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Ja det var tider det …

Monday, March 9th, 2015

What? A blog post? Here, on this site? 😮

Well, I guess it’s about time to write a bit about my move to Norway. Or to finally blog about my “Concerts 2014”. Or plan the summer festivals for 2015. Or … uhm.
Nope, I wasn’t much into blogging lately. I should pick it up again, and – maybe I will. I think I might. But I’m not promising anything. =;-)

This post, however, is not about any of those topics. It’s about – surprise surprise! -: Kaizers Orchestra. Who woulda thunk? *gg*

I saw the new Kaizers movie yesterday. I really liked it – but then, I don’t think I can really judge it. OF COURSE I liked it, since it is about Kaizers, and it actually contains new interviews and both old and new unseen footage. So it is, without a doubt, a must-see for Kaizer fans.

In one scene in the movie, Helge mentions that towards the end of Kaizers, in the last months and weeks, the friendship and the bonds between the members grew stronger. I found that really interesting, because (in a completely different context) I’ve experienced that once an “end” is decided, everything kind of falls apart, because there is no need to fix things and keep them together anymore. It’s awesome to hear that this worked out so well for Kaizers and they did not break apart in the end.

But it also got me thinking … From a fan perspective, looking back now, I have the feeling that while the bonds in the band apparently grew stronger, the “fan community”, the huge Kaizer family, started falling apart. While there was one group of “Kaizer fans” in the past, it turned more and more into one faction here, one faction there, oldtimers, newbies, Hjerteknuser fans, “everything was better in 2001” fans, …

Of course, this isn’t surprising. The number of fans grew so much that there was just no way to have one family. And just to make that clear right away, I’m not putting the blame on anyone. I’m sure I’m just as much to blame as everyone else. While in my early fan days, I wanted to meet EVERY other Kaizers fans out there, I’ve gotten less and less interested in talking to fourteen-year-olds, I tend to look down on fans that tour for festival shows (why don’t you wait for REAL concerts?!), and I just don’t understand fans that queue hours before a show.

Years ago, there were surely also some fans that kept separate from the rest. But all in all, it felt much more like “family”. I met one of the old DMA family at the screening yesterday, and while we couldn’t even remember the other’s name, we remembered “the old days” right away. Lots of great memories – and I feel that years from now, ALL my Kaizers memories will be from the old days. Violeta? Well, yes, sure. Siste Dans? Yep, I was there. But the good times were back then, long before Violeta.

Lots of people “dropped out” of the Kaizers universe since then. That’s totally fine, everybody got their own reasons for that. I just hope that people will remember the times we had, instead of ridiculing them. Just a short while ago I was told “well, SOME of us are over Kaizers now …” Hmm. Should I congratulate you now? Because you’re over the stupidities of your youth? Or should I rather pity you because it seems you don’t see that even though this part of your life is over, we were part of something huge and we should keep it in our hearts?

OK, I might be getting a bit melodramatic now. 😉 In any case, it’s a fact that for me (other fans might be at different stages in their fandom, of course) the time of one big Kaizers family is over. Finding people to meet up with for Kaizers events is getting harder and harder, and while years ago, I was looking forward to every concert because I knew that – even without arranging anything – I would meet awesome fellow fans, I now hardly care anymore because there are only very few of those people left. And those I can meet without organized events as well.

Of course it was great to see that it’s still possible to “unite” fans without too much effort (with a few kilos of confetti or some hundred balloons – even though nobody knew how that would turn out, almost everyone was in). But there are so many fans by now that there is not one community anymore. But one of oldtimers, one of newbies, one of Hjerteknuser fans, … And I hope that all the “everything was better in 2001” fans will manage to find their way to the cinema in the upcoming weeks, to be reminded of what we had.

It might be over. Life moves on. But I’m still proud and happy about the times we had. Me går langt tilbake til de gamle dager …

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Concert summary 2013

Saturday, December 28th, 2013

2013 is almost over – time for the annual look back at the concerts of the year!

Let’s start with the numbers: 55 concerts in total, seven of these were summer festivals. There weren’t really a lot of bands I saw more than once or twice … only Itchy Poopzkid with two concerts and two festivals, I think, and die Ärzte with one concert and two festivals. Oh, and of course this weird Norwegian band that I saw a couple of times this year. =;-)

29 of these concerts were in Germany, the other 26 abroad. Which is a rather strange ratio, I know, but well, I’m a concert junkie. =;-) In addition to the concerts, I attended three WWE events, one musical, one ballet, and one TV award show.

The smallest concert of all was the Honningbarna concert in Stuttgart: There were ten, maybe fifteen people in the audience. It was great fun, even though I was a bit jetlagged and couldn’t enjoy it as much as I would have a week later. The biggest concert … hmm, not quite sure. Probably Rock’n’Heim festival or the Ärzte concert in Bietigheim-Bissingen. I guess both had an audience of about 20.000.

Die Ärzte … well, no, I guess it’s over. I tried to give them another chance in Bietigheim-Bissingen, but it just was no fun. If you’re at a concert and think that you could just as well be back home on your couch with a good book – there’s no need to be there. And I had a very similar feeling when they played at Taubertal festival and Rock’n’Heim a month later.

The festivals: Interestingly, the festivals that I enjoyed most were Trollrock in Norway and Rock’n’Heim. The first one was tiny but awesome – only a few bands every day, so no “overkill”, and great music, nice people, and good weather. The latter … well, I had expected to HATE it there. Big, new (and therefore unorganized), expensive, my last festival of the year. But I wasn’t “working” at the festival, thus not writing any report or taking photos, so I could just do whatever I wanted, and I really enjoyed it. Plus, it was far from sold out, which means the area wasn’t too crowded. So thumbs up!

