Cthulu Cream

So apparently its 2017 which is great as everybody seems to have become a bit fed up with 2016. For me 2016 was pretty ok with a lot of travelling and touring and then an incredibly productive fall.

Some of the highlights were without doubt the Necromonkey tour in October, Recording with Fredrik Klingwall, The Pixie Ninja album, The Gösta Berlings saga sessions, the Akaba tour in February, playing with Il Tempio delle Clessidre in Genoa just to mention some of the adventures. The Necromonkey tour stands out as it was a kind of weird struggle. Within 24 hours after leaving Stockholm everything sort of fell apart. Losing our luggage at JFK, our Fender Rhodes contact in Brooklyn being a no-show, trying to use a so called repaired set of Taurus pedals that turned out to be glitchier than ever and than slowly piecing our backline back together and finishing on a remarkable high note in Chicago with a guest appearance by our friend Mike Keneally.

Both me and David are fairly resourceful people but these issues and just the sheer amount of them were impossible to solve by ourselves. The tour would had been a very stationary quiet event
if it wasnt for Jim Robinson, Ray Loboda, Jon Yager, Cat Roache and Tom Doncourt. We cant thank you enough. We were also very lucky to get to open for Rikard Sjöbloms band. Great guys and a complete pleasure to tour with.

Jon, Jim, Tony and David in Chicago

Touring is a long series of problem solving, gaffa taping and spotify cruising and than the occasional music playing. Ive been doing it my entire life on different levels and I still enjoy it immensely. When you have a well oiled machinery on the road there is simply nothing better.

Thomas from Änglagård was asked in a interview why he wasnt touring with the band and he said "I try to make my life as simple as possible, touring (with Änglagård) is the exact opposite of that".

Someone asked me why Thomas wasnt touring with the band and I always replied "He is the smart one"

After I came back home a feverish flood of recording started. I try to do as much as possible without questioning or taking things apart. I just record them and wait. I might go back and add stuff but its also very possible Ill just throw them on the heap of 700+ songs I have written and just see how it survives. Picasso is apparently the most producrive Artist of all time and did 144000 pieces...They cant all be Guernica, right? Some of them must be small, simple and spontaneous.

Cthulu Cream is one song that is exactly that. Its simple, naive, clumsy and short. But it is something. And if you hate the song the title is still pretty great.

https://soundcloud.com/rothhandlestudios/cthulu-cream

Video of the day 21st of March 2014

David recording Mellotrons for Vera Vinter. What a waste.

Mellotrons and Vera Vinter

Video of the day 3rd of February 2014

Video of the day is of the amazing Einar Baldursson recording some 12 stringed Rickenbacker for a relatively new Andreas & jag song (its probably 2 or 3 years old)

The funny thing about this video is that when Andreas saw this video amongst a bunch of Akaba overdub videos he wrote me and said I wish Einar would record on our track not realizing that was exactly what was going. And that, my friends is the magic of Einar Baldursson. 

He will change how you hear your music and 

when he leaves the studio he has made it so much better. 

Occasionally grumpy and on the harder end of softspoken but always a remarkable player.

Im a fan.

Einar recording Rickenbacker for Andreas & jag

We cant all be Vivian Maier or Memories of Gösta

A while back a good friend of mine posted a picture on facebook of a band he was working with. It was a pretty bad picture. The band were loading in their van before going to a show in the south of sweden. It was in November or March which in Sweden means that there are no colours left. Its all black and white or faded tired colours.

The band looked like young bands do. Illfitting clothes and a general mish mash of stuff. The cases and bags looked like a mix of brand new and inherited.

I have no Idea what band it was. It wasnt really important. 

Someone wrote a comment "Great Picture!"

I wrote "Horrible Picture....but wait 5 years and it will be a good picture. Wait 20 years and it will be a great picture....wait 40 years and it will be in a gallery"

Because that is how time, sentimentality and nostalgia works. We see old super 8 films of our parents and we think everyone looks cool, great cars etc but we have no perception of how the future will treat our time.....but most likely in the same way.

So the lesson is to take a picture (and no...you dont have to post it on face book. The picture doesnt care). Its really interesting how ones memory flies back to the moment when it was taken. You think you know but you really dont.

So....I obviously LOVED this. I am not much for clicking on links but if you havent heard the story I envy you as its remarkable...and no it doesnt end with a girl showing her tits by accident or kittens in a box.

The life and work of Vivian Mayer

In a very small way.....as in very small....or not at all. This is sort of how my Youtube page works for me. Its a visual diary. Il make a crappy little film and then Ill post it. Some people will comment on them. I will reply. If you call me an asshole Ill even reply twice. 

"Thanks for the kind comment, Rock on Dude!"

The comments are often really nice and I have become friends with people who wrote me often. 

The thing is that when I look at the films( ...which I seldom do) Im surprised about how much I remember about the situation and the mood. Everything comes rushing back.

So as an excursion in modern Roth Händle history from the 6th of January. Here is a film from 2011 recorded at Pelikan Studios in Vinsta. Yep...that would be Sorterargatan. Working on Gösta Berlings sagas album Glue Works.

2011 - Cecilia Linne recording the Island intro

And the next one I found if from 2007. Thomas (EX-Änglagård, Thieves Kitchen) recording some Celeste for Swedish singer/songwriter Martin Ekman. A very odd combo....but that is how 2007 was. This was recorded in Sundbyberg...a very weird studio. But terribly cosy.

2007 - Thomas Johnsson EX-Änglagård records Celeste for Martin Ekman

So get out there....take a picture. Make a film. It doesnt matter if its good or bad. Wait for a couple of years, pull it out and it will bring you right back to that moment. I can even guarantee you that it will even look great. Cant promise anything about what you are wearing though...we might need to wait a bit longer for that....