Hyperactive and misunderstood

I have worked as a music teacher at a Catholic School now for some years and the word hyperactive sits very close to my heart. Of course, sometimes in my fantasy I use duck tape to shut some of these kids up, but in general I think that these youngsters who cause so much havoc in the class room are simply kids who have a lot of brain activity, intelligent, talented, curious, funny, daring, creative. They are kids in a society, in an educational system which doesn’t understand them. What do you think? Watch the video, it’s hilarious… and he reminds me of some of my favorite students!

Thank you Anna for all the laughs you bring me.

Great friends, great music

This week has been a break from my usual routine and discipline. A great friend is here from Stockholm and so instead of working with rehearsing, writing, recording or marketing I we have been spending time “listening to great music and talking about life” as Anna put it. “That is what our friendship is about,” she says. So one of the great tips I got from her I wanted to pass on. She is a french singer Camille who I had never heard about. I looked her up and found a great live version to my favorite of her songs, Au port. Totally worth checking out! Specially the crazy acapella trio jam at the end…

Thank you Anna for the great music!

Back on television

I just wanted to share the happy news that Solé’s video “Anzuelo” is on regular rotation on Swedish Television now in both versions. It is being shown on the Public Access Channel in Gothenburg and our premier was “Valborgsmässafton”, which is the a big Swedish celebration welcoming the spring!

My television debut was when I was twelve and I was that young boy in the green shirt eating with a big smile and singing, “Fruco, Fruco, el secreto del sabor” where the commercial ended with me tapping the ketchup bottle’s base three times. Do you remember? Is there anyone who knows where one could get ahold of a copy of that commercial?

Thanks to Öppna Kanalen Göteborg showing our video and to Lenzflare for producing it!

32 hour work week

Outsourcing is a concept that I have thought about a lot, before realizing it’s full potential but today as I read Tim Ferriss blog called Outsourcing Life. It made me laugh and laughter is healthy, so if nothing else I am healthier for it. But in actuality it has really opened my eyes to an idea that has been brewing inside of me for years and that I actually put in motion last year as I produced my first EP with Solé.

I’ll tell you the story about the EP first. My full budget for 1000 copies of our EP (7 songs in a full 4 color 6 side digipack, recorded, mixed and mastered professionally) was 6000 USD. It was recorded in house, which kept that costs at a minimum. Then I wanted to shoot for the best mixing and mastering that I could afford, because I know how important that step is and is something I knew very little about, so I wanted to put it into expert hands. So I let myself dream and asked, “If I could choose anyone to mix my songs who would that be?” I pulled down my favorite albums and artists and looked at who had done their mixes and came up with three names. So I contacted all three of them and sent them a rough mix of one song and asked if they had time, interest and what the cost would be. One wasn’t available until a month later, but the other two responded very positively. So I spent half my budget on mixing, which I am very glad I did, they did a fantastic job! Thank you Eric Shilling and Kevin Killen. For the mastering I got OK’s and prices from both Vlado Meller (Universal Mastering) and Chris Gehringer (from Sterling Sound). But I was recommended Bob Ohlsson by one of my mixers and I decided to go with him, because I fully trust Eric’s advise (and also was totally satisfied).

So with that I didn’t have so much left for the production of the CD and digipack. I looked into all kinds of different options. Having it produced in Sweden where I live, in the US, in eastern Europe (because of price and proximity) but what finally turned out being the best option was having it produced in China. Not only was it half the price of what it would cost me to have it done in Sweden (including shipping), but the service was excellent, very efficient and I got all the extras I wanted thrown in for practically nothing (deboss on the cover and each EP individually shrink wrapped). How did I go about finding the contacts in China, like I did everyone else, through the net. I contacted two companies and both were very professional and very competitive in pricing and speed. In cause your in the same boat, check them out. I am sure there are plenty more, but these are the two I had extended contact with: Alice Yu at www.discturnkey.com and Alan Lz at www.disc-cn.com. So one can say that I outsourced the majority of the work for the production of my EP, from Sweden to New York, Miami, Nashville, China and back.

