1.27.2008
TRAVAILLE DU DIMANCHE I spent last Sunday and Monday working at home on the commercial I started on saturday...working at home is superb, I can pick at the work, walk away for a bit, come back fresh...if I have an inspiration at 6am or 6pm I can execute it. So, over the course of the two days I worked just 6 or so hours a day, but they were productive. I was supposed to turn it in for first thing Tuesday morning in New York (Tuesday afternoon my time) but in fact instead of sweating up until the last minute I was feeling good about the work at bedtime on Monday, and sent the files off. Tuesday evening one of the music supervisors called me and asked for a few changes, which I was able to execute in about an hour, and sent the files off while they were still in the office. Everybody seemed happy, and we'll see where it goes from there. I had Dom sing on one of my versions to give it a 'singalong' vibe. I was able to leave the house on Sunday, and Dom, Aden & I went to our favorite boulangerie, which there's no way in hell I am going to tell you what or where it is--as it is it's generally sold out of everything by noon. We had a cafe and went to the park with Xavier from Tahiti 80/Axe Riverboy and his petite famille...it's great to see the rock and roll dads on Sundays...looking just a little scruffy... I opened a bank account in France. Long overdue. I've come to the realization that I'm either a) not coming back to the US to live ever or b) not for a long, long time. In that case--I have a very nice Sony TV that was new just 4-5 years ago that I will sell from my storage space--if you're interested email me here! I will Ebay a ton of stuff too when I'm in Seattle this spring...and I'm in the process of selling my car. I did a remix for the CosmopolitANTS at home this week, and did my version of 'The Mighty Quinn' as per the 2007 Strangercrombie Holiday Auction-one of the items was 'the Posies cover the song of your choice'--and in fact, for the obvious practical reasons of geography and schedule, Jon & I would *each* do a version--and the winner chose 'Quinn the Eskimo' (aka 'The Mighty Quinn') by Bob Dylan. I based my version a little bit on the live version from the Isle of Wight festival with the Band backing him...and deconstructed from there...there's me as Dylan, me as Rick Danko, Aden as Garth Hudson, Dominique as...Levon Helm? Hard to say. I'm pleased to say of all the bands that were offered, we had the second highest bed, after the Presidents of the USA! We had great, free entertainment watching the continuing demolition o the parking garage across the street--Aden and I would just sit in the window and watch the Liebherr 944 Hydraulic Excavator with a rotating, gripping claw at the end of its arm deftly punch, slice and pull apart walls. Really, the operator of this machine is quite good--the building next to the garage is a one story bathhouse (hmmm) with a glass roof. The police are often coming at night to chase out taggers from the partially wrecked structure. Still there was a huge, and very well executed tag this morning on the biggest still-standing wall. My XO laptop arrived from the US...it's so cute! I will give it to Aden when she's just a bit older; she's still a bit hard on pretty much any object..including me! On Friday we went to a morning screening of a new TV series on French TV; basically a Brazilian telenovella, really. But Olivia Baum, who Dom manages, sang the theme song, and there were free croissants, cafe, and macarons from posh deli Le Notre (sorry, but Blogger doesn't like special characters like the accent circonflexe). It was held in a cinema, and preceeded by long winded self-congratulatory Hollywood style speeches, but, hey, they just made a TV series, so they can proud, I suppose. Yesterday I gave a guitar lesson--to a charming fellow who wrote me via myspace and proposed the idea. I actually think I can teach him a few things--I never thought of myself as a great guitarist, but, I have years of experience in trying to be a better one, and have learned some things on the way. If you live in Paris, and you're interested in basic music lessons--voice, guitar, bass, keyboards, or recording, write me via this website. Last night I converted, edited and uploaded Dominique's track (backed by French artist Doubleman) for the Posies tribute album...it will be on the EP that's released before the full 3 CD set. And so...I go to have a uniquely restful Sunday at home. January is where we who freelance for a living catch up from the 168 hour work weeks of the other 11 months... Love KS Paris
1.22.2008
