My name is Mattias Olsson and Im a hoarder.

So last night was one of those nights that usually happen in early January when you decide that its time to sort out "that" mess in the studio. So me and my wife spent 3-4 hours working on putting up shelves trying to get the stacks and stacks of drums organized and in somekind of order. But still when we left the studio I couldnt really see any difference. There are cases and dormant instruments...everywhere. Some of them are mine others are just visiting for years on end. A problem is of course a couple of illusions that I still harbour.

1. I still harvest the dream that I will repair things. 

Even that little organesque thing that I found at a fleamarket under a mummyfied mouse that needs a power supply/keys/drumheads. I think that there will come a day when I will start going through the entire studio and make notes in a cool little leather book about everything that is slightly wonky and then hand it to someone who is a general electronics wizard and also very handy with wood and formica. To my surprise she is extremely cheap because she likes tinkering with things and its nice diversion from her day job as international jewel thief/brain surgeon/hamster trainer. Two weeks later it will return sounding better than ever. And when I turn on that little weezy Hohner organ I will realize "My God! This is the sound that I have been searching for all these years. This will change everything". 

In reality I have stacks of amazing equipment that needs a little work on the key D. Will I ever sort it out...? Probably not.

2. "Sure you can drop off you grand piano/pipe organ/elephant drum! I have 280 m2! I have room...". 

Currently there are two baby grand pianos, three uprights and one piano frame in the studio. How does that happen? Because when you have the room you can...But when is it too much stuff stacked on top of each other? Ask someone else as I apparently have no idea. Apparently Eric Satie had two pianos stacked on top of each other. As well as 100 umbrellas and 84 identical handkerchiefs. Im not that weird, am I?

Umbrella number #54 and Eric Satie.

3. The illusion of value. 

The illusion that everything old, formicadressed and vintage will be worth something in the future. I think anyone who has some old gear is terrified of doing the classic "Yeah I had one of those in the 80s but double manual Mellotrons with Wakemans original shemale choirs were terribly out of fashion so I gave it to my nephew who used it first as a urinal fort and then let his sad rabies smitten pet kangaroo live in it. They put it out on the street three years later. How much would that be worth today?". I have probably 30 or 35 organs. They are cool and all but their actual worth? Probably not that much. But if I just wait 30 years....

3,5. Its worth even more because I have used it on an album or a song. 

This is one of the illusions I struggle with the most. I cant part with things that I have used because somewhere in my head I feel its emotional worth has increased because it was used on a specific track. It has nothing to do with the actual monetary value. It exists in a musical world so therefor it should exist in the "real" world too.  

4. Its better to have two of something than one. 

Yeah because if unit #1 breaks. I have a spare. And if the spare breaks I have a another one. Its also great to be able to have two in stereo. Makes perfect sense right?

Unimaginative Jonny Greenwood with his yawny CR-78 in the background. If only he had a Olson.

5. The music improves by variation in instruments and sounds. 

I have maybe 7 or 8 old organ autokomp machines and I love them dearly. Amongst them is the CR-78 which sounds amazing but when I look at the pile of drum machines I always think. I wont use that...its so much cooler to use the Olson beat drummachine because its so much rarer and people havent heard it. The problem is that I use that drummachine on everything so if you have heard my albums over the last 15 years chances are you have heard it on something. My wish to make it special and unique loops into the ordinary and pedestrian. I think this stems from being in a prog band where sounds were fairly limited. We had a hammond organ, a mellotron and a moog. And the genre wants the sounds to sound like they do. If the Mellotron doesnt sound like a Mellotron people get nervous and twitchy.

So nowadays I can use a different organ or analog synth on pretty much every song. Does the music improve because of that? Of course not. But I have some weird belief that 

6. I havent used it in 15 years but I know that there will be a song soon that needs that sound. 

Ok....so what is the solution to this unnecessary hoarding? Well the problem is that I dont really have to do anything about it....right now. Which one day will become a huge problem. As a person in a 12 step programme I think I need to set short term goals and long term goals. I had a daydream that if I hadn't used a piece of gear in 18 months it would miraculously end up on ebay and the money would just appear on my account.

The last days of the Polar studio. from left to right Benny Andersson, Agneta etc etc etc

There is also another solution. Get shitloads of creative musicians and artists into the studio and let people have access to the gear...? Record loads of weird sounding albums with extremely talented musicians. Makes more sense than setting fire to my collection of ultrarare italian flea market melodikas doesnt it?

Oh yeah...and song of the day...

https://soundcloud.com/rothhandlestudios/hiding-in-numbers

Needs some tuning love but still pretty good.

The embarrassement of the solitary handclap

At the start of every new year I think we all have some kind of Idea that we are going to make some big massive changes. Lose weight, stop smoking, stop eating roadkill, no more doubletracking Mellotrons etc. Im not really big on those massive commitments or resolutions because I dont think they really work. Roadkill is tasty in all its forms so why quit if you´re not getting sick.

