Video of the day 31st of January 2014

Occasionally people ask me about my "own" music. If I have ever thought about releasing a solo album...and I actually have put out two very small releases. 

One was called "Songs for vowels and mammals"

And the next one was called "Dial".

I dont necessarily push for them and very few people have heard them. I really like wrking with people and collaborating. Also when I record something for myself the joy is very much in doing it at the time not necessarily fretting over distribution and record covers and all of that.

I do them under the name Molesome. My own recordings started out as experiments with sounds. I wanted to learn the equipment and what better way than to use it in a musical setting.
This one was kind of a circular idea using the Mellotron MKII Bassclarinet as the solosound.

This little video was shot on Ekerö.

Molesome Walk

Video of the day January 30th 2014

The guitarplayer in Pineforest Crunchs (Olle Söderström) father used to go back and forth to to New York a lot. On one of the flights he got placed next to a short english gentleman. He was terribly nice and they started talking. Olles father told the man about his kids and said that his son played guitar in a fairly popular Swedish popband. The man said that he dabbled with music so Olles father asked of course it was something that one might have heard off...and the man replied...Yes I used to play drums in a little band called Genesis.

So when Olles father came home he naturally asked Olle if he knew of a band called Genesis

....and their drummer. 

Why am I telling you this story....easy. Because it is Phil Collins birthday today.

Video of the day is of one of my closest friends Fredrik Klingwall bashing around and making all sorts of horror noises for the Anima Morte album. If you are into italian horrormusic...you should check them out. They are currently working on a new album that will probably 

(as far as I have heard) be amazing... 

Fredrik Klingwall playing an open Pianoframe

Video of the day 29th of January 2014

Im sorry I havent written anything here for a while but there has been a lot of things going on. My wife turned 40 on Saturday so we had a big party in the studio which meant that there was a lot of cleaning to be done before and after. 

Todays video is from the sessions for the Opium Cartels second album Ardor.

One year ago. To the day.

I dont think it survived to the mix but its still an interesting idea.

Kaoss padded Glockenspiels for the Opium Cartel

Now Playing: Bad street - Twin Sister

Video of the day 24th of January 2014

My videos on youtube range between somewhat interesting to completely useless.

The idea with the channel was to show videos of some of the weirder instruments and sounds that I have in the studio. I felt that there was a lot of pictures of Mellotrons and Orchestrons but noone actually played the machines so I thought I could fill a empty slot of information.

Then after a while I realized that it could be interesting to show how the productions worked and how they were arranged. If you were interested in the band you could see them work and record . And then when you heard the album you could hear the different parts 

and how they worked (or didnt work) together.

I think this is a video from the Antkowiak sessions. Very experimental camera work.

Blasticking.

Gig review: Frederik Galiay at M/S Svalbard

Gig review 23rd of January M/S Svalbard

Fréderick Galiay (FR) Elbas, David Linnros/Saxophone & Electronics , Niklas Korsell/Drums & Percussion Yann Le Nestour/Compressed air, machinery

I was invited to probably Stockholms most beautiful and interesting "Venue". 

The machine room on Yann Le Nestours boat Svalbard. 

A beautiful boat with one of Stockholms most breathtaking views of City Hall and Kungsholmen.

The evening starts with soup and wine and mingling where everyones opening ine seems to be are you a "boatperson" or a "musicperson". Because the audience seems to be divided between the tour. Music fans and people who live on boats. 

Someone asked me if I had a boat and i replied that my wife owns a boat. 

And they asked me where it was, how big it is etc...and when I explained that I didnt actually live on the boat the look I got was of disdain and distrust. In their eyes I am a complete sellout.

The gig was held in the machineroom. Its cold and smells of gasoline and oil. 

The first set starts with low rumbles and mumbles from Fréderick Galiays bass interrupted by small flourishes and waves of electronics from David Linnros.

Its slow and fast at the same time. Yann leNestour "plays" the boat turning machines on and off, contactmicrophones dispersed thruout the machineroom.

I have often been frustrated by how guitars and basses often feel like they are frozen in time. They are relics to be played in one way. A out of tune guitar feels like a revolution. 

A crime against the ear.

Frederick Galiays approach to the instrument (electric bass) is refreshing, ruthless and utterly inspiring. Using kitchen utensils, slides and bows he makes the bass a mutifacetted orchestra. Its almost as if he started with a slide and then went looking for something to slide it on.

