P, C & C have a party in their heads (X): A Day In the Life Of Junk

Junk Musik members, the record company of Christoffer Lundquist and his friends, keep working hard.

Bo Sundström continues touring and promoting his debut album, Skåne. Jens Jansson and David Birde are in the band. Magnus Börjeson, the bass, writes about two gigs:

• 22.7 Stockholm, Stockholm Jazz
• 24.7 Pori, PoriJazz (Finland)
  

LJdM

Rain, stay in the plain in Spain! Please! -22nd July-

This is depressing. The rain is pouring down in Stockholm and it’s only hours before tonight’s show at Sthlm Jazz Festival . (Why are we playing at a Jazz Festival?) And we intended to walk there from the hotel. Now it looks like we’re going to have to take the underground. And that is depressing.

Oh, never mind. Music is fun. And at least we will have a roof over our heads when we play. Sadly the audience won’t. That’s one very good reason to become a musician. Other reasons? Er… Well, it’s one of the few jobs where you get free beer when you get there. That was also the case yesterday in Jakobstad (Finland). Excellent food all day long and lots of ice cold beer. And no rain! We want to go back!

Bye!

Instant Repeater #2 -24nd July-

The weather was bad, the gig was good and so were we. The Jazz audience seem to be of a different material; they patiently stand in the rain, getting their money’s worth. Very nice. Yesterday was “day off” in Stockholm. We ate a lot, drank a lot and saw lots of people being slaughtered by agressive tripods. Yes, we saw “War of the Worlds”.
Today it’s time to play again. And guess what; It’s a Jazz Festival. And guess what again; It’s in Finland. So you could say that this gig is a combination of the two we’ve already done on this mini tour. Full report coming up!

Bye!

Jet… ooouooouooouooooo! -25nd July-

Oh dear, we haven’t really landed yet. The mini tour ended with a huge climax! For some reasons we had to go by private jet, a Cessna Citation , to the gig at Pori Jazzfestival in Finland. And although our collected experiences in the world of rock extravaganza are rather impressive:-) we all had to agree that this beat all of it. It’s impossible to describe the flight but here are some clues: 33ooo feet, White leather, Mahogny, Gold, Lisa Nilsson, Red wine, Whisky, White wine, 685 km/h

Lisa Nilsson? Oh yes, we brought her along as you can see by the picture that was taken before the flight. We look rather enthusiastic. After the flight we all looked religious (and slightly drunk). The DIY-ideals of Junk is from now on ditched. Our major goal now is to have our own private jet:-) The jet experience made a huge creative impact; Lisa spontaneously wrote the country-style ballad “I Am Not An Indie Girl” and New David composed a hymn called “Make up & Gin” only minutes after landing. Fantastic. Over and out! Roger

Magnus Börjeson

Junk Musik

Magnus Börjeson called. Anders Jansson (Swedish comedian) wanted to play Metro Jets’ “Lady Gwendoline” during his appearance on the traditional summer radio show “Sommarpratarna” , but he was not really sure that the radio station would accept an AAC-file. Since the recording of the show was due today, and Magnus could not reach Anders, he called and asked me to get hold of the radio station and try to send them an AIFF-file.

I called. I got patched through. Someone picked up and slammed the phone down. They had put me through to the studio. The show was being recorded live. Two things on my mind: Will “Lady Gwendoline” be played the 6th? Will we hear a phone ringing? Minutes after, a guy from the radio station called back. I was pleased to hear that he only wanted to interview Brainpool about the JUNK LIVE EXTRAVAGANZA NIGHT at Malmöfestivalen, august 20. I gave him Jens’s phone number and walked quickly to the coffee machine.

Anders Mildner

Junk Musik

London :_(

Sorry, no post today. Hard to find anything to say on a day like this. I’m still rather shocked after the attack on London.

Anders Mildner

Junk Musik

Helena Josefsson, backing singer at AGM Studios (XI): The Swedish Dream of Doug Wyatt (IV)

Doug Wyatt has finished the recordings of his new album at AGM Studios, with the producer Christoffer Lundquist, Justin Winokur, Jens Jansson and Helena Josefsson. You can read his day-by-day notes here.

