Wading through the darkness

There’s an LA based radio station that’s been around forever called KNAC. Back in the day I couldn’t listen to it since the internet wasn’t around but for the last few years I’ve listened to their internet feed on and off

I love that it’s always the little things in life that makes you happy. For instance, I wanna fall in love, save the world, feed the poor etc and I try my best. Still, I was 100% happy today when this little independent radio station decided to broadcast “Wading through the Darkness” by Flotsam & Jetsam. It’s not the best known song and it’s not from the best known band and not from their best known album – but it’s one of my favorites and I was happy indeed.

Rebel Yell

Me and Bomber went to see Billy Idol yesterday. It was just splendid. I took quite a few pictures but I would have taken a whole lot more though if a stupid security guard wouldn’t have harrased me over taking pictures. I looked at him with big eyes saying: “Everyone else is taking pictures?! Why are you so disturbed about me taking some?”. He then tried to explain (over the noise) that I was the only one with professional equipment. I wanted to tell him the story of my life but it would just end with: “No one is a pro – we’re all losers and you more than others”, but I didn’t say that.

The setlist was incredible. It’s like every song you ever wanted to pick a fight to – only there were just girls and old ladies around – and I would probably get my teeth kicked in. They would keep dancing though. Afterwards.

Steve Stevens is the best guitarist there ever was. I’ve said that before and now I say it again. If you beg to differ then you can eat dynamite and poop flames that’ll shoot ya to the far side of the galaxy. There you can listen to whatever crap music you want to.

The road trip was quite fun actually. We stopped and looked at stuff and to eat. In Stockholm we stayed and Zinkens Vandrarhem – some kind of hostel. At first I thought it would prove to be a lame dump but it was great and I’d love to stay there again. So yes, going to Stockholm was great. Still Billy Idol makes the kind of music that you play at your garden BBQ and I would love it if he played there so I guess you’re all invited here the next time!

I can almost not remember feeling this proud

One guy builds a house and he’s crazy about it all when the last brick is in place. Another one spends two years on a boat. To me it’s been that way with some of the music I make.

Southern Sickness is not as much a band as it is my therapy project. The songs are all about stuff that I like writing about and things that make me happy. There’s more than one memory for each song and they all mean much to me.

Today the pieces kind of fell together for one of them. I wrote a song called Ghost Eyes about four years ago. With the help of my good buddy Greg Girardin I managed to record a decent demo in about a day.

You gotta check it out! I’m quite proud of it coz this is what Southern Sickness is all about and if you don’t understand country music when you hear this then I have nothing more to say :)

Southern Sickness “Ghost Eyes” (demo)

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The last five days have been great. Sleeping in the morning. Going out for breakfast or lunch. Back to Gregs place and write or record something. Watch some TV. Keep recording. Grill some burgers. Record some more.

Incredible! The skies were all dark yesterday but we kinda went anyway – and it didn’t rain at all. I finally got to see a Baseball game. That was cool enough.

Greg killed a horse and ate it. All I got to eat was veggie burgers. BBQ at the Girardin Mansion is really something else. I sure hope to come back here soon! It’s been just awesome. Shoutouts to Greg. Tomorrow I’ll be flying to Chicago and JPUSA where’ll I’ll be for two months.

Stay tuned for updates.

Creativity at it’s best

Ok, so I arrived in Nashua, NH yesterday and Greg kinda figured that he and me should get started on music stuff today, so we did. I would’ve never thought that we’d record several songs. One is an old Southern Sickness song. Greg laid down the bass and the keys and I dod the guitars and the vocals. The song is called Song for Kiki and is about a romantic crack addict encounter I had while at university.

The second song we did is just something else. I had this chorus that I’d been fooling around with for a while and a riff that worked well enough for an intro. I made another riff to be the base of a verse. I did the guitar work and the bass and while Greg recorded the keys and the unbelievable shredder guitar solo I wrote some lyrics. It’s a disturbing piece about a happy couple and it’s called Wife Battery. Very much in the vain of Faith No More which I’m very glad about :)

Southern Sickness “Song For Kiki” (demo)

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The Girardin Nordström Project “Wife Battery” (demo)

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There’s a third song as well. We were supposed to go watch a baseball game but the weather sucked so we decided to keep recording. This song took a bit longer to record than previous ones (which might have to do with the fact that we wrote it while recording it). I think I recorded about everything but Greg glued it all together very well and had some great ideas. He’s a master man. Not good with the brew though.

The Girardin Nordström Project “Active Nature” (aug 2005)

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It’s about me being stranded at an airport in London two weeks ago and that experience we kinda mixed with the current happenings with the Katrina hurricane that is raging in the southern parts of the US. Hope you like it. It’s something of a mix between Chroma Key, Fates Warning and Porcupine Tree… or something.

When dream and day unite

I knew from the very moment I started Southern Sickness that it was to be a country band. You see, I once got hold of a country music compilation and the artists on the compilation not only sucked, but they were criminally crap. That’s the truth. One was worse than the other and they all sucked…
…all but one.

The first time I heard Robert Earl Keen I said to myself: “I gotta do what he’s doing! No matter what. Even if no one will listen!”. I got myself a back hat and started writing songs the way Robert does. I like to think that this helped define who I am and that it very much raised the quality of my existence.

In this hour, in front of my computer upstairs in mom and dads house on the west coast of Sweden – I just ordered two tickets to the Robert Earl Keen show in Chicago, IL on thursday the 8th of september in the Year of our Lord 2005. This is indeed the time when dream and day unite.

The stupid screenshot above is only to graphically illustrate the sheer joy that lives within me right now. I’ve been to hundreds and hundreds of concerts. I’ve seen my heroes come and go – but this, this will be something else.

I can only promote this artist with heart and soul. God bless Robert Earl Keen.