The tempo is free and the composition stalls occasionally like a conversation between strangers. And then all of a sudden it starts up again. A new idea pushes the piece forward.

Yann le Nestours setup.

The second set is more "traditional" with David swapping electronics for his sax and Niklas Korsell joining on drums. The volume is pushed up several notches and it all becomes more frantic. Ideas bouncing back and forth quickly. 

As a drummer I was very impressed by Niklas Korsell. Moving between instruments seemlessly and constantly changing pace and texture. As a drummer coming from a fairly traditional background I find it exciting and frightening to hear a drummer who is so free of the boundaries of a steady tempo. New ideas connecting into each other making change the only constant. 

Clank, tink, booooom.

In this more traditional setting the Music also is more accessible. Building to a climax that has a almost Crimsonesque energy but in a more parallell way. They are playing together, going towards a goal. It is just not certain that they will get there at the same time or 

using the same roads.  

To me this is the kind of music you have to hear live see the communication on stage. 

Its abstract, noisy and sometimes hard to grasp.  

The information attacks all senses.   

I would never listen to a recording of it.

I realize how vague all of this sounds. 

This is art, music and performance in a setting where the lines all blurr. 

Frederick Galiay, some swedish dude and Yann LeNestour 

Thank you Yann for a great night.

Photos by Fredrik Eckardt

Video of the day 23rd of January 2014

As some of you might know I was born in Hong Kong. I lived there between 1975 - 1981.

I have been back three times since and it has always been pretty magical.

The last time I was there was with two of my best friends Fredrik Eckardt and Mikael Scheja.

Fredrik was working there but was going to move home to Stockholm 

so we thought we should visit him before he left.

On the last night of my visit. Fredrik took me to a underground club. Everything was pretty beatup but in that very cool way. There was a stage at the club and there were jam sessions. 

One guy went up on stage with a Tenori on and a Kaoss pad. I played a bit as well.

When I went to the bathroom I found a incredibly cool electric guitar. 

When I picked it up I noticed that the neck was broken. I just knew that I needed the guitar.

So I found the owner of the place....smoking in back alley. I said quite bluntly..."I need this...how much do you want for it?" And he just looked at me with a blank stare and said with a heavy chinese accent "You can have it...Its a gift"

When I came back home I let Michele Benincaso glue it back together and a special mod I asked him to make it a 9string...Doubling the top three strings.

Video of the day is of Tobias Ljungkvist recording the Hong Kong Guitar for Akaba.

The Burwood 9 string

Book review: No regrets by Ace Frehley

When I was a kid growing up in Ekerö just outside of Stockholm the wasnt really too much to do. You could play sports or listen to music...that was pretty much it. I was useless at sports so music became the easy option.

We spent our afternoons backtracking thru rock n roll history listening to my classmate Peter Lithners big brothers record collection. Anders had impeccable taste. At least when you are ten. We listened to all of the classics. Accept, Quiet Riot, Dio, Thin Lizzy but the band that caught my attention and probably a lot of other ten year olds was Kiss. The best thing about Kiss was that even you hated the music there was so much else going on. The makeup, the stage shows the album covers. C´mon what other bands had a demon and a spaceman in the lineup from the BEGINNING?

So maybe it isn't all that strange that I picked up a copy of Ace Frehleys biography, No Regrets at my supermarket. One of the many funny things about the title is that publishing this book should have easily have qualified as one. It cost me 4 dollars. A brand new book..so either they are having a sale or they have slashed the prices to try to spread Ace Frehleys important message to as many people as possible.

Ace Frehley seems to be a nice enough guy but as a writer he comes across as being somewhat slow and dare I say it....stupid. Apparently a writer has helped put this together but the writer must be doing all of the drugs and booze that ace isnt because this, my friends....is really awful. I think the smartest move they did was leaving the stories about the alien abductions until the end. If those stories had been in the beginning of the book nobody would have finished reading the thing. Now the alien stories are at the end so it becomes a matter of reading suspecting that the man is somewhat of an idiot and then when you get to the alien abduction section you get your receipt. Yes, he is actually an idiot. I also understand why the aliens returned him to earth. They don´t want him either.

This is a picture of another guitarplayer in Kiss. Vinnie Vincent. 

I put this picture in here because it lightens up the mood a bit. 

Everything feels like it was written in a rush and it ends up sounding a bit like a drunk uncle at a christmas party "have I ever told you the story about....". Also...You get the feeling that Ace Frehley is the worst possible writer in the world to write about Ace Frehley.

