DOWN ON THE FIRM GROUND
Most of the week my labor at Studio Question de Son continued; studio days are kind of a myth, really when you work in the studio it’s like one long day punctuated by meals and sleep. We had a lot to accomplish, and I think we did some high quality work. When I was making rough mixes I was really pleased with the drum sounds etc. that I got—for most of the tracks, I selected and placed the mics and the input chain (EQ, compression) and set all the levels—Fred plugged in the cables. For the most pop song on the album, I had Fred totally dial me up some sounds as he would do them, like I wanted to see how he got a good drum sound in their tiny room. And, for sure, Fred is quicker, he’s been to school and has loads of experience working in top studios, and he got wonderful sounds—but in the end I felt the sounds I got were holding their own, more than that, I felt I got some beautiful, unique, but carefully crafted sounds.
The last night, as I mentioned I was working on rough mixes until about 3am, then Mateo called me a cab (Mateo gave everyone gifts for their hard work, which was super nice—he gave me a copy of Serge Gainsbourg’s “Histoire de Melodie Nelson” album which is a weird masterpiece, and one of the only classic SG albums I didn’t have already! You have to check out this record, it’s essentially one long piece broken in to half a dozen movements…and it’s so off the cuff, stuff is out of time, the mix is insane, but where they threw in abrupt chunks of orchestra and choir, the effect is so intense…really special! He also gave me a picture book on Madagascar, which is where his g.f.’s family is from, and in the course of the week I got to know both of them much better! I have been talking about organizing a show there sometime with Randianne, his lovely lady!) and I loaded up all my stuff and went home—I was up early to go to a new shrink (trust me, I need it) and then to a phone interview for a Norwegian national daily newspaper (more on that later) and then go to Pilates, then do a few errands and it was time to go the airport.
Orly was so busy that evening, lines snaking up and down, doubling themselves over, including for Norwegian Air. Eventually I checked in and then I had to take my bass to special handling, and as I was waiting there, they cleared the area due to some kind of bomb scare, prob. some abandoned luggage. I really barely made the flight, as I had to wait til the all clear to check my bass and then run up to security. Luckily the gate was right by security and I boarded. My luggage took forever to come off the belt (as did all the luggage for that flight) and I finally got to Claus’ around midnight, I guess. Claus & I had more to catch up on than we could fit in that drive home! When we got home we were both tired and had to get up early so it was bed time. Jon Auer had my usual room, so I was on the couch. Fine by me!
HALDEN, 8/3
Claus & I got up early and dropped by the
Tiger of Sweden offices to get some new clothes. Then back to Claus’ and where our driver was waiting to take Jon & I to the
Down on the Farm festival. We picked up Bjorn from the Disciplines, who was out guitar tech for the weekend, at the Disciplines’ rehearsal spot. I was using Bjorn’s telecaster, and Jon had to borrow tonnes of stuff as his luggage didn’t show up (he’s going home today and I’m * still * not sure his suitcase came). Then we were off. We got to Halden, a little town with a paper mill on the Swedish side of the Oslo fjord. Evidently Halden had a good music scene in the 80s, anyway, an American musician moved to the area then, and started a barbecue with live music that has now blossomed into an eclectic, boutique festival with a focus on rootsy Americana-style music. Emmylou has played there, Son Volt…in the last 2 years more rock & roll has crept in (the Flaming Lips headlined this year) but still there was a decidedly noncommercial vibe to the lineup which was wonderful. So for this acoustic Posies set, which was 30 minutes, we were well paid, had our own little catered tent backstage, and got to hang with all the bands, which is the big bonus of playing festivals. Playing with Jon was totally natural, and tho I sang really hard (“Fucking Liar” was really good! And “Solar Sister” too) I was also very relaxed. People really responded, too. After we were done, life was easy, I was glad to see Jon & Bjorn bonding, like, bringing two separate parts of my life together in a nice way (of course, Briskeby supported the Posies in Copenhagen in 2005 so they met then, but there was lots of hang time this weekend). I spent a little time hanging with Grant Lee Philips, and watched his set (I know Grant from sharing several festival bills in the 90s plus I auditioned to be their keyboard player in the late 90s—my nerves prob. cost me the gig, which, had I landed it, would have prob. cost me the REM gig as I would have been already committed to something—so, it worked out for the best, but Grant is always a lovely guy to run into). I was so burnt out from my studio week that by then I just wanted to go back to my room and burn up some internet minutes! The festival folks really wanted me to join the campfire hootenanny that night, but I just couldn’t go there. We went back to the hotel and in the lobby I ran into Robyn Hitchcock and his lovely Michelle, and John Paul Jones and his wife Mo. I know Robyn and Michelle well, and had met JPJ one night over drinks at the Milestone Hotel, with Mike Mills. They were on their way out to hang at the hootenanny, but I just couldn’t bear it, and made sure to let them know I was in on tomorrow’s action—whether they needed me or not!!
