My Sun Will Collide

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My Sun Will Collide

This song isn’t exactly a “singer/songwriter” piece. 

I wanted it to be a bit unsymmetrical in its form. 

And careless in its instrumentation.

It hints, and points to something bigger than itself. Meaning, it is grounded in several camps of my musical life. 


It is partly arranged and partly improvised.
An informal mix of: heart, brains and guts. 

 

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Under Skies

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Under Skies

“Under Skies” is one of many "dorm room” songs made to, one of many girls (at least a few).

Living in a small apartment, usually means: thin walls. As a result; plenty of acoustic mellow songs have been made, and tailored to fit in these particular environments. 

Spending the evening hours with an acoustic guitar, (typically after rehearsing electric with the band), feels like a different kind of craft and is quite refreshing. Anyway, it's just one of those things that I've been doing all my life. 

Though many of these songs have a quiet, warm nature, many of them also contains a lot of strange guitar stuff, as these songs often were composed by just playing or toying around. Daydreaming with what you've got in front of you. 

Some of them are quite long too, on this particular piece, I removed about two minutes of instrumental guitar play, to maintain some kind of focus. 

 

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Then

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Then

There are  many versions and arrangements of this song. Everything from quiet to hard, acoustic to electronic.

I also recorded it in different keys and tempos.

This particular version was actually recorded in an hour or so (all instruments and vocals).

But as said before, working on all the different versions of the song, in pre-production stage, takes alot more time,   

Visual art is by the amazing Jetter Green

 

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The Safest Way Home

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The Safest Way Home

The Safest Way Home a second sequence that I intended to release as well, but there wasn't enough time. 

It was originally recorded with a mandriola, a mandolin, a banjo and a sitar (just for the heck of it), and even though I really enjoyed the sound of it, most instrument didn't make it to the final recording, except for the mandolin, which barely made it. 

 

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Dark Breath

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Dark Breath

This release is a shortened down version of the song "Dark Breath”.

When I look back at this year, it kinda freaks me out, all the stuff that I’ve been doing without thinking about it. I've tried to forget about it actually, since it's been quite daunting to think about it, knowing that I need to continue working this way for an unknown period of time.  But now, I've come far enough that I can reflect a bit over it.

For instance I play and record drums at least two days every week.

I work with lyrics 3-4 days at least, every week, all year round (I work on many songs at the same time though , obviously it takes more than 3-4 days with one song)

I have singing sessions in the studio, at least 3 days every week. 

Arranging, composing, rehearsing needs to be done every day, no day off. 

And then you have the mixing. tech and logistics of it all, which I really dont look at as a job, since its so incredibly small compared to the rest, but it still takes time. The production is quite a job though. 

And then theres all the hours working on art, every week, and of course, the blog. I dont think of the blog as work either, apart from the fact that it has to be done and released on every Friday morning, which can be difficult in a 5 year span. (I actually wrote one blog post at a hospital in the middle of the night, for instance). But its fun too, of course!

For the music I usually put in 10-15 hours every day including weekends, and usually two all-nighters every week on top of that. Some odd weekends I only manage to put in 5-6 hours though, but then most of them are at nighttime. There really is no day off. This is not unusual in the music business though. Anyone working in it has been there many a time. It is unusual however, when it becomes the norm, and it is dangerous. 

I did expect this though, but as with all things in life, things usually gets more complicated, time consuming  and challenging than you’d ever imagined, even as a worst case scenario. This is true with everything in life, I think, and historically it has vital role in getting people motivated to accomplishing anything, but that's another story. Anyways, I won’t cave in!! Not before my health takes me (which is kind of expected too).

But I have to admit that, even though music is my life, and I love it, I am looking forward to not having a deadline every Friday. Take a weekend off, or go easy on the singing during a flu. But it’s also a bit scary, after doing this for so long. What should I do with my time after I’m done? 

It has at least taught me that, if you really, really want something, the impossible can become possible, if it’s worth it is another matter. Either way, you need to be completely crazy. 

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Do You Wanna Know

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Do You Wanna Know

This song started more like an “indie/post-rock” type of arrangement. But during the recording and production stage, it became more funky. To the point of having a bit of a 60s feel to it. 

This was far from what I had envisioned. 

It is also one of few songs, where the recording was done in a few hours. The drums and instruments were mostly improvised, in one take. 

There’s still a lot of things to do with any song, before recording it and after the fact, especially when you plan on doing it this way, so I still had my hands full.

 

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Summerfall

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Summerfall

This song was created in a rough period of my life, many (of my) songs are

When feeling overwhelmed, I tend to write more positive, or at least focus on making music that I find beautiful. I write something that I desperately need to hear. 

And so, these works have a great deal of meaning to my personal life. Actually, it feels like my life is tied directly to them. 

 

“Summerfall” was composed when I was 21 (in comparison, the works: “Exo/Eos” was composed when I was 18/19, “September” at age 17/18,  and “The Book Of Parallel Worlds” around 16/17) 

Many of these works have been heavily shortened for this project, but “Summerfall” is in it’s full glory. I considered trimming it down too (cutting out the instrumental sequences mainly). But decided to go full on with it. 

I was inspired to write the song, partially by listening to an organ player; "practicing the pipes" at the Nidaros cathedral, in Trondheim (he was playing some pretty dense chords). But the song is generally inspired by my love for classical music (I hate that word , it's such a lame term, and too broad! Just like "contemporary" art),. 

I often can’t help, envisioning harps, piano and strings though, when improvising on a guitar (depends on the song of course!) 

Anyways, I decided to illustrate this, by revealing some of the orchestral arrangements, originally made, in this final release. 

However, I still find many of the songs (made for an orchestra),  just as interesting, when performed on a guitar. There are enough pure orchestral music out there, so I like to shake it up. 

 

 

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