Also because of the sloppy writing you feel pretty cold about the characters in the book. He will talk about Peter Criss for instance who seems like a nice guy  (one of my favorite quotes in the book is Aces very apt observation " hes not actually like a cat at all....") but never follows up. Is Peter Criss still in Kiss or has he joined some kind Marine Explorer group? His amateur psychological evaluation of Gene Simmons will probably not grace the table of the Nobel committee either. "Is he a sex addict or not?...i dont know, maaaan"

Gene Simmons is (according to Ace) an asshole whos main concern is to make us much money as possible. I have played in bands my entire life. If someone in my band was working his ass off to make money and I have a 25% cut of everything Id be encouraging that guy to work his ass off...not complain about it....seems a bit weird.

Another big problem for me is of course that I don't really care too much about the fates of the members of Kiss. Noone has ever said in the studio...."how about a bit of a Kiss vibe on this?".
I have read another book about Kiss and it's a bit like reading a book about a very popular cardboard box. There is no substance. AFAIK There are no Nietzsche or Munch references in shout it out loud or I was made for loving you. There is just nothing there. What are you going to write about?

If ten year old Mattias read this book review he'd probably say

"He hates it because he doesn't understand, He doesnt "get it", he is like all the other grown ups"

And I would look that little Swedish fresh faced boy straight in the eye and say.

"Shut the fuck up about this Kiss rubbish and go work on your double stroke roll. Dont ask me why, just do it. It will make sense in seven years time. Oh yeah and when Tord Lindman says we can sort it out in the mix. Tell him to go fuck himself and do another take instead"

I give this book the following rating:

"Please mr Alien would you please reconsider and take him anyway and take his horrible book with you too, best regards Mattias "

Is that a plug-in? Nope....its a Wooly Mammoth.

One of my favorite things is when I have production schools coming to the studio. Its always interesting to hear their impressions of the studio. One time a student asked as I was hooking up a stompbox what I was doing and I explained what I was up to. He had a sort of mildly shocked facial expression as I realized...he had never seen anyone connecting cables before.

Hasse at Atlantis told a similar story of a young band recording....one of the band members passed the Studer reel to reel machine and asked Hasse if it was a plug-in.

Im still stuck in the middle. Halfway between tape and computers. Its my generation I guess.

Yesterday was good. Im feverishly recording keyboards for a secret Heavy Metal album. Its interesting as Im using a lot of different sounds....working with synthesizers, Mellotrons, organs and pedals. 

When I have the future producers in the studio...they always ask me about gear...what should I get?

Well when it comes to analog synths there are a lot of cool instruments out there. Its a matter of finances and availability. But one thing that I was really lucky to stumble across was stompboxes.

You can buy a synth for 500 - 1000 dollars. And then use a 30 dollar stompbox on it and it will become a completely different instrument altogether. And you can also use the stompbox on everything else...A lot of sounds for very little money.

I would recommend a distortion box, a delay and a envelope filter. That will get you a long way. 

Todays video is of me messing with a Korg MS-10 and a Zvex Wooly Mammoth.

Wooly Mammoth vs the Korg MS-10

Video of the day 21st of January 2014

One of the best things about my work is how things fit together and sort of hands over possibilties. 

Bear with me its not too bad...

#1 I had a band with my good friend Andreas Morland. We were called Andreas & Jag. We released three CD-R albums and toured internationally with a very weird set-up.

He had a girlfriend. Her name was Anna-Karin Von Malmborg.

#2 Years after they broke up I met Anna Karin at a bar in Stockholm and decided we should do something together. So in 6 afternoons we recorded an album.
We wrote and recorded two songs everyday. 

The band was called AK-momo.

#3 In Philadelphia a girl called Nadia Botello got hold of a copy of the album.
She liked it a lot and got in touch. 

She wanted to make an album about secrets with me.
She flew over and in about two weeks we recorded an album under the name Saint she.

#4 She was friends with a label who knew people in Stockholm. Thru these contacts she got a place to stay. She was staying at a swedish singer songwriter called Staphan O Bell. 

He was terribly talented so we started working together.

#5 On the second of February Staphan will be having his releaseparty at Roth Händle V. 

The album is remarkable.  

Here is a video from the 17th of January 2011 recorded at Gösta Berlings sagas rehearsal room. He is playing my Danelectro Convertible from 1965. One of my favorite guitars.

