HURRAH!

Kids, I’ll tell you about what’s going on. The thing is, I’ve been busy. Yes, the album is now done, and it is time to reminisce and reflect on the last days in the mixing-suite that is the ash-tray, our rehearsal space. Mid-august we finished the final recordings and started the mixing phase around that time. As I’ve said before Kenneth worked his ass off and towards the end of things, we spent 20 hours per day mixing. And all of a sudden I found myself zombie-walking to ET Mastering at Feedback in Aarhus with a knapsack of cigarettes and bread. It was a truly strange sensation to walk across town during the morning rush-hour, not having slept, knowing that we were going to finalize three years of work. Not the best state to be in, I know, but luckily our mastering guy Emil was sharp and ready to go. He cleaned the mixes up a bit and started mastering his butt off. It took three days in total... I think that is longest master-session in world history. Thanks to Emil for patience! The method was the so-called stem-mastering, where you take each group of instruments and lock into single files, like, all the guitars in one file, all the vocals in another and so on and so forth. This allows for last minute level corrections but more importantly it is easier to work on different areas of the sound-scape rather than to just have one file to work on, which often just squashes songs. What the hell do I know? Honestly, and hands down… It is nuclear science and physics what sound-guys do. I’m not sure I’ll ever understand what they do… I’m just in awe. I’d really like to learn one day. I’ve learnt a lot sitting besides both Kenneth and Emil so… Now my demos won’t be as shitty anymore, hehe.

Right, let’s talk facts.The album is called ‘Tectonics’. The front cover looks like this:

And it will be released October 25th on sensational Crunchy Frog Records.
The second single is out now: Listen to it here.

And here’s the final tracklist:
1. Agitator
2. Boss Stallion
3. Spasm
4. Pop Music
5. Million Dollar Boy
6. We, the Drowned
7. Specimen
8. It’s All About Love
9. Oh, the Irony
10. Fault Lines
11. The Human Condition

Personal favorites are The Human Condition, Boss Stallion, Spasm, Fault Lines… oh, hell. The entire damn thing! I’m so effing proud of this album. It’s the best music I have ever done, and it even sounds good! Holy shit! I can’t wait for people to hear it, but please, if or when you hear it, give it some time, and listen to it on proper equipment. We haven’t spent ages fine tuning this crap for you to listen to it on your god damn computer-speakers, while being on the phone, aight?! Alright, then. A little concentration is all I ask. Final remarks! The album cover will include a lyric sheet. Info on release-parties coming up. Rehearsals are going… well… alright, but I’m sure it’ll be awesome. Going to Copenhagen tomorrow for a couple of interviews and some recreational time with Q and Clauern and my friend Filip. No plans for a vinyl release of the album as of yet. Aaaaaaaand, I think this is it for now!

The new Walkmen-album is awesome.

From the eye of the mix-storm the headquarters generously and selflessly – yes, as your Christ-and-saviour - donates a minute or two to update the throbbing, curious public on the Østjylland-turmoils. Ahem.

First of all. Tonight's poor-man's supper caused a spillage of cod-liver oil onto hands and wooden desk. This has rendered the headquaters somewhat disillusioned. I guess you could call it a straw that broke the camel's back, seeing as mixing is as equally horrific a part of the process of recording an album as singing is. I don't know jack shit about mixing, so it's all up to Kenneth. Ha! He's under a lot of pressure because of the deadlines and his power-life. Tonight he's playing a show with all-star band De Eneste To, for instance. The other day he told me that he had to leave the computer after having worked on a particularly difficult passage to remember to breathe. He literally doesn't breathe properly when he's stressed out. It's so fucked up. Sometimes when I think he's sighing because of a problem regarding the mix, he reminds me that it's just because he occasionally must take deep breaths in order stay alive. Physical ailings aside, it's turning out ok, I suppose. I'm not going to give you the regular industry-'holy shit, it's just so awesome and everything is dandy'-routine, as everything is not. It fucking sucks and I want it to be over and done with. I've spent 10% of my entire life doing this album... Seriously. No shit... Pity me. Pity everyone! Pity! Tuesday – God willing – it'll all be totally fucking over!

By the way. I have settled for the title Tectonics! It's very fitting! Release is still set for either October 11th or 18th. My awesome friend Mogens is working out the artwork as we speak. I'll upload it when it's done :)

Here's a random track order.

