Helena Arlock Blog

RECORDING BLOG #1

2010-05-27T10:27:00.001-07:00

Germany Fall Tour - PART 2

2009-10-12T05:05:00.000-07:00

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

Germany Fall Tour - PART 1

2009-10-06T02:32:00.000-07:00

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

Quick news: video!

2009-05-13T11:07:00.001-07:00

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..

Get your own copy of "Old Dirty Hound"

moving pictures of the tour

2009-03-23T11:08:00.000-07:00

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!

The Tour : Part 1

2009-03-10T02:53:00.001-07:00

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

finally..!!

2009-02-19T03:21:00.000-08:00

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

New song up #2

2009-01-25T01:37:00.000-08:00

#2 is now up

Soothing Escapades

Recorded in ARTin Studios, Helsingborg Sweden & Helena's appartement a late night
by
Gustav Haggren and Helena Arlock.
2008

Helena Arlock: vocals, nord lead, cello
Petter Bengtsson: drums
Gustav Haggren: bass
____________________________________________________________

We are rehearsing to do a show in Malmö at the 30th of Jan - Emergenza @ Bodoni, Bergsgatan, Malmö, SE
Or actually not quite this week that has passed - Drummer Petter Ericsson has been in France skeeing, and I'm not jealous at all...... - so these upcoming days it's going to be a bit more hectic.
Nevertheless it's been a productive week. A few more dates for the Germany Tour in March are settled:

3.02.09 BalconyTV - Hamburg
3.02.09 PonyBar - Hamburg
3.04.09 Bronco’s - Hannover
3.05.09 Eisen - Bremen
3.07.09 Cafe Del Sol - Bad Salzuflen
3.09.09 Kulturrampe - Krefeld
3.11.09 Objekt5 - Halle

I need to lay down and rest and try to get my cold to go away - hope you like the new song.
There will be more....

*H

new song - fragile me, fragile you

2009-01-19T11:35:00.000-08:00

So here it is, the first song from the upcoming EP.

Fragile Me, Fragile You

Recorded in
ARTin Studios, Helsingborg Sweden & Helena's appartement a late night
by
Helena Arlock and Gustav Haggren.
2008

Helena Arlock: vocals, nord lead, cello, organ
Petter Bengtsson: drums
Gustav Haggren: bass, e-bow
Pancace Adolfsson: vocals

Keep your eyes and ears open - more songs will show up.. *H

Helena & Pancake | Gustav

frosty grass and bonfires

2009-01-01T23:55:00.000-08:00

A new year.. and it always leaves you empty, waiting to be filled with it's adventures

i spent the new years celebration in a cabin in the woods, we gathered around a bonfire outside, listening to the sound of fireworks far away and telling stories. Nice to run away like that.

The new year feels promising. I can't wait to get my EP fully done (very close now) - to go on tour again - to try out my new songs with the band...

The pictures are from the last show of 2008 in Malmö, Sweden.

You can see more of them at helenaarlock.com

All the best to you all for the year, and I hope we'll meet. Lots of love

*Helena

recording Vlog!

2008-06-15T10:55:00.000-07:00

a preview form the recording of the EP!

Helena Arlock
Petter Bengtsson
Gustav Haggren
Thomas Denver Jonsson
Pancake Adolfsson

Coming soon...

*H

A Hectic Spring, somehow..

2008-05-20T07:50:00.000-07:00

Recording the EP has been a lot of fun.
I'll put up a video log soon!

I will take a break from touring during the summer, finish the recordings and book the tours for the fall.

Here's the very very delayed blog and video log from the Indienational tour I 2008

Enjoy,

love

*Helena
________________________________________________________________

Germany/Holland/Belgium
Another Indienational tour. This time with these bands:
Shooting John | Helena Arlock | Gustav and The Seasick Sailors
With the bass player and drummer from GATSS - a bit more groovy!

29.3
Bremen, Germany
A ruff week-end. We arrived this friday, the 28th, greeted by our sweetest Nando.
So good to see the the crew of Eisen again!
The show was great and we stumbled into bed late that night accompanied by the early morning birds. By then we'd been awake for 24 hours.