Staphan O Bell playing the Danelectro Convertible

How do you define a russian mountainrange?

Me and my wife are working on an album about dreams and sleep. The idea is based loosely around an effectpedal which makes everything sound a bit drowsy and woozy. This has meant that ll of a sudden Im a lot more focused on dreams and sleep in general. How much am I sleeping, dreams? About what?

Im not really into the Idea that dreams mean all too much or have heavy symbolic meaning. That whole thing about Freud having 300 different symbols for penises just doesnt really fly, now does it?

I woke up this morning feeling pretty beatup. The reason being quite simple. I had a really frustrating dream. I was in a meeting talking about the new Kaukasus album. (Kaukasus is a progrockband consisting of me, Rhys Marsh and Ketil Vestrum Einarsen). We were talking about all the different qualities, levels and different aspects of the band.

But we couldnt define it.

And so the discussion started over again. 

My entire night consisted of trying to reach a definition. What is Kaukasus?

This probably all stems from the fact that we are reaching the end of the process. The album is mixed and done. We are sorting out details like bandphotos, albumcover, recordlabels. I spent last night listening to it.

So we sort of need to define what it is stylistically. Making the music sound great was very easy and fast..now we need to figure out what the music looks like.

Video of the day 20th January 2014

This is a blast from the past...Kryztof Antkowiak recording Benny Anderssons Yamaha GX-1. 

Kryz was a former childstar from Poland (see picture) and wanted to reboot his career.
So we recorded an album and then he got involved with a manager
and everything ground to a halt. This was in 2008. 

Its a really cool album though.

The Yamaha GX-1 was on loan from Abbas Benny Andersson. 

It now resides (or sleeps) at Riksmixningsverket. It apparently needs a lot of love.

Kryz recording the Yamaha GX-1

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.

Video of the day 19th of January 2014

One thing that I find to be very interesting is how we are fooled into believing that the more difficult and complex things are....they must by default be better. Here is a remarkably simple percussion idea from my dear friend Henrik Olsson.
We share the drum duties in our Krautband Walrus. I love this...simple and very inspiring.

I have since this video was made built a tree of bowls that we use live with Necromonkey and it will be making its album debut with Kaukasus.

This video was shot in 2012 during the Änglagård sessions for that pesky third album.

The kitchen gamelan

4-3-2-1 We have liftoff....I think?

When my wife was a kid she was fascinated by space. As a four year old she set her goals fairly high. She was going to be the first person on mars. She didnt take the mission lightly and started working on the project with all the feverish energy of a four year old. She built a spaceship, made maps of mars and packed food that would keep her alive on the journey there and back.  

On the day of the launch she assembled her family only to realize to her dismay that her space shuttle was too small. It was only about 50 cms high and there was no way she would be able to fit inside. The mission was aborted. My wife was devastated. With her heart broken she went to her room with her sandwiches and sulked.

The best recordingsessions are pretty much like this. You plan and build and make up grand plans how its all gonna work out. In your head there is no doubt. How far can it possibly be to Mars, right? There is no end to the potential in this recording. This one will change everything. That feeling is unbeatable. A lot of times you see the records being released and you have a noisy liftoff and you see how it soars in the sky and leaves the place where it was made. Other people see it and hear it. People might like it or hate it. The worst people have educated opinions..."Your spaceshuttle is great.....but".

And sometimes you end up alone in your room, tears rolling down your face with a package of sandwiches and a vehicle you cant even fit in.

Oddly enough I like both endings to the mission. 

Video of the day 18th of January 2014

Musicians are generally really nice people. 

Openminded, curious and often interested in a lot of things.

But something happens when it comes to buying equipment. Its like the brain sort of shuts off and something known as G.A.S happens. It is short for gear acquisition syndrome.

Musicians want to buy things. We also have this weird feeling that if we only get this one pedal or synth everything will work out. Everything will change for the better. But we need somekind of fuel for our G.A.S and one simple way of getting the buyers juice 

flowing is to have some cool references.

Video of the day is of me on the 17th of January 2010. 

Im treating my drums thru an Octave Divider. 

A pedal that adds lower octaves to the signal that comes in. 

The MU-tron Octave divider isnt a spectacular pedal. It looks a lot cooler than it sounds. It is confused and has a tendency of lying or embellishing the truth. Often it makes stuff sound like slightly fuzzy teddybears which is terribly cool. But it isnt that hot as a octave divider. 

