I made the most of my Sunday arrival in Paris, one of just three nights off I have in July, to hang out with Dom–Aden was already off to the grandparents’ for the summer. Which means I won’t see her for over a month. Woah. But on Sunday, I had dinner out with Dom. It’s these little moments, quite rare…we watched a movie, just did Sunday things…again, I have 2 more free nights in July, and one of them is the 31st, so…I know, poor me.
Well, I worked on my studio stuff, getting my ProTools running properly, still needed to do some more troubleshooting Monday morning, so when Liisa, the artist I’m working with on an album this month, arrived, I said “let’s go have lunch” while I was downloading a big software upgrade. She’s vegan; I had pig bits. Best of both worlds, shall we say! Anway, we spent the next couple of days going thru her songs and making guide tracks and mapping out what songs would need drums, and what songs we could program, and kind of sketch out the game plan. Then I spent a day programming drums, all the while updating software and such to make that job easier, since it’s not something I do often. Liisa came back and checked on my progress, and after we had one song quite developed we started adding synth basses and synths and more synths, and having all kinds of fun, of course talking music and philosophy on the way. Liisa has made some really exuberant synth pop recordings so far, and we decided we’d like to darken and dirty up her sound…her lyrics are not as sunny as the music, and the message could be a bit more consistent, we thought. So that’s what we’re up to now….darkening. Dirtying.
Paris has been sweltering, actually reaching a new peak today, it’s quite torrid sitting my a number-crunching computer all day, plus a tube compressor, and such. I have a fan on, and I swear the breeze it makes just solidifies and drops dead 6 inches away from the rotating blades.
Now, with jet lag, and allergies, and Liisa coming in with some sinus trouble, and Aden having been back from grandma’s last week possibly coated with grandma’s cold (“mamie” hasn’t been to a doctor since…uh…maybe never?) I suddenly went from bad allergies to a fucking cold that came on just like that. I was working one night, and just couldn’t, like I was falling asleep at the computer. I thought, “jet lag”. Dom said: “fever, dipshit. Go to bed. Now”. So, I knocked off half an hour early, but really, I was done. The next day I was really, truly sick. Sneezing, snotting, running like water out my eyes nose etc. Went thru like ten rolls of 2 ply. Liisa came over and surely was disgusted but bless her (bless her? *I’m* the one sneezing FFS).
HELSINKI, 7/9
So of course I was at the nadir when I got up to go to Helsinki. I wanted to enjoy the moment, but I was feeling truly craptastic. I had fallen asleep before Dom got home from working at an event, so we didn’t book a cab, but we managed to get one that morning, somehow (well, Dom has her ways). I dozed on the way to Charles De Gaulle, drizzle dotting the windows of the taxi. It was really busy at the airport, summer travel full on, and there was a massive line for the Finnair check in. But, they came and got all the people on my flight and moved them to the front of the line, including a truly wonderful/silly/typical looking goth rock band. Anyway, I got on board and crashed, deep deep asleep. Finnair has very nice new clean Airbus planes, nice seats. I needed that. Got to Helsinki, claimed my stuff, cabbed to the hotel and zzzzzz.
Around 7 I got up, and Milla, musician/promoter extraordinaire, met me in the lobby and we walked over to the Belly club, I’d been in there at some point for a drink, but never played there; Jon Auer has graced its stage at some point. First up was to do a kind of soundcheck, and to my surprise, my cold-plugged head (I took all the magic pills Dom sent along) was open enough to sing. Then I ran thru some songs with the Kabuki Kiddies–Lasse from Lemonator, Markus from the Latebirds, Milla, and bass player …uh…SHIT. I hadn’t met her before, so now…dammit. OK. She was great tho. Please remind me. Anyway…by the time that and some dinner and about 8 espressos were had, the KK’s were already playing their set of Cheap Trick/etc covers…and then it was my turn. I had sat down with friends at 8pm when the doors open, having a cafe on the terrace, and didn’t realize it til the band started that the place was packed. Woah! I really didn’t expect that anyone would want to be indoors in 83-degree heat and no nightfall…I mean, wow. And when I came onstage and played all my new stuff, man…that was one reverential audience. How could I not do great? My voice cracked a bit on one song, but generally, cold and all, I did just fine. It felt great, and I was able to really get into it. Of course I sweat like a feverish pig and even short-circuited my keyboard at one point but it was a great show..and then the Kabuki’s joined me, for “Doesn’t It Remind You”, wherein a roped in an audience member to duet with me, and then some covers–”In the Street”, “Surrender”, “He’s A Whore”, “Ontario”…and, they didn’t know that this was coming: “Voices”. Then we were going to do the “Hello There” that’s the “Goodnight” one…but Markus played the riff all slow, feigning the start of a blues jam…the band followed but it sounded so much like “L.A. Woman” that I played the piano riff and then sang it as “Oulu Woman” which went down well. Finally I sang the “Goodnite now ladeez and Gents” but instead of “Would you Like to do a Number with me” the song was slow so I could sing “Who would like to introduce me to the singers of PMMP” which also brought the house down! Of course that was supposed to be the end but the audience wasn’t going anywhere–so I played for another 40 min. or so by myself, and just had a marvelous time.
Felt like garbage this morning. Early flight. Had a row of seats to myself which helped. Left my glasses in the hotel. FUCK. Cuz I put my prescription sunnies on when I left. Worked with Liisa in the afternoon after a nap and listening to the Posies master for the new album….having a few doubts about a few details but it IS a masterpiece. Now…bed.
Love
KS
Paris