  They are tearing down a parking garage across the way from us to build some 'luxury apartments' (apparently without the luxury of parking...unless they plan to dig a really big hole...). They had to move a big chomping machine in; first, it arrived on the back of a flatbed truck. Next, it had to turn 90 deg. directly into a passage barely wider than itself. This was accomplished by sticking old tires under the treads for it to twist itself on; it was a technologically simple and elegant, but elaborately choreographed, series of movements. Then it was turned to face the main gate which was between the road and some empty space in front of the garage. It did the expeditious thing and just drove into the metal gate, which of course promptly fell over--this is a big machine: the crook of its arm was passing our 3rd floor window. Aden was of course fascinated. This was all happening at 8am. Later that day, the tiny guardhouse was crushed in basically one blow--the crane thingy dropped a big chunk of wall on its roof a couple of times, and fell in. Then it picked up a corner of the roof--which was flat concrete--and lifted it up, and it shattered. The downside is that they are proceeding cautiously, and they could be jackhammering for months...but, they don't do it all day, thankfully. Love KS Paris
1.19.2008
DOUBLE REALITé It was a highly productive week in the studio--in fact, with all the rest I had the preceding week, I worked at nearly twice my normal speed and the results were exceptionally good. The first day I was basically done mixing the first song by dinner time. Even with all the b-sides, alternate mixes and file management I attended to on the last day, I was out of the studio by 9. So, Mateo's album, which I started working on in July, seems to be done. I really honed a lot of studio chops making this record, and it was hard work, but really fun. I was a little sad to be leaving my comfort zone at Question de Son studios, but I needn't have been. I was looking forward to a couple of weeks off, catching up on all the little projects I never have time for. In fact, on Friday, I started crossing things off my list--I went down to rue Montgallet, which has dozens upon dozens of little shops selling electronics, and bought a really cute little firewire drive, for the exclusive purpose of backing up this mac, since it's been getting old and shaky lately. I executed said backup, and was ready to move on to my next task, opening a bank account here in France. I had to run to Pilates, and was caught in email before my shrink appointment that evening. I had an email from an old friend in NYC asking me if I'd like to try my hand at some music for a commercial. Usually he works on movie soundtracks, but with the writer's strike/SAG strike rumors, diversification ensues. I checked out the parameters of the project, and found that it was in my skill set. It's actually submitting a demo, with very specific requirements, for possible inclusion in a commercial. But, there's a small budget. So, I called Question de Son with the unlikely hope they'd have available time--and they did, miraculously--except, it was the next day. I thought about it, and went for it. I called around for musicians, and found that Julien, who played on Mateo's album, was available for the next morning. Ok, it was on! I canceled my tennis match with Remi (he's used to this by now). Dom, Aden, and I went out to dinner, to celebrate Dom's new job, and to celebrate the fact I actually had a night off! We went to the Polichinelle, which always has good food, and despite the fact the bar was packed, the restaurant had a table for us. Dining out with a three year old means the conversation is sort of limited, but we had fun, and we indulged in a bottle of wine, which meant the two lightweights were smashed. Aden had to drive. The woman who is always waiting on tables there, very friendly woman with short blonde hair, prob. about 50, actually remembered me from the last time I dined there--months ago--and lavished attention on Aden. Very cool place. We went to bed early so I could be prepared for whatever I was going to do in the studio the next morning, and I was rested enough that I woke up early. I went to my favorite cafe (my secret, TYVM) and picked up pains chocolats--no I'm not describing a toothache--for the girls. Dom, Aden, myself, my huge keyboard, my bass, a guitar, and a bag of misc. equipment got in a cab and went to QDS--Dom and Aden continued on to other errands. Julien arrived, and Fred (QDS co-owner and in house engineer uneqaled) and I got to work. I worked on two possible submissions, with different styles and tempos. Remi brought by his acoustic guitar for me to use, and I played bass, guitar, tambourine...then I sort of hit a wall. I need to sort thru and experiment--essentially do all the preparation AFTER the fact. So, I took the session and my stuff home, and headed directly to meet my friend Benjamin at the Iron & Wine show. I made it for about half the show. Good: great vocals, great pedal steel, Leroy who played with Wilco on keys, much musical versatility. Not so good: one song encore, even tho people were going nuts; reggae jam, zero stage banter, and long songs segueing into the next with no space for a breath--sometimes in jarringly different keys. But the most beautiful vocal moments were really impressive, and worth seeing for sure. "Cinder and Smoke" was done differently from the record, and was very much a highlight too. After the show I had a beer with and rode the metro home with Benjamin; I ran into Terry Lee Hale coming out of the venue, always a bundle of energy he is! I strode home past all the hipsters sprawled around Le Motel, smoking in the cool night air. Love KS Paris
