Record in the making together with Photo-Verlag!

It's been confirmed - I'm doing a record with the Photo-Verlag! One of the two brains behind this new, Berlin-based record label, Andreas Köhn, payed Kristiania a visit this week, showing me samples of the labels upcoming releases (ambient synth stuff and field recordings), record sleeves in nice materials and mini-CD:s. He handed me a remastered version of the MONUMENTS EP to show his ambitions concerning my music, he explained that his interest in and understanding of music had changed from the time he was a techno DJ, through playing in droney improv-bands to this current endeavor of his, the graphically oriented Photo-Verlag. Over all he seems like a really nice guy with a burning musical spirit, and I was quickly convinced that this label, albeit its present focus on ambient music, is ideal for producing and releasing my music.


We discussed the direction my music was taking, and I explained my interest in making this label debut of mine religiously themed, or that is to say, I intend to make the record a spiritual one, a lo-fi, goth-kraut mass. I picture quite clearly before me passages of sombre choir parts, the transmitting of feelings through a slow build-up.

Frauenklinik Neukölln

I also have the artwork worked out. In may I'll invite a bunch of people, hopefully around 20, to the abandoned women hospital of Neukölln. Everyone have to bring their own bed sheets, I'll bring beer, and we'll make a photo session aimed at producing ghastly images aided by my shitty analog camera. This will be done during day time, and hopefully the light is right, and I'll get good material for working a nice digipack out. Anyone who wish to participate on this event, please let me know!


As you see, things mos def are boiling! And I'm pretty happy about it!

Gigs, upcoming "record deal(?)" and the uploading of the Totem EP

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!

http://soundcloud.com/frans-swahn

http://fransswahn.bandcamp.com/

Crunch music

Hi everybody!

It's been a month of moving, visiting Sweden over Christmas and writing new songs since I last posted on this blog. 2011 seems like a good year, at least January is so far a good beginning. I relocated to Kreuzberg in mid-December, but now I've found a collective in south Neukölln where I'm good for another five months. Also, the long distance courses in graphic design and masculinity studies I'm doing this semester are due to start in a week.

These things fixed, it's time to work on the whole musician-thing again. Last week old friend William moved to Berlin. We were both very keen on getting together and playing, and some new ideas (which need thorough evaluation) are starting to occur. I'll keep you updated on our progress.

I really should be focusing more on trying to get gigs. I've got some kind of phobia when it comes to this kind of efforts, I just really have to force myself to send e-mails and hand out CD-R:s. And every time I've played so far, I've changed the set, i.e. song order, song structure, amount of effects on voice. Finally, it seems I've rushed about to quickly, not practiced my songs enough, not working the live performance through as good as I should.

This is the poster for Vorspiel Vol. III

Friday the 28th, the doors open for a third Vorspiel mit Frans at Kristiania Espressobar, and this time, I hope everything will fit in better, myself included. There are some new, never-before-performed songs which I'm looking forward to trying out (if I can just finish writing the lyrics). I'm trying out an overall new approach to complexity, changing my classic multi-layering for thick minimalism, the timbre of a handful of instruments taking the focus from the afore-used plentitude of voices and melodies. This is partially because I feel I've focused way to little on my own part of the performance, hiding behind a wall of backtrack sound. Guitar and voice should be guiding you, not fifteen synthesizers! I hope these changes will become clear to whoever sees me playing. I don't want to get away from the sound that I've worked for years to define, but simply try a new method for evoking similar feelings, now in subtler ways.

Anyway, I hope people residing in die Hauptstadt will consider coming. There will be some posters out in the next few days, and I guess you never know what they may bring. Tell your friends, your parents, your colleagues to come help turn the air thick at Kristiania, to the sound of the gems of my mind. What I now prefer to refer to as Crunch Music.

Thanks for reading! All of you not able to jump on the U2-line and attend, I hope I'll get to see you soon!

There is a gig coming up, there was a gig coming up, there are some new songs with pictures too!

This is what I did today, the poster for the upcoming Vorspiel mit Frans

I've been busy. Musically, privately, working. But I'm still here. Without a very well-thought-out plan, Kristian and me decided we'll arrange another Vorspiel mit Frans evening. It's this friday, the 10th. It might come as a shock to you, and I admit, it is to me too. All of you who'd care to come will have possibilities to buy beer, wine, coffee and probably some kind of strong booze. And my CD is also available to buy.

Last week, I "played" in a tent on the main square in my hometown of Lund. My audience consisted of two of my friends, three sound technicians, two girls and two reporters from the newspaper Sydsvenskan (here's the article in swedish with a nice, gloomy picture of yours truly: http://www.sydsvenskan.se/lund/article1314369/Pr-flopp-satte-stopp-for-lysande-succé.html). It was -10 degrees celsius. I had forgotten the power cord for my guitar FX box. My I-pod, from which I was to playback the backing tracks,  died because of the cold, and I couldn't feel my toes a and fingers anymore. The catastrophe was a fact, and I left the stage before actually having finished the set. I was scared I might freeze something (my sister did last winter, hence I take no risks) and had no choice but to go inside.

