Now it's time for updates!
I've had some stressful last months, studying, working, going to Sweden, etc. But I also had time to write some new songs. The present songs ranges from the last few months sunny naiveness to todays darker, more repetitive sound. I've gone through heaps of genres and artists to refine, define, redefine my timbre, my baggage of noise, idm, folk and hip-hop sticks with me (at least in my mind) but now I'm heading towards a hybrid of prog, goth and shoegazing with a simple but effective production.
In March I played to gigs, one at Der Hagestolz and one Vorspiel, together with 50% of The Sun and The Wolf, at Kristiania. If I am to evaluate the gigs, I feel the first performance was sabotaged by, among other things, the fact that I lined everything through a tiny guitar amplifier, which compressed and robbed the sound of bass and mid frequencies, meaning the audience didn't really fully enjoy the 45 minutes.
March's Vorspiel, on the other hand, turned out to be the best gig I have ever done solo. Even though I almost forgot lyrics and fumbled away some guitar lines, I felt as though my presence has never been so intense. I was able to embrace the role as the centre of attention, which is normally my biggest problem, leading to nervousness and stiff fingers. I think it much had to do with the audience, which seemed more focused than ever. It's hard to explain, but I realized that the bond between the performer and his audience has to rely on mutual sacrifice, otherwise there can be no genuine emotion expressed. So to all the people, who came to see me, thank you for being so "into it".
After the gig, I was approached by Andreas Köhn, who's just starting up his record label Photo-Verlag. He liked what I'm doing and suggested I make a record for his label. It seems the label focuses on ambient music, or I'll get to know exactly what they do after their upcoming release of 7 albums and 2 singles. However, I would like to pursue this idea of his, and finnish what I'm currently doing, ending up with a body of 5 - 7 songs between 3 and 7 minutes. The label would manage the mastering, produce the album, and leave me with all the rights to the material. What I must find out, is wether we could press the album as LP or not. As you might guess I am very happy right now, thinking about how to finish off my songs, record cover ideas, how to spread the word about the record, and so on and so forth.
Production-wise I am now considering using cassette tapes as a means for destructing the sound of my recordings, looking for a tape player with a rec button. Another idea is to run stuff through a guitar amplifier, to achieve that warm, blurry sound. The tape might be the direction I am also going when it comes to playing live, using multiple tape players for playback and sound effects. I brought my Casio SK-1 along from Sweden, allowing me to loop my voice among other things.
On my Soundcloud page is now slowly being uploaded my tape from 2008 (the Totem EP), track by track. As I now only posses 2 more copies of this tape, I thought it good if it was immortalized on the internet, at least until I need more space for my new songs.
I've been busy, you might say.
Thanks for reading, enjoy the start of spring!