Biggest band surprise? Hmm, hard to decide. I LOVED the concerts/festivals with Itchy Poopzkid and Madsen. A perfect mixture and two great bands on stage! Also, I greatly enjoyed the Fozzy concerts I got to see, and I’m looking forward to their next European tour. Beware, I’m coming after you! =;-) And my new discovery of the year is clearly Hoffmaestro – I saw them at some festivals and turned into a fan right away. Their album is just as awesome. The sad part is that they canceled their tour in fall, so I hope I can catch them next year!

And finally, there was … Kaizers Orchestra. 28 concerts this year – three at the opera in Oslo, one in London, one in New York, and finally seven in a row in Stavanger. If I want to list the “traditional” geographical statistics, it’s Kaizers only. Northern-most concert: Kaizers in Trondheim. Eastern-most concert: Kaizers in Vienna. Southern-most concert: Kaizers in Zurich. Western-most concert: Kaizers in New York City.

Yes – New York City. And London. Both in one year – within one month, actually. It’s crazy, but it was soooo worth it. The London trip: an awesome week together with great friends, and not only Kaizers, but also WWE and Fozzy. I can’t even pick the highlight of the week – Kaizers were just one of many highlights. New York City had been on my list of cities to visit for a long time. Still, when the concert was announced, I knew I wouldn’t go there. And at the same time I knew I would … and I did. And just like London, it was a great vacation, and the Kaizers concert (and afterparty) were just … surreal. But an experience that I will never forget. And NYC itself would have been worth the trip even without the concert, so it wasn’t fully crazy. =;-)

Not all Kaizers concerts were amazing this year – I’ve seen them soooo often by now that I know them way too well. What might seem like a great concert to most can be a bit disappointing for me, as I notice if they could do more but just don’t care, like for example at my ten-year anniversary at Ravnefesten in Kristiansand. It was still a great concert, just not as good as it could have been. Still, there’s no concert that I would have wanted to miss. So many memories, so much joy, so much fun. Thank you, Kaizers!

The last week of concerts in Stavanger was a rollercoaster ride – both emotionally and concerning the “work load” (not only caused by Kaizers of course, as I was also doing “real” work remotely, but there was quite some work related to Kaizers). It was a terrific finale though – of course! Followed and finalized by meeting Janove at the airport in Amsterdam the day after the final show … time to really say goodbye.

Or so I thought … Just last month, I went to Norway again to hand out the award for the best live band of the year to the best live band of the year! Another surreal experience, and a great honor.

So this concludes the Kaizers era now. There will surely be less concerts for me next year, and fewer trips to Norway. Skambankt will take over a bit – my first trip to Norway is booked and scheduled already – but I doubt I’ll go there as often as for Kaizers. But we’ll see …

Apart from Skambankt, I’m looking forward to a Fozzy tour, some great concerts with Thees Uhlmann, Wirtz, Hoffmaestro, and of course some nice summer festivals. Taubertal, Mini Rock, maybe Trollrock again – it’s gonna be a fun year, but it will not be as much and as rushed as this year. Which is good, even for a concert junkie like me. =;-)

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Salz & Pfeffer

Saturday, August 31st, 2013

Kaizers played Salt & Pepper tonight. Which is awesome … for everyone who was there. For me (who was not) it just makes me panic. A little bit at least. Or well, honestly enough to write a blog post in the middle of the night …

So, let’s back up. I started following Kaizers over ten years ago. Obviously, they played a lot of different songs back then than they do now. Some songs stayed, some went, some returned. The three songs that they played a lot when I first got into Kaizers and then suddenly stopped playing were Djevelens Orkester, På ditt skift, and Salt & Pepper. Of course there were more than that – songs like Mann mot Mann or Død manns tango or, for quite a while, 170. I didn’t care that these songs were missing. But the other three, I dearly missed.

I remember asking Rune about Djevelens Orkester one night, at Internasjonalen in Oslo (don’t ask me though after what concert that was and how we ended up at Internasjonalen and why the band was there as well?! But I remember Tor/Elvis was also there and explained to me that Internasjonalen has so “reasonably priced drinks”. In Norway. “Reasonably priced”. Muahaha … *gg*). Rune explained they just didn’t feel like playing the song at the time, but “who knows, maybe it’ll suddenly turn up again”. A few concerts later, they started playing it again. 😀

I just LOVED the original version of På ditt skift that they played before the song was actually released. After the album was out, they played it differently and not quite as energetic, and at some point in time, it completely disappeared from the set. Even though the song had changed, I wished to get to hear it again for a loooong time. And yes, they started playing it again; not very often, but I caught it a few times. It wasn’t as good as the original version. They left out the ending – and instead of starting it up again after the quiet part (which was THE BEST!), they transitioned into Fra sjåfør til passasjer. Which is another awesome song, so I really cannot complain, even though I’ll never get to hear the original version live again.

Salt & Pepper. They played it a lot during my first concerts. So much that at some point in time, we came up with the idea to pick up those little packages of Salt & Pepper that they have at McDonald’s etc. and throw them on stage during the song. That’s when they stopped playing it. (BEFORE we actually did that, just to make that clear! 😉 )

Since then, I’ve been wishing to hear that song live again, just once more. They did actually play it again. At one of those concerts in Norway where Øyvind painted a picture during the show. I wasn’t there, but of course I hoped they would play it at one of the European shows as well, since they had actually practiced it. But no, only at that one show in Norway … I asked Helge about it after a show in Zürich, but he was very clear: “Janove doesn’t like it, so it’s very unlikely we’ll play it again.” Right then, I hated Janove (a bit). They haven’t played it since. I wished for it for my 100th concert – didn’t get it.

