Update for guitarists:

Hey dudes and dudettes,

I realised I hadn't updated the "Guitar Licks..." page in a while, so I transcribed the intro of "Dawn of Solace" for you, as it can pretty much be used as an example and an exercise in alternate picking. Have fun! :)

Yes, we do.

Do intelligent people drink more alcohol?

Fucking fuck...

How to kill a classic...

It's a simulation

So, apparently we all live in The Matrix

Train, again.

Sitting in a train, no hangover :) Yesterdays show in kuopio was, in a word, awesome. Lots of really loud people, shitloads of fun! A big "thank you" to everyone who attended, hope to see you again soon!

The aching of the head...

On our way to play a show, yesterday. Today we are a bit more conventional and take a car.

No he didn't

On another note, I'm getting tired of Bieber jokes. I don't think I've heard one song from the start to finish, and I don't think I will. Fuck "him" and fuck you.

Crappy studio

Came to 5by5 Studio. There's no beer here. I'm leaving->

Informative...

http://mormonmissionarypositions.com/

Helsinki, again...

So, I find myself in Helsinki again... We did the Radio X3M-thing today, wasn't as terrible as I thought it would be. Tomorrow we play in a private event in Helsinki, and on Saturday we're off to Kuopio, which is nice. I like the venue in Kuopio a lot.

I'm booooored...

Quote of the day:

"Order is for idiots, genius can handle chaos"

Morning, coffee, all that jazz...

Hiya,

just sitting here, drinking my morning coffee. Felt like an idiot earlier when I couldn't find my blog from anywhere, was already contemplating on writing a really angry mail to Google when I noticed I was logged in on a wrong account... Way to go me...

I have a few phoners (and boners) today, starting in 40min. I hate talking on the phone and interviews are the worst, but maybe I'll manage. Tomorrow I'll go to Helsinki and we go to do a live broadcast on Radio X3M, interview and 2 songs. Not looking forward to that, but hey, we have to try and sell ourselves, just like a good hooker would :) Friday and Saturday are showdays again, that's more my thing anyway than just talking about myself to people I don't even know :) So if you happen to be in Kuopio on Saturday, come and see us Rock the Acoustic Metal!

EDIT:

Oh yeah, we posted a Finnish radio commercial for Blackoustic, because they are funny. So, if you understand Finnish, enjoy :)

Quote of the day:

"There's a lot of empty calories on the radio"

-Geddy Lee

Documentary night

No, that is not a euphemism for watching a lot of porn :) I watched "Freddie Mercury - The Great Pretender" and "Metal Evolution Ep.3". The Mercury documentary was kinda disappointing, it seemed to lack coherence, just a lot of clips spliced together, aside from the part where the talk about "Barcelona" extensively. Didn't really bring anything new into the table aside that. Too bad, as he seems genuinely an interesting fellow.

"Metal Evolution" seems to be pretty interesting documentary about the history and evolution of what we perceive as "Heavy Metal". Each episode is around 40min long and there are eleven of them. It's kinda frustrating, as the subject at hand is very interesting and it seems they barely scratch the surface of one thing and then move right into the next one. Of course I understand that if they would dwell into everything in much greater detail this would be waaaay too long, and probably also very tedious to watch for your Average Joe. I on the other hand could easily use some more insight on things. Well worth watching still.

Survived...

The week was pretty heavy, and busy as fuck, but we prevailed. Last night we played the "release gig" for Blackoustic in On The Rocks, and it was a blast. A lot of people who were VERY loud as well. A big thanks to everyone who attended, much appreciated :) We tried to make the evening special and played two sets, first one being more mellow filled with only ballads, and the second one being a full-on rock set. Not sure if it worked, but at least we had fun :) Here's the setlists for those of you who might be interested:

SET 1:

BLACK DIAMOND

SPEED OF LIGHT

BEAUTY HAS COME

COMING HOME

WHERE MY RAINBOW ENDS

BEHIND BLUE EYES

RAINBOW EYES

INTO THE BLUE

FOREVER

KARJALAN KUNNAILLA

SET 2:

SLEEP WELL

SHOT IN THE DARK

I SURRENDER

LIVING ON A PRAYER

REASONS

OUT IN THE FIELDS

PERFECT STRANGERS

BREAKING THE LAW

LOVE AIN'T NO STRANGER

MY SELENE

I WANT IT ALL

THE TROOPER

HUNTING HIGH AND LOW

FINAL COUNTDOWN

Despite...

Despite the local soundguy and his best efforts the show tonight was pretty damn good. The guy was totally clueless, but the crowd saved the night and me and Timo proved after last nights disaster that we actually can play when we feel like it. Damn this would've been great without the moron behind the soundboard...

Bäkzake

Just waiting for my turn to rock :)

Today:

Blackoustic is out and I have a hangover, seems like everything is as it should be.

Blackoustic on the radio tonight

Radio Rock will play "Blackoustic" through in its entirety tonight starting at 00:00 Finnish time (that's CET+1, for you who don't know), along with comments from both me and Timo. To listen go to their webpage and click on the "Kuuntele" button on the top of the page.

@ 5by5 again

Making some radio commercials for Blackoustic, because if you want something done right you have to do it yourself.

These days...

..are pretty busy. Today was made of ordering CDs and shirts, working out a radio commercial which we'll record tomorrow, jogging, rehearsing and various other activities. Could really go for a cold beer right about now. Well, we knew this would be a busy week. Tomorrow is the last day of rehearsing and on thursday we'll head to Tampere, my favorite city in Finland, to rock the fucking acoustic metal.

