AND NOW, ZEE FEESH
At this time, I am feeling the crunched up vibe that is the result of working two jobs. I have an eye on the future in light of the release (next week!!!) of the Posies' Every Kind of Light album worldwide--for all the info on that go to www.theposies.net -- but of course I am here, on tour with REM in Europe, and giving all the energy I have to each show we do there. What the Posies side entails includes easy things like doing interviews, and saying yes to great opportunities; it also includes more difficult things--figuring out how to organize a tour and facilitate communications between band members, tour crew, managers etc on different continents--approve things, and figure out how, with no income from touring until the tour starts, how do you pay for all the things a tour needs to pay for--numerous flights, merchandise, rental equip.,--the answer is, charge it and pray. I am involved at every level as--sometimes, I pay for things as a loan to the tour; always, there are things like merchandise styles, colors, shapes and ideas to provide and approve; and, let's get back to the music--a record that I love, that I worked very hard on with my best friends and feel is a great achievement and creative effort on all of our parts, is coming out next week. Reviews have often been great, sometimes lukewarm, occasionally bad. This is normal (I will never forget how badly Frosting on the Beater was reviewed by our now-defunct hometown music paper, the Rocket). In 2005, the Posies are a band that had a great creative period 10+ years ago, and never sold that many records (although I have found that the Soundscan, which underestimates esp. for older releases when the system was still growing, for FOTB was over 110,000! that doesn't count at least 50,000 sales of the rec. outside of the USA plus non-soundscan tracked sales in the US). But, we have always enjoyed appreciation from real music fans, musicians, music writers (everett true notwithstanding, and no hard feelings) and a diverse variety of people all over the world. Something to build on, something to reward with visits in the way of tours, and even tho' it would make a positive difference if we had millions of sales behind us, or universal critical acclaim...we have what we have, and I can only say we have always made music that we believe in and feel is a slice apart from what else is out there. Doing something different is always its own reward, but what that reward looks like...well...results vary. In other words, the record is done, the tours are ahead and the record will do what it does, the reviews will say what they say, and we'll still be here. We'd like to sell some rec's....but...we also just want to be a living, fire-breathing live organism and deliver our vision of hard night's rock n roll to sensitive ears.
A couple of days ago I had the great pleasure to sing on a track by the Norwegian band Briskeby, I don't know if I have in these pages mentioned but I adore their last album, "Tonight, Captain?" from 2003. I met Lise, the singer, at a party in Frankfurt in 2001 after the MTVE awards, where she introduced herself while I was at the piano (trying to play an Oasis song for Heidi Klum, true story) and requested that I play "the Lover's Hymn" --at this point the Touched album had only been out for a month or two, so most impressive to have a stranger hip to the score. Since then we discussed many things about working together somehow, and it finally came to pass this week. The song I sang on is a gorgeous and beautifully produced. I don't know what form the singing I did will take when it's worked in, but, I think there's potential for a marvelous harmonic symphony of the two voices in there. They hope to have their new album out by the end of the summer.
Since my last post, REM played Glasgow, and I was very happy to invite the gentle men of Teenage Fanclub, who brought 2 Pastels and Eugene Kelly in tow, all lovely folks. Eugene has hosted Jon Auer and myself many times in his flat, and I in fact made him agree to house us when we play King Tut's this summer! In Manchester I had the pleasure of meeting Graham and Kirsty, friends of friends, who spent time with me both showing me the architectural highlights of Manchester (which include many incredible red brick buildings of fanciful design), plus the Salford Lad's Club, an iconic spot for any Smiths fan, and Graham and I challenged each other, successfully, and unsuccessfully challenged the laws of gravity, on a gorgeous grass tennis court in Fletcher Moss park. And they took me for a pub lunch where I encountered my first steak and kidney pudding. In other words, they helped me take the pounds off and put 'em right back on. REM faced two nights, one in Man. and one on the edge of Loch Lomond, of over 40,000 people each...in Loch Lomond we got to the gig by boat, how about that. Dublin was a quick visit, enough for some tennis (thanks Annmarie, Larry, Rosemarie, Gert, Paddy and John!!!!) and a horrible bit of hay fever that pretty much did me in on the grounds of castle Ardgillan. In Gothenburg--more tennis (thanks LP & Peter), a brief hello from Kent from Sator before we had to go, and a slightly damp show in a beautiful garden setting.
When it wasn't raining, we were in a great part of the world to experience midsummer--I think the most gorgeous night was in Gothenburg the night before REM's show; we flew in at about 2330h, got to the hotel by midnight, and I hit a couple of bars with friends (isobel, bea, david, pontus et al), getting back to the hotel about 0330h. Never was it totally dark, the sky retaining that intense chemical turquoise of a summer dawn...in the parkland along the canal in town there were groups of young folks picnicking and having beers, even on my way home. Lovely. It was an aferlifelike moment. Everybody had their clothes on tho'.
The two REM shows in Norway were barnburners, ballbusters of the highest order. Over 20,000 people a night in Oslo and Stavanger. Saw good reviews in the Norwegian press for the Posies album (also in Swedish mag Sonic there's a very long feature and a rather uncompromising review on the Posies, plus a track on the CD that comes with the magi).
And here we are. It's 10pm on a Friday night, I'm doing interviews on the phone, and writing this bog, and the hotel is holding a restaurant open for me around the corner.
It's moving.
Love
KS
Copenhagen, DENMARK