..

We had the saturday off and Nando had managed to get us all tickets to the soccer game - Werder Bremen VS Duisburg.
My first game ever, exciting, and a great experience.

After the game (Bremen lost so we were all a bit sad) we got some food and went to a concert an Lagerhaus. Thank you Kogge Pop for the tickets!
The night went on and we went to the best coctail bar in Bremen and rounded it all off at a crazy rock and roll bar Heartbreak Hotel.

..

30.3
A sad farewell after two splendid days in this nice town.
Only one not so nice thing, I got two sharp pieces of metal in my breakfast the last morning, the cafe is a great place, but that was scary. Blood everywhere :)
You need some action, right?

Off to Hamburg and Astra Stube.
Nils Rose showed up - not wearing his sunglasses though, i am a bit disappointed.
It'd been 6 month since me and Gustav played there the last time.

During the soundcheck the door opens up, I hear Gustav screaming "no way!!" and I turn around...there stood Frank Gebauer, a friend whom we hadn't met in a year.
He's a friend of Alina, who we stayed with in NYC, and they both travelled with us to our very first US show in cold cold upstate NYin February.
Thank you Frank for staying the whole night, it was great to see you again.

After the soundcheck - Michael, you are astonishing! - we all went to meet up with Jon, the base player, who were to join the tour.
He'd been travelling for two days, coming from New York City to Amsterdam, then four trains and finally a tram to get ot us - what a hero!

The show was so so good, an audience like that is the reason why you do this...

31.3
-We are now at Ä in Berlin. It's a really cousy place, the room where you play feels like a big livingroom.
We played together with Illute (Ute) who set this night up. She was great.

Right before the show I heard a swedish voice asking if we knew if this were the plaec where we'd play tonight.
This girl from Stockholm had moved to Berlin a couple of months before and her old flatmate had tipped her off of the show, so nice. A shame that I didn't get to meet her friend though. It's always strange being on tour and suddenly hearing your own language from someone else. It takes a while before you realize that it is Swedish they speak..

We had to go home right after the show, the next day we had to drive to Amsterdam = leaving 7am...
Ute's friend Paul were so kind and let us stay in his apartment that night, thank you.

1.4
7am, so so so so soo early!!
But we managed to pack up the car with all the gear and got going.
We made it in time, barely, and the show at Desmet Live went good.

Unfortionately we didn't have time to hang out in Amsterdam this time.
Insteda we started driving towards Kruibeke, Belgium.
Around midnight we arrived, and two tired friendly faces greeted us.
Jerome and Veerle.
We also got too meet the tired new family member, Hifi - the dalmatian.

Sleep...

2.4
Back at t'Elfde Genot in Sint-Niklaas. Jerome came witht us but Veerle stayed in their bar.
Nice show and even nicer laughing and drinking that belgium beer at Cafe Carnot afterwards.

3.4
It's Jerome and Veerle's 4th anniversary and we are all oing to Antwerp.
Me and Gustav have a mission - find a heart-shaped cake to hand to them at the show tonight!

A nice day, wooden escalators, beer, vinylstore, beer, strolling, beer...

And the show at Cafe Carnot was succesfull. It was the first night of the small festival - Folk You - arranged by Cafe Carnot and Jugdhuis T'erwalle (Kruibeke, BE). This night it was me, Helena Arlock and Gustav and The Seasick Sailors that played.
We found a heart-shaped candy cake after all. And it was another late night at Carnot.

4.4
Tonight Shooting John will play at Jugdhuis Terwalle with another Swedish band - Giant Wide.
Now off to Carnot to help Jerome move the stage to the other venue!

5.5
The whole Folk you festival was great. After the show last night we had one last afterparty with Jerome and Veerle.
Jon (the bass player) were very eager on the shots, on of Jeromes specials is called "wake up the dead" and I guess you can figure the rest of the night out from there...

Breakfast and another sad goodbye....

So the great finale at Tonenburg, Höxter, Gemany.
Cannot describe how happy we were to get an ending like that.

An amazing tour.
Thank you all who made it happen..

The audience.

