With a one week perspective, it's almost like you have to ask yourself...what happened? The first two months of 2012 has without a doubt been the most intense in my life. Of course it's not an ideal situation to record under a tight deadline, nevertheless it's something you have to handle. Guess we'll have the answer to that specific question in about a month from now, regardless if we want it or not. Once again this is a very honest recording, where you can really hear, sense, feel, I mean almost smell …

As I'm sitting here writing down the info on titles and the length of the songs of our upcoming album Powerplay, I'm actually listening to it. After a couple of sleepless nights , due to late night mastering (thank you Jouni), I'm finally here listening to the album for real. Of course I promised Reingold Records we'll be ready about a week ago (because of promotion etc and even that would be late). Nevertheless, right now the stuff is on it's way to Dicentia to become the final product - Powerplay: …

To say the schedule's been tight lately, would be a vast understatement. On top of that, corrupt files and missing solos that eventually ended up in 13 hours of troubleshooting yesterday. When things like this occur during your first day of mixing, you really need to remind yourself that music is fun. Nevertheless, here we are Tomas Bodin (sound engineer) and me mixing the new HFMC opus "POWERPLAY" and let me tell you, we really grabbed the bull by the horn. We started with the "epic" …

It actually hit us like a bomb, when we (Tomas Bodin and me, both very occupied with the upcoming HFMC record as well as the opus "Crime Of The Century") realized the plan, The Flower Kings recordlabel Inside Out/Century Media, has for The Kings in the nearest future. The deadline for the master is 120303. Considering the fact that we started the recording at 120123, that's the world record right there, when it comes to producing a Flower Kings album. I spent all of yesterday at the …

On "FuturePast" I was very keen on using my voice in as many different ways as possible, trying to avoid sounding the same all the time. Everything to try to please you listeners of course! On this recording the word of the day has been "GO FOR IT!" By that I mean, when the song requires I've been giving it all I've got...meaning less control but on the other hand, more attitude. Frankly I'm happy with most of it, while I'm still trying to get used to some of my vocal contributions. …

As I've been doing lots of vocals lately, I've come to realize myself that the lyrics to some of the songs are more personal than I thought in the first place. Except for songs like "Venice CA", "Waves" (which are very personal and positive) and "The world keeps turning", I guess the lyrics are a bit darker this time, dealing with war, religion and other "serious" topics. As I've had a pretty turbulent year, maybe I chose to write about those things because it …

Music is such a powerful thing! When I was younger, I thought by now I would have lost my passion for music. During this weekend I've learnt that my passion for music is even stronger than before. There were moments during this session that moved me in a way I've never experienced before. Just as I said, music is a powerful thing! In the middle of the "storm" we managed to get a whole lotta work done. Tomas is very fast and effective in the studio and since I like to be very well prepared …

I must have been "dizzy" last night. I really don't know if I should laugh or cry? In studio report nr. II yesterday, I mentioned I could go on for "ages" in the studio 20 years ago, of course I meant 30 years ago. It's hillarious for Christ's sake! However just as I stated yesterday, that's certainly not the case nowadays. Anyway, we've now completed recording the backing tracks. During these 3 days we've been working on 8 songs and I have to say we've been a lot more careful this …

It's very common that you're in a more relaxed mood as soon as you've done your first day in the studio. That's what it was like today but it's a good feeling though. It's just that you have to remind the lads and even yourself sometimes, to play with the kind of "energy" the song requires (the older you get, the ears gets more and more tired). I have to confess, even your head gets tired faster nowadays. 20 years ago you could record for 15 hours in a row before someone reminded you that maybe …

It's in fact walking distance from where I live to Big Jambo Studios. It's almost surreal to live that close to a nice studio like this. At 10 o clock sharp all the members of HFMC, sound engineer Jouni Niemi and Tomas Bodin entered the doors and within 5 minutes the "vibe" was there. To you who've met the band, I guess you know what I'm talking about. It's actually hard to describe but it's a kind of "lose and funky feeling", with a giant laugh just around the corner most of the …

 Happy New Year everybody! I've come to the point in my life where I'm looking for an amp with a loud but clean sound. For years I've been playing with a "sweet and thick" distorsion and the clean sound has always suffered. This time I thought it was time for a change. I've just bought myself a Paul Rivera built Fender concert (60 w) from 82. It's an all tube amp, loud as hell but still 100% clean, not even a little bit of "crunch". 10 minutes ago I switched it off and now I'm …

 The mighty year of 2010 has come to an end and what could be a better way to end it, than to rehearse with HFMC! I've already told you about my feelings since we released FuturePast. I also mentioned some of the plans for 2011. I actually spoke to Mark "Truey" Trueack of Unitopia just before Christmas about "The Hope" project among other things. He informed me it's still on and it's progressing nice and easy but a little slow (sounds familiar!). Do you remember? Some blogs ago I …

 I'm actually not gonna quote the Irish schlager singer Johnny Logan and state that this has been "just another year". That's certainly not the case, quite the contrary I would say. 2010 has for the lads and me been rather extraordinary! After the fact that we mastered FuturePast for the third time and I realized that we wouldn't be able to release it before the summer, it was like bloody torture to sit on your ...ss and wait for over 3 months to get it out in the open. Since then it's …

 Finally! At last I can give you the dates of our next little trip of the FuturePast tour 2010/2011. Since we decided to not do England this time, I was forced to cancel one show and "reschedule" two of the other gigs. After lots of e-mails and phone calls, this is what it looks like: 110127: John Dee - Oslo (Norway). Together with Norwegian band Magic Pie. 110226: Musikens Hus - Gothenburgh (Sweden). Festival with Wasa Express and Lone Star Retractor. 110227: Into Music - Lund (Sweden). …

 First of all, tonight or today "and" tomorrow (depending on where you live) you can listen to Rick Dashiell of Delicious Agony and the investigating questions he had for me. I don't know what this little dialogue will end up like? But I remember we talked about the obvious, HFMC, FuturePast and also a little about TFK. As I remember it, we did it randomly in a relaxed and cozy way. For more information, this is the way to go: …