Now they played it again. One time. At a concert that I missed. And I am so frickin’ afraid that history will repeat itself and they play it ONE TIME and then Janove decides he doesn’t like it and drops it from the setlist. And I will never get to hear it live again.

Yes, I know, it’s just a song. But it’s Salt & Pepper …

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Herrliche Jahre?

Saturday, February 9th, 2013

Yesterday was crazy. The tickets for Kaizers Orchestra’s “last concert” went on sale. 6000 tickets. Which were sold out after 8 minutes. I still don’t believe that – not sure if the black market works the same in Norway as in Germany, but if it does, I guess we’ll see lots and lots of tickets on ebay and qxl the next weeks and months. If it doesn’t, I’ve underestimated that band. I mean, 6000 tickets for a concert that was officially announced only one day before?! And actually, 6000 tickets for that one concert. 15.000 including the additional concerts by now. 😮

Yes, the marketing was perfect – create a huge uproar the day before about quitting and the possibly last concert and so on, so people get hyped up just in time … but still, getting people to actually buy tickets the next morning at 9 am sharp is a different story … I’m really not sure what to make out of that.

But actually, that wasn’t really what I wanted to blog about. The reason for this entry is this article. I read it on Thursday night already, and it upset me. Not the “getting angry” kind of upset, not at all – more the “starting to cry” kind of upset. Why? I had no idea. It didn’t really contain any surprises for me, but it reflects exactly the roles of the band members as I’ve gotten to know them. And naah, I don’t necessarily see all these statements in the positive way that Aftenbladet depicts them. I guess I’m reading between the lines, which might be wrong, but might be right as well. I agree with most of what is said, it reflects what I expected, I’d love to say “sounds good” but I feel sorry for some “not gonna work” parts (and hope that I’m wrong). I certainly know the feeling of wanting (and needing) to get away. (Even though I wouldn’t mind the ordinary job. *g* So if you have a job for me in Norway, let me know. 😉 ) But the statement that I did not like at all was Terje’s.

– Hva gjør du etter 14. september?

– Først og fremst gleder jeg meg til å leve livet på familiens premisser. Nå må alt planlegges ut fra Kaizers, og jeg ser fram til litt mer frihet. Skambankt blir prioritert. Vi skal i studio i Oslo to dager etter den siste Kaizers-konserten. Ellers har jeg ganske blanke ark, men et par tråder som jeg skal se om det blir noe mer ut av.

– Hva vil du savne når Kaizers legges på is?

– Vi er blitt en familie, og jeg vil savne både bandet og de folkene rundt. Vi kommer nok ikke til å se hverandre så mye, og selv om jeg er klar for en pause vil jeg garantert savne samholdet.

It’s weak. It’s contradictory – “Everything had to be planned according to band A, so now priority goes to band B” – that’s phony. Say what you mean, be honest. Say “Janove is the boss, I can’t stand it, I want to be the boss.” The same with the statement about the band. Yes, you’re listing the good parts. And you’re leaving out the …

*pang*

Wait. Sudden realization.

I worked in a fan club of a huge German band for the last five years. It was a lot of work. There were a lot of great, amazing times, incredible, breathtaking experiences. There were bad times. Fights, anger, desperation. More good times. We created something huge. It was an amazing time, yet it broke my heart. Broke our hearts. It’s impossible to describe that feeling if you haven’t been there. It went out with a bang, and it had to, because we had put in all we had to give and were drained. Looking back hurts, but at the same time, you can’t help but smile because of all the fantastic memories.

Looking at Terje’s statement with these eyes suddenly makes me understand. Substitute a few words, and I could have said just the same. It’s not contradictory … of course you can do what you enjoy after you get rid of what is draining you. I mean, it’s not like what I’m doing with my Kaizers fansite is any different from what I was doing for Die Ärzte – but it’s Kaizers, not Die Ärzte, and they still have my whole heart …

And the second statement – is it honest? Yep, for sure. I’d say just the same about the fan club. Of course there’s shadows, blemishes, but it’s the love for the team that prevails. The negatives might leave their shadows, but it’s nothing you’d want to communicate. It’s not what counts. It’s the positives you want to remember. Is this dishonest? Maybe, a little, I don’t know. Probably that is what gave me a bad feeling… the feeling of being caught in the act because I would say the same. The negative sides might have a huge part in draining you, but it’s the positives that you want to see, want to share, because they are so much more important.

Probably that statement is the most honest of all the statements. But I wouldn’t blame anyone for being not quite honest, because – of course – there’s always stuff that is not for the public.

If my “transferred understanding” is right, I honestly do not want to know how these last months in Kaizers feel. The mixture of being drained and waiting for it to finally be over, and enjoying every second and looking back on something huge. Depending on which part dominates in the mixture, this can break you. It can make it hard, impossible to look back without seeing the shadows. After a certain point is crossed, everything turns into a task instead of something you want to do. We, the fan club team, crossed that line, and looking back tells me that I would never ever want to go back. Let’s hope Kaizers had a better timing.

Or, to sum up my understanding of the current state in a “rather” (okay, VERY *g*) solemn way:

You’ll have to break our hearts to save yours. Hopefully it’s not too late.