BUT...Neil Young used one and has said that it is his favorite octave pedal. This means that the pedal immediately becomes ever so desireable. So if you watch the video below you just might hear some of that cool rugged Neil Younginess going on...

Treating drums thru the MU-tron octave divider

Bob Marley - Its Reggae.

I live in Stockholm. Its the capital of scandinavia. I live close to a subway station called Fridhemsplan. Now there is a mall there where you can buy things to make you and and your house look better than it does now. But when I moved here it was the most dangerous part of town at four in the morning. Im not sure how they measure that but its a statistic and statistics never lie. Stastitics are relatives to facts. They are not the same thing...but sort of.

Radioheads Kid A was a #1 in America. Fact.

Gargamel has never succeeded in killing a smurf. Fact

Karl Bartos (from Kraftwerk) has been banned from playing Bingo in Dusseldorf because of frequent rumours concerning rigged numbers and games.

About ten or fifteen years ago at this subway station there was a man with a long coat. He would open up the coat and inside there would be rows and rows of CDs and he would look you square in the eye and say.

"- Do you want to buy CDs? Bob Marley - Its reggae."

And I always thought that was hilarious. All of the covers had the Lion, Haile Selassie and the rastacolours and ganja plants and of course....Bob Marley on them. The fact that he still needed to clarify that just to make sure that there was no confusion concerning the genre in question. Bob Marley - Its Reggae.

So today I had a slow morning and stopped by my trail of fleamarkets on the way to the studio and I bought some 45s. The annoying thing is that I found six 45s at the first fleamarket and nothing and I mean nothing at the others. But fleamarketing is a bit like fishing. If you get a bite in the beginning you can stand around for hours just waiting for a second fish. The notion of a good day for fleamarketing is sort of a joke. 

Im rambling...But in that first batch I found the single you see at the top. I love Ray Charles and was very happy. Its not rare or anything I just like him and I love the 45 format.

But this cover had a bonus that I discovered when I looked closer. Scribbled with a blue pen someone had written bluespianist on it. Just to clarify things. It made me very happy. It made my day.

Because immediately I thought about a man I met ten years ago with a coat filled with CDs. 

Bob Marley - Its Reggae. Fact.  

Video of the day 17th of January 2014

This has been my workstation over the last week. The M4000D Mellotron....a wonderful workhorse.

The Korg MS-10 Simple and sublime...and then the CR-78. Probably my favorite drummachine. 

With these three instruments I can do a lot of stuff and I have been working with these three instruments for a week now. I cheated with some electric guitar yesterday,

That is why is sort of funny that my Video of the day is of none of these. 

Instead it features the non random random tone generator.

Or as i like to call it. NRRTG

Have a great Friday.

Violent kids need random tones. Fact

Have a great day?

I like BOTH deluxe rhythms and to create my own beats...maybe this is for me!

On my way home from dropping off my daughter to school I went into a little shop in the subway where they have sandwiches, magazines, candy....and stuff. In front of me in the line there is a man around 45 - 50 years old. Well taken care off. He's one of those guys who shaves the face.

I walked in in the middle of the conversation. They guy behind the counter seemed kind of upset. 

So the shaved face guy asked. 

- "How are you? "

-" Not too great.. " The man replies.

-" I just found out that my house and car and all my belongings in Bagdad were blown up last night by a stray missile. Everything I own is gone"

There is a uncomfortable silence and then the man shines up and to ease the mans pain says.

" Well...Whatcha gonna do? Have a great day!" 

NP: Kaukasus - Mixes

Video of the day 16th of January 2014

As you might know by now I love synthesizers. 

To me they always seemed to be so mysterious and scientific....at the same time. 

Very much like a stompbox I got the feeling that just by pressing one key everything in the production would change and shift the listeners attention.

I bought my Korg MS-10 at a music store in Paris. The guys who owned were complete assholes. I chose between a MS-10 and a SH-101. Im really happy that I got the MS-10. It is a very simple analog synth but with loads of possibilities and it can be quite expressive when you mess with it. 

Ive used it a lot and it is my main synth when we play live with Necromonkey.

I met the guys in Air after a show at Cirkus in Stockholm and 

when I mentioned the shop they said with heavy french accents 

"We know the shop..they are assholes. 

But when we became famous they treated us like kings.....assholes."

This video is from the 2012 Änglagård sessions for the third album. Filmed two years ago.  

