Cracked knees, naked regulars and the Green Automobile.

Ive never been good at moderation. I want things to be bigger, louder and beyond. 2013 has been no different than previous years in that way. Ive smashed my head into a bunch of walls, gotten up and built new ones. Did a bunch of new things this year.

Started running. A lot. Found something terribly meditative about running 25+ km with headphones. It wasnt really about running that far. I just thought if I can run 3 I can probably run 5. If I can run 10 I can probably run 12. Took a couple of runs to realize that I had to create a specific playlist for the purpose. Running to Allen Ginsberg reading the Green Automobile will get you nowhere. 

People talk about a runners high. I never really noticed it. On some runs I had endless conversations with myself about what I was doing in the studio. Came up with solutions. Came up with some new problems as well. On other runs there was just silence.

I started reading about running and watched documentaries. Marathons and ultra marathons. One day I watched a documentary about a ultra marathon runner. He was talking about running thru the pain.

Later that night I had been running for 20 km when my knee started hurting. So I thought. I should run thru the pain. Also...20 km is nothing, 21,5 is a half marathon, right? So I kept on running.

The next day I couldnt walk at all. The x-rays showed later that I cracked the bone in my left knee by running too far. Moderation, right?

Realized that I couldnt run like that anymore. Needed something else. So I started swimming. Became very weird very fast. There are some places you want to be a regular and then there are places where you want to be as anonymous as possible. Im not sure why but there is something slightly disturbing about a 38 year old man going to a place where he gets undressed and swims back and forth for two hours. I am now very familiar with a bunch of slightly overweight wrinkly people from Sollentuna.  I started building systems about laps. How I counted them. Lap 75 for instance is my birthday. I counted from 1 and upwards and backwards. Lap 58 made my think about Rickenbacker guitars. Lap 38 my father in laws birthday and our relationship. 62 The Beatles. Etc etc. Sometimes I would just space out and realize that I had counted without knowing it.   

Swimming made me think of Brian Eno a lot.

I started seeing the waves my body made as sound moving around the pool crashing into other peoples waves. Swimming became noisy when you viewed it like that.

Made videos. A bunch of them with Necromonkey. Did one with Staphan O Bell. Appeared in one with Page. I have never been as visual. Before. 

Here I am playing the Hihat...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0k1LPhLNws&feature=youtu.be

Went to New York. Met Mitch Mignano.

My main annoyances this year have been with Mobile phones and computers..they seem to cause more irritation and frustration than possibilities and joy.

Necromonkey started playing live which felt remarkable and terrifying and the same time. Played the Sweden prog fest with three fantastic musicians. Kristian Holmgren, Jesper Skarin and Åsa Carild. Kjahart did the lights. Martin filmed us..Anders helped us with the stagestuff. I love the idea of the group working together. Also this group is spectacular in that I wouldnt mind getting stuck in an elevator with anyone of them.

A little video from our first gig.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xM8jJg-dhXA

We have our second album at the printers and we have just finished the first song on our third album that will probably be released in 2014 as well. The first picture at the start of the blog is the cover of our second album. 

Started reading a lot again. Read about food, wine and cooking. Read about Keith Richards and Neil Young. Douglas Coupland. Bill Buford. Nick Kent. Vaynerchuck. 

Started a bunch of new bands and album projects. 

Kaukasus is me Rhys Marsh and Ketil Einarsen. The album is a revoultion for me. The way of working with amazing musicians online and with constant communication and brainstorming has been a worldchanging thing. I have been involved in filesharing, filebouncing projects before but never as swift and easy. It also helps a lot when the music is vibrant, dynamic, dark and very much alive. 

Nacht is an album Im making with my wife. Its a conceptalbum about sleep and the music is (surprise! surprise!) very drowsy and twilighty.

ITMW...Ill keep this one under wraps. But its good. And different.

We have also started work on a new White Willow album. Me and Jacob have probably one of the longest working relationship that I still have. He has a remarkable sense of melody harmonics...my wife can always spot his stuff. Im a such a fan of him and now we have started the new album in a new way. Einar Baldursson talks often about how music is a conversation. With me and Jacob we have been mumbling for years.

When White Willow lost their drummer after the first album I wrote Jacob and said I was up for it. A while later I played on the second one.

2014 will be surprising, thats for sure. Thats how years work.

And with a bit of luck I might be able to start running again...in moderation.

Now Playing: Bibio - Silver Wilkinson One of my favorite albums of 2013.

Time off/Time on

I have realized that I have issue with having time off. I dont mind it....its not like that at all. Its great getting some serious sleep and having time off with wife and kids....My "problem" is that when I have had a couple of days off the ideas start coming...I start making lists and start to fomulate schedules and Ideas. I try to back off from everyday work in the studio and try to see the bigger Picture. What is important and what should I spend more time on. Weirder? Wider? and maybe most importantly When? It doesnt help when my wife bought me a Kindle (one of those bookpads) and I started reading Nick Kents The dark stuff (which is about rock musicians...first chapter was about Brian Wilson). Very inspiring stuff.

Another problem is that I have recorded an album which is about sleep. Ive read a couple of books on the subject....watched ted talks and seen documentaries, But this means that even my sleeptime is material for an album.I write down my dreams and discuss them with my wife. Last night (in my Dream) I went to Änglagårds rehearsalroom to pick something up. I found an album I had played on and they had released it without telling me. They had put their new drummer on the cover and wrote (live) after his name. Really annoying. I went out into a little coffeearea where I sat down and there I met Clint Eastwood. He was terribly nice and was very friendly. We sat and talked for a while and then Änglagård dropped by and I confronted them about the album. They were very embarrassed, they thought I would never find out.

This will not end up in a lyric....or will it?

I have five albums that are more or less finished and will be done probably by February. I had hoped to have them finished already but that apparently wasnt going to happen. I also have two or three dormant projects that I could revive but its always so much more alluring and sexy to start something new. One thing that I learnt this summer was to try and finish stuff more than bouncing around. I counted my projects and I think the total number was 24 which means that if I would work one day on every project in a revolving Schedule...Id never finish.

Anyways....here is the first film I made in 2013. Which rockets my mind....I should make a Mellotron frame set with the VCS3. Or maybe an ep of VCS3 Music. Vocalists....who should I ask? What should the title be? Should it be futuristic? Maybe Metropolis related.....and then Im off again.

Time is limited. Ideas are not.

Making a small boat sound with the VCS3