Ah, yes, that day I had lunch at the only place within walking distance with an open restaurant, a mall down the hill from the hotel. I picked up the copy of the Dagsavisen, one of Norway’s main national daily newspapers, and was shocked to find my interview was a full blown, two-page article with a HUGE photo and some smaller ones, detailing my involvement with Big Star, and giving a brief history of Alex and the band, plus liberally describing the Posies, the Disciplines, and many other facts of my life. It was so big I got kinda scared!!
I saw an owl on a telephone wire as we drove away from the festival…
Prank: Brian Ferry was tonight’s headliner. I love (and went to see the reunion tour a few years back in NY) Roxy Music but Brian on his own was not enough to make me want to delay my visit to the hotel but I watched his valet iron Brian’s clothes for like an hour (well, I didn’t watch this for an hour, but I couldn’t help observe he was still working away every time I came back to Grant’s tent, so it may have been even longer than an hour). Next to Brian’s tents there was a portapotty, which on Saturday was for all the performers but on Friday there was a sign taped to the seat: "RESERVED FOR B. FERRY". Bjorn and I couldn't let that, uh..SIT there...hehehe...so we took sharpie in hand and the best we could come up with was to write "Avalon...g nice poo!" I thought that was hilarious.
HALDEN, 3/4
I had breakfast with Jody at the hotel buffet, then went back to bed. And, as it’s the only game in town, I had lunch at the mall…again! In the late afternoon we were picked up and driven to the festival—I was a bit nervous as I really wanted to see
Beasts of Bourbon (I’ve been a fan since Kim Warnick brought home a copy of “Black Milk” when it arrived as a promo to Sub Pop) so our 4.30 pick up time was cutting a bit close, plus we were about 10 minutes late—then Jody showed up, having been held up by two really long restaurant waits; then Jody forgot his passes and we had to turn around and go back just as we were leaving Halden! The festival is on an actual farm about 20-25 minutes from Halden. There’s a field next to a barn and that’s where the action is. Bands play in the barn (country, bluegrass and OMFUG) and there’s a big mainstage (if the rigging of the stage fell forward like a domino it would probably squish the whole audience) and I think a tent, and then, a few minutes walk down a path into a glade past the barn, is a tiny stage in a clearing, the campfire stage. They put up some great lighting—including bright red lights that project out behind the stage—lighting up a vast wheat field that’s behind the stage. It’s a great effect: you’re not accustomed to seeing artificial colored light shot out over the top of a wheat field, and your mind has difficulty arranging the scene in the proper perspective, so by turns it looks smaller, larger, or more two-dimensional than it would in the day. Wonderful.
Meanwhile, we showed up and I saw about half the BoB set, which rocked! They were slamming! I was really into it…
After that, Jody & I had a hilarious interview with NRK, Norway’s national TV; Claus and Nanna arrived; I bonded with Tex from the Beasts of Bourbon (by the end of the night I was helping their bass player, Brian, navigate as he is not only messed up by a serious back injury, he had been subjected to a serious beer injury by the late night!) and found out that Steve Wynn and Linda Pitmon were appearing, with Danny and Dusty. I am a Steve fan, for sure, and he and Linda are just about the nicest people ever. Linda ROCKS she is such a monster on drums.
BTW Steve’s album "Melting in the Dark", from 1996, which is him backed by the band Come, is one of my faves. You can read about Steve at
his website, it's full o' facts.
Big Star: it was very cute that Cliff from the Flaming Lips was very sweet and shy and a bit nervous about getting a photo with Alex, which he got! Alex was happy Alex at this show, which is of course my favorite Alex, we made some ridiculous jokes onstage (Alex: “consistency is the hobgoblin of the small mind”. Ken: “Then we’ve been invaded by Goblins”. Alex: “Hobgoblins”. Ken: “I’m pretty sure they were whole ones, Alex”. I fucked up some bits (like getting out of the solo in Feel) but I just didn’t care…I was having such a good time…I saw Kenneth from
Beezewax in the audience…and at one point I just started to laugh…I love playing these songs so much…I just couldn’t believe my good fortune that I play in one of my all time favorite bands, the novelty never wears off!
