Münster

Sitting in a café in Münster drinking my second cup of coffee trying to wake up after a really nice and long night sleep. We played our old favourite venue Amp yesterday, a place I have played probably four or five times before. And as usual it was great. Eavo and Tobi took great care of us, the pizza from the pool-place next door was just as bland as usual and the show was great. I tried some stuff I had never played live before and I think it came across kind of ok. At least I felt very good about it.

After the show me and Ray went into the backstage to hide away from the crazy disco that was slowly starting out there. We´re old men I guess, or just boring, or maybe a bit of both. But after six hours in a car and working hard on stage for a good hour there is really not a lot of energy left for dancing to tracks I´ve never heard. It was so different a few years ago when touring with the band, and quite honestly I cannot understand how I did it. Party every night for several weeks, getting up next day to get in the van, and then start partying again.

The show at Schokoladen on Thursday was a great one. A pretty good sized crowd came out and we both played short but good sets. Last on the bill was The Gentle Act Incident from Göteborg. A very nice little coincidence, a lovely show and real kind people in the band. Good luck with the last show tonight boys and girls, we´ll meet in Göteborg soon.

The day leading up to the schoki-show was a bit of a stressful one. Christian was leaving Berlin by bus already at 1 pm. So we left Saalfeld already in the early morning. Of course our good friend James(the voice helping us out in the GPS-machine) gave us fucked up directions and we ended up way out on the country side. Stressful since we really had to make it to Berlin, but also kind of nice since we saw a fox! I don´t think I have ever seen a fox like that in the wild before, and it was really nice. He was just strutting alongside the car for a good two minutes and didn´t seem one bit bothered about us being there. A beauty he was.

So we arrive in Berlin, drop off Christian and head to my dear friend Björn´s house downtown. Him and Saara just recently moved apartments and wanted to go to some Baumarkt to pick up a few things for the flat. So they borrowed my car and me and Ray took it upon us to look after their little boy Joas. I am his godfather so I really felt the pressure to be the perfect baby sitter. And I must say. Damn, that´s hard work. Even for just the two hours I looked after him. I was so tired at the end of it I could have fallen asleep right there and then. But what a cute little one he is.

Saalfeld

This place needs a headline of its own. If you´re looking for some real country-side-Wednesday-night-rock-action Saalfeld is the place to go. A small town about half an hour south of Jena, we arrived in the late afternoon and parked the car just outside of the venue. We´re not even out of the car before around 800 kg´s of tattooed punk is carrying our stuff inside. The place is amazing and we´re being so very well looked after, with good coffee, excellent food, the best sound so far on stage and just general kindness. The show was great and we had a real good time with a bunch of real nice people before going to bed in the little hotel room we had for the night. Thank you so much for having us Tommy! We´ll come back any time.

So, now the sun is breaking through outside, and I should be getting back to Eavo´s house pretty soon. We wanna sort out a few technical things with our gear at the local music store today. We´re so professional!

Talk to you later. B

Hannover, Hamburg and Bremen

Hey Ho!
First three days done and I am feeling great.
We´ve played five shows so far and they´ve all been great shows.
First night in Hannover we met up with our dear friend Andi outside Bei Chez Heinz.
A beautiful spring sun was shining down on us and we ate some swedish candy in the sun.
Went to Cristoffers place for an excellent dinner and played to sumbling first shows. Mine more than Ray´s. He´s always just great!
Hans from little label Jellyfant came by with the brand new 10" records we´re putting out and they look great! Thank you so much Hans, and I´ll see you in Münster hopefully!

In a big mob we then left Hannover for Hamburg pretty early in the morning to play the highly anticipated street show. Me and Erik from Cedarwell had decided we´d play a show at a certain street corner in st pauli at three. So we headed over, and it was probably the most perfect corner we could have found! I was not sure if anyone would show up, and then it started raining, so it looked bad. But everything ended up just perfect. About forty people showed up, me, erik and ray played a few songs each and it was a proper little circus out there. Thanks everyone for showing up! And a special thanks of course for the coffee Malte! I´ll see you in Karlsruhe I hope.

Hasenschaukel is like playing my back garden, I´ve been there so many times, and it´s always so nice. And nothing has changed. Tanyo and everyone is great. Jörg and Ulla are the nicest of hosts, and the people coming out are always pure beauties. I love playing that place. Thanks so much!