1.13.2008
REALITé Looking back at my calendar for the last year, I see now that I worked virtually every day for the last 12 months—a few notable exceptions being a few days of quiet (but very few) at the beginning of the year, a week or so of down time in June, and the days I spent on Ile de Re in August and September, which in the end were not that many. Basically, I worked like a pack mule for almost 12 solid months. And, it’s not like what I do is drudgery, by any means, and I can say that the results of my hard work for the last months are really significant—I have a new album to show for it, the Disciplines album, which is more or less completely recorded, and I have memories of great shows all over Europe, in the States, etc. – including visits to new places for me—Bosnia, Luxembourg…in fact, 2007 was The Year of more significant philosophical change than any other for me. I stopped worrying and learned how to love the bomb. The ‘bomb’ being the explosion of opportunity for positive effect on the world at large. I ingested a good dose of Buddhism, without adopting a religion per se—but the perspective of human (and other’s) suffering, and our obligation to administer alleviation to and not further contribute to the civilization of misery…well, laugh at me if you will, but that interests me, more than ambition, more than fame or acclaim. Many times, more than art itself. There are a lot people who definitely aren’t curing cancer, who act like they already have (re: like, EVERY band in England, it seems at times). You know, we as artists are pretty good at getting recognition for our work. And, then, there are legions of people in service of the world at large, who could give a shit about recognition. Again, these people impress me. So, after being immersed entirely in music and music culture for the last months, with almost no other perspective…it was great to come home and reconnect with my family, and just wander aimlessly a bit. Last Sunday, we worked very hard and managed to finish everything on our list in the studio. I went to my flat and had some wine with my flatmates, and we started to listen to the tracks, and after one song, the upstairs neighbors (who have had quite a few loud parties themselves) came down and told us to turn it down…well, that’s a good sign, no? Well, lightweight that I am, I woke up with a rather crude (considering we were drinking Bordeaux) hangover, and I couldn’t bring myself to get out of bed and go hang with the Revolver crew—I was going to give them a preview of the album. But, my bandmates and Jon Marius and I pretty much agreed not to play the album for many people until it was mixed. So, I guess, the hangover was part of the Greater Plan. I got up at noon and headed home. My stay in Oslo was great…as it covered parts of two different calendar years, it seemed like I was there for ages—in fact, it was just over three weeks. But it was highly productive! Getting home that evening, we got right down to business—presents! As I had been away for Xmas, I had presents for Aden, and some others had come for her (and me!) in the mail, plus Dom had held some back in case I couldn’t find any good ones. So Aden made out like a bandit. This week I have generally been going to bed at, like, 9—and getting up at 7 to get Aden to school. It’s a pleasure—I am always more efficient in the morning and early afternoon, and I feel better mentally when I sleep early and rise early, it’s all the Benjamin, yo. Monday I played Dom the rough mixes and she was really impressed---even she couldn’t find a song to eject from the 15 song lineup. As it is, the 15 songs take only 47 minutes to play. Good news started to arrive that very day—I was alerted to the Toronto Star (Canada’s biggest newspaper)’s picking up on the Disciplines—music editor John Sakamoto put ‘There’s A Law’ in his ‘Anti Hit List’, a selection of should be hits from the underground. Read here. And we received 2-3 more morsels of good news that I am not going to reveal just yet! In the meantime, I spent the week settling back in to being home, visiting my favorite cafes, meeting with a few friends, shopping the sales with Dominique (I really only bought one shirt, and one pair of shoes). I got rid of some junk cabinets in my rental flat, and started to tackle the problem of a mysterious water leak that appears to originate in the flat’s bathroom pipes. I started