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The Kaizervirus

Sunday, September 23rd, 2012

One thing about hardcore fans – and god love ’em, they’re great! – they just have a real tendency to wanna complain and bitch about everything.

Chris Jericho

OK, to make this clear right away: This is not a rant against hardcore fans. In that case, it would be a rant against myself, I guess. It’s also no degradation of “non hardcore” fans. But I think that a lot of the discussions around the Kaizervirus are rooted in the fact that there are different kinds of fans, and keeping that in mind makes it much clearer why some people love it and others hate it.

First: the Kaizervirus? Kaizers Orchestra just released the first single of their new album, and instead of just releasing it, they started a huge viral marketing campaign. On the day the single was expected, nothing happened. A bit later, a video appeared, hinting at a “Kaizervirus” – followed by a cryptic website and hints by Kaizers on Facebook and Twitter. Next, the lyrics were leaked in the source code of the website, and the cover of the single was spread in little pieces all over the net and mailed out to a few fans, turning it into a puzzle. At the same time, Kaizers were looking for a fan to be the first to get to listen to the new songs and “spread the virus”. Nobody really knew what this was about, but of course, people were excited and sending in applications. Plus, of course, speculating a lot about what all this was about.

Already at this time, the campaign was received very differently. Some fans, including me, were really excited and thought it was great fun, while others were annoyed that the single was delayed and they had to wait to hear it. I can understand that – I used to be the same. But by now, I’m much more relaxed about finally getting to hear new songs, because I know that the waiting part is the best. After that, you know the song, and no matter how much you love it – the excitement is gone because you KNOW how it sounds. Nothing to be eager about anymore. And if in addition, the waiting part is combined with an online treasure hunt… YAY! Amazing, I really loved it. But yes, of course I understand those fans that were eager to finally hear the song but had to wait.

Then the winner, thus the person who was selected to hear the songs first, was announced – and yes, I admit, this felt a bit dull. Not that I had expected to win; it wouldn’t have made sense, plus, it would have been weird, ’cause I’m doing the fansite already. But: I’ve worked my ass off for the last (almost) ten years to get a base for the fansite, I’ve been the first to spread news on Twitter for a couple of years now and worked hard to get up to the >1000 followers I have there – and then Kaizers pick one random fan, point out his Twitter handle and tell people to follow him… grr. Feels wrong in a way, but of course that’s how the game is played, and – reacting by brain instead of guts – it’s totally alright. It doesn’t change anything for me. And it’s a great thing for the winner. =:-)

At that time, nobody had a clue how the virus would be spread. There had been speculation among the fans, and one theory (actually the theory of the winner *g*) was via a mobile app. Sounded logical, but: naah, they can’t do that. They can’t expect all fans to have the chance to get such an app. Skambankt had tried that, with an iPhone app (ONLY for iPhone), and while it was a nice idea, it excluded a lot of fans and they stopped using it pretty fast. I gotta admit that I was really offended by that Skambankt app – because I boycott Apple products, and that meant that I had no way to access that exclusive content. You can emulate Android apps (at least in theory… *sigh*), but not Apple apps. But okay, I’m digressing… =;-) Just to explain why I did not expect mobiles to be involved in spreading the virus.

I knew that it would be hard for me to catch the virus – because Kaizers had announced that the virus would be spread from person to person. And if you live in the wrong country, the next Kaizer fan might live a couple of hours away… =;-) So I knew I wouldn’t get to hear the song right away, and that was okay. As mentioned above – I’ve gotten a lot more relaxed about that. Waiting is the best part, I won’t die of not being among the first to hear a new song, and of course it would turn up on YouTube sooner or later. And since they had already published the lyrics, I didn’t have the feeling “But I need the song or at least the lyrics and translation for my fansite, I can’t let everyone wait for that!!!”.

The day came, and they announced… a mobile app. WTF?! But not only for Apple this time, but also for Android. And your phone must be physically close to catch the virus. OK, so no virus for me, but at least an app! Or… WHAT? “This app is incompatible with your E-Plus Samsung GT-I5510.” And again I was left out… However, it didn’t feel as bad as when Skambankt launched their app, because a) I knew before that I would have to wait for the song. b) I knew I would eventually get to hear it. c) There are Android emulators. OK, turned out that c) didn’t help… by now I spent three days trying to get the app onto my emulator, and I’m failing because Google Play won’t let me download the app because my phone is not compatible. *grr* But well… eventually…

So yes, of course I was annoyed – people got to hear the song and I had to wait, and I was excluded from the app. However, I didn’t really mind that much, because… see above. The only part that really annoyed me was that in all interviews and such, Janove pointed out that the reason for this whole campaign was to let “the most dedicated” fans hear the single first. Yes, I know what he wanted to say with that, and it’s a great idea. However, if you’re sitting far away and know you can’t catch the virus any time soon, and even if you could, you couldn’t because your phone is not compatible, and he’s talking about the most dedicated fans who get to hear the song for the umtieth time and you know that you won’t be one of the people who get to hear it (at least via the app *uhem*) – you can’t help but take it the wrong way, namely that obviously you’re not a dedicated fan… Well, thank you. *grr* A simple “well, we know that it won’t work for every of our fans, but we tried to do as good as possible” would have been enough for me already. Because they did! This approach was the best they could take.