• 1 Agitator
• 2 Pop Music
• 3 Oh, the Irony
• 4 The Human Condition
• 5 Vendetta
• 6 It's All About Love
• 7 Specimen
• 8 Million Dollar Boy
• 9 We, The Drowned
• 10 Spasm
• 11 Fault Lines
  

Playing time is around 37 minutes.

Well, let's talk again on mastering-tuesday. Until then... MWUAH!

A holiday-induced update!

The über-maestro of da biz, yebo, requested there be written a new blog entry. And he who asks shall receive.

Allow me to start off on a personal note, talking about my vacation. Just skip down a paragraph if you don't care, so... Still here? Alright. I've been in France with three of my mates. Mr producer-guy Kenneth, drummer extraordinaire Mr Q, and sensational guitarist and all-round good guy Claus of Vestbjerg-fame. We were fortunate enough to be able to spend two weeks in a house in lovely Bargemon, an old village in Provence. We spent the days drinking wine, basking in the sun and trying out this disturbing Chat-roulette. Oh, and Kenneth and I went golfing and sightseeing in the Gorges du Verdon also. It was the best vacation in years and I love my friends to bits and everything was just dandy. We saw gekkoes, giant ants, did some hiking and oh, would you believe it, knocked out a hiphop tune one day on the porch. Perhaps it will see the light of day one sweet day. The Malpractice boxset, or the Beta Satan one. I don't think it'll fit very well with Figurines' material, although it has Claus blasting some vicious rhymes, hehe.

So. What does this have to do with the album we're working on, you ask? Well, it recharged some pretty low batteries and work the coming month doesn't seem as ardous. We also set a wonderful new array of postponed deadlines! I'll give you the scoop in the shortest of terms:

We'll start mixing august 12th. Before that we'll record the last bits – including a brand new, awesome'er version of the bad apple 'Executive this, Executive That'. The various versions we did sucks and one day I had had enough of trying to find a way into the song, so I told Kenneth: Fuck it, delete everything and I'll rethink the damn thing while babysitting my moms dog. And by gawd, it worked! I had half an unfinished song sitting on the hard-drive, which were basically part of the song Agitator in an early version. It never left my mind, and one night as I was falling asleep, it just occured to me, holy fuck, why the hell not use that as the body for this executive song. I totally loved the intro and outro of the executive track, so why not delete everything inbetween, replace that with the old, unfinished song and just go nuts?! It only took two hours to make the elements fit together, and whenever things are that fast, it's a good sign that it's a damn good idea you are working on. And as it turned out – in demo form - it is. Right now, I think it's the best thing on the album! Really huge and lazy and it uses just two notes for the entire duration of the song!

We'll start the mastering process on august 28th. And then the master is done september 1st! Holy shit! And release dates are set for – are you sitting down - either october 11th or 18th. Holy hot dicks in hell!

And what about the album title? Have you thought about that, dude? Yes. Yes, I have. Right now, I want to call it 'Tectonics'. From, like, the geography-terminology. I like the idea of these huge tectonic plates banging into each other over millions of years, creating landscapes. It's so beautiful and very fitting for the lyrical subject matter on the album. There's alot of me banging my head on the world, yet, somehow always succumbing to the forces of nature.

Alright, would that cut it as an update mister label-dawg?

Lots of summer love for everyone,

Johannes

News from the beyond!

Booyakasha! So lemme tell you 'bout the goings ons in malpractice country. Firstly, let me apologize for the infrequent updates as of late. Not that anyone is reading though... at least I don't think there are... hello? Anyone there? Hello? Hmm. Perhaps you just have better things to do, and who the fuck could blame you? Well, the main reason for the silence has been that we've been recording vocals, which I dreaded getting started on (consult the last entry). However, things have turned out much better than expected. I just needed to get into it again, you know, singing. I don't sing much. I can't because of my neighbours and stuff, and it's been forever since the last i am bones show, or beta satan for that matter. So, I was pretty rusty getting started. But we worked at a pace of roughly 1½ song pr day only interrupted by world cup football and a committed alcohol abuse. So, now we just need to sing on three more tracks, re-record another track (fucking hell), a touch-up-session and then of course mixing and mastering. The new and improved deadline is july 1st, however, that is impossible, so now it's the day before departing for a fortnights vacation, jule 14th. Which is very needed by now... all of this album shite, and then university exams on top of it. It surely has been an eventful year! Stressful, yes. Boring, hell no! Somewhat annoying, yeah kinda.