going to Pilates (and my shrink) again. I bought a new stereo—Dominique’s finally gave out, it was a kind of cheap Panasonic all-in-one deal, probably 15 years old, and it was just falling apart. So, I went in to one of those big home appliance boutiques, the sales still on, and tested everything in the shop. I ended up with some pretty big JBL speakers, and a Denon amp and CD player. And it sounds great—and it wasn’t that expensive, and it was delivered (a couple of days later). However, there was no speaker cable included, and the salesman implied there would be. Being the impatient type, I found online that the BHV department store was open for 30 more minutes—special hours during the sales. So, I hopped on a bus, last night at 7.30 (the delivery was at about 7, and I had to dig thru everything to make sure there were no cables in there somewhere. So, no problem—I got on the bus that stops right by our flat and goes direct to BHV. Except, evidently at 7.30 on Saturday. It stopped, with finality, only at La Bastille, like, 1o minutes walk from our place. So I had to flat out run to BHV to make it, and make it I did. I guess it was ultimately healthy, and an hour or so later (bus ride home, strip and cut wire) I had music playing in the house, and it sounds KILLER. This morning, I played the first thing sort of full volume, which was the new Syd Matters record, “Ghost Days” which is coming out next month here in France. It’s beautiful, delicate, and human. You who read this blog regularly might know I’m a real fan of their last album, ‘Someday We Will Forsee Obstacles’. There are notes of Pink Floyd, Nick Drake, and Radiohead, but it’s never derivate. The lyrics are far from obvious but never pretentious. For more info—check their lovely website. The reason I have the album is that on Friday, Dom & I had café with the singer, Jonathan Morali, and also dropped in on SM’s label, Because Music (Daft Punk, Klaxons, et al) to talk Disciplines. Jonathan is as gentle and intelligent as his music would suggest. By the way, “Which one’s Syd?” is the new “Which one’s Pink?” That afternoon Dom and I had the freedom to walk thru Paris, shop in a bookstore, take a long lunch. Really, these simple things have been out of bounds for so long. Dom’s job came to an end recently, the company she worked for is in its death throes (death throe tull?) and gave her a nice exit package, plus she still manages Olivia Baum, and gets her monthly stipend til she finds a new job. So we have spent most of this week together, and it’s much needed/long overdue. Also coming up on my stereo this weekend was Le Concorde, with the ‘Suite’ EP. Six songs of brain-massaging organic & electronic, even danceable, lovely pop music for thinking listeners. I sing on one of the songs, ‘All These Fragile Unions’, with some great vocal interplay between myself and mastermind Stephen Becker, Ph.D. The EP was produced by David Gamson, who was in Scritti Politti (‘ Cupid and Psyche ’85’ was a favorite of my high school years). Recommend! I went to the movies for the first time in countless months. I watched ‘Paris, Je T’aime’ on DVD. Dom & I went to a restaurant together and held hands over a table. I collected two top-class bottles from my wine storage (a Chapoutier Hermitage blanc and a Weinbach Tokay-Pinot Gris botrytised sweet wine) and drank them. Aden had her friend from school, Colleen, over, for a raucous ‘princess party’--I do believe they acted in a manner not inconsistent with the behavior of real-life royals. Dom, Aden & I went to the Marché d’Aligre this morning and bought fish & cheese. We took her to the park and chatted with other parents. This morning, we sort of slept in. I had nothing to do, really…I still can’t fully elude feeling guilty for these seven days of respite from labor. I mean, I * was * emailing, faxing, calling, organizing, etc. all week. I wasn’t in a virtual hammock the whole time. But, it’s quite different than the planes, studios, and stages that have been the three rings I have been circulating around. I feel enriched, and strengthened, and looking forward to a productive year. I go back into the studio tomorrow. Love KS Paris
1.06.2008
