torsdag 27 maj 2010

måndag 12 oktober 2009

Germany Fall Tour - PART 2


6.10
Off to Dortmund and Subrosa. A nice little crowd and good atmosphere, foossball as usual and good times. Touring Germany in the fall means rain, obviously, but so many beautiful places we pass on the way between cities!

Thank you, Peter, for the bautiful roses!! The tour bus has never smelled so good.

7.10
I forgot the charger for my laptop in Beverungen and we went searching Dormund for a new one, wothout luck though. We arrived at Kanal 21 in Bielefeld quite early and those woderful people working there helped us out with finding one we could borrow! Thank you so much for that!


We had a fun TV show (sorry for saying on tape that ”I am a beer”....hm..maybe I didn't get enough sleep the night before)
It was very very hot on stage and I think noone of us has ever been that warm before, I felt like a really engaged soccerplayer after a good game. :)
Petter took some cool pics of me with a doll we found in the back. I hope I can show them to you one of these days.

We decided to stay in Bielefeld that night and went to a bar – Milestone.
While there I thought it felt familiar somehow...and suddenly I realized: this was the bar where I spent my birthday night last year together with Olav and Dirk from Cafe Del Sol in Bad Salzuflen!
I tried to have a mojito 'for old times sake' but they didn't do cocktails on tuesdays...
We had a brilliant night though and met lots of new people and danced on the tables until the sun was almost up again!


8.10
In the afternoon, after a nice breakfast, we drove towards Höxter.
Tonenburg, so special and always so perfect: The mood, the audience, the sound, the people behind it all..I said it during the show and I will say it again...
The best thing about it is probably that my ”german family” is always there. Makes me both strong and nervous at the same time.

We shared the night with Joanna Chapman Smith and Tamara Nile from Canada (nice to hear and talk to you!)
The happy swedes fell into bed preparing the thoughts about the next day: Video Recording Day...

9.10
We picked up Axel, the filming-man who was kind enough to help us out with this little project, in Göttingen and decided not to go to Wuppertal with the colored stairs we'd had in mind for the shoot but instead to a huge park in Kassel – who had very very longs stairs.
To get up to these stairs we had to drive inside the park (where you're not supposed to drive) and we "got" a little permit note from "our organizer Karl Heinz" saying we definately could drive and park our car in the park...


Working with balloons at a windy day is tricky – and I'm guessing theres lots of clips where the balloons pop and you can see me jumping 5 meters up in the air.

We ended the shoot at a muddy field in the sunset. I'm looking forward to see the raw material soon!
Chinese food in Göttingen and off for bed.
Thank you Alex, it was so good to meet and work with you!

10.10
Last day of the tour. Kunsthof in Helbedündorf.


This place is hidden in the woods and hills, and coming there I realized I could stay there and live for some time..
When we first showed up, the promoter met us in the door, clay up over the elbows and kids running around the pottery-room they had there. The whole atmosphere was so friendly and creative and special.
We played the show in the old cow-house, kind of reminds me of Tonenburg somehow. People were dancing to our music, participating in a cellphone-video-by-audience-thing..
It couldn't have been a better end to the tour.

So, the tour is over for this time.
Thank you, my sweet band, for this one.
Thank you all the wonderful new people we've met.
Thank you dear friends and known faces for being there.

lots of love to you all, hope to do this again soon.

I will put up a video log here as soon as I'm ready sorting all the clips – keep one eye open!

*H

Listening To: Bob Hund – Folkmusik För Folk Som Inte Kan Bete Sig Som Folk

tisdag 6 oktober 2009

Germany Fall Tour - PART 1

1.10
Early morning, Rainy and windy. Four tired swedes pack up the van and leave for autobahn.
This time we have a new 4th member – Thomas, on vocals, percussion and computer.
First stop – Nörgelbuff, Göttingen. It's been 2 years since I last played there – with Indienational tour (Arlock, Haggren, Cuff) This night we had a support act with a beautiful voice: Corinna Weber, thank you Corinna!
Good to be back at Nörgelbuff. After the show we went to stay at a friend, Tom's place. Tom is a brilliant drummer and a very good man. Midnight tea and whiskey.



2.10
Tom helped us to get a german cellphone number, which is so much easier when you speak german - Thank you, Tom!
On the road again going to Berlin and Osterkirche. What we didn't know was that they are rebuilding all the roads in Germany, as they do in Sweden at the moment. (Anything to do with politics.......?)
We got in to this magnificent church a little bit later than planed but well on stage everything turned out good. The room was breathtaking. Here we met Barbara, a very nice photographer who found the music a few weeks ago and joied us for the night – looking forward to see the pics! After the show we went to a little restaurant a block away and had excellent food and beer, then stumbled into our appartement and had a little dancing party before we went to bed. Sadly we didn't have time to see more of Berlin city since we had to leave so early the next morning, but we had a good time in Wedding.



3.10
Wuppertal: steep hills and old houses, a train that is hanging in the air and fun little pop-a-coin-in-machines on the streets. Christoph and Anna who is running 'Domhan' where we played are amazing people, what a wonderful family...and the whole place were glowing of this friendly and warm atmosphere.
Such a nice show and night and what a breakfast the next morning!



4.10
We had a walk to a market where the local artists had their things put out, listened to some nice jazz tunes and had icecream before going on a stroll in the city. We managed to get lost and ended up walking around in a very luxurous neighbourhood before we found our way back to the bar approx. 2 hours later.
Then a quick coffee and goodbye, hope to be back again, and off to spend the next 2 days off at Immylou's – my german home.
On our way we stopped to get lunch and we found some really cool stairs which we will again visit on friday to make a music video. Petter got a big piece off glass in his pizza, suddenly noone was hungry anymore...But when we reached Immylou's we were spoiled by indian food and wine, and a good nights sleep.




