thing you see when you pick up an album. Tomorrow she will be mastering two tracks for radio release.

I heard the mastered version of the Anima Morte album and it is nothing less than stellar. The band has really evolved and outdone themselves this time. Really stoked about this release. Loads of great songs and sounds.

The secret pan-european project Ive been working with is slowly moving into place. I get mixes sent to me from a undisclosed location. Its also slightly terrifying. This morning I listened to a mix and I didnt recognize my drumming.....at all. So I went and checked the original files and it was all me.

Very exciting stuff indeed.

Now Playing: American Music Club

Wednesday, September 17, 2014

The reversed japanese man

Things are going according to plan which finds me both puzzled and worried. Yesterday I recorded drums on the final track on the Ural album (which is the working title for Ketils new project). I wish I could say that Im done but I messed up the order so there is one more track to go.
I think I recorded them in the order of 2,1 and 4.

My drumming on this album is different. I have approached it in a new way. Trying to break up normal patterns and loop it a bit more. The songs are massive with sheets of sounds and chords washing over the listener. Its better if the drums are there supporting in a weird way than chattering away in that traditional sense. Plus its far more interesting for me to do.



I also did three different modular noise patterns.

#1 The Electro Harmonix Random tone generator thru a delay and into the Prophet 5 filter controlled by a very slow LFO. Bleeps and squeaks abound. It ends in a spring reverb.

#2 The voice pattern..A japanese language record and the talking synth thru a tempo delay. Same general treatmenat but obviously more vocal and in tempo. Very odd. The talking synth is vomiting vowels in tempo as the japanes man is talking in reverse in the background.

#3 White noise and buddhist chanting. White Noise thru the delay and a original Buddha box (as in the ones you get at a temple) thru the filter and then out thru the delay. Loads of resonance for those Jet plane type sounds we all love.

The best thing about all of this is that I have already sent the files to Ketil so according to the new Fall of 2014 rules it has more or less left my table.

Today will be short as Im picking up the kids so Ill try to finish this....! Feels pretty spectacular.

Now playing: Thus Owls (because they are amazing)


Tuesday, September 16, 2014

Beating a horse to water.

In the middle of drumming again. This week will be mainly focused around two of my favorite artists. Ketil Vestrum Einarsen from Norway who is a softspoken volcano of creativity and ideas. I have played on two tracks so far and started to record on the final track on his new album. I wasnt in the studio for very long but I was really happy with the stuff that I did. Ketil is really great at programming drums in a kind of swingy, groovy loopy fashion. The kind of stuff that I cant play in a convincing manner.

So I started using my old Casio SK-1 and started sampling his rhythms. Its gonna sound great thru filters and echoes...I found a really good bell hit on a 7" single with african drumming which turned into a snare. I will be drumming on top of all of this but it just feels great to create an atmosphere with different elements.



Oh yeah...and the other legend Ill be working with is Tom Doncourt and his new album. Havent starting taking apart the track yet but Tom is one of those guys who will always surprise you. His music is smart, multilayered and frighteningly personal.

Had a weird dream last night. I dreamt that I was live producing the Doors onstage at a gig and was sort of conducting and building tracks infront of an audience. I was playing double drums with John Densmore and it constantly felt like I was rushing. Jim Morrison seemed happy though.

Its gonna be a great day. Ive made up my mind.

NP: Sufjan Stevens

Saturday, September 13, 2014

ZZ Top, Akaba and Moog taurus pedals.

Its Saturday and a good one as well...Ive just spent the better part of the day at Riksmixningsverket with Mats Lundgren (Atlas/Pineforest Crunch) working on the edits on the Akaba album. I think we made it a bit leaner and faster. Radio apparently isnt too fond of the long noisy instrumental bits.

Its interesting bouncing between the tracks that we have been working on for so long. The album hasnt taken a long time to record its just been incredibly spread out but now it looks like we are done....and we might even have the first song for the next album ready.

Im really proud of the album. The songs are like postcards from where we were at the time. There are songs that are completely drenched with the Korg Ms-10 just because it was my favorite synth at the time. There is one track that is more or less based on Casio SK-5 sampled rhythms in octaves. The newer stuff is also interesting. The new Nord drum is getting used a fair bit as well as the Yamaha SK-10. We have tried to be smart about the Taurus pedals as we use them so much....But it shows up on a fair amount of tracks. The Taurus pedals have always been one of my favourite sounds as it makes everything on top sound amazing. I bought them in 1998 at a music store in Houston for 800 dollars. The music store was next door to a bar owned by one of the guys from ZZ top. I remember sitting in the bar drinking a beer sort of sweating afterwards because of the rush of finding them. I have used them with pretty much every band I have ever played with. Akaba uses them live. Together with Tobias guitar and loops and my stuff it becomes a really nice blend.



Im really happy that the album has retained the feel of what the band sounds like live. A lot of Baritone guitar, electronic rhythms and of course Åsas voice. Something tells me its gonna be surreal to see the cover and actually hold it in my hand.






Friday, September 12, 2014

Possible final mix for Akaba...

Its been going on for a while now but its seems like the Akaba album is finally done. I did a first mix on the final track yesterday (It has a working title to horrible to mention so Ill just call it Voldemort). Voldemort was very refreshing to mix as it is a track that has less than 24 tracks on it and it was recorded without a clicktrack. Its got that cool acoustic live feel that everybody likes.



Its a pianobased song with Tobias Ljungkvist playing the grand Piano and then there is the Roth Händle Pipe organ in the choruses and a splash of Mellotron at the end. Its really cool. Now we just need to figure out how to place it on the album...If you put at the end it sort of becomes "the quiet ending track". Voldemort is fairly depressing for being a first track...Its too different to just put in the middle. It sounds like theres going to be discussions.