Some other fans were REALLY upset about the whole campaign, however. Which I can understand, but believe me… it’s so much easier to be relaxed about such things. =;-) There were long discussions about if that was really for the fans or just for promotion. I mean, of course it was for promotion! But was it good or bad for the fans? Of course it was great for the fans who got to hear the song during the first day. But how about those that were excluded because of the wrong phone or because they live far out or even abroad? (By the way: I found it really interesting to see how – suddenly! – fans from abroad were brought into the discussion by Norwegian fans. “Hey, they don’t have a chance, this is not fair, and I live far off as well!” Duh. Apart from the fact that this is not the same – the virus might take longer to reach tiny places in Norway, but at least there are lots of people with the app in Norway, while in Germany… zilch -: We fans from abroad are used to waiting. We can never buy the singles right away, and the albums are usually released long after they are released in Norway. None of the Norwegian fans ever cared. Which is fine, but now, when “abroad” and “in some small village in the middle of nowhere in Norway” doesn’t make a difference, the fans abroad must suddenly be taken into account? Funny… *g*)

However, it was visible that Kaizers had actually thought about that. They did obviously realize how it must feel for a fan to sit at home while others get to hear the single… because they did the best thing they could: played an acoustic version of the song on the radio. Where everybody could listen to it, also online, and check out the song. Which made it MUCH easier to wait for the single. Ingenious! Of course I still wanted to hear the “real” single afterwards, but there was no hurry. Because I could already check out the song.

But still: is it really a special present to the fans to give the single to some of them, while others are totally excluded? Instead of just releasing it to everyone at the same time? Of course you can argue about that. And while I loved the whole campaign and think that the viral marketing thing totally made up for the frustration that we fans who were excluded had, I didn’t really want to take a side in this discussion. Because I could understand the frustration. And if you frustrate a part of your hardcore fans, is the campaign a success?

And here we have the answer and go full circle to the quote in the beginning. The “hardcore fans”. All I was writing was about the hardcore fans. Those fans that know everything, want to hear and see everything right away, cannot wait a day for a translation, travel around the world for concerts. Yes, for us, the campaign was maybe more “so so”, because too many were left out.

But, and this is true for every band, and we all need to get that into our heads and remind us over and over again: We are not the fanbase. We are the hardcore fans, right. We’re always there. But we are a minority. The fans that bring in the money are the huge crowd of fans that like a band, but maybe don’t hear about a new single until it is being played on the radio. This is nothing bad, and – very important – we are not better than them. A band couldn’t survive on only hardcore fans.

A couple of days after the app was launched, Twitter exploded (even more). It became as unreadable as when the Kaizer Chiefs (a South African soccer team) gain a high win, the Kaizers (some kind of sports team in the Philippines, I still haven’t figured out what sport) compete in the annual high school tournament, or Kaizer (the dog of some Bollywood star) gets a new hair cut. (And if you have no idea what I’m talking about now… try to regularly scan Twitter for “Kaizers”. *lol*)

Anyway. The reason for the huge amount of Kaizers tweets: By then, the news had reached the “non hardcore” fans. And for them, it doesn’t matter if they get the song after a day or after a week. But they get a free song by a band they like, and they get it in a cool way, namely through being infected with the Kaizervirus. And if the app doesn’t work for someone… well, just listen to the song on someone else’s phone, no problem. Think of a band you like, but where you’re not following every single step they take – wouldn’t such a campaign be incredibly cool?

So the answer is: Oh yes, the Kaizervirus is for the fans. Maybe not for the hardcore fans, but for the full fanbase. And as such, it was a total success.

Even though we hardcore fans might complain and bitch about it. Which we have every right to do – as long as we don’t think that the band must do exactly what we want. Because the band must do what they think is best for the fans. ALL fans.

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It’s the end of the world as we know it …

Wednesday, August 1st, 2012

… or maybe not? In any case, parts of the Kaizers Orchestra fan world seem to be collapsing right now. Because of this interview that I did with Janove. And of course I’m being asked what I think of the announcement of the break, and actually, I’m asking myself what I think of it.

Well, first of all: This is my personal view. No journalistic point of view, no fansite point of view, but I’m just talking as the common, yet crazy, fan that I am. No quoting without permission! 😉 (Hell, that interview is all over the Norwegian press right now. That was to be expected, but I had hoped I’d be wrong in my suspection…)

So, what do I think? First and foremost: They deserve the break. And they NEED the break. Desperately. As they say: They have been in this for 15 years, always pushing back other plans and needs and wishes, always together with the same group of people. And they need the break before it’s too late and the horse has escaped (or the kid fell into the well, whichever language you prefer *g*). A very important life lesson: If there are factors in your life that bring you down, that have a bad influence, or that make you feel bad in any way – get rid of them as soon as possible. And this part in the interview about getting a new life, finally getting to do things you wanted to do forever but couldn’t do because of the band … yep. That makes it totally clear that the band IS such a factor, at least at the moment, and that means they need the break.

And even if that wasn’t the case – I’m a strong defender of the attitude that whatever a band does, a band does. And I as a fan don’t have a say in that, and I don’t have the right to complain. I might not like something, but well, that’s my problem then, and not the band that has to change. So even if I would not agree that they deserve a break – the band wants the break, and so a break it is.

So, how do I feel about it? The break was no surprise whatsoever, and as stated above: they need it. So it’s great. (And honestly, I think we fans need a bit of a break once in a while as well… *g*) The part that was a surprise, however, was the length of the break. I had expected three, four years, maybe five. What I did not expect was the talk about “last” concerts, “last” tours, and the plan to focus on huge other projects (the musical) in the meantime. That caught me quite off-guard, actually (even though I managed to keep my poker face, I think *g*). And even though they start denying now that they were talking about a possibly ten-year break, I’m pretty sure they were. Or at least Janove was. Which of course is like the worst thing you can do promo-wise, so I can totally see why they play it down now, but it’s not all a misunderstanding …

But okay, let’s just assume we’re talking seven years, which was mentioned explicitly, at least as one option. That’s a LONG time. But here my attitude mentioned above kicks in: If that’s what the band wants, that’s what the band wants, and I gotta live with it. (Or well, I would have to live with it no matter what my attitude, but I can actually accept it without my world collapsing. Totally. And I’m SO looking forward to using my vacation days for some REAL vacation for a change!)

But then – if you plan to be away for a long time, and you don’t have ANY plans for afterwards – why do you call it a break? I just don’t get it. And this is actually the part that surprised me most. To the question regarding the plans, I expected an answer like “well, we don’t have any real plans yet, but once we’re ready we’ll get together and discuss how we want to continue”. And if even that “plan” isn’t there, wouldn’t it be more logical to break up, maybe with an option to reunite whenever the time is right? This “we just take a break” in combination with the huge intermediate plan of a musical (and – to be nitpicky – the mention of a “Kaizers Orchestra band”) makes it sound like a cheap way out to me. A cheap way out to allow to maybe never start again because other projects are more successful (and without a bad conscience that you let down the band for that, because you didn’t, the band is just taking a break), or to start again in several years with an all new group of musicians, still as Kaizers Orchestra.

So yes, there IS a dull feeling about all this. But again: what the band does is what the band does. I’m gonna see and wait and judge what I get to hear and experience, both in the meantime and after the break. I might be totally wrong in my interpretation, and we see Kaizers Orchestra back just like we know them in only a few years time. I might fall in love with the musical and grow older so much that I’m totally satisfied with just seeing the musical and won’t miss the concerts (ok, that’s a rather unlikely option *g*). And even if Kaizers Orchestra would start again years from now with a different set of members, I might still enjoy the music and the concerts, even though it’s not the same. In any case – if I like it, I’ll be the same kind of fan I am now. If I don’t, well, then I guess I’m beyond it and moving on.

Either way, it’s not the end of the world, not at all. It might be the end of the world as we know it, but then … there are other worlds than these.

(And if you don’t get the Stephen King reference in the end, you still got some of them to explore!)

PS: Oh, and by the way – I was expecting the break three years ago already …

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The mystery of this summer

Wednesday, August 3rd, 2011

I finally solved the mystery of this summer. It was obvious all the time, it should have been apparent, but nobody put two and two together, it seems.

I know, everyone always rants about the weather. I’m the first in line there. But this year it was really, really awful! The summer started out just fine, with a sunny and warm spring – and that was it. Instead of summer, we got stuck somewhere between April and May, weather-wise. Lots of rain and cloudy skies. When the sun came out, it was actually quite nice, but it didn’t really get warm for more than two days in a row. At a festival ten days ago, it was so frickin’ cold that I wished I had brought my winter jacket.

So, what’s wrong with this summer?! The solution is simple. Let’s take you back to Southside festival in mid-June. The weather was terrible (which is not surprising, since the festival takes place during a time that is usually cold and rainy in Germany – right before the real summer starts). But: Kaizers Orchestra were playing there! And as everyone knows, the sun always comes out when Kaizers play! (And yes, this is actually true, I’ve seen it a number of times.)

And it happened at Southside festival as well. The weather got better right before Kaizers went on stage, and in the middle of their concert, the sun came out. And of course Janove started bragging about it: “See, we brought the sun with us from Norway, just for you. Aaah, don’t mention it, it’s nothing! You can keep it!” Boom, there we had it. Everybody was happy. Kaizers gave us the sun!

There were just two tiny details that nobody took into consideration back then:

1) Kaizers gave the sun away. Which meant they didn’t have it anymore afterwards. Which meant they were playing in almost constant rain for the rest of the summer… (The exception proves the rule, of course.)

2) Germany had the Norwegian sun from then on instead of the German one. And well… the summer was actually quite good for a Norwegian summer, right? Just that I personally would prefer a German summer, to be honest. (Or a Portuguese or whatever, as long as it is warm…)

So… bummer. Didn’t quite work out the way it was planned.

But the good news is: I promised right after that concert to bring the sun back to Norway for Øya festival. And that is only one week away now. So we just need to get through one more week of bad weather until the German sun can finally make it back here and give us a real summer. It’s about time!

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Three weeks of Violeta!

Sunday, May 1st, 2011

One band, two weeks, three off-days. Four friends! An average five hours of sleep… Nine countries, 14 concerts, 6400 kilometers. Uncountable fond memories!

Each tour holds special moments, tiny details, funny occurrences that will be remembered. The memories of the concerts fade, but there are a few things that are extraordinary. Those are the memories I’d tell my grand children or write them in “The memoirs of a concert junkie” (if there ever was something like that).

And as these moments are the ones that I want to remember, I need to write them down. I have no clue if they make sense for anyone who wasn’t there, but they do for me. And I’m sure I forgot a lot, but here are some special moments – ordered rather randomly:

  • First concert of the tour. The first support band is just done. I check my mobile – a new message: “Congratulations! You’ve been elected!” Elected? What? Why? Oh wait… this other band I work for. More responsibility! More work! Yay… ARGH! But well… two and a half weeks with Kaizers now. Let’s worry about the rest afterwards…
  • The Norwegian voice of my GPS. “Sving din hammer – NÅ!”
  • Worst timing ever: “Help, we don’t get in!” – “Not now!!!” Uuuh, okay, we can talk after the concert then… *lol* (And of course we did get in. And even made it to the front row. *g*)
  • Handing out flyers… A lot of people didn’t want to take them, of course. However, a handful actually passed us and CAME BACK afterwards. “Oh, Kaizers? Yes, I’ll take a flyer after all!”
  • Tasting Violeta vodka in the middle of the night…
  • Arriving in Vienna at 7:15 pm after four hours of sleep and ten hours in the car. Checking in. At the concert at 8:05.
  • And then there was the Mac incident…
  • Cologne. The first breath-taking concert of the tour. If the frontman is crying, the audience did everything right.
  • “Sind Sie Frau Fuchss?” (No offense! It was just really funny… *lol* It was great meeting you, see you again soon!)
  • Stealing toilet paper in Vienna. I wasn’t even part of it, but the story itself is just incredibly funny. *g*
  • My first trip to the casino – and instead of losing 30 Euros as was the plan, I actually won 30. Makes a plus of 60! (And still I didn’t have the slightest problem staying away from the casino on the ferry. *g*)
  • Watching WrestleMania on a tiny screen in the car between Vienna and Munich.
  • Schorndorf. Seemed like nobody in the audience knew the band. During the last song, Bak et halleluja, I looked around and saw smiling faces everywhere – no, not smiling, gleaming. Incredible!
  • “The best song was the one where Frankenstein was screaming into the megaphone!”
  • Sightseeing in Berlin at 2 am. “Let’s walk over to O2 World. You MUST see O2 World!” And of course, stopping at the wall afterwards.
  • Speed-shopping in Svinesund, on the way to Oslo, last concert of the tour. “You’ll get a can of sweets and something we can turn into a crowbar, we’ll find a baby body and markers. Let’s meet here in… five minutes?” We made it! =:-D
  • There’s still gaffa on my netbook!
  • Getting to the after show party after the Oslo concert. First thought: “Urgh, I don’t want to be here!”. Second thought: “Alcohol! That might help!” And then Kaizers went on stage, sang Mr. Kaizer, hans Constanze og meg, and we were standing arm in arm, singing along, concluding the tour. Afterwards, the party was just the party we had hoped for…
  • Copenhagen, the last “real” concert of the tour, because Oslo was so much bigger and I was tweeting during the concert. Front row, last song “Die Polizei”, standing arm in arm singing along… and Janove’s expression when he saw us.
  • Two weeks of spring. In March and April… =:-D

Thanks so much to all of you who were part of this tour! Most of all my travel comrades, of course, and everybody I met up with at the concerts. Thank you for the amazing time! And also a huge thanks and big smile for everyone who walked up to me during the concerts and said hi – we’ll meet again on the next tour.

Because yes, of course: There WILL be a next tour. And I will be there.

The four of us at the after show party in Oslo.

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Brokenhearted?

Wednesday, October 27th, 2010

Long time without new blog posts here… sorry for that! But I simply didn’t find the time for that. And actually, I should really be writing for our magazine right now rather than blogging about Kaizers, but well… what’s better for sorting out your thoughts than writing them down?

OK, just a short explanation beforehand: Today, Kaizers Orchestra released their new single Hjerteknuser. Or rather, they already released it a month ago, but back then, it was released only as sheet music, and they started a competition where people were supposed to send in cover versions of the song – without having heard the original version, of course! And today, the winning cover version was announced, and Kaizers’ version was played for the first time.

I loved the idea right from the beginning. And of course I decided right away that I would at least try to figure out the song somehow. I didn’t really plan on taking part in the competition, because… a) I’ve never really managed to get a song to work, b) I never managed to do a decent recording of a song, and c) my guitar/bass/drum skills are just not anywhere near where they’d need to be for something like this.

Still, I wanted to figure out how the song would sound! So I sat down, played through it, got a rough idea – and decided that this song was incredibly boring. Why the hell would Kaizers release a song like that?! And actually, people who’ve heard it wrote that it was their best song ever?!? That didn’t fit. There had to be some way to get this song to work out… I quickly decided that the Kaizers version was for sure no ballad. Because that was the first impression you got when looking at the music, and the chords really made it seem like a ballad – and Kaizers aren’t that easy to figure out. Then, the song is in 12/8 beat. Hmm… 4/4 or 6/8? My guess was that the trick to get the song working was to play around with the 4/4 and 6/8 and kinda wander between the two beats.

So, that’s what I went for: not too “ballad-y”, not too slow, switch between 4/4 and 6/8. But I still had no clue how to get the song to work… it was just a slimy ballad. Speeding it up made it impossible to sing. Switching to 4/4 made it absolutely boring. I had pretty much given up when I decided to try it on the guitar once (my guitar skill are way too limited to figure out a song on the guitar). Did that, suddenly had some kind of ska rhythm, laughed “yeah, sure”, put away my guitar and went on vacation. When I came back, I had the thought in the back of my mind: “It might actually work.” Which – in my opinion – it did! To cut it short: The next few nights I played around with the ska idea, found out that I couldn’t do it as fast as I actually wanted to, but still in a way it wouldn’t be the slimy ballad, and by the weekend I had decided that I needed to record and publish something (if not take part in the competition) – just so that in the end, I could say: “Hey, Kaizers did it just the way I did it!” =;-)

Well, as I said before: I can’t really play the guitar, bass, or drums, and while I can (read: am able to) sing, I don’t have a singing voice. Plus, I did everything on my own with a crappy sound card, a computer microphone, and a very limited audio program. Still: I love the result. I know that it is played badly, I know that the timing (especially in the bass) is horribly off quite a few times, and well… it would have been easier to sing in another language or with less words. But the song works, it grooves, and it is not a slimy ballad (except for the beginning *g*). And yes, I’m proud enough of the arrangement to present it to the public! Here you go:

M-Ego – Hjerteknuser:I asked around a bit, got the confirmation that my perception of the song – namely that the arrangement is nice, even though it is played far from perfectly – obviously wasn’t too far off, and entered the competition. And: Started to excitedly and impatiently wait for the result.