INTO PRIMARY Oslo is covered in snow—it cooled off in the first days of the year enough to make for endless layers of fluffy white, which has the nice effect of quieting down the city—the ambient noise of traffic and such has a harder time reaching my ears—and with all the activity in the studio as of late, my ears need as little reaching them as I can arrange! As I write, I’m in bed at the flat, and my roommates are sleeping—in fact, when I came home around midnight everyone was already in bed. So, it’s dead silent here. The city is beautiful, walking to the tram tonight every stop light, every railing, that would be more industrial blandness most days, was a setting for a sculpture fallen from the sky. Dominique came to visit, and I was so happy to have her here. Being that my room is tiny, my bed is tiny, and I have roommates, we checked into a hotel for the two nights we were in Oslo together, the 30th of December and New Year’s Day. I love staying in hotels with Dom, we always have fun—and it wasn’t the same when she left early on the second—suddenly, it was just a room. Due to Dom’s living on the edge planning style, and some other work biz she had to take care of before the year was over, I didn’t know Dom was coming for sure until the day before she arrived! So, I was all a-flutter when I left the studio on the tram, and went up to the National Teatret station to meet her. Her flight was a bit late getting in, but finally at about 11 she arrived on the airport express train, and we were together. It had been like two and a half weeks, but it’s also true that I had been incredibly busy all of this fall—so, much of the time I was home in recent months I was in studio for 12 hours a day, or playing a show, or just getting back from or heading to the airport. But, even tho’ it was a really short visit, it was so nice that time seemed to slow down in a good way. On the 31st Claus picked us up, and we drove down to Larvik with Bjorn and his g.f. Tonje. Actually, we drove past Larvik, to the village of Stavern, which is more or less looking like 1895 from most angles. My bandmates’ old friends Gunder and Kaja, and their daughter Selma, live in a lovely old farmhouse there. Gunder is one of two main organizers of the post-Christmas shindig we played this year and the year before. So, Claus and his wife Nanna, myself and Dom, Bjorn & Tonje, Gunder & Kaja, Bård, Lise from Briskeby and Magnus Tingsek, Gunder’s brother and his g.f., and another pair of old friends/Larvik peeps had dinner and rang in the year. There were lots of long toasts, and a reasonable amount of drinks—although, truth be told, I just couldn’t make that much of a dent in the champagne. At midnight we went down the street, which seemed like miles in the subzero, but was probably 100 yards, and gathered in an empty yard where people were shooting off fireworks at an alarming proximity to, say, me. Actually, fireworks were going off everywhere, as far as you could see. We were too cold to stay more than 5 minutes, but you could look out over a bay and see all of Larvik, and fireworks were popping up and blooming all along the horizon. And right over our heads. Alcohol and explosives. Hmmm. We went back inside pretty quickly. I DJ’d for awhile, and then Gunder put on more of a dance mix—70s disco and such!—and people were dancing in Gunder’s tiny office, which is where his stereo is set up. Dom and I claimed a kind of big square cushion thing, kind of a giant ottoman, but big enough to lay down on, and pulled a sheepskin thingy over us and crashed, long before we were drunk or whatever, so we woke up hangover free! At one point a quite drunk Bård woke us up to complain someone ‘had stolen his snuss’. I know the feeling! The next day we headed up to Oslo, and Dom & I checked back into the hotel, and had dinner there in the hotel bar. Now, this is the kind of thing—alone, having dinner in a hotel bar on New Year’s Day would be, like, suicide-inducing. But with Dom, it was like the most fun imaginable, talking, swapping food, and just being side by side. We watched TV in Norwegian, and then I couldn’t sleep (I often make the mistake of having my Taille de Guepe tea in the evening, and this stuff is like herbal meth), so I tried to be still enough to let Dom get in a couple of hours. Then at 4, I got her up and put her on the bus that goes directly to the airport from the hotel. She was on that brutal 6.50am Norwegian flight—there’s only two cheap flights to Paris a day—as she had to be in the studio with an artist she manages at midday. On the 2nd! I went back to bed, and got up for the breakfast, and suddenly it wasn’t fun anymore, it was just…breakfast. I went back to bed, and then went to the flat. We worked a little that night, but since then we’ve been working really hard, and the songs are sounding huge. I’m trying to be cool, but every now & then I get very excited about what we’re doing, and I have to text Dom or jump up and down, or other related outlets for my pride and joy. Usually at the end of the night I get a ride home from Claus, or I take the tram. Tonight I went to Revolver (where I’ll be playing solo and with the Disciplines during the By:Larm music conference next month—see the tour page for details). As always, I ran into tons of musos, and quite a few fans came up to me and said nice things—including, oddly, a guy from Finland, who just two days ago I mailed a Disciplines mail order vinyl to! I found out that there’s a tiny recording studio in the back, but in the room where you set up and play, the beer kegs that feed the taps in the bar are just there along the wall, and in fact the tap machinery