Watching these little snippets I always become sort of sad because 

I still hear all the unfulfilled potential of the recordings. 

I still cant listen to the album. It just annoys me.

Änglagård Thomas enjoying the Korg MS-10

Book review: The Wrecking Crew - Kent Hartman

Over the last couple of days I have been reading the book you can see above. Can you see it? It looks great. The book is about a group of famous studio musicians in Los Angeles during the 60s known as the Wrecking crew. Some of the musicians in the "group" were Hal Blaine (drums), Glen Campbell (guitar) Tommy Tedesco (Guitar), Leon Russell (piano) and the remarkable Carol Kaye (Bass). All in all it was a group of 20 - 25 musicians that more or less played on all of the recordings. They became the producers favorite musicians and got hired to play on more or less all of Brian Wilsons and Phil Spectors recordings. Some of the artists they recorded with were the Mamas and the Papas, Monkees, Simon & Garfunkel, The Byrds (Mr Tambourine man), Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, Sonny & Cher and many many more.

This was in the era of the Pop orchestra where you would have three or four guitarists, two or three bass players, three keyboardplayers, one drummer and additional percussionists and then there might be strings and horns on top. The idea was to get the mix of the instruments right in the room before committing to tape. Quite the opposite than how people work today where everything is more or less recorded separately.

The amazing Carol Kaye. 

This is the woman who plays those first notes on Wichita Lineman, 

one of my favorite songs of all time.

For fans of Spector, Jimmy Webb and Brian Wilson the book is definitely a good inspirational read. I would of course have loved to have maybe more in depth details about the recordings but the focus is more on the fact that how this relatively little anonymous group played on more or less all of the recordings and who they were. This makes the book obviously a lot more accessible for people who are not musicians, producers, studioowners or recording nerds.  

One thing that is not that great is that 25% of the book is footnotes at the end so it ends kind of weird.

If you are curious to find out more about these amazing people check out youtube for clips and interviews. I did it a couple of times while reading and hearing their voices and seeing the people in real life makes all the difference.

I give this book the rating of two blue flamingos, a half eaten sandwich and a santa claus Pez.

Sorry about the overdosing on Carol Kaye pictures but she just looks toooo cool.

NP: Stumbleine - Smashing Pumpkins

Video of the day 15th of January 2014

A quick one....Tobias recording some tasty Danelectro Convertible for Akabas 

"When youve found someone"

The guitar is going thru a Zvex seek wah. One of the first "real" effect pedalsI ever bought. 

I bought it in Austin while I was recording with Deadwood Forest. 

Tobias recording Zvex seek wah danelectro

How a spanish guitar saved my day

A Mellotron model M300.

Yesterday was a good day. Occasionally difficult and messy but good. As a birthday gift I received an expansion card for my digital Mellotron the M4000D. I own several Mellotrons and Chamberlins so the M4000D is mainly for live work but as I have 100 new sounds to work with I have had it hooked, miked and ready to go. The 100 sounds include a bunch of farly odd sounds like Roxy Musics special effects and Black Sabbaths choirs.

If you dont know the Mellotron is a tape replay instrument from 60s. It plays snippets of sounds from pre recorded tape. Some of the most famous sounds are strings (King Crimsons starless), Flutes ( The Beatles Strawberry fields forever), the 8 voice choir (Radioheads exit music for a film) and the Cello (Oasis wonderwall).

Yesterday I started playing with a sound from the M300, the spanish guitar and it was mesmerizing. The sound is crooked and wobbly but it had something really special about it. Im not even sure if you could hear that it was a spanish guitar if I didnt tell you.

I wrote a song on the sound and then added some other Mellotron parts. I had loads of other things to do but I just felt it was important to follow that first initial idea and record so that it wouldnt disappear. Now I have it more or less finished. It works as an instrumental piece but could also work with vocals.

Remove the head, unless it is to be used for taxidermy purposes. Most taxidermy projects require a different, more difficult method of skinning, but that method is not the focus of this article.

Another thing that was really great was also that we received a remix of a Akaba track from Emanuel Lundgren (Im from Barcelona) which was really great. Usually when people do remixes they are fairly respectful but this was just pretty bananas from the start which is fun and refreshing. Sometimes you dont want to get what you ordered.

Today Ill be recording keyboards for a Heavy Metal album. Interesting indeed. As far as I can tell here will be no Spanish guitar on that one. 

NP: John Coltrane & Duke Ellington

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....