Lately in the shop window!

Hi Folks! A couple of weeks ago I was walking back home late at night when I saw two guys having a way past midnight picnic in a shop window! They had been reconstructing the inside of a shop all night and where just taking a break! I thought that was so funny so I stopped to take a photo. I like people like that! We ended up talking about the advantages of working at night and how music can make working easier sometimes. I haven’t mentioned this yet explicitly, but obviously I really like music! I especially enjoy music that is real, heartfelt and soulful! Later on my way back home I tried to figure out what my favourite songs where these last months. It’s a hard choice to make but this is a list of songs I have been listening to a lot in the last couple of months:

1. William Fitzsimmons: I Don’t Feel It Anymore 2. Bowerbirds: In Our Talons 3 Teitur: The Girl I Don’t know 4. Nina Kinert: Wings 5. Bon Iver: Skinny Love 6 Fionn Regan: Snowy Atlas Mountains 7 Christina Maria: Straight Line 8. Christian Kjellvander: Reverse Traverse Blues 9. Iron and Wine: Sunset Soon Forgotten 10. C.Gibbs & Lucinda Black Bear: Medicine Bag

I forgot to mention Matt Epp! I am a delirious fan of his latest record too! Ok, who did I forget? The Weepies? I better not start! And my favourite song title so far? I think Sufjan gets that one! The song is called: THE BLACK HAWK WAR, or, how to demolish an entire civilisation and still feel good about yourself in the morning, or, we apologize for the inconvenience but you’re going to have to leave now, or, “I have fought the big knives and will continue to fight them until they are off our lands!” That’s all for now!

Album Salton Sea now available

Hi there!So, finally it’s here, my album is out! When I look back to the days when I first started singing and writing songs, it’s been quite a long journey to get here! Most of the 12 songs on the CD were written a couple of years ago during a time when I was actually really busy and writing songs was something I could only do late at night. Sometimes it felt like I had to steal the time for it, but my urge to write those tunes was there so that I never questioned it. If you really love what you are doing, you’ll always find a way to do it. The actual process of recording started with the song, “Home Again,” a song I wrote for a dear friend of mine who unexpectedly died a while ago. As for the other songs; we first recorded the complete songs with my guitar and vocals and in a second step, musicians from all around contributed ideas and instruments to each song. In a way it was like dressing a mannequin or filling a black and white picture with colours. It’s been a patchwork quilt project and that way the songs started to take on their own life and grow! Stories I had written about love, travelling, about not wanting to be who I am, about becoming who I am, books I read, dealing with failure, about people I met and about things that were happening in the world around me and had left an impression on me started to become personalities. I chose the name Salton Sea for the album, because I was always fascinated by that place. The long and winding history of California’s biggest inland saline lake, its myths and tragedies, it’s destruction and reinvention, the ghosts that haunt that place and the uncertain future. It feels like this is the end of a phase right now, but it’s actually a new start! I have new material, I guess my new songs will be different, maybe more experimental. I like stories, so maybe I will make a theme record next time, or a collection of poems or tales together with songs? I just feel like pushing my limits further right now and finding new ways to do that! But for now I am really grateful to release this body of work and it’s so great to have an understanding of the complete process of making and releasing an album. Salton Sea is now available on most major distributers like CD Baby, I-tunes, Cede.ch or Fontastix. I hope you enjoy it! Thank you for your support!

CD Release @ Henrici

Thanks so much to everyone who came out to see the show last Thursday! I won’t forget that evening! We had a blast and hope you did too! Thank you Henrici! And thanks for posting the video. I’ll have some more up soon!

Vote for Christina Maria!

Hi Folks! If you haven’t heard of Christina Maria yet, you should visit her site or catch her next live show and have a listen to those heartfelt and soulful songs she plays! www.myspace.com/christinamariagroup This year she has been selected to be part of the Peak Performance Project! The PPP is one of the biggest radio station projects in Canada and helps promote, develop and launch the careers of some of BC’s up and coming artists. She is working really hard to win and by voting for her (8 until 18 of October) you can help her win a $100,500.00 towards her career! Thank you for supporting her!

www.p3.fm

Mustang Sally!

My dad, a soul man! And since I can remember he used to play music around our house. He sang a lot and played guitar. He also used to play the trumpet while driving the car, what got him into trouble several times! Back in Czechoslovakia he used to be the singer of a band called Flamingo. They started playing soul music which was new for most people back then and when the Russians occupied the country they where told to stop playing USA music. They had to hide their instruments and the records that had been produced! Recently my dad’s been back for some shows and a couple of months ago the Czech television made a documentary about him! So I thought I would post this! It's translated into German!Zatím!

New live videos on youtube!

Last Sunday I took the train to Basel and met up with my buddy Gordon Bell who does just about everything you can imagine a person could do! He’s a songwriter and a singer, a caffeine junkie and a joker, he’s a dissident and a commuter takes photos, is the resurrection of Alex Harvey and the ghost of Gustav Bertha and he films! It was a beautiful early autumn day and the sunlight had that special cobwebbed light it only has around this time of year! We did a couple of spontaneous videos along the banks of the Rhine River and on some bridges in town. Then we filmed on a small ferry boat that’s attached to a rope and crosses the river at it’s own pace! I think I like this video best because it hits the mood of the song quite nicely! Raise a glass on Gordon Bell!