After our set, it was all about hanging with Jon & my bandmates, and flitting amongst the different musicians. And then the “night got deadly quiet” as another Kenny might say, but not for long—first the Flaming Lips exploded in fluorescent orange and a shade of blue described only as ‘peculiar’ in the textbooks…wonderful. Then, after seeing the wobbly Beasts of Bourbon off to their van, I trudged to the campfire stage and found Robyn and John Paul Jones in progress. I did some hanging out, you know…at the ready style. Then, Chip Taylor (author of “Wild Thing”—er, not the Tone Loc one, “Angel of the Morning” and many other hits) took over for a bit, but soon her summoned Robyn onstage, who invited me to come along—I hesistated, and JPJ encouraged; nay, insisted! (flashback to JPJ playing my bass backstage and offering compliments on my tone—he really * is * a nice person) so soon I found myself on a TWIN LEAD HARMONICA jam with Robyn, on, of course “Wild Thing”…Chip even had us do a kind of solo...it was marvelous it sounded like an accordion dangling from a ceiling fan, with car horns and the occasional EEG machine beep. It was * that * good. We stayed up for another song (I think I took another solo…or two) and then Robyn, JPJ, Jackie Leven and myself did a nice set of impromptu covers—I think the best bit was “Dear Prudence” which Robyn dedicated to his love Michelle, who had just entered her birthday day—I played bass, Robyn sang and played acoustic, Jackie stomped a kick beat and played really cool open tuning guitar, and JPJ on mandolin. I have to say that the way the night turned out it was really what I wanted to have happen, I love playing with Robyn and of course having John Paul Jones along is really…well, as much as he is very much a humble and friendly guy he’s also someone who is very talented and has lived an extraordinary life in music, and uh…hey, look at Ken ramble on. Shut up Ken. Just say ‘that was fun’. It was! We got back to the hotel at like 4.30 or so and I was a very happy man, I had made lots of friends, and played some great music, and got to line my pocket with a few hundred bucks.
Before we all went to our respective rooms, it was determined that Steve Wynn and co. and myself all had the same pickup time. I felt like even * more * like Posh Spice (thanks, Claus, for noticing my weight loss and Prada shades) when everybody assembled in the parking lot of the hotel by a shuttle bus and there was a lone black Mercedes with a guy holding a ‘Stringfellow’ sign. I’ll never live that one down!
I got dropped off at the Oslo Sentral Station, where I knew I could get a café and wifi. Later, the Disciplines came to pick me up—Claus does drive a BMW 4x4 thingy but that wasn’t posh enough—plus I figured I’d leave that with 4 people on board. Er. We had lunch and then went to rehearse—we wrote a really cool new song, and worked on another one! We’ll play one of them at our next show—in Oslo next week. We did some more work on our existing material, recorded the new demos really rough, one mic (with our luck, that will be on NRK tomorrow, they seem to like our practice place jams!). We had dinner at a new restaurant in the same complex as our rehearsal place, which is a godsend…ah, I just remembered a funny joke I made in the van coming back from the festival on Friday—we were talking about (Mira’s favorite Scandinavian band, even more then the Disciplines)
Surferosa, and Bjorn was saying how they were considered like the ‘bad little sister’ of Briskeby when they came out. And I immediately shot out: “ah, so they were like the Surferolling Stones to your Briskebeatles?” Stunned silence is its own reward!!
After the rehearsal we had a meeting with a friend who is a kind of entrepreneur, marketing genius etc. about strategies for Disciplines land. Now, I did this whole day on like 3 hours sleep as I was up at about 8 this morning. And now as I write I’m in the back of another Mercedes (my taxi to the airport—normally I would walk up to the metro stop by Claus’, that takes me to the airport train, but at 5 am, which it is now, I just went for the pickup at Claus’. The metro isn’t running yet. So I didn’t sleep at all, I worked on this blog and watched the film 'Zodiac'. Long!
Highlight of the week: all of it.
Love
KS
On the way to Oslo airport.