I guess you learn something from every dramatic gig like this. At least I didn't get too angry (I even forgot to bring my CD:s!) but thought, "what the heck, next time will be sooo easy compared to tonight". I'm looking forward to playing my two new songs, "Costa del Sol" and "Timeless", even though they are still at a sketch level. "Timeless" somehow mark my attempts at writing sunny pop, while "Costa del Sol" is meant to be a introverted, noisy track, hopefully a base possible to improvise around live. When I release these to songs on the net, they will be accompanied by illustrations thought to capture the overall feeling. I intend to continue this plan, so that, one day, there is a picture representing each and every one of my songs. The reason why I'm doing this is, I feel a need to express myself both audibly and optically, that no song is fully complete without the scenery I picture. A future album might contain these "snapshots".

See you on friday, Berliners! (I hope!)

F

EP finished! Gig in Lund!

The front of the MONUMENTS EP

GAAAH!

The EP's finally finished. It's now purchasable whenever you see me play or if you come to Kristiania Epsressobar (Fehrbelliner Strasse 5, Prenzlauer Berg). It's 5 € (I guess that's a pretty decent price) and contains 6 tracks. It runs for about 45 minutes. Here's the track listing for you:

The back of the MONUMENTS EP

1 . Rot Month (a song about the confusion and emptiness that appears when you leave your life and city for new ones, the constant disappointments of social life)

2 . The Story of ... (a song about leaving Sweden, leaving old acquaintances and traditions behind you, looking to the colossal cities of Youroupe)

3 . Square (a song about the difficult role as a father figure and how they are always haunted by and unable to get away from their patriarchal heritage)

4 . Cottage (a song about the simplicity of living in the countryside, complete with Knickerbocker scenery backed up by reggae rhythm)

5 . When this Civilization ends (a song about when your whole world collapses along with everything else that can possibly collapse, such as the Rolling Stones)

6 . Painted Hand (a song about the new social rules, about telling out your entire life story to any stranger that might be interested, and about an optimism that I have only experienced a handful of times)

The entire EP is listen- and downloadable on my Soundcloud page. Unfortunately, for you who prefer Myspace, because of a bug or another, I've yet been unable to upload any song to my Myspace profile. However, one day it will work. Until then, use the Soundcloud page (which, you will find, is actually a zillion times better than Myspace), and if you like what you hear, comment, order the CD, or whatever.

Antje Øklesund

Last weeks gig at Antje Øklesund went well, a bunch of nice people showed up, RoyalChord did a good set (eventhough I was a bit to washed out to fully appreciate it). There are some nice pictures, which will eventually be posted here. It was great to have a proper sound engineer who made sure the frequencies were right and all. A lot of bass!!! That was fun. All people present would probably agree to that.

I might be playing at the square of Stortorget in Lund, Sweden, on Nov 30th. At least I just got a request from Mejeriet Band Booker Martin B to be one of three live acts to play in a tent handed out by the Municipality of Lund. We'll see how it goes, transporting gear from Berlin and all.

Antje Øklesund

And oh, there's probably another Vorspiel mit Frans coming up at Kristiania Espressobar. In perhaps two weeks or so. I'll inform you. Trust me!

Last week we went to see Beach Fossils perform at the Bang Bang. They were very inspiring. A truly wonderful sound, simple but efficient songs. I have to admit, I'm envious of people who can do non-complex music. I feel handicapped by my multi-layering technique. It is about to transform though. Via every possible genre I'm now trying to find how I want to do it. And it's tough.

Thank you

Final steps of EP, pics from Kristiania gig & address to Antje Øklesund

Here are some pics from my gig at Kristiania two weeks ago, Mimmis camera. Thanks to all the people who showed up! Yesterday I finished my EP, put the sleeve together and discovered a way to make the discs look good. Now all that's left is the printing of the sleeve, something that I will do my best to finish this weekend. So on monday the Monuments EP will be available for anyone who's interested in buying.

The weekend I'll also use for preparing myself for the Antje Øklesund gig, experimenting some with my possibilities to interact with my computer while playing live and rearranging the songs in a more subtle mood. I hope the time is enough and all... Also playing is 

http://www.myspace.com/royalchordroyalchord . It will be fun to play again and I hope to see you there!

The address is:

ANTJE ØKLESUND

c/o Stadtraumnutzung e. V.

Rigaer Straße 71 – 73

10247 Berlin

Gig at Antje Øklesund in November

Hi everybody!

Landwehr Shoot

It seems that I might play at experimental bar/concert place Antje Øklesund on the 4th of november! This feels fun, as it is the first thing I do outside the safe realms of Kristiania and Gaudy. Like the first step out into the real world. I have no idea what the guys there expect, but I have in mind doing minimalist versions of my songs so that I will get bigger possibilities to alter one set from the other, thus making it more fun to play and listen to.

So make a note in your calendars, Nov 4th things will boil again.

Have begun cooperation again with Josef & Fredrik of Cloud Study, this time on some kind of droney yet melodic synths-meet-drum machine-meets-big guitars-meet-frail voices-thing. It seems like we're on to something interesting. Maybe we'll get enough material to do a live set. Well, that's a question for the future. I like it though, we might find the way back to our Broken Mixer Sessions sound. But more mature, of course.

I also added my newest song to my last.fm artist page. Soon to follow are the Soundcloud & Myspace pages. And next week, I'll start the last step of those CD:s! Don't give up!

Cherish this weekend!