Nando, Benno and the *Eisen* crew
Spike
Nils Rose, Michael, Martina @ *Astra Stube*
Ute and *Ä*, Paul
Kevin @ Desmet Live
t'Elfde Genot
Jerome, Veerle, HiFi, Cafe Carnot
Kevin, Jugdhuis t'erwalle
Christina Seckelmann
Immylou Coalminer
Tonenburg

Special thanks to Jon and Patrik.
and to Peder and Gustav

Interview...

2008-03-25T05:45:00.000-07:00

So, off on tour on friday - yay here's the dates:

MAR 28 - Eisen, Bremen (DE)

MAR 31 - Ä, Berlin (DE)

APR 01 - Desmet Live, Amsterdam (NL)

APR 02 - t'Elfde Genot, Sint Niklaas (BE)

APR 03 - Café Carnot, Kruibeke (BE)

APR 05 - Tonenburg, Höxter/Albaxen (DE)

Hope to see some of you there!

Sweden doesn't seem to understand the concept of psring - it's snowing and snowing and snowing and....darn
But it's actually a pretty nice day today and I'm going to pack up my laptop and get myeslf out there for a little walk.

And check this out:
http://vanbloggen.blogspot.com/2008/03/helena-arlock-gustav-haggren-hits.html
From my friend Thomas Denver Jonsson

love and respect

*Helena

Upcoming tour....

2008-03-02T11:25:00.000-08:00

Hey you all, spring is coming and the tour for march is all booked. Here it is:

March 28 - Eisen, Bremen, Germany (+GATSS + Shooting John)
March 30 - Astra Stube, Hamburg, Germany (+GATSS + Shooting John)
March 31 - Ä, Berlin ,Germany (+GATSS + Shooting John + Illute)
April 01 - Desmet Live, Amsterdam, Netherlands (+GATSS + Shooting John)
April 02 - t'Elfde Genot, Sint-Niklaas, Belgium (+GATSS + Shooting John)
April 03 - Cafe Carnot, Kruibeke, Belgium (+GATSS)
April 05 - Tonenburg, Hoxter-Albaxen, Germany (+GATSS + Shooting John)

This tour I will travel and play with Gustv and The Seasick Sailors and Shooting John, both bands also from Sweden. Check them out!
www.gatss.com
www.shootingjohn.com

(for the show at April 3rd and 4th - by a combo ticket! 3rd = Helena Arlock + GATSS, 4th = shooting john + Giant Wide at Jugdhuis TerWalle, Kruibeke, Belgium)

You will probable be able to buy a DVD with live clips and WhatElseYouDoOnTourThatCouldBeCaughtOnTape from the last Indienational Tour - we are putting it together now.

I hope to see you there!

Also, did you visit the page for Helena Arlock Music on FaceBook? Become a fan! Here: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Helena-Arlock/20848554336 Until next time, live long and prosper love *Helena

Helena Arlock on MySpace - www.myspace.com/helenaarlock
Helena Arlock on YouTube - www.youtube.com/helenaarlock
Helena Arlock on FaceBook - http://www.facebook.com/pages/Helena-Arlock/20848554336

the darkest of all months, the saddest of all keys

2008-01-17T01:05:00.000-08:00

Thursday, January 17, 2008

8:41 PM - the darkest of all months, the saddest of all keys.....

January, again...

But the new year is just waiting to be filled by missions and things

I am currently planning the next tour: Germany, Belgium and Holland in March together with Gustav (Gustav and the seasick sailors) and Peder (Shooting John) and also Petter on drums!
Excited...

I am also rehearsing to go into the studio sometime soon.
Hopefully I'll be done in the end of February.

Last year was a great year, met so many wonderful, inspiring new people.
Only sad thing is that there wasn't too much time to spend with my old friends and family.

A week ago I was in Malmo on a TVshow, I am trying to put up the video on youtube, I'll let you know when it's up there!

And did you see the Unique Generation magazine?
They made a great interview with me for those who can read Swedish :)
www.uniqegeneration.com
The photos are up in one of my albums!

..