LJdM

Day 15

Midsummer's Eve. Spent the day at C’s in-laws, about an hour away. Cookies and sparkling wine. Dancing around a maypole (though oddly located outside a church, and with the maypole formed into a cross). Singing cute Swedish songs. Juice, coffee, cookies. Sunny, warm (maybe 75-80 F) and humid. Dinner: several kinds of herring, potatoes, a drinking song, Danish schnapps, northern Swedish beer, more herring, more drinking songs, more schnapps, two kinds of salmon, salad, yet more drinking songs and schnapps. Food, drink and company all great. Swedish history lesson with the help of an historical atlas. Walk down to the sea, view of the bridge connecting Malmö to Copenhagen, Copenhagen barely visible in the distance. More coffee, more cookies. It was a good break. Back to the guest house a bit after 11.

Day 16

Back at the studio, the Artiste patiently laid on the couch while the world seemed to rotate around him more viscerally than usual, and made occasional comments while Christoffer continued to outline a mix. Brought in Helena’s vocal track in places.

Day 17

So we nearly finished 3 tracks today (including one that had consumed most of yesterday). Justin had been sounding a little concerned that we weren’t going to finish in time, but Christoffer and I both expressed confidence when we talked about it.

Day 18

We got a lot done Monday, but not as much as I’d hoped. Pizza for dinner in Sjöbo. Tired. Stopped at 1:30, plan to start early in the morning. Must leave for Malmö by 9:30 am Wednesday.

Day 19

Christoffer and I both were very tired, which didn’t help, but after maybe half an hour of groaning we got everything lined up correctly. I’m going to record a bunch of tracks at home and send them to Christoffer to pick from. We did two passes of Taurus bass pedals, excited that we were almost done. Well, there are a few loose ends to clear up before Christoffer starts mixing on his own next month, but now enough of the album was in the can that we “declared victory and went home.” We had a drink, chatted, and began to pack up and clean up.

Day 20 (29 June)

Woke up at 7:45 am in rural southern Sweden. Showered, packed clothes etc., got to the studio around 8:45. Managed to get a last dose of Scandinavian salmon into my stomach, and all my stuff and a few things Justin is sending back with me into his duffel bag and my cases by 9:15. Got to the main Malmö train station around 10:45. At the Copenhagen airport around 11:30, the transition I’d been dreading—getting the luggage from the train to the SAS checkin counter, alone—went OK though my back was not happy. No interest in duty-free Danish schnapps or cookies or even cigarettes (while in Sweden I’d cut down so much that I didn’t finish the carton I’d bought in the US 3 weeks earlier). Slept much of the way to Reykjavik. Afraid that because of the delay, the connection would be terribly short and I’d have to rush, and that gear wouldn’t make the connection. Better sleep before my body realizes it is 8 am in Sweden, time to be awake.

Back in the USA (5 July)

I’ve been asked a few times how it feels to be back in the U.S. after spending three weeks in Sweden (and, briefly, Denmark). I offer this handful of random observations from the last 5 days.

In the U.S., hillbillies do not drive Volvos. In Sweden, I did not see more than a handful of SUVs. I am sure that none of them had bumper stickers reading “what’s our oil doing under their soil?”In the U.S. you can go to a massive fireworks display and barely hear a single explosion over the loud patriotic music that makes one feel one has inadvertently stumbled into a George W. Bush rally. “God bless America! Let freedom ring! Born in the USA!” Damn it, the 4th of July is about blowing things up (do you think it’s an accident that NASA chose this day to crash a spacecraft into a comet?), and BOOMs are important.

I half-awoke from a jetlag-induced nap with my album playing in my head. Didn’t want to wake up fully. When I finally did, I had some new words to describe the music. Have continued to imagine segments of two songs sharing a key center morphing into each other. For fun (or perhaps for an extra track on the record) I am making a list and will try rendering them when the mixes are done.

Doug Wyatt -