Small talk with NRGM

My alter-ego Joey Fake recently did an interview for Finnish pop blog NRGM. You can read the original article here, and the uncut, English version on The Genuine Fakes’ website.

Hong Flow

As August draws to en end, I’m definitely in the thick of it again. The peace of mind I had at the end of my vacation has been replaced with the usual focus and stress . The past few weeks have been mainly spent on recording and rehearsing with Hong Faux. We’re close to finished with the debut album – we’ve got some keyboard and vocal overdubs left and then we’re sending the whole thing away for mixing. Last week we did our first ever festival gig in Sweden at Eksjö Stadsfest, and our performance was very well received by those who chose to stay around for our gig instead of heading over to the main stage to see Mustasch. We did an interview with a local newspaper as well, which I think will be published later this week.

This week will be dedicated to Genuine Fakes activities. On Saturday we’ve got our first ever gig in Finland, so we’ve got some rehearsing to do in preparation for the event. I look forward to playing some powerpop again – it’s been a while since we had our last gig since we’ve been focusing our efforts on recording new songs for our second album. The plan is to be done with recording before Christmas so we can get the record out before next summer.

See you in Turku on Saturday!

Busy days in the studio

So, vacation’s over. After a few weeks in the countryside it feels good to be back in the game. This week I’ve been busy in the home studio working on new songs together with Karl Martindahl. It’s been extremely productive and I’m very happy with the result. They’re pre-production demos but I feel that they’re actually good enough to release on the spot. I’m psyched about the songs we write together and it’s going to be interesting to see what our collaboration might mount to – the songs are strong candidates for Karl’s solo album. He’s got his own studio that I will be moving into at the end of the month. I’ve been meaning to move the studio out of my home for a long time, not least because it’ll probably make me more productive. I also think it’s good to have a “job” to go to, and separate the work from the home environment. It’ll also be easier to work in the evenings without disturbing my wife when she comes home for some peace and quiet after a day of work.

Tonight I’m going over to Nik’s place to work on the Hong Faux album. We’ve got some vocal parts to sort out. I seriously think that our debut is going to be absolutely fantastic and I’m excited about what the future might hold for the project.

My home studio

 

New Laptop

After much consideration I decided NOT to move over to Mac after all. I feel so familiar in the PC environment that I don’t really see the point of making the switch – regardless of what most of my friends and colleagues have to say about it. So, I settled on the Sony VAIO VPC EB4X1E/BQ with a full HD screen and Intel iCore 5 processor. It also has a Blu-Ray player and a numpad (which is convenient for short commands when recording). I’ve spent the past three days updatingt, getting rid of pre-installed junk software, installing all my music programs, optimizing and tweaking Win7 and transfered everything I need from my old HP DV5 which has been my workstation for the past two and a half years. It sure is taking a helluva long time to switch computers! Anyhow, I’m really happy with the new PC so far. I’m going to put it to the test over the weekend, trying to record some stuff with my EMU 0404 USB soundcard that I used for most of the overdubs on The Striped Album.

Sony VAIO VPC EB4X1E/BQ

For those of you who are interested, here are a couple of useful links for optimizing your computer for audio recording:

• The Most Out of Windows 7: Choosing and Optimizing Windows for Music
• Black Viper’s Windows 7 Super Tweaks

The Moose Experience

Today I went to a moose farm outside of Åre called Millestgården. It was an extraordinary experience and I want to recommend everyone who’s passing through Åre on skiing holiday or whatever to go there. Though Sweden’s famous for the big moose population (around 350 000 in the summer before the hunt begins) you don’t really get to see them up-close since they usually keep to themselves deep in the forest – unless you hit them with a car. I learned today that there are 8000  traffic incidents with moose every year. A crazy number! This particular farm had four adult moose and a four month old calf that was very shy and extremely cute. My dad and I and five other people went out to their compound and hung out for a while, feeding them with their favorite branches and flowers – and potatoes. They just love potatoes – it’s like chocolate for the moose. I could go on and on about it, but you best check it out for yourselves.

Now vacation’s over. Tomorrow I take the 8 hour train ride back home to Stockholm. It’s going to be a busy fall and winter!

Here are a couple photos I took at the moose farm – one of the calf Tor, and one of his dad Artur: