Thursday, November 27, 2008

Sun & Pretty Flowers

Straight to the point, straight from the studio, straight up from the drummer boi. As I write this, there are A LOT of songs in the works. It's pretty hard to define just how many, but about 20 to 30 is a pretty close estimate. Which is really good, but really bad too. They still keep coming. And we all know it will be excruciating to pick which ones make it to the album, and which ones don't. It ain't gonna be pretty...

Tommy has been working his Garage Band material so much lately, it's actually getting scary. He seems to have a new idea for a song every other day. One track with the working title "Sympathizer" began as a guitar riff he had conjured up, using GB's own Classical Acoustic guitar preset sound. It has since turned into a brutal mix of heavy electronic sounds and some fast paced tango instrumentalism. With the emphasis on mental. Juuso dropped by the other day, with his dreads wrapped in a Moroccan scarf, and slammed in some ultra aggressive percussion takes. Felix responded in kind by recording some heavy beatbox snares and difficult breathing sounds while chilling out on the floor of the Tank. Tommy's rapping on Sympathizer seems to pay homage to Snoop Dogg and maybe just a bit to Blackalicious as well. Soooo, all things considered, just your average DJBB track in the making I guess.

Slow acoustic country type material seems to produce itself almost too easily. Two of these that go by the names "Wish" and "Rough", seem to have some pretty atypical DJBB elements, and might turn into something new and interesting for us. It remains to be seen what shape they end up taking. Johannes's newest track goes by the very fitting name "Boogie", and represents something of a return to our roots in relying heavily on blues and old school hip hop influences.

So far, all the album work has been done in the Dick Tank, and there's a growing need for some change of scenery. As a result, we've booked some different locations in December, and will even venture outside the borders very soon. Something similar to our Algarve sessions before the previous album. More info coming up in future entries!

The album release date has already been set for early MAY 2009, at which time we will also be hitting the road for a release tour. Official press releases will go out once we get around to 2009 and all the exact dates are known. We've met and mingled with our label heads, who treated us to the usual luxury of coffee and rolls, and responded with cheers upon hearing some of the new material. Good vibes all 'round!

The most newsworthy bit for now may be the fact that a special teaser site for the upcoming album will be online in January 2009. The site will follow the final months of the recording process in real time, with videos, photos, wallpapers, updated information on all the songs being worked on, an interactive blog style diary etc. We've already recorded a lot of video footage in the Tank, but much of it still remains unedited. This will all change in January.

As many of you have already noticed, we've had to pass on our traditional Christmas tour this year because of the demands of our studio schedule in December. Alas, no need to despair, we will most likely be sending out a very special video greeting, AND the date for a Very Special Johnson Christmas at Helsinki's Tavastia has already been booked for 2009! :) The annual webshop Christmas Campaign will also be launched soon. Our current partners Globe Hope and Secco will be joined by the cool Myssy label.

Sun & pretty flowers to all,

Kari

1 comment:

  1. kiva lukea näitä vähän vanhempiakin tekstejä ja matkata taaksepäin levyprosessissa, levyä ja tulevaa kesää odottaa kyllä hullun lailla.

    ReplyDelete