We will be doing final editing tomorrow and then it is off to Abbey Road and Giles Martin for mastering.

There is also small Kaukasus mumblings going on as Im uploading files for a new track to the others. Its a 11 minute thing with the working title "Sliding Blue". Its gonna be great.

NP: Elliott Smith: No Name#3

Thursday, September 11, 2014

The Utopia synth and the Waterphone




Yesterday was good....On and off I have been working on a secret album....adding drums and some synths and general havoc. I think I might have finished my work on the album and had a great time in doing so. Fall is slowly creeping onto Stockholm making it painfully beautiful.

I also did one of my favorite things which is to buy fresh vegetables and start the day by making a slow cooking soup....all the flavours just meshing together hour after hour. Making a lot of it so that I can eat it thruout the week.

The drumming was fairly simple using my Sonor kit and minimal amount of cymbals. Hihat, Crash and Ride. I have started using my 20" zildjian medium ride again which was my first "real" cymbal. I used it on the entire first Änglagård album and has been picked up from time to time. During the Pineforest years I put rivets in it.

After that I did some percussion overdubs just to glue the kit together. Its a fairly slow slong so I added cymbal swells to make it more dramatic and grand...I also did a Roth Händle classic. Since Nanook of the North I have always liked tremolos on cymbalswells...It gives them a kind of feverish shivering sound.

The guitarist in the band loves tremolo guitar so I decided to do a special and pull the cymbals thru a leslie....going from fast to slow to make it more dramatic....Its a cool effect. Try it...!



After that I did some modular stuff...the Utopia synth thru a Polivox filter thru a spring reverb thru a analog delay...One take of noise and then copied to another channel and reversed. Ended the day with some vinyl scratches added to the bassdrum to give it some framing and some bowed Waterphone.

A slow but creative day....and the soup was amazing.

NP:
Hauscka - Subconscious
Simon & Garfunkel - So long Frank Lloyd Wright

Wednesday, September 10, 2014

Nowadays people know the price of everything and the value of nothing





Most things are impossible and unnecessary. Difficult and uncomfortable. Over the last couple of months Ive encountered situations where peoples faith has faltered. Situations that had endless potential fall apart due to lack of faith or capacity to see the bigger picture. I fully realize that there are crass realities that need to be considered but if I lived in crass reality I wouldnt be here today. And I definitely wouldnt be making the music that Im making.

If I stop believing in the next album, the next overdub, the next guitarchord, the next tour. Everything stops. And everything goes silence. Everything goes dark.

I listen all the time. Sometimes too much.

NP: Bon Iver - Re:Stacks





Tuesday, September 9, 2014

Creating space


Its odd being in the studio. Im walking around by myself and trying to sort of make new room. In the studio as well as inside my head for new things. Im a slow cleaner. The whole Necromonkey tour will cast a very long shadow for a long time. Im trying to piece together gigs and tours for next year to keep the ball rolling. If everything falls into place 2015 will be a very interesting year indeed.

Reading the last issue of Swedish magazine Gaffa and saw that Yes got 5/5 for their latest album. King Crimson are apparently playing Starless.

I have started reading Riders on the storm by Doors drummer John Densmore. David from Necromonkey is a huge Doors fan but I have always been turned off by Morrisons dodgy poetry. The book seems to be a good read though. Reading it makes me want to play in a band....which is weird considering thats pretty much all I do.

I bought a jacket at a fleamarket in North Carolina. Ill be wearing it until it gets too cold in Sweden to remind me that that there is a place where its still warm and humid.

NP: 
Stina Nordenstam - Something nice
David Byrne - Walk in the dark
Sufjan Stevens - Romulus


Monday, September 8, 2014

Time and how to fight back



Coming back from a tour like Necromonkeys latest US adventure it feels like there is a window where you have a chance to evaluate what you are up to and what you are doing. One of the things that I realized very quickly coming back was how little I missed having my phone charged and being "connected". I can generally get all my computer stuff done in maybe an hour a day. Very few things are that acute....I still have a phone...and no I still dont like it.

Also I want to simplify things. Focus more on one thing at a time....which isnt really like me at all. Atleast I can try.

So the latest plans for the studio are fairly simple. I need to start by cleaning the place up so that I can see the floor again. I remember it as being kind of nice.

When I have cleaned it up...Ill make a new fresh mess....because that is how I work.

I think Ill be drumming today. I think its gonna be great.

I also have some other Ideas.

We played with Akaba in Örebro on Friday night. A lot of fun. Good music and good conversation.

I get along without you very well. Of course I do.

Now Playing: Frank Sinatra - I get along without you very well
Now Reading: John Densmore - Riders of the storm

Friday, September 5, 2014

Home again


Home again

After a wonderful tour with Necromonkey in the US Im trying to get back into the swing of things at home. The gigs and people we met were fantastic...I have always loved touring and being on the road. It is a accelerated lifestyle to say the least but so much fun. 
We played New Jersey, New York, Baltimore and Raleigh, North Carolina.

The transition to home isnt all that easy. Every night I dream of the tour, about getting up to a new venue. Love being with the wife and kids again but the idea of Swedes and chirping mobiles everywhere has become a turnoff of momentous porportions. We are also in the middle of a election where everyone in the entire country seems to want to shove their opinion in your face. 
Im blocking people on facebook left right and center.

Tonight Ill be playing with Akaba in Örebro. 


Anyways Im back. Trying to figure it out.