is in a panel right there in the wall. Also, this week, as I mentioned already, the Disciplines signed a deal for the release of our album with Voices Music, for Norway and Denmark. This is a great first step, I’ve had really good experiences working with Joakim with the last Posies album and my record, and I think he’ll do a great job with us. Plus, Voices distributes, like—everything—Domino, Warp, and 100 more indie labels, so…I should have the ability to knick some killer promos! As I still like CDs and artwork. Even Radiohead does (as Thom Yorke just said in an interview with the BBC). Ah, yes, as promised, here is the skinny on the best coffee I’ve had in Europe: Tim Wendelboe’s establishment on the edge of Grunerlokke. Tim has won the world barista championship (2004) and the ‘ cup tasters’ award, etc…he takes his craft as seriously as anyone I’ve encountered, and in fact his shop is also a school for learning to roast and pour at the highest level. He just sells coffee (but, unlike the asshole in Tulsa I mentioned, his place will gladly make you a macchiato). On the counter lately have been some delicious cookies, but other than that—no tea, no croissants, just mind-blowing espresso and filter coffee. There’s just two seats. You can buy beans, and coffeemaking gear, and they do sell some chocolate. But, the focus is on espresso. When I had my first macchiato there, the guy just put a tiny bit of milk in it, and I was skeptical at first; usually milk helps cover the fact that what you’re drinking is essentially bitter, ground up burnt stuff. But here it was eureka moment—I could taste…coffee! Like, a nutty, exotic and complex progression of flavor came forth in the first sip. I realized that even in a café-obsessed Paris, hell, even Milan—essentially we are drinking Sutter Home when for the same price, if we’re lucky enough to live near Tim Wendelboe or a few of the ultra serious Seattle caffeineastes, we could be drinking Chateau Petrus every day. And life is WAY to short, especially in the morning. I will miss this place immensely. Unfortunately, as snobbish as France can be about so many things, I haven’t found a café that really cares about its café. If you know otherwise, please write me! The coolest thing is that I was chatting with not Tim W. but another Tim, a barista there who hails from Australia, and Ole, the guy who made me that first, life-affirming macchiato, came in from the back, and said—“hey…aren’t you in the Posies?” Oslo = good. Speaking of which, we resurrected the song “Oslo”, which was one of the first songs the Disciplines wrote. We had performed it as a kind of country song in Larvik the other week, but that version was a bit long and slow and acoustic, nothing to do with the record we’re making. But then we decided to make a new version very much like the demo from 2006, and lo and behold, it sounds really good. Good lord, I think it’s a hit, at least very apparently so by Norwegian standards. It took a lot of debate and effort and trying different things to make it right, but, I’m quite proud of the results. Tomorrow is our last day in the studio, and then Monday I’m going home. I am ready to get home, I miss Dom & Aden, and I have a bunch of records I need to listen to! And lots of things to do…it seems that even tho’ I’m not playing any shows this month, and I’m only spending a few days mixing in the studio for other people, I have a ton of small projects to work on, and a lot of work to do to start getting this Disciplines album around, and…I have to itemize my 2007 receipts. But, I get to listen to records while I do it, so it’s OK by me! And now, glorious sleep to prepare for the race to the finish tomorrow! Or, at least I will try—the only drink I had at Revolver was Taille de Guepe tea! Love KS Oslo, NORWAY.
1.04.2008
I just added more than 20 photos to the photos section of this site. Also, you should go to Barcelona's Scanner FM radio site, to check my podcast...in English, I'm afraid. AND, today, the Disciplines signed to the lovely Voices label for Norway and Denmark, for our upcoming album in progress now (see here for photos from the studio). Voices has been great to work with already--they were a big part of making Soft Commands and the last Posies album very successful in Norway. Per capita, Norway was one of the best territories for these records, and also, VME has a very good relationship with the press (see endless 5 star reviews for Soft Commands in Norway). A good day, all in all! Love KS Oslo
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The latest release by Ken Stringfellow is a split EP with Spain's Muy Fellini, featuring never-heard-before music incl. Ken's take on Bob Dylan, released by
King of Patio records
in Spain on Oct 8, 2009.
Order it directly from Muy Fellini here www.myspace.com/muyfellini
10" VINYL ONLY!!!
older news :
8/3/2003
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