big sur meets rubies

california! big sur! played a wonderful festival called "folk yeah : 2 days of autumn" - saw some great bands play. i enjoyed hearing andy cebics voice from 'vetiver'. what a great voice. and some other bands i had never seen before that were a great soundtrack to the big redwoods and river behind the cabin. birds of america were transcendent. my sister took some great photos. check them out here on danielle's photo blog.

the whole weekend made me feel nostalgic for everything. i got a horrible infection in my ears though and i was bleeding from my ear. which was not fun. i went to santa barbara and visited the ol' doc and have been medicated ever since. i do have to say though, that today is the first day that i feel like i am truly back from my long adventure. now i am on chapter 15. CHAPTER HOME. still not sure what that is though. home. this is the order:

stockholm
paris
stockholm
california
bergen
stockholm
portugal
london
africa
london
stockholm
bergen
berlin
big sur

here.

there is so much more. i am going to go up to san francisco for the month of january and 1/2 of february. doing a bunch of overdubs and vocals for the record. terri and amy doing some harmonies and we might try and record a newer tune called "silver mornings". i want to finish this record by the end of feb. on a side note, something is strange in the air. people are falling out of love everywhere. i miss my friends in sweden. if you are out there i am hugging you.

bergen, again.

More recording in Bergen! Norway is such a nice place to return to. I returned myself and brought along a Swede (Marcus) from the Swedish sessions. It was great having someone there from the Swedish sessions to help sing harmonies and for overall band vibe. I felt rushed though. I don't know if I'll keep all the vocal tracks we recorded- I didn't have enough space between each song to make them all sound different and dynamic. Fun to see both of my recording worlds come together though! Eirik and Oystein were there for support and I felt their spirit go onto tape. Davide too. He is in love with sound in a way I haven't seen in a long time. I am so glad I am working with him. I am going back in January I think to do more songs with Eirik, O, and A. It feels right and I am so happy with the the tracks I recorded in Bergen. As I type this, I am lying on a couch in San Francisco. Yup, I have returned to the golden state of California. Rubies play tonite for an art / music show in conjunction with good swedish friends Karl-Jonas (producer for the swedish sessions! and his first time to california!) and his lady, Johanna Billing. A bunch of bands are doing a version of a song called "you don't love me yet"- it will be interesting to be a part of this ongoing project. Tomorrow we play Big Sur. All of this, is a bit overwhelming. To be home after this long adventure, and to see all these familiar faces. It feels good.

zanzibar takes the shape of stockholm.

i am back in stockholm. thoughts of zanzibar keep flooding my mind! finding parallels in all cities. everything has been made by us, the same species. i saw the weirdest museum ever in stonetown, zanzibar. crystal chandeliers, astroturf, church upstairs, plastic chairs, broken frames, framed presidents (3), and rifles on the ground. i have felt exhausted the last 2 days. can't seem to catch up ever. had a room at a 1970 hotel in stockholm my first 2 nights back because i needed to space. what i got was a box! a shoebox for a room. small enough to fit a twin bed. but i liked it. except for hearing every sound from the guy next door. so there wasn't a lot of sleeping. shouldn't people get refunds if they aren't allowed a certain amount of sleep at a hotel? i mean, it's a product they are selling to people. if it doesn't work... can we exchange or return it? i want to return the 'lack of sleep' i purchased.

rehearsed with marcus yesterday. or tried. we both were so exhausted that what we were left with were a few unison harmonies. but i think him coming to bergen to record will be good. nice to have a dude's voice on my songs. i've always wanted that.