Gösta Berlings Saga

Most of us in the band use Spotify every day to listen to music we like, both old and new albums. One of the newer albums that we perhaps would not listen to daily but really would like to see there is of course Detta Har Hänt.  More than 6 months after its release it is still not online, making some people confused, asking us if Tid är Ljud is the one that has generated some buzz lately.

We are not really sure whether you need to have a contact on the inside or not to get an album on Spotify in connection with a cd release, but what we do know is that Detta Har Hänt can be found on Grooveshark meanwhile. Below is a widget with all the songs, so if you haven’t got the album yet – check out our webshop in a new window while listening and get inspired to $CONSUME$.

The P3 Guld cermony was held this Tuesday and no, we did unfortunately not win. But we are of course happy and proud to have been nominated at all. And the winners, Switch Opens, are both good and using mellotrons. And that is a good thing as well! Congratulations!

We have had a small problem with our webshop for some time, a problem that seems to have been bigger than we realized as quite a few people have been bailing out from ordering in the last minute according to our weblogs. No wonder when it was only possible to enter  Sweden as the shipping country.  This is hopefully fixed now, but please let us know if you run into any other problems.

We have also put up two “value packs” if you like the idea of saving some money. In short, you will either get all or most of the shipping for free, depending on where you live. And some good merchandise as well. We (and the record company) seem to have about 15 copies left of Tid är Ljud in digipack and if it ever gets a new pressing it will probably be in jewel case. So if you don’t have it yet, make sure you get one of the last copies now. The same goes for the canvas bags. We have about 30 of them left.

With last weekend in fresh memory, it’s about time we share our thoughts with you.  All in all we had a great time and we will definitely not forget it.

Our first destination was Malmö, where we picked  up Johnny, the head honcho for Transubstans Records. On our way down there we quickly realized that we had a decent  sound system but nothing to listen to except for a Greatest Reggae Hits cd that was left  to die in our rental car. One more reggae for the road, you know. Luckily, we got a FM radio transmitter, which made the trip far more enjoyable music wise. Packed together in that mini bus we drove through Denmark and Germany in 6 hours and finally reached Groningen in good time before the show. Our first mistake, and let this be a lesson to you, was to use one of our iPhones for navigating to the city centre and the venue, Vera. After  having tried every single road for about one hour, we finally made it to the city centre, only to find out that the police were driving behind us, asking for an explanation to our desperate driving. Luckily, they set the standards for what to expect from the Dutchmen and offered escort all the way to the venue.

Once there, everything went terrific and the organization was the best we have ever worked with. We knew in forehand that the show was to be recorded for broadcasting by European radio stations but somehow we managed to ignore this while playing. We don’t remember much from the show itself other than that the audience was psyched at the end, especially after having played Västerbron and Svenska  Hjärtan. Five minutes after the show a sound tech came up to us with a recording of it all and let us tell you this: we have never sounded this good live before, perhaps not even on album. We will just have to wait and see if it is broadcasted sometime in the future, otherwise we will look into it if we can release it ourselves in some way. Unfortunately we did not have the time to listen to any other bands playing, even though it would have been fun to hear Jenny Wilson play.

Day 2 was a releaxed day with only a few hours ride down to Nijmegen.  There we met even more friendly Dutchmen and especially the stage manager and the opening act, Do Not Run We Are Your Friends, who’s playing inspired us in many aspects. Thank you guys for having us and for making our stay very pleasant! The show itself could have been better and the strongest memories are probably from what happened before and after.

Day 3 started  only three hours after we had gone to bed as we had to take an eleven hour drive back home for our last show in Malmö. There was not much sleep in the car which made the conditions for the show pretty special. People told us afterwards that we looked more relaxed than usual, but we were probably more  mentally hammered than relaxed. This show went really well also and our friend Scott from Öresund Space Collective made a recording of it which we hope to hear (and put up on the internet) soon! The night ended pretty quietly at two after not have being let in by the bouncers at Malmö’s perhaps biggest nightclub, KB (they also said that Alex was a cunt, which we still do not know if it is true or not). Quite a contrast to what we experienced in the Netherlands.

However.  All in all a very special weekend. Right now we are sitting on the train to Gothenburg for the prize ceremony of the Swedish national radio’s award P3 Guld. We have no real expectations to win but it would be a nice bonus and a confirmation of that what we do is appreciated. And of course, it would help us getting more shows and all that. Don’t miss out if you live in Sweden; broadcasted live on P3 at 20.00 and on SVT1 at 21.30.

Btw, check out this clip from the show in Malmö. Pretty good.