My resolutions are kind of easy. Im going to record shitloads of music and release it and tour the world. It makes perfect sense. As everyone Im wrestling with the notion of a fairly indifferent world and a complete avalanche of new music every day but the thing is that when I mumble away loudly in Sollentuna. The outside world has very little to do with what I do. My ideas come from the inside.

A couple of weeks back I was at Deluxe Music in Stockholm and spoke to Jesper Skarin, the Bassplayer and singer of Vak and occasional Necromonkey Bassist, Vocalist and Percussionist. We both were complaining about bashing our heads against the wall concerning liveshows and indifferent or ineffective record labels. Jesper said "If I was 20 I would have been completely heartbroken by all of this but once you realize that you arent quitting anyway, that this is what you actually do, everything becomes simpler". I find that to be very true...that and a big chunk of "Ill show the bastards".

Ok, so what albums are coming out this year? Well we have Il Tempio delle Clessidre (ITA), White Willow (NOR), Pixie Ninja (NOR), Fredrik Klingwall (SWE), Nacht (SWE) Necromonkey (SWE), Weserbergland (NOR), Tom Doncourt (USA), ...in these murky waters (SWE), Molesome (SWE)...as far as I know...

Molesome is as you might know my own solo project and I think Ill start the year by printing a small batch of my second album Dial. If you want to hear it its on bandcampf.

https://roth-handle.bandcamp.com/album/dial

The goal is to put out two Molesome albums this year.

Song of the day is an experiment in a couple of different ways. For one thing it is the first track I recorded using an old Hoyer guitar that was donated to the studio by Björn Edholm. Its an old german 60s archtop with a questionable neck but a lot of fun to play.

But the "real" experiment was the miking in this case. On the track I used a little clip on microphone that is for Korg tuners and used that as the main microphone. And you cant really try a microphone without playing. And what is the use in playing if you are not playing a song or a small arrangement...so this track was done simply for that cause. Also I submitted it for a American TV.-series about an exconvict coming out of jail and facing freedom. Oddly enough I didnt get it as the track is perfect....right?

One of the weirdest things you have to do in the studio is to fake handclaps. Doing multiple sloppy takes and moving them around for suitable wideness. You feel like an idiot when you are doing it and it never really sounds really "real"...maybe it is because I know that it is. I seem to recall that there was a group in somewhere in America who only did handclaps. They would come in and just do handclaps...and you could choose how the handclaps should be... tight or sloppy, bright or mellow. Sounds like a perfect job.

https://soundcloud.com/rothhandlestudios/ribbons-and-lace

The Queens Squirrel

Over this last fall I have had a young man staying in the studio. He is smart, ambitious and with a great ear. He writes songs and is into tinkering with sounds and making beats.

When he initially came to the studio we started talking about the creative process of doing things and what it means.

One of the first things I told him was the importance of finishing things. It really doesnt matter if it is good or bad or if the guitar needs tweaking. At the end of the day you want to have that stereofile so that you can sit in the car or at home and listen to it with a bit of distance. Things that seem incredibly important and the basis of the track might sound completely different when you step away from it. I trust my impulses when it comes to working in the studio. I follow them to the end. Do a roughmix of the track and then I leave it alone. If there is something good there I can go back and work on it some more but I need a roughmix so that I can listen to it with some distance and actually hear it as a whole and not just a collection of sounds running at the same time.

When you work fast and let all the ideas and impulses link into each other it creates a continous flow. You work within a line of reasoning. I hear the sounds in my head before I do them. This sounds incredibly naive and simple but its a lot harder than you might think.

There is also another aspect of working fast and that is that you sort of relax and lose you inhibitions. If you do a little weird track and its embarrassing and everything...you just move on and do another one...but you have widened your experience.

Also when finishing things you have to see a bigger arch going over the track. How you can build an arrangement in the mix by fading in and out. If you only have a handful of tracks you can create depth and dynamics with levels, panning and reverbs/delays. The more channels you have the easier it becomes to build a foundation in the arrangements. Its not very likely that you will be autopanning your floor toms in a wild erratic manner....and if you have vocals things have a tendency to become even more static.

One of the biggest autokomp organs ever made.

The track I posted yesterday...

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

...was a intellectual trap if you want. A version of a Readymade. The autokomp is from a Yamaha synth I bought at a fleamarket in Sundbyberg. Nothing really happens except that it fades out into a very luxurious AKG reverb. But what I like about the track is that it makes you actually listen to this weird autokomp pattern and instead of turning it off. It just stays there and then sinks into a great lush reverb. Did "I" create it? Well not really but I presented it in a way so that people would actually sit down and listen to a Yamaha autokomp machine for two minutes. There is also tension in the fact that it is so simple and doesnt really change.

There is also that thing with listening to something very small and self-contained where your creative mind starts spinning "What would I add to this?". What could I hear on top? Where is this music coming from? And by forming these questions something actually happens. There is an exchange.
Even if its something as simple as turning on a synth and pressing play.