Bill has been Killed...

Yeah, we watched the Kill Bill Vol.2. tonight, and I have to say, I don't agree with you guys who commented on the second one being the better one. The first one was visually quite impressive and inventive, also in ways they incorporated some pretty weird music choices, whereas I found the second one was not nearly as nice to look at, missing most of the elements I liked in the first one, and the story telling (the story wasn't that much to write home about anyway) dragging quite a bit a times...

In other news: We did quite a lot of promo today and also managed to rehearse. Tomorrow and wednesday are scheduled for rehearsals as well, and on thursday it's time to get busy again. Kinda excited and kinda scared shitless about saturday, but I'm confident we can pull this shit out :)

We've been rehearsing

And I can prove it:

Today was ok

As I told before, no hangover, woke up and felt totally fine. We went running, had a sauna, ate some salad (really), rehearsed and tried to build setlists for next week, and watched Kill Bill vol.1. Day well spent. Not a sip of alcohol either :)

Tomorrow is a promo day, interviews and crap regarding "Blackoustic". BTW, if you're Finnish or just generally interested in listening to us talking in Finnish and making asses of ourselves, we are gonna be guests on a live broad cast on Radio Rock, tomorrow (15th of October) 18:00-19:00 Finnish time (CET+1).

I'll try to catch some shuteye so I'll look pretty tomorrow.

Funky...

To wake up on a sunday, after a shownight, without a hangover. Now a cup of coffee and then jogging with Mr.T, then maybe some rehearsing. Welcome the new healthy (well, healthier...) lifestyle :)

Backstage...

...bored...

Last free night in a week.

Today I got my hair coloured, it was long overdue. Tomorrow we play a show with Mr.T, sunday is for rehearsing, monday is for promo, tue-wed more rehearsing and thu-sat will be shows. Gonna be pretty heavy week, but I'm not complaining. It's just the nature of the beast. Hopefully I'll catch some of you on the road next week, we play Tampere, Nokia and Helsinki. The show in Helsinki is also the "release gig" for Blackoustic, we're thinking of doing something a little different there. Lets see how it turns out.

Now I'll have a drink and enjoy the luxury of time, won't have much of it next week. If we survive the week it's gonna be like this:

Blackoustic track by track

Here's a video where me and Timo talk about the album and go through it track by track, in case you are interested:

Blackoustic track by track

Quote of the day:

"If you can't be a good example, be a terrible warning"

Soft porn...

...what's the point? It's just people making faces.

Testing

Gonna try and make some Dutch lonkero. My BFF was in Rotterdam for the summer and brought me some Dutch gin. Ought to be interesting :)

Today...

Today I've built Optimus Prime, what have you done?

Well...

Apparently I DID have to make the demo today. Had to record it with Audacity (which I've never used for multitracking before) while singing into the computer's built-in microphone (as I didn't have the time to update my real setup). Probably the most beautiful sounding thing I've recorded in my life. Now I'm so pissed I need a drink.

Blargh....

Just came from jogging, could only run about 4km as it was raining, as it has days on end now. Had to do something though, as I have been feeling pretty bloated and all in all bad about myself. Hopefully I can start to exercise more again so I won't turn into a fucking blob.

Was supposed to record some demo vocals today as well, but as I told you I have updated my OSX, and now I have to update the Logic Pro as well. How fucking awesome... Well, I'll fix it tonight and record it tomorrow, not the end of the world. Just fucking annoying.

Quote of the day:

"In a sea of retards, you're Poseidon."

Rautaa vai roskaa?

Apparently they've put us in the Radio Rock's "Rautaa vai roskaa" voting thingy... I have no clue why one would do that, as our stuff clearly isn't suitable for that. Well, whateva, doesn't really make a difference. There's a link if you feel like voting. Choosing "Rautaa" means you like it, and choosing "Roskaa" means that you don't, for those of you who don't speak Finnish.

Tänään

Tänään on pääpäivä! :)

Call it a day

Today was actually a lot of fun, singing with the guys was a blast and the new Stratovarius album is going to be pretty fucking good :) Tomorrow it's time to loosen up the tie a little and hang out with my BFF. "When it's time to party we will party hard" :)

(Picture blatantly ripped from Stratovarius facebook-page)

Another day, another chorus

Back @ 5by5 Studio to continue with the backing vocals. We spent 8 hours here yesterday, have to say my throat is a bit sore. Oh well, hopefully it'll start feeling better when it warms up a bit...

Some guys use terms like piano or forte, but not these guys:)

Party on Wayne!

Tonight I'm attending a party, which is fun for a change. Can't drink too much though, since tomorrow I'll have to head to Helsinki and 5by5 Studios to sing some backing vocals, which will then continue on friday. Saturday is reserved for fun :)

Well, I did it...

Not sure if it's any good, but it's the best I can come up with tonight, hopefully it'll do. Took quite a while and quite a few whiskeys, but the end justifies the means in this case. Deadlines, gotta love 'em.

Here we go...

...let the poetry flow through me like a stream of unbound inspiration.

...or at least let me suck a bit less than usually...

So it goes...

I was planning to be sober until the weekend, but apparently I have to finish lyrics for one song for tomorrow. That means I'm gonna need some whiskey tonight. Oh well, occupational hazards...

Some clips

Some clips from "Blackoustic" can be found at RecordshopX website, I'll see if I have the time to put them somewhere today myself, but at least there you can hear some of it.