You Go Down Unharmed

This song marks that I've come halfway thought this five-year-long-album-project.

It's been a thrilling ride so far, I can tell you that. Both physically, mentally and last but not least economically. There's no such thing as a free lunch.

But the point of it all was to push myself as far as possible, well aware that I might not make it through.

It was supposed to be difficult, very very difficult. Anything else would be a huge disappointment.

But the glass is still half full.  So fingers crossed for the next two and a half years. 

Try, but it's gone in the end

This song was originally meant to be a kind of a prelude to next weeks release. 

Both songs were written independently, and had nothing to do with each other, but at some point, they were produced to be on the same album, and one after the other, but that never happened. 

On this final release however, they once again have nothing to do with each other!
Now talk about useless information! 

But it's still the reason I found it kind of satisfying, to release them in this order as I had originally planned. 

Seconds To None

I composed this song in my early teens. The song is part of an album named “Seconds For None”.
Right from the start I imagined that this music would not be for everybody, especially not my teenage-friends. Hence the name of the song, and album.

The songs were not inspired by "popular music", but I felt the music and direction I was going in, was too exciting, important and personal for me to abandon, despite the fact that I could not envision anyone I knew (at the time) that would appreciate it.

But I had to go with my gut feeling, my heart, the adventurer in me, everything I had experienced in life, and put it into the music. 
It became unimportant to follow established rules and etiquette (I actually hate it). I wanted to follow my instinct, and experience my own rules, but not without hard work! It became unimportant to be part of a “music congregation” or follow certain kind of genres. I was confident in my passion. I felt the flame, it had been there all my life. 

As an individualist and creative person I dislike uniforms. Not on other people (or the people that is using them of course). I don’t like to dress or act in a manner that is tied to a certain situation or group of people. It’s a kind of  prejudice. (One could write books about the subject of course, narrow it down to whatever,  like
the punk movement in smallest town in northern Sweden in the spring of 1980’s something).

It could be about leather jackets & boots, edm, r&b, or whatever, It's all great! I love it! But it’s not enough on it’s own! No one’s dancing or growling all the time! You gotta be pretty braindead to do that.

Anyway, that’s when I started to understand the choice between art and entertainment, and how it would play out in my life. And it’s an important revelation for an artist (even though it’s not black and white). Most of us would take both!  But if I had to choose, the choice would be really simple.. 

Corsair

"Corsair" is basically a rehearsal recording with my band " Ninth", with some extra rhythm guitars and vocals, for polish. But no hits or tones have been reorganized or removed. 

It's of course, quite practical to rehearse in a recording studio, and many grooves have been captured coincidentally because of this. Several released songs includes elements of the very first ever, run through of the song, in the mix. 

The best pictures are never taken, this can also be true with music; the exciting stuff often lies in the unpredictable and uncritical moments, which mostly happens spontaneously. For this reason, I tend to record  most rehearsals, but then again, I generally never listen to them. 

Improvisation has always been a central part of my musical life. In somewhat contrast to the music production side, which demands a lot of analysis. Many songs just don't have a strict form, but lives on their own, and changes over time. Corsair is one of these songs.

This recording is kind of special, as it was played with a pretty clean (single coil) guitar. 
Which have an impact on, where we go with the improvisation. We usually played it with more heavily distorted guitars, then what is present on this particular recording. 

I've included a video with snippets from a tour we did in China, (with my band "Ninth"), which highlights some improvisations. On these tours you only bring your guitar, and play on whatever equipment they might have at the venue,  (sometimes they have nothing)
And it's particularly fun when it comes to the improvisation parts of the show, as you can play the equipment for what it's worth and get maximum performance out of it. 

Haunted

"Haunted" is a live song, and has been played regularly with my "Ninth" lineup for years. 
It is a song that usually evolves and changes during tours, and "energize" the band. 
Composing and playing is two different things. I must admit that my preferences for (doing) live performances, leans towards the "energetic" kind, (if I were to choose only one aspect). That is what comes most natural to me. This is not always a good thing (for me) though, as I often tend to play more aggressively at live shows than some people probably would like me to, (or know me for). But that's my "main high" as live performer,  Other crucial aspects for me is contrasts in music, lots of light and shade and natural improvisation.  

Anyway, if the audience “gets” everything at one of my shows, I kinda failed. 

With me on this session:
Bjørn Tore Kronen Taranger: Drums

For All Wrong Reasons

This recording (like the song released before it) started in Tarzana, LA.
Maybe it was the chill vibe or the warm climate that made me record so many mellow songs over there. 
The song was composed earlier though, at a time when we were  touring with a bunch of, pretty hardcore songs (with the band Ninth). I often take "time off", by composing totally different songs then what we're doing live, especially when we're playing frequently. 

This weeks fun fact: The rhythm section was made by stepping with my feet. 

The Space Between My Being

The recording of this song started in Los Angeles. The mix has over 200 tracks: acoustic and electric drums, strings (electric and acoustic) 20 tracks with guitars, electric pianos, a russian harp, harpsichord, 4 basses (synth, upright bowed/plucked, and electric bass). 
I chose to mute all tracks except a couple of acoustic guitars, the voice and some small things
The song also had two more movements recorded, that I omitted from the release. These (other) two parts was composed for another setting, and is totally separate from the main song. 
And straight songs, tend to work best, in this project.