Oh, hi! How ARE you doing? I ask because I've figured out a way to open up for comments on this damn blog. Things are moderately OK over here, I suppose. But. The album-stuff keeps dragging out and I'm about to go nuts and have become somewhat of an asshole regarding the whole process. However, we are seeing more and more green bars in the studio. No, we are not on mushrooms, it's the system we have on Kenneth's computer to see how far we've come, you know, by the colours of the folders on the computer; we paint them green in order to point out that, hey, this is pretty good. Speaking of pretty good, we've actually had a couple of pretty good days and we are not far from starting the recording of vocals on a bunch of tracks – an absolutely horrible stage, comparable to the last days of a romantic relationship. This is the where the separation phase begins for me. The only pieces of gut-wrenching, skull-fucking, annoying pieces of shite that's left to do before that final, god awful stage, are solving a drum problem or two and re-recording some plague-ridden guitars, oh, and I fucking have to re-write some gangrene lyrics too – which i HATE. If writing lyrics is having to endure a biopsy, having to sing them is receiving the terminal diagnose. So basically, if I die before this album is done, I'll kill myself. All this talk serves to vent my frustration, of course. Whenever I feel this level of artistic AIDS I remind myself that the material is actually still pretty strong, and the reason I get worked up or bogged down is because I actually still care – a fact I hope will eventually be reflected in the final result. So uhm....... yeah... basically.... Both Kenneth and I will probably have to see a therapist after this is done – a fact the buying public MUST recognize and PITY by appreciating the end result. Ahem!

Hey, so I've signed with danish label Crunchy Frog. It's totally awesome! When Beta Satan played Roskilde in 2008, we had a pretty jolly time after the show, where we'd walk around the festival area, swinging a bottle of Jack Daniels exultantly, being relieved, having a job well done under our belt. I remember Kaare – of Beta Satan – kept bugging Crunchy labelboss Yebo by telling him that he totally should give my new songs a listen. He promised he would. So, being thrilled with the work Crunchy has and is doing for Beta Satan, I sent him a bunch of demos last year and he and the office was all like 'damn boyfriend, this is great – let's make a god damn hit record' – and I was all like 'damn bro, that's too cool, lemme just write a couple more dope tracks for yous, cuz I'm on to sumthin' awesome' – and so I did. And here we are. I'm proud as can be!

However, the joy is also tinged with a pinch of sadness, as this means that I am departing from Morningside Records with whom I've been for 7 years or so... Jesper Brodersen has been a totally good guy to me and my bands over the years, and he has invested time and money in my stuff and he has always been an ideological, no-bullshit-beacon to me. So it kinda bums me out. My very best to Jesper and the wonderful artists on Morningside Records!

3rd Tsunami and Jesper Frydenlund will continue to maintain the booking department of this corporation... which is cool!

In other news: the single will be mastered next sunday! I think the mix is pretty good by now. But, honestly, I can't tell anymore as I've listened to the song 500+ times. You sorta loose perspective, but luckily Kenneth is as steady as a rock and has worked relentlessly the last couple of days to mix the track. Apparently, the first song is the hardest in the mixing stages because you have give shape to the ideas you have for both the track itself, but also to the entire direction of the album. God, I hate mixing. It is the single most annoying phase of recording an album – which is itself pretty effing annoying! I become so unsure of the entire project and my songwriting and my musical abilities... yikes! Luckily, when this is over, I'm going to France with my friends Klaus and Clauern.

Oh fuck, i almost forgot! Cabin Fever is no longer the name of the band. Now it's The Malpractice. I'll elaborate on this some other time.

Best!

Ragazze! Che notte!

Hmm hmm. Going to mix the lead single this sunday. So that's just great. And then Kenneth and I will venture to Ajstrup for a week of absolutely friggin resolve to get as close to the god damn finish line as possible. I still need to write some lyrics... oh and some melody and the title track isn't even remotely arranged yet... and I have a ton of exam papers to top it off, but i'll work it out somehow. I hope... Yes. signing-things went fine last thursday. We met at Raadhuscafeen in Aarhus and had wienerschnitzels (no, not weener-schnitzels). That's a pretty good starting point in my opinion. Io sono un poco in amorato con i miei amici nuovi. Yes. The headquarters recommends the Mondo Cane album. It's pure spaghetti carbonara. Especially the first track 'il cielo in una stanza'. It has rekindled my love for the italian language and I've promised myself to start learning it properly this summer. So. Yeah. I guess that's pretty much it. Which isn't a lot really. Oh, might I add, that the Q & Hans one-off concert in May is, well not taking shape, but we are not quite as fucked as it looked a week ago according to rehearsals last night.