Take care, friends and folks

*H

On repeat this week:
you are a runner, and I am my fathers son - by - Wolf Parade

Currently listening :
Neon Bible
By Arcade Fire
Release date: 06 March, 2007

happy new year / last VLOG 07

2008-01-01T01:04:00.000-08:00

Tuesday, January 01, 2008

11:06 PM - happy new year and last VLOG

the tour is over for this time, we all had a few weeks off - in real beds and showers every day!! :)

thank you all for your help and support along the way, it has been a great year.
so many new friends and homes around the world.

More tours coming, but first a few more weeks off and recording.

The last VLOG is a bit late, sorry...it's a longer one with the last part - italy, slovakia, germany, sweden and norway.

As a part of the Indienational Tour in Europe this year, I'd like to make a toast for:

Anders & Jacob / Hallands Nation (Lund, Sweden)
Ulrika Peyron - for a good nights sleep

Helsingborgs Dagblad
Hasse, Hoff, Malin / The Tivoli (Helsingborg, Sweden)
Hans Haggren / Marilyn Records
Jon Matsson & Sara Doverhed - DJs @ Club Indienational, Helsingborg, SWE
Tommy Hansson - for building us the bed in the car
Family & Friends - for your help and support

Nils 0 co. / Cafe De Luxe (Vaxjo, Sweden)
Radio P4 Kronoberg
Malin Andresson - support act in Ronneby, Sweden

Rickard / Best Wishes (Goteborg, Sweden)
City Goteborg

Lady Patricia (Stockholm, Sweden)
Fredrik Wallberg - for the relaxing days
Royal Music School, Sthlm, Sweden - for lending us equipment

Christian Clemen & Nils / Astra Stube (Hamburg, Germany)
Haus 73

Pille Peerlings / Kulturrampe (Krefeld, Germany)
Peter - for your support

Michael / Skek (Amsterdam, Holland)
Vincent / Lloyd Hotel (Amsterdam, Holland)
Alma and the dancers
Signe Tollefsen
Larae and housemates
Arjo @ LaLaLa Productions
Desmet Studios

Jerome & Veerle / Cafe Carnot (Kruibeke, Belgium)
Andreas & Arne / support act in kruineke

Tom Kershwill & In The City Festival
Trof (Manchester, England)

John / Hark To Towler (Tottington, England)

Dave / Head of Steam (Huddersfield, England)
Aga, Mark & housemates

John / Tower of Song (Birmingham, England)
Eddy & Tom - for the couches

Peter Dixon / BBC Radio
Darren Bunting / Tigers Lair (Hull, England)

Danny / Blue Cat Cafe (Stockport, England)
Darrek - for the showers and the story of your life

Hamish, Jemma & Stan / for a great night off
Graham

Dave / Hollybush (Cradley Heath, England)

Cath / Huddersfield University

Barry / Cassidy's (Dublin. England)
Martin Diamantodis & housemates

Gugai / Roisen Dubh (Galway, Ireland)
The irish sisters and Mike

Andy, Rabb, Mike / Tikki Lounge (Cork, Ireland)
Chris Martin & Anette Buckley - support act in Cork

T'elfde Genot (Sint Niklaas, Belgium)
Rudy & Co. - for the great sound

Bert / T'Guildenhuis (Rupelmonde, Belgium)

Sala Monasterio (Barcelona, Spain)

Magnus & Marta
Pol Martin / indienational tour spain '07
Christian

Contraclub (Madrid, Spain)

Heliogabal (Barcelona, Spain)

Pancake

Tirta & Family
The Italian Cowboy w/ Cows

Silva / La Galera (Corregio, Italy)

Christoph Storbeck
Second Grace

Pjazza Club (Rimini, Italy)

Lorenzo & Alex / Etnoblog (trieste, Italy)
Bonko & Co. / Tetris Club

Kamila / LUKY Culturehouse (Bratislava, Slovakia)
Swedish Embassy

Nando & the rest / Eisen (Bremen, Germany)
Frank Fenken

Immylou Coalminer
Noergelbuff (Gottingen, Germany)

Christian Seckelmann
Olaf & Dirk / Cafe Del Sol (Bad Salzuflen, Germany)

Niklas Hegfalk & Beatrice

Tom H Brecke / Cementen (Stavanger, Norway)
Sebastian Waldejer / indienational tour norway '07
Maggi, Luka

Gustav Haggren & Christian Cuff

Happy new year, and I hope to see you all soon again

love

*Helena

spain VLOG 6

2007-12-08T01:03:00.000-08:00

Thursday, December 13, 2007

7:24 PM - VLOG part 6, one more to come....

so this is the 6th one, and one more to come.....

