" 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

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.

Drive.

Saturday night I went to celebrate Mats Lundgren on his 40th birthday. Mats plays bass and Keyboards in Pineforest Crunch. We have known each other since 1994 or something...He is now in the band Atlas with Ludvig Andersson.

In honour of this big birthday I thought I could share an old war story.

I think it was the spring of 2000. We had put together a package tour in the U.S with three bands Pineforest Crunch, Andreas & Jag and Reminder. We had played a show in Los Angeles at the Viper Room and after the show we ended up at a party with one of the A & R people at Interscope. We were just hanging out drinking beer, listening to music. The Counting Crows were there which was a big deal for the guys in Reminder as they were huge fans. I started to talk with one of the guys in the band and I told him that I was a huge Jon Brion fan so one of the guys dials a number and hands me the phone. Jon didnt answer but I left a very confused message on his answering machine. 

After a while there was a lot of commotion at the door and a bunch of police officers stormed the place. Apparently some neighbours had called them about the wild and crazy party we were having. We were very surprised as we thought we were just hanging out.

So the police broke up the party and we all stumbled into the van. Mats was the designated driver so he got behind the wheel and started driving. We told him to get out of Los Angeles and stop at the nearest Motel Six so we could get some sleep. 

We all relaxed in the car and people started drifting off to sleep. All of a sudden the car stopped abruptly and someone ripped open the van door. A avalanche of sunlight poured in to the van. We were all pretty groggy and messed up from the night before. But as soon as we fell out of of the van. We saw a very well known building. 

Alcatraz.

After the party Mats had felt pretty OK so he decided that he could drive all the way to San Francisco thru the night. "everybody is asleep anyway and we have a show in San Francisco tomorrow night so I might as well...Drive." 

On the back of Pineforest Crunchs third album Panamarenko there is a picture of Jonas brushing his teeth with Alcatraz in the background.

In some small way I think that illustrates (one of the many things) what so great about Mats. He is that guy who sees a problem and sorts it out. In a very softspoken way. He just does it.   

And when everyone else is asleep with their heads filled with counting crows, american beer and Jon Brion it feels good to know that Mats is behind the wheel. Driving through the Californian night.