Waterphone...the only phone I like.

A man shredding on his waterphone whilst whales are having a snuggle in the backgound.

This last friday my phone ran out of battery and as we were at our summerhouse there wasnt really a need to charge it. We spent our time by the fireplace, listening to vinyl and playing cards or boardgames. And I felt no need to turn the phone on or check my facebook or anything. Because I think I knew that I wasnt missing anything. And noone was missing me.

Ive started playing with the idea of having the phone on during the days, while Im working and then turning it off. Facebook has become a timestealing nuisance where the same links are bouncing around endlessly. I tend to visit the same sites anyways....The Onion, Big Think and Ted Talks. I watch documentaries. But I dont need the whole OMG I cant believe what happened next. Or cute notes that kids wrote, funniest autocorrect or a dog in a Yoda costume.

I completely understand the comedic value of a dog looking like a character from a science fiction movie. But I always feel cheated after seeing the picture or clicked the link. Spoiler alert: There is nothing there. Have you heard the joke about the Rabbi, a penguin and a bankrobber who goes onto facebook. Nothing happens.

Anyways....

Instead of ranting about stuff I dont like I can tell you about something I DO like.

The waterphone. The only phone I like. A really creepy instrument used extensively in film and usually in horror films. You have heard in the matrix when they insert the plug in the back in the neck.

Recording Waterphone

Have a tumultuous tuesday. I think you are great.

The Apple that never reached the ground

Its the first day of school again after the christmas holiday and my second day back at work. Ill be working on a handful different things today.

Started two new albums yesterday. One with Jonathan Segel (Camper van Beethoven) and one with Michael Feingold (Erykah Badu, Kanye West and apparently some new kid called Justin Bieber). Both ideas come from a idea I got on the train to the studio. The Idea was originally called "the apple that never reached the ground" but might need to be revised.

I have done a couple of these things before and sometimes the results (as with Kaukasus and White Willow) has been great....other times I have waited for a year and nothing has happened. Very disappointing.

Video of the day is from the Carl Hasselrot sessions. E-bow love.

E-bow for Hasselrot

Neanderthal Blind Jugglers and Cooking in the dark.

A neanderthal version of the Blind Juggler.

A Bontempi Organ going into a Autopanner and then into 

two different Delays set at different tempos.

Worked yesterday for the first time since christmas. Recorded four different ideas for a film. I was about to write one of those mattias-isms " A lot of fun ". But its not fun...I very seldom feel any joy or happiness while Im working. Its more a feverish stream of ideas that I want to record before they are lost. Its not like Im giggling while Im doing it. Im also constantly fighting my two biggest conflicting emotions...lazyness and ambition. How much information should I put into this to make my point? How much is necessary? If I record this how much will I need to clean it up afterwards to make it listenable. TMI generally refers to detailed descripitions of bodyparts with disease, blisters or puss. For me TMI can be an acoustic guitar on the chorus or two many backing vocals. The less you say the more they listen, right. Like Facebook. If there was to be a official quiet day on facebook I wonder how many people would rush there to speak their mind."...and one more thing!" 

I went and had a chinese dinner with my oldest daughter a couple of days back and my fortune cookie read " You strive for perfection " which is a joke. I got the feeling that cookie knew nothing about me or my life. I have often said that pastrys tell you the truth wether you like it or not. I strive for imperfection and confusion (which is generally easy, I just put on my pants and then the imperfection and confusion starts). Things that will make you look or listen a second time. 

This is also why I like cooking in the dark. Imperfection and confusion quickly turns into a game of edible or not edible. My wife has also made the valid point. If you cooked it in the dark maybe you should eat it in the dark.

Anyways...I have said too much even before I started.

Here is a little video from yesterdays Neanderthal blind juggler. Dropping balls in a cave.

Neanderthal Blind Juggler

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....

  

Drumming inside the box and the blind juggler

Im back in town after spending a couple of days away from computers. First some time at the summerhouse and then we went up to Falun where me wifes family has a great place down by the lake. Some running, some swimming, some reading...But no music which drives me bananas.

The drive to and from Falun is one of my favorites....we have driven it numerous times. But since someone stole our car radio a couple of years back we actually have a chance to talk to each other without interruptions...Its a luxury. Even just commenting on how other people drive (which is usually very fast and dangerous) its communication. 

But after three hours with three kids in a fairly small car Im pretty worn out...So this will be short.

Thank you all for your suggestions and ideas concerning the two in/four out box AKA the blind Juggler. Ben Minto found a schematic for it...now I just need to find someone who can build it.

Heres the schematic.

The Blind Juggler Schematic

If you think you can build it...drop me a line.

Tomorrow Ill be returning back to the studio for some ideaswork. There are a handful of really cool ideas that are bouncing around as well as a lot of keyboardwork for a fairly secret project. Hopefully I can talk about it all very soon. I think Ill be recording some ideas with a simple autopanner just to show you the main idea of the blind juggler.

Video of the day is from my sessions with Carl Hasselrot. He brings something very collagey, loopy and very long and then I try to vomit out as many ideas I possibly can in 4-5 hours. Keys, drums, Waterphones....you name it. It is a lot of fun. Then he gets all the files and pieces them together into something completely new.

Drumming for Hasselrot

Now Playing: David Byrne - Strange Ritual

My name is Mattias Olsson and Im a stompbox addict.

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Walrus live in Svalbard? I was there!

There is a grey heavy sky over Stockholm today. The good thing about that is of course that things can only get better (-Howard Jones). Or maybe we will just give up on this day and try again tomorrow. 

Walrus once did a gig in Svalbard at a restaurant. We started the gig as we always do with a blistering A and then from there we just go. For 40 - 60 minutes of a mix between Kraut, prog and more cinematic stuff. Pretty loud, noisy, After about 30 minutes we had cleared the place. Everyone had left except the bartenders who loved our performance as it probably meant that the could close early that night.

Back in the old days I would have been devastated. Were we that Bad? Why did they hate us?

Nowadays I seriously dont care. I dont. Things become incredibly complicated when you let other peoples judgement direct you. Last year I recorded with an artist who was constantly thinking about his audience. "They like this song when I play it live. This songs lyric will probably appeal to people."
And the results became...less than great.

We have only a certain amount of chords and rhythms...so what makes Frank Sinatras lovesongs different from Miley Cyruss or Screaming J Hawkins? Its about personality and the choices those artists made. That makes it special and dare I say it....unique. Their standpoints, their outlook, their story. I have a hard time seeing Screaming J Hawkins pondering what a pale dude in a grey Stockholm new years day 2014 would think of "Hong Kong" or "I put a spell on you". And the idea that he would try to change something to suit that same pale dude is just ridiculous.

Im interested in you. Your views and ideas of the world. Your version of a broken heart. If you try to tailor it to my tastes we will have a problem. You are far more interesting than me. I know....I spent almost all my time with myself. We need your version of weird, odd and wrong. The mainstream is a very crowded place. But I know this great bar just outside of the mainstream. Meet me there. Ill bring microphones. You bring the music and the story.

What should we have done at that restaurant in Svalbard?

Broken up the Mekanik groove and played "summer of 69" instead?

I dont think so...I think Walrus should become the biggest thing since the four freshmen so that the Svalbard gig becomes a classic gig where everyone can say. "I was there and it was...amazing"

Its 2014, kids. Surprise me.

Now playing: American Music Club - The golden age


PS I lost my Nancy Reagan biography that I was reading at the gig in Svalbard if you have found it please email me at Rothhandlestudios@gmail.com and just tell me how it ends.

....and yeah Martin Gustafsson took the picture.