*H

ireland and belgium

2007-11-18T01:01:00.000-08:00

Sunday, November 18, 2007

3:28 AM - ireland and belgium....

working on the spain one still...we have the last show in barca tonight, then we're off to italy!!!

*H

UK

2007-11-06T00:59:00.000-08:00

aturday, November 10, 2007

8:57 PM - UK......
Current mood: awake

Lack of wifi the last weeks but here's the VLOG for UK.
The next one will be up soon, and then we're on track again :)

Oktober 28, 2007
Old Golf House Hotel, Huddersfield, GB

By a wooden desk, my cigaret in the ashtray glowing still.
The sound from the highway...
Tonight is our last show in England. Tomorrow we go to Ireland.

I'm listening to Bright Eyes, Amy in the while coat, and let the peace settle...
I went for a walk up the hill here, the smell of fall, red and yellow leaves
i love the fall
it always makes me feel like me again...strange...

The shows in England has been pretty good this week.
I walked off the ferry in Hull with a very very sore throat and was sick for the next five days.
In Huddersfield we got to stay at Christians friend, Aga's house which included a crazy party with all the polish people living there.
In Birmingham we had a great show and didn't have to sleep in the car thanks to Eddy and
We had a bad one two nights ago, in a bar and a bachelor party decided to sing their cherry song at the same time as we played... :)
We had a day off and went down to Oxford to visit my friend Hamish.
His lady, Jemma made us amazing salmon for dinner and we got to play with the 2 year old Stan.
A night out and we met up with Graham as well and saw a few bands.
(Hamish and Graham are the european band for Rachelle Van Zanten)

Ireland.......so beautiful and they really gt some green fields there!!
We stayed at Gustav's friends house in Dublin, thank you Martin for that!
Had a few guinness in Temple Bar, found our way to the bar Pravda where my brother used to work - really cool place.
Thanks to Martin and his friends and the group of people from myspace the show at Cassidy's went well even though we didn't have a sound system..

In Galway we played Roisin Dubh and hung out with 4 irish sisters.

In Cork we played at Tikki Lounge, nice night, thank you Anette Buckley for opening up for us.

We had a few days off too...
We saw the cliffs of mohair - amazing!
We stopped in a small village and went to a bath house and hung out in the jacuzzi and steam sauna for a few hours...det e najs
We went to the Blarney Castle to kiss the Blarney stone:
If you kiss the Blarney stone you are supposed to get the gift of eloquence.
To do it right you have to hang out from the roof of the caste, upside down an kiss the stone.
An interesting adventure..

*H

germany amsterdam belgium.....

2007-10-21T00:57:00.000-07:00

Germany, Amsterdam, Belgium..........

October 11th,

Shirley - the van - fully packed, sun shining and listening to the Pulp Fiction soundtrack we were off!
A five hour drive and a quick stop at the Border Shop before we hit Hamburg.
Astra Stube was a great venue. We had pasta ata restaurant near by and on our way back to do the show we walked into this funky Calypso band on the street. Dancing the streets back to Astra Stube were we were greeted by german beer and jaeger shots.
The audience was amazing and the night was perfect.
After the show our host, Nils, took us out to a bar
"There's an afterparty tonight, it's YOUR afterparty!"
(...Happy birthday darling, we love you very, very, very much...)
Late night, Christian disappeared with Nils to this restaurant that was right next to the slaughterhouse and had schnitzel.
Since me and Gustav are vegetarians, we had another beer instead.........