Over to Bremen today. Came in quite early and had time for a little stroll and a cup of coffee in the sun. It´s really quite crammed in the car, so it´s nice to be able to stretch your legs for just a bit before it´s sit down time again. Sun was shining and all was gut. Went over to Fundamt where we did two short but lovely acoustic sets and a bunch of people was there. And I got to play my old song 1.2.3 to the guy who´s the reason I keep it in the set! Mathi. Alter. Du bekommst ein tape for sure!

Off to André´s place for a lovely meal and some swedish pastry that was awesome. André has got a little Hamster and he was the cutest thing I´ve ever held in my hand. Great little guy that thing!

And now. Sitting on the bed in Becki´s flat in Bremen after playing a house show here. Was great. Nice and quiet and I really felt I found a connection to the songs. I hope people never mistake my quietness for disinterest or tiredness. It´s just me feeling really good about playing my songs.

Bed now. Berlin tomorrow and quite a bit of driving.
See you soon! B

Packing/washing

Getting ready to leave. Last preparations tomorrow and then off to Göteborg to rehearse like crazy with my brother. Been talking over the phone about how we want it to sound, and it will be such a weight off my sholders when we can finally meet and try stuff out.

Going through some bags still unpacked after the move and coming out with cstuff I´d almost forgot about. Quite nice actually. If you don´t count dirty washing from the last tour in October that is still packed into plastic bags.






















Found a huge pile of strings in a bag from a music store in Köln today and humle fine tuned the last little bit. I must say, the guitar has never sounded better. Look how carefully he has placed his big ear on the fretboard to get the exact pitch. He is just amazing!

Well. The 10" have arrived and look awesome. Very excited about that.
I´ll go on about my business and hope to see you soon in Hannover or maybe Hamburg. Good start!

Love B

TOURING, PLUS/MINUS

Having trouble sleeping. Happens every time I am getting ready to leave. Excitement it is. In a good way. So I shouldn´t complain at all really. Got up from bed and sat down at the kitchen table doing a quick graph of what touring is to me. And what I came out with was just that: I shouldn´t complain.

+
Travelling around Europe.
Meeting friends and hanging out.
Playing shows every night.
Eating great food I don´t have to neither pay for nor prepare.
Driving my Audi90, which I love.
Hopefully earning a little bit of money.

-
Sleeping too little.
Not having clean underwear.
Getting in trouble beacause I don´t pay my bills in Sweden.

So, as you can all see, it is very benefitial to me.

Starting to write again. I have a few really good things going on.
Moving slow however and feel pretty good about letting it take some time with the songwriting. I have put out alot of stuff the last year and this time I will try to do things a different way.
I also have some plans for a 7" project that might happen in the fall. Hope that will come true. Plans, plans, plans.

Now I should really sleep. /B

Spring

The igloo is melting. A tiny bit of snow in the garden it is.
I leave in about a week. Feel very good about it. As always I am excited.
Excited about playing, excited about meeting people.
Going to spain and Poland to play for the first time. Yes, very excited indeed.

Got my car through the annnual check up yesterday after an extensive fix up of the back brakes. How discouraging is it not to have to spend 300 Euros on brakes. Anyway it is now a very fit Audi90 I am taking with me. And both fingers crossed Andi, the stereo should be put in finally by the end of this week! No more touring without music!

Ok. Bedtime. Sleep tight! B

Spring house cleaning party

It´s been an eventful day I must tell you.
Woke up early and drank a cup off coffee and then clean clean clean. The house is shining!
I even polished the roof of the shower! Please tell me that´s is a sane thing to do.



The neighbour lady came by to tell us that they will collect the trash tomorrow so we´re awfully excited about that since they haven´t been here in four week because of the snow and the garbage situation is getting out of control.

We wrote an awesome spring song for the childrens song album we´re working on. It is really quite nice. I don´t like to boast but it is fucking awesome. Will be a great record!

Sonson Pickelhaupt came by with some cabbage. Amazing the way you can harvest cabbage this time of year. In this country. Under snow and everything. A true survivor the caggabe I must say.
He then got a few shots of whisky and started talking about the "legal definition of intercourse". It was all very strange, and we were both happy when he had to go home to watch "Vem vet mest".

10" testpress arrived today.
Sounds awesome!
Look how happy I am.