The track of the day was recorded a week two after we got back from the Necromonkey tour. After the last show Jon drove from Chicago to New York. We dropped off our gear at Toms place and then wehn to Queens to hang out with Faye. The morning after I went to the store and I saw this super cute squirrel running on a fence. When I got back home I started recording a lot and needed a song title.

https://soundcloud.com/rothhandlestudios/the-queens-squirrel

I think this track came from experimenting with triggering the Moogerfooger Murf with the Volcas sync out.

Anyways...so when the young man left the studio after spending almost three months there I asked him "so...how many songs did you finish?" He replied "One....I think. It needs just a bit more work"

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

Favorite Girls and Wedding night 45s

Its been a pretty weird and wild year. A pretty confusing one as well. When people ask me what Im working on I often have a hard time remembering what Im actually up to which is strange as Im in the studio pretty much every day working on stuff. The year ended with finishing the debut album of Norwegian experimental proggers Pixie Ninja. The album is really interesting as they arrange the material in a fairly unique way. Pretty much no themes come twice. This means that the production has to lead the listener between the themes and melodies. I have realized that this is crucial in how I view music I work with. I am aware that this is only how I view it and its possibly pretty abstract from the outside but in my head a piece doesnt work if you confuse a listener without cathing their fall or showing them the right card at the end of the trick. There has to be a narrative in the production.  

Yesterday was supposed to be some kind of new beginning in the studio as I got a really good solid vinyl player to the studio. A direct drive vinyl player. The idea was to start messing with scratching and manipulating vinyl. Not a very revolutionary idea but for a 41 year old prog rock drummer it is really exciting. I hooked it up and started messing with some LPs but I couldnt get it to work properly because the LP stuck to the mat I guess so a bit more tweaking needs to be done. The 45s work better.

One cool thing is that I got a chance to hear some of the vinyl Ive bought at fleamarkets over the last couple of travels. Just before christmas I visited Houston to go to Andy McWilliams and Lindsay Burns wedding and went to a Mexican flea market in the afternoon before the wedding.

The fleamarket was massive and there were possibly 3-400 stalls. Great for weird and unique last minute christmas shopping. My son is into the whole Pokemongo thing so I bought a couple of cards for him. I have been going to fleamarkets for over 20 years so I think I have developed a fairly good eye for the different levels and sublevels of crap that seems to be in abundance.

At one of the stalls they had some vinyl and vintage video games. Everything was pretty dusty and it all had that classic Flea Market sticky surface. I picked up two or three little 45s. One thing that I have really enjoyed about getting the turntable is that its like the the birthplace of ideas. I have been walking around thinking about the infinite possibilities of this new piece of equipment.

So yesterday I had the chance to try it out. One of the discs was a 45 called education in sound. I put it on and found that it was an educational disc about the wedding night and how it works which I found to be a bit eerie considering I was going to a wedding 3 hours later. It was oddly enough fairly modern (not graphic at all) and ttalked about how the groom needs to be patient with the bride.

Anyways...I recorded a little piece yesterday using the Volca Sample and some little words from the Education in sound...

https://soundcloud.com/rothhandlestudios/beginnings

There is something very rewarding doing these pieces as they feel like a scavenger hunt. I also like how one sounds triggers your imagination to find the next.

So there we are. The last day of 2016. Scavenger hunts and intently listening to wedding night 45s.

Ill see you on the other side.

Love, Always.

// Mattias

Fed up with being annoyed. and fed up.

Its been weird coming back to Sweden after the Akaba tour. I generally feel a bit weird coming back. You have a short window when you have some kind of distance to everything you usually do. This has made me feel both really happy and slightly sullen.

Chernobyl 1985

There is a lot of things that Id like to get rid of. As a "member" in many bands I deal with everyday band things every day. And to be completely honest its wearing me down. Everything is friction. Everything is discussion. A lot of my energy is spent on doing other things rather than working with music.

Also People around me seem to think they know what Im supposed to do. A lot of people have suggestions. A classic one is that I should sell gear from the studio. Makes sense doesnt it.

Did a mix on the ...in these murky waters track Ophelia yesterday. A lot of fun. Im trying to pace the album now in a way to make it listenable. Not really sure on how Ill be releasing this. One possibility is to make a series of 7" singles. Would you buy one?

Anyways....tonight is the releaseparty for the Akaba album. Its at the studio you are very welcome to drop by if you are around. Three bands playing. Probably my last gig of the year.

A review of the Akaba album. They compare it to a cosy blanket which is just eerie because that was exactly was I was aiming for.

http://www.dt.se/noje/musik/dromskt-och-valproducerat

Now Playing:

I cant quit you baby - Led Zeppelin
This photograph is my proof - Paul Armfield

Now Reading:

No Logo - Naomi Klein
The Norm Chronicles - Stories and numbers about danger and death

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.

https://soundcloud.com/rothhandlestudios/in-these-murky-waters-berlin

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

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

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

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

" 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

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

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

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)

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

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.

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

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

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

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