October 12th,

We woke up at the booker's place and walked down to III&70 where we had breakfast waiting.
Off we go to Krefeld and the next show.
Kulturrampe was very nice, thank you Peter for travelling 70 kilometers to come to the show!!!
We were all pretty tired from the Hamburg party so after te show we went back to the hotel room.
There's so much strange stuff on TV in Germany....especially late night.
A wheel of fortune - topless.
Christian is in chock.

October 13,

I love Amsterdam....
We got in to the city, amazed by all the canals, old houses...it's like a fairy-tale world!
We met up with our friend Alma who were kind enough to let us stay at her place for the two nights - an apartment full of dancers!

October 14,
We were taken to the beach with Signe, who helped us book the
Desmet Live show and the show at 'SKEK.
It was a very very relaxing day.
The show at 'SKEK that night went well, Signe played one of her songs with us.

October 15,
Lloyd Hotel....wow, the building was so impressing!!
Huge old thing that used to be a youth prison in the eighties.
We got a room with authentic interial design.....
The show was great, one of the best so far, and we had the best double bill ever - the three of us and four opera singers!
We met a girl, Larare, who was a guide and she offered us a tour around town the next day.

October 16,
After walking the streets of Amsterdam we went to Desmet Studios again to do our second radio show.
Larae showed up and took us out to town for a night out.
French fries with mayo, a walk through the red light district (Christian and Larae even went to a peep show - came out laughing hard...)
We found a great cafe/bar where we spent the rest of the night.

October 17,
Sitting in the rain after a good night's sleep and a shower - imagine that!
Larae let us sleep in her amazing apartment.
And so, about to leave to go to Belgium.
I'm glad that we got a few days in Amsterdam, thank you all people for helping us out and giving us a great time!

Belgium:

coming soon :)

rains, carrides, tomato roses, dead birds - VLOG part II

2007-10-08T00:55:00.000-07:00

September 28,
4.15 - rise and shine, rockstars......zoegas coffe was very helpful
5.00 - In the car, driving towards Vaxjo.
8.00 - Radioshow at P4 Kronoberg, soooo tired!
We found a breakfast place had a very hot hot chocolate and realized that we were really over-tired...
All the three of us passed out for a few hours in our little home for the night.

September 29,
It was a great show last night, a loud audience, but we had great fun!
The DJ played soul and we danced the rest of the night, got back to our room and found delicious sandwiches and orange juice, luxury :)
I am right now on a train, not the right one, on my way to Copenhagen to do a show with Shooting John tonight.
Since my train didn't come, I'm now crossing the country to go to Gothenburg and I really hope that I can find a train there immediately and without having to buy a new ticket...

So I've been on this train for 3 hours now, another 3 to go...I'm not going to make it in time for soundcheck with Shooting John and this wasn't at all my plan for today.
Darned train this morning that left too early!!

10.09
left the boys at the venue and walked across the street to the train staion.
20 min's left until the train would leave

10.12
Across the tracks I see a train going to Malmo,
'weird, it should leave at 10.25, maybe it's another one but I might as well get on that one, wonder how you get across the tracks though"
Finally found my way to the right track just to find the train had already left.
'Well, I'll just take the one that I was supposed to'
Couldn't find it anywhere so I asked a few people there.

10.25
Got on to the train going across the country just to get off in the next town to change trains to go south instead.

10.48
The train crew said they were sorry but apparently I couldn't go with that other train so I had to go with them across the country to Gothenburg to change trains there instead.
Fine, I thought, and sat down again.
Then I realized that I wouldn't be in Gothenburg until 13.20!
My train going south left 13.35 though, so at least I didn't have to wait.
The sound check for shooting John had moved to 4pm instead so the plan with me bringing the tourbus down to them crashed..
Instead I had to take the train directly to Copenhagen.

13.20
Getting on the other train, remember that I'm also walking around with my cello, a backpack and another bag on me....
We'd just been on the train for an hour and a half when they told us that we were 30 minutes late.
Well in Malmo, Sweden they told us that we had to change train again to go over to Copenhagen.
Lucky me that the train crews today have been amazingly understanding!
I'm now a few minutes from Copenhagen and I really hope the guys in Shooting John will pick me up....I don't want to go searching for a bus right now with all the stuff and try to exchange my swedish money to danish and all that....pretty please??
Looking forward to the show, though!
Keep the light burning, huh?

