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

Time and how to fight back

Coming back from a tour like Necromonkeys latest US adventure it feels like there is a window where you have a chance to evaluate what you are up to and what you are doing. One of the things that I realized very quickly coming back was how little I missed having my phone charged and being "connected". I can generally get all my computer stuff done in maybe an hour a day. Very few things are that acute....I still have a phone...and no I still dont like it.

Also I want to simplify things. Focus more on one thing at a time....which isnt really like me at all. Atleast I can try.

So the latest plans for the studio are fairly simple. I need to start by cleaning the place up so that I can see the floor again. I remember it as being kind of nice.

When I have cleaned it up...Ill make a new fresh mess....because that is how I work.

I think Ill be drumming today. I think its gonna be great.

I also have some other Ideas.

We played with Akaba in Örebro on Friday night. A lot of fun. Good music and good conversation.

I get along without you very well. Of course I do.

Now Playing: Frank Sinatra - I get along without you very well
Now Reading: John Densmore - Riders of the storm

Home again

Home again

After a wonderful tour with Necromonkey in the US Im trying to get back into the swing of things at home. The gigs and people we met were fantastic...I have always loved touring and being on the road. It is a accelerated lifestyle to say the least but so much fun. 

We played New Jersey, New York, Baltimore and Raleigh, North Carolina.

The transition to home isnt all that easy. Every night I dream of the tour, about getting up to a new venue. Love being with the wife and kids again but the idea of Swedes and chirping mobiles everywhere has become a turnoff of momentous porportions. We are also in the middle of a election where everyone in the entire country seems to want to shove their opinion in your face. 

Im blocking people on facebook left right and center.

Tonight Ill be playing with Akaba in Örebro. 

Anyways Im back. Trying to figure it out.