Catlove, good friends and nightly talks. 6.10 we will go to Subrosa, Dortmund and continue the tour. More updates will come...

*H

Listening to: Filur – In Retrospect

onsdag 13 maj 2009

Quick news: video!

The other day me and drummer-man Petter had coffee + made plans for a releaseparty of "Old Dirty Hound". 


As we stepped out in the sunlight again we decided to find an abandoned street and some sidewalk-chalks...and we did find it! See the result here:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GA2MARXncdM







 


 


More shows will be added to the tour sched. this week (ie. june: Fusion Festival in Berlin / july: Releaseparty Helsingborg, SE...) - keep an eye open.


 


Don't forget your sunlight-time, folks..


*H


 


Get your own copy of "Old Dirty Hound"


| www.HelenaArlock.com | www.myspace.com/HelenaArlock | www.youtube.com/HelenaArlock | www.reverbnation.com/HelenaArlock | www.ilike.com/artist/Helena+Arlock |


 

måndag 23 mars 2009

moving pictures of the tour

The last part of the tour was great!
see for yourself here:




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbE-CDMfwX8

Thanks to all you wonderful people that we met.
You were brilliant.

❤Helena


What's next?

You can now pre-order the EP online!
For Europe: click the paypal button on the myspace
For US/Can: click the CDbaby button on the myspace

The digital release of "Old Dirty Hound" - April 1st!


tisdag 10 mars 2009

The Tour : Part 1

Day 1
Hamburg

We arrived in the afternoon, to the Deutche-Pop to pick up 900 copies of the brand new EP!! Very very exiting
The PonyBar show was very nice, a good little spot there. And so good to meet the whole Hamburg-family again...Michael, Nils....
And we also did the BalconyTV shoot, on a tiny balcony right over reeperbahn...you can see it on balconytv.de around the 25h of march!

Day2
Hamburg

A day off.
After seeing the city centre we tried to take the underground home....we got lost and got to see all sorts of parts of the city.
Back "home" it was time to get Gustav and Olof a haircut in the kitchen, Spotifying and drinking Beck's. Later we went to Astra Stube (where we've played a few times before) and saw the band we were sharing the apartment with that night - The Skeletons from NYC. Really cool!
check them out here: www.myspace.com/theskeletons
After that, whisky and discussions about life, pretentious?

Day3
Hannover

Leaving Hamburg in a hurry, and no time for good-byes....but I do hate good-byes..
Hannover, a new city, a new venue, new great people to meet.
Bronco's is a really cool little bar, and the owner Mike is so sweet. Hope to be back soon.
Right before the show someone was patting me on my back...I turned around and there was..Nando from Bremen!! He'd come by train to watch the show and surprise us - An unexpected and happy surprise!
The show was awesome, even better as we went up again late late at night and did a few more songs on demand :)

Day4
Bremen

Always such a good feeling to walk into Eisen.
And this time we knew we had the next day off too.
After a longs fun concert Olof ended it all by walking up on stage to give a little speech about the new EP. He's a very sweet guy, and a true bassplayerperson.....

Day5
Bremen

Waking up in Nando's caste-like new apartment, with a beautiful breakfast on the table...
Nando went to have cake with his sister who had her birthday while we were jamming in his kitchen. Great acoustics in there!
Then off to Eisen to see the St Pauli/Rostock game. One Happy Nando as Pauli won!
We had a fun night out with Nando and Basti and the rest of the neighbourhood crew: mojitos and kuemmerling at the place we used to have breakfast at (they don't serve that anymore) and back to eisen for a while to try the 15-year old rum from Cuba and then end the night at the nightclub next door before having one last veggie hotdog..


Enjoy the new song: "Misery" also from the new EP "Old Dirty Hound"!
❤Helena

torsdag 19 februari 2009

finally..!!

I DO have news that makes me happy....
  • My EP "Old Dirty Hound" is now all done!
1. Fragile Me, Fragile you
2. Misery
3. Soothing Escapades
4. Bow Low
5. Pink Bubbles

6. You Could Much Rather Push Than Pull


Thank you for giving me the inspiration and support!

Produced by HelenaArlock and GustavHaggrenRecorded in ARTin Studios, Helsingborg, Sweden by GustavHaggren and MartinPerssonMixed and mastered by GustavHaggrenAll songs written by HelenaArlock© HelenaArlock / RedOlivePublishing 2009Cover by HelenaArlock | Photo by Gustav Haggren
  • The EP will be released
in Sweden in April - on the new label RedOlive.I am very proud to announce this!
  • More shows added to the Germany Tour:
Mar 2 Balcony TV Hamburg
Mar 2 PonyBar Hamburg
Mar 4 Bronco’s Hannover
Mar 5 Eisen Bremen
Mar 7 Cafe Del Sol Bad Salzuflen
Mar 9 Kulturrampe Krefeld
Mar 11 Objekt5 Halle
Mar 14 Subrosa Dortmund
  • A film maker will join the tour and make a documentary
David Giese, born outside of Leipzig, Germany and now living in Sweden is studying to be a documentary filmmaker and will be travelling with us to make a 1 hour long movie.
  • Ideas are in motion for a music video
One of the film makers I've been in contact with regarding the documentary couldn't join the tour this time, but we decided to work together to make a music video instead. Keep you eyes open, I hope it will be ready in time for the swedish release.


Until next time,


*HelenaArlock

Helena Arlock Blog