--------

October 3rd,
With David Bowie blasting through our speakers we rolled in to Gothenburg.
Found a VERY expensive parking lot and went in to Wish Club.
The food we got at the resturant Vice Cersa was amazing, they even made us roses from tomatos :)
The show went well and the booker Patrik was everything we needed, him and the 50 bar tickets he gave us...
We had to leave right after the show, going to Stockholm.
And that, my friends is something you don't want to do at night.
Dark small roads that never ended and after stopping at a gas station for an hour of sleep it was still a few hours left before we roled into Ronninge, right outside of Stockholm, where our home would be the next three nights.

October 4th,
We woke up, walked out and was greeted by sunlight and our wonderful friend Walle, that was sitting on the stairs drinking coffe and smoking.
It's a very old house with a fireplace and no running water. Freedom.
We drove in to town and found Lady Patricia, the boat where we would play that night.
Christian bought a suit and went off to do a photo shoot for his upcoming album.
The show went well, we met friends that we hadn't seen in ages.
In the middle of the set I got really seasick, creepy!
Back to the house again and beer in front of the fireplace.

October 5th,
I bought a Nord Lead!!
Finally I don't have to drag my heavy piano around anymore...
And it's bright and red and beautiful too.
I named him Mio.
I am one happy girl.

October 7th,
After a few days up north in Sweden we just arrived to Helsingborg again.
Time to pack everything up and say our goodbyes.
Today we will go buy things for the road.
Warm socks, a camping kitchen, cans of beens........

*H

On repeat this week:
'so here we are' - bloc party

Currently listening :
Silent Alarm
By Bloc Party
Release date: 22 March, 2005

an american lost in sweden, VLOG 1

2007-09-30T00:53:00.000-07:00

so the tour has begun...

Christian has been here for one week before we had the first show.
It's been a crazy week, booking, rehearsing with Shooting John, having the release party for Shooting John, my sister got married, Christian has been recording.....pjuh!

I'm going to try to put up a new VLOG every week at least, you can subscribe to this blog if you want to keep track of what we are up to!

September 26
The first show was at Hallands Nation in Lund, Sweden.
Good show, the audience was amazing.
A late night before we passed out at my friends place.

September 27,
The next day we played at The Tivoli, Helsingborg, Sweden.
Also a magical show, surrounded by friends and family.
We will be back at both these venues in December.

2 hours of sleep and then off to Vaxjo for the next show.
We did a radioplug there, listen to it here:
Radio P4

Toodles!

*Helena

4 days left and a new music video!

2007-09-13T00:50:00.000-07:00

Current mood: sleepy

sweet christian cuff just reminded me that he'll be here in 4 days!!
The tour is getting closer.

I am too too tired to write much now, just wanted to share my new music video with you.
I'm exhausted for making it all day.
Let me know what you think.

love

*Helena

autumn, sauna, RVZ

2007-09-03T00:48:00.000-07:00

You can smell the autumn outside.
The sun is shining and I'm on the balcony with a warm sweater.
The Indienational tour is starting in three weeks, exciting!

Rachelle van Zanten is here in Sweden with Hamish and Graham.
I played a show with them this friday and tomorrow they're off again.
We were bowling last night, interesting.....yes I lost
Of course we had to celebrate it with a crazy sauna party afterwards, and yes I'm pretty tired today too :)

I put up one of my new songs 'Fragile me, fragile you'
It's free for download.
I had a pretty creative summer after all, no rest at all but hey that's the way, right?!

Again, if you have facebook there's now a group called 'helena arlock music' where you can put up pics etc.

Check out the tour schedule, and if you can't see your town there, send me a message, maybe you know a venue we should contact?

For the show in Helsingborg, Sweden, you can buy tickets from me and Gustav.
Just shoot a message.

My friends, that's all for now.
Take care,

love

*H

ON REPEAT THIS WEEK:

'Love Cats' - The Cure

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