I know that my time limitations are great and I need all the help I can get in order to make my musical career succeed. But four hours a week seems a bit too little for my taste. Fortunately I am doing what I love, so I gladly work 60 hours a week on my music, except that I know that is not healthy for me or my music. At times of course it is necessary. But I believe in working 32 hours a week of effective work time. These last couple months I have been going to bed early in order to get up at 5 am. So from 5 to 12 I put in a good 6 plus hours of effective work time into my music and then I can enjoy the rest of the day in a more leisurely fashion. This habit has proven very effective for me. When I get to the US one of the first things I am going to do is buy the book, “The 4 Hour Work Week” and really learn about how to outsource more of what I don’t want to be doing, so that I have more time for that which I love and do best. Also because I know that there are people who can do much of what I do much better than I can. I’ll stick to writing and singing my songs.

All things happen for a reason

This is a belief I have always had and for which I am very thankful. I am not really sure exactly where it came from, but most probably a mixture of the positivism my parents instilled in me and the hope taught by religious beliefs. In any case, yesterday I read a story in a book that put this idea very clearly and I thought I would share it. The book is called “A New Earth” by Eckhart Tolle, the author of “The Power of Now”. His thoughts are very interesting and though I don’t agree with everything he says I think he is on to some very interesting psychological theories about how we perceive our lives. You can check out his website to learn more: www.eckharttolle.com.

The Story goes like this:
“… a wise man won an expensive car in a lottery. His family and friends were very happy for him and came to celebrate. ‘Isn’t it great!’ they said. ‘You are so lucky.’ The man smiled and said, ‘Maybe.’ For a few weeks he enjoyed driving the car. Then one day a drunken driver crashed into his new car at an intersection and he ended up in the hospital, with multiple injuries. His family and friends came to see him and said, ‘That was really unfortunate.’ Again the man smiled and said, ‘Maybe.’ While he was still in the hospital, one night there was a landslide and his house fell into the sea. Again his friends came the next day and said, ‘Weren’t you lucky to have been in the hospital.’ Again he said, ‘Maybe.’
The wise man’s ‘maybe’ signifies a refusal to judge anything that happens. Instead of judging what is, he accepts it…”
I can’t really be sure if all things happen for a reason, but just the fact that I see it that way and don’t fight situations, but accept them and go with them makes life easier. Not that I am passive and don’t fight for what I want, but what is done can’t be changed, what can be changed is how I react to situations and what I do about them. As my father once told me, “When you’ve made a mistake, the best thing you can do is pick yourself up and think, what is the best thing I can do from where I am right now?” This view on life also allows me to see coincidences as meaningful, instead of them being pure chance, which makes life more exciting to live. There is a great book that talks about this whole topic of coincidences called “The spontaneous fulfilment of desire” by Deepak Chopra, which I recommend highly. It is very interesting reading regardless of what you believe and opens your mind to a lot of interesting subjects like synchrodestiny, cell memory, etc. “A New Earth” was given to me by a good friend, thank you Lili! One last quote I liked from the book was “This too will pass” which puts things in perspective… life, fame, fortune, blogs, etc. So let’s enjoy the now!

Your thoughts and comments are of course more then welcome!

My favorite album covers

If I had to choose my 10 favorite albums but exclusively from a visual point of view, based on the album cover, 9 of them would be by the artist Storm Thorgeson. The remaining one would be “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” designed by Peter Blake. Storm Thorgeson is a man who has dedicated his career to creating a visual language based on the concept “Album Cover”, which has left a huge impact on rock history. He has created icons that will forever be imprinted in the minds of millions of rock music lovers. Just to name a few: Pink Floyd (Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Hear… and many more), Led Zeppelin (House of the Holy, In Through The Back Door… and many more), Peter Gabriel (Peter Gabriel 1 and 3), The Cranberries (Bury The Hatchet), Alan Parsons (Try Anything Once), Nice (Elegy), The Mars Volta (Frances The Mute), Muse, Black Sabbath… and the list goes on and on. The entire list can be seen on Wikipedia.

Here is a short description of one of his most important works in his own words. “The refracting glass prism referred to Floyd light shows – consummate use of light in the concert setting. Its outline is triangular and triangles are symbols of ambition, and are redolent of pyramids, both cosmic and mad in equal measure, all these ideas touching on themes in the lyrics. The joining of the spectrum extending round the back cover and across the gatefold inside was seamless like the seguing tracks on the album, whilst the opening heartbeat was represented by a repeating blip in one of the colours.”