Huh?! What? I never entered the competition in order to win. Not only because I didn’t care for the prize (Have anybody buy that crappy version? Play it live? Yeah, sure… *g*), but mostly because I knew I wouldn’t stand a chance against all the other great and well-produced entries. So why was I getting so impatient? I figured that out quickly: Because I wanted some feedback. I had posted the song on Facebook – and quickly started to hate everyone who just clicked on “Like” without giving any feedback. HOW DARE YOU?!? (Not that I gave any feedback to any of the other entries… uhem.) “But hey, today, when they announce the winner, then I will finally get some feedback!!!1” – that’s what my guts said. Answered by my brain: “Uuh… wait. Sure….” I knew I didn’t stand a chance. Kaizers would never go through all entries and provide feedback. Hell, probably they listened to the first two seconds and skipped on because the version was so crappy. Still, I longed for feedback… I knew that I would listen to the announcement and be totally devastated afterwards because I didn’t get any feedback. I just hate it when my mind goes mad like that… *sigh* So I tried to calm myself down, to lower all expectations, so that I wouldn’t fall too deep…

Jumping to today. I was really excited, couldn’t wait, and at the same time I knew that I would be desolate afterwards. *grr* And I was certain I would hate Kaizers’ version of Hjerteknuser, because… well, I love mine! 🙂

It started out just as expected with one of the non-Kaizers jury members pointing out that “some obviously need to practice more.” Yeah, thanks a lot. *grr* That wasn’t the meaning, right? Wasn’t the whole idea of the competition that people should _arrange_ the song? And just because others do perfect recordings, that doesn’t mean that you can’t participate with a bad demo. *grmbl*
But then they started announcing the winners. Number three was Asiago. I hadn’t listened to a lot of the other entries (I didn’t want to do that before I was done with my version, and I _really_ didn’t want to listen through 108 entries in two days *g*), but that one I had actually heard and liked a lot. So thumbs up! Then, the first of the finalists… I don’t think I had heard Moi’s entry before, but I liked it right away. Janove pointed out that it’s got a bit of a reggae beat – and gosh, listen to the verse, that is MY RHYTHM!!!1 And while the song is basically in 4/4 beat, the refrain feels like 6/8. OK, I might be influenced by my version there, but still… *gg* No, I’m not gonna say that my version is like Moi’s, but I do think that some of the ideas behind the versions are the same. And with a band, studio, and more experience, my version could have been similar, I think. Just… faster. =;-) So, I loved that version, I got the confirmation that my ideas were not so far off, and I was happy! 🙂

Moi – Hjerteknuser:And then the second finalist: Rolffa. Uh… ja. Yes, it’s a nice version. But I had already started to dislike it, just because everybody was so enthusiastic about it and it seemed already clear that this entry would win! To me, it’s just a straight-forward version. Take the music, play it, translate a part into Samisk and there you go. It’s WAY too slow, the only interesting part is the harp (or whatever it is) in the beginning, the rest is boring. But: They were out very early, so it was one of the first versions people listened to, and so they were “placed” at the top right from the beginning. And well… I guess I’m too punk to like something like that. I always root for the underdogs. =;-)

So I was REALLY crossing my fingers when they announced the winner. And it went to Moi! Congrats, that is really really deserved! 🙂 And in a way, I got my feedback… because even though my performance of course was far from the top, the ideas went into the right direction. Yay! 🙂

Then, the second big moment. The REAL Hjerteknuser! I was sure I would hate it, but no, I really liked it. Puuuuh…! It’s NOT a ballad, it is fast (even though my version is even faster *g*), and again, I did find some of my ideas in there. But only in traces… found more in Moi’s version. =;-) The energy of the song is great, and that is actually something that I missed in almost all of the cover versions I listened to. Except for mine, of course. *cough*

Kaizers Orchestra – Hjerteknuser:

So, conclusion? Gosh, I always forget to aim at conclusions when writing a blog post… *argh*
a) I love the Kaizers version, and I absolutely agree with their cover version winner.
b) I didn’t get any feedback for my version of course, but – boastful as I am – I will place it right inbetween the winning version and the Kaizers version. (Just to make it clear: I’m talking about the arrangement, the idea – NOT about the recording. *g*) And THAT is all the feedback that I need.
c) I can actually get a song to work. And I should really dig out some of my started-but-never-finished song drafts, because I can actually make something out of them, if I just take the effort to work on them.
d) I misread the solo part in the middle and got the rhythm wrong. Which means: I really messed up the part of the only instrument that I CAN actually PLAY! *argh* 😆
e) Yes, OF COURSE the hidden goal of this blog post is to get some feedback… *gg*

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They have made a new album!

Friday, February 19th, 2010

Yes, Disco Ensemble have made a new album – and I can’t wait! The single sounds promising, and again they are doing a lot of great promotion activities around the new album… like the studio diary, of course, and a weekly competition on Twitter! =:-D

But what I still find really really strange is…

It’s no secret that I am a huge fan of the best-dressed band in the world:

Kaizers Orchestra

And at the same time, I’m obviously also fan of the by far worst-dressed band in the world…:

Disco Ensemble

But hey – it’s all about the music anyway! *g*

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