Another Month to an End

Fall has come to the land. I’m doing my best not to plunge into autumn depression by submersing myself in work. This month we did a festival gig with The Genuine Fakes, and last week we started rehearsing new songs for the next album. We gotta stay on top of the game in order to be able to release a follow up to the debut within a year of its release. I’m staying in the creative phase, continually writing new songs so hopefully we’ll have a bunch of good ones to choose from. Besides, we had about fifteen unused tracks for the first album so there’s no shortage of material to begin with. However, many of those song are ones that were written when the band was still in the cradle and we didn’t know exactly which direction to take yet, so not all of them feel relevant at this point. The good thing is that we’ve got loads of potential bonus tracks instead! 🙂

In other news, Hong Faux are going into the studio on Monday to record some new material. We’re adding four new ones to the four we’ve already recorded (three of which you can listen to in the player in the right hand column), and we’ve got a lot of song embryos so the album’s coming along nicely. This project has really taken shape now, and we’ve got a litte UK tour planned at the end of November. Check http://hongfaux.com for more information.

Other than that, I’m preparing for the European tour with Dexter Jones’ Circus Orchestra. I can’t wait to hit the road for a whole month. I haven’t done a trip like that since I was off with Friska Viljor two years ago. And I haven’t had the role of “guitar hero” since I played in Happypill!

Today Peder Claesson is coming over to my home studio. His solo album is almost finished and it’s sounding fantastic. I’ve done some lyrical consulting for him and played a few instruments here and there. I hope the album will get a proper release and the attention it deserves.

Time for the morning coffee, kids! Over and out.

A sudden burst of productivity

During the past week I’ve gotten my inspiration back. I started sorting through the ideas I’ve piled up over the couple of years and realized there were quite a few diamonds in the rough in there. So I sat down and wrote and recorded a song each day. After two years of hardly writing anything at all, except for a few ideas now and then on the phone, it feels really good to be in the zone again. I was beginning to think that I might never write a song again! It’s the longest drought I’ve gone through since I started writing songs 18 years ago. I’ve written what I believe actually might become the greatest Genuine Fakes song yet =D. Too bad it didn’t come into being before the album was finished! But on the other hand, it’s always good to have some killer tracks for the next one. I’ve also started demoing some songs that I and Karl Martindahl have written together. The basic tracking is all done, now I just need Kalle to get his ass over here and lay down the vocals.

Recently we finished doing the last overdubs on the new Nutmeg album as well. It will most likely be released early next year. It’s only in the first rough mix stage, and already it sounds brilliant. Hopefully we can get it out on a larger scale than the first one. I really feel that the band deserves more attention than it has gotten, and I consider myself lucky to be a part of the group.

On Wednesday I’m heading off on tour with Lars Winnerbäck. It’s going to be a blast. Don’t know how online I will be over summer, but I’ll probably tweet quite frequently.

Hong Faux – new project

Over the course of the first half of this new decade me and three pals have been working on a new little project. Now we’ve recorded a couple of songs that we’ve put up on MySpace. Go to http://myspace.com/hongfaux to check ’em out. Much enjoyment!

Latest happenings

I realize it’s been a while since the last update. Time sure flies by pretty quickly!

In any case, during the past few weeks I’ve been busy both finishing up on the new Nutmeg album and playing gigs with Beatles band Liverpool as a stand in for their guitarist. It was really fun playing those old songs with different people than I’m used to, and also doing the vocal parts of McCartney for a change. I wouldn’t mind doing more gigs with them if the opportunity presents itself.

The Nutmeg sessions went really well. Last week we did the last overdubs, which were lead and backing vocals on about four songs. The album is really turning out well – far better than I had hoped for when we started out! We haven’t decided when we’re putting out the album, but it will probably be sometime early next year. This fall I need to focus on the release of The Genuine Fakes‘ debut album and try to finish recording the next solo album. I’m also going on tour with Dexter Jones’ Circus Orchestra in October so I’ve got my work cut out for me until Christmas!

Right now I’m working on some new songs. I going to try and make some proper demos between now and next Friday since I’ve got a bit of downtime on the gig front at the moment.

Gig tonight

I’ve had a productive week, demoing instrumentals and songs for my upcoming solo album.

Tonight I’ve got a gig for the first time in a long while, with the fabulous Genuine Fakes. We’re going to do an acoustic gig at a place called Southside Pub here in Stockholm as a warm-up to the May 22 gig at The Cave where we’re opening up for The Mommyheads from the US. If you’re in the neighborhood, drop by wontcha! More info here.