The city I live in, the city of roaches…

Ok, it’s picture time. I’ve been away for about three weeks and I would prefer waiting before posting picture sets, but since everyone keep asking (it is flattering, yes) I will post stuff. Some of the pictures might not be of any interest, I don’t know. Some I actually like. I’m still learning. Hope you like at least something.

I have late come to realize that there’s more than one mouse in our room. One is black and one is not. One was in my suitcase the other day and I would guess the other one was too. Today when I was in the bathroom a roach ran across the floor. I expect snakes and spiders in bed later tonight. Sometimes you wish that Noah would’ve dropped one or two spieces into the sea.

Letter to mom (first days at JPUSA, Chicago)

Hello mom!

I know I haven’t called yet but that is basically just because I haven’t had time to find a phone card and I’ve been on the road all the time. I’m in Chicago now and it’s just great. The people at JPUSA are all great. Just so you know, they’re all hippies and punk rockers (not really) – but there are more people with tattooes than there are people without. I feel at home :)

Today we went to the lakeside and had sunday service outdoors. It was all cool and after the service there was a huge BBQ. You absolutely don’t have to worry about food. I can assure you, there’s tons of stuff every day. I really will have to watch it or I will gain weight. Like at the BBQ, there was coal slaw and potatoe salad and veggie burgers and all good stuff.

I just got my internet connection to work so hopefully I can send a couple of e-mails every now and then. The e-mail I gave you should work if you wanna try it. Just click “Outlook Express” icon.

Ok, I gotta go. We’re watching a movie out in the yard. Take cool and I hear from you soon.

Love,

Anders

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)

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

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)

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

The Girardin Nordström Project “Wife Battery” (demo)

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

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)

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

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.

The relatives of Hudson, MA

I made it to Stockholm, and I made it to Newark, and I made it to Boston and I even made it to Hudson. Evelyn and Peter were kind enough to pick me up when I got off the bus to Framingham. I then got the best salad ever and a dessert that was great if not divine.

So what more happened today? Well, there was a nice swedish couple on the Stockholm-Newark flight. I had a good conversation with them. Then there was the bloke on the Newark-Boston flight who kept talking about his smoke-trips to the “Dizzy Duck” in Amsterdam, Holland. I had something of a grumpy belly due to the jetlag and the flying and kindly asked him if I could rest. He said “yes” and then started talking about the origin of Heavy Metal which in his meaning started with Kraftwerk in Europe and with soft rock band Boston in the US. Then it was all back to the subject of “dizzy herbs”. I didn’t fancy sitting on a domestic flight talking about that stuff with that guy. Fortunately it was a short flight.

This weekend I’ll be doing stuff with Peter and Evelyn Brewster and on Sunday I’m heading up to Grazy Greg in Nashua, NH. Expect nothing less that 2-3 downloadable hits when I leave him next friday.

Bus, subway, train… ergh – no train, no plane, sleep at airport, new plane, new destination, bus, train, car… home.

Had I known the trouble I would have getting home to Sweden I probably wouldn’t have left. How fortunate that I didn’t know!

I had a wonderful time in London and Bristol the last five days. I’m sure you’ve read about my total failure in not checking out what airport to go to but I did get there in time and I made the flight. I met the wonderful Ms. Katy Saunders at Liverpool St. Station and we spend the better part of the day at Tate Modern Museum in London.

The ride to Bristol with one of the infamous Megabuses almost killed us. By the end of the trip all the passengers in the double decker was seated upstairs because of the engine failure that was boiling “downstairs”.
The next three days were awesome. Sunday roast, good friend Katy, bagels, cathedrals, beers, cinemas, alternative cinemas, bridges, lots of walking, indian restaurants, other restaurants, new friends all into good ol’ “Maiden” and pubs called “Dirty Dicks” and “Ye Olde Cock Tavern”.

Truly, everything was just great! Even though the bus ride back to London took a good three hours in heat I was happy. I was still happy when the trains all got cancelled for two hours straight. But trust you me, I was not happy when the trains got cancelled in the third hour. I missed my flight and had to sleep in the airport on a stone floor. I was very lucky though and managed to grab one of the few tickets at all to Sweden in the upcoming 10 days (!) and it only cost me £40 – but I had to stay at the airport for 15 hours and I had to sleep on a stone floor.

However, I’m very glad about meeting the brilliant german Mrs. Konstanze Kunst on the delayed train and the very kind and sweet danish girl Mia. You guys saved my day (honestly).

The day after at 5 a.m I was checking in for my flight and I almost couldn’t believe it when I landed at Sturup Airport outside of Malmö, Sweden. I caught the right bus right away. Had a bite in Malmö City and then got on the train home. Brother “Bomber” picked me up at the train station and drove me, the kind bloke that he is. I slept very good yesterday and awoke all fresh this morning.

What a great trip! In exactly one week I’ll be on a plane to the US. Let’s not delay anything this time.

All I wanted was to get away from work – and I got a weekend with the buds, puppy dogs and an EBM photo shoot!

I went to Ängelholm this weekend. I intercepted Martin on the train to his parents place. We shared a couple of Guinness and I swear to God the one-and-a-half-hour train ride only took 15 mins. Jessica picked us up at the station and then we went to Martin’s parents.

Daniel arrived by train (a six hour one, if I may add) the day after and where there is disease there is death – hence, Christian came shortly thereafter. In the evening the ol’ pawnks from the dayz went to the Tullakrok Music Festival. Good music, some bad and ofcourse Christian later gave me the grin which was a “go” for battalion. A rough fight with total defeat. Blood was shed. I lost.

This morning we went out to shoot som pics of heavy EBM constellation Krivoi Rog 13. Respect.

Oh, by the way. About the job thing – I didn’t get sacked, I quit. It’s kind of you all to write me saying that you’re sorry, but it’s ok really. This is what I’ve been meaning to do for quite some time. I still want you to come up with interesting job offers though. Preferably on the other side of the planet.