“We Are Youth” - video

Here it is finally. A video made by me, Anders Ristenstrand and Caroline Lindholm. Sweet stuff.

Happy new year!

I´ve had some problems with my homepage but now it´s apparently working again.. We´ll see how long it takes until it breaks down again… 

Anyway, hope you enjoyed your christmas and new years eve!

I had my newest EP for a free download during christmas and thanks to all of you who downloaded it! Enjoy.

There are a few new releases coming up so please check back from time to time. Also I´ve uploaded a new song on Myspace from another new project I´m working on. Check it out - > Myspace

Until next time..

- Niels

Yippie!

A pre-release is now available of ‘We Are Youth’! Go to my STORE! to get your hands on my first release.

It will be available on Itunes and all that later. You’ll have to wait until 2009 for that.

I guess we need some fireworks to celebrate.

It took me quite a while to finish this EP even if it´s only 4 songs. I´d like to thank Anders Ristenstrand for helping me out with the song “We Are Youth” and his girlfriend Carro for the help with our video for that song. The video will be available anytime soon.

Also I´d like to thank Patrik Torsson at DHM for mastering the EP and Scott Andersson for photos for the record.

A physical release of this EP will be available soon. 

- Niels

Spotify anyone?

If you don´t have and want an invite for spotify, you should e-mail me!

I have 1 left for now.

- Niels

Some info about my upcoming releases.

Hello there.

I thought I could explain a bit how my future releases will be released. How and why.

First of all - yes - I will take a few dollars for my EP’s and albums. Second - I will mostly distribute them ONLINE. Why? Well, who buys CD’s? A few. And of thoose few, there are like a tiiiiiny tiny tiny zero point something percent buying my CD’s. So we (The Cortina Collective) decided skip them. But not completely. Read further oh thy mighty collector.

So - well. Yeah. It´s simple. Money. It´s expensive to make real cd’s. And it’s boring. You see, I don´t wanna release just a ordinary jewel-Case CD with a cover and a boring booklet, you know, as the one you buy in old-fashioned stores. No no, I just need to make it hard for me. I wanna make CD’s that´s personal and nice. So if you order like 500-10.000 cd’s from some company that manufactures them, well you pay like 10-20 swedish dollalitos (1-3USD) for them, ok, but then you have this huge pile of CD’s you need to sell to be sure you get anything back.. Hmmm. Ok so let´s order like 100-500 cd’s instead and sell them, and then order even more CD’s when I need them, with a nice cover that is…. Well then it´s so expensive for each copy, that just a crazy fool with alot of money would do it. I don´t say I´m no fool, but money is nothing that I can brag about that I have too much of.

So - what´s the solution for me? Obviously not making CD’s. But then again, BORING. I like CD’s - it makes it feel more real. So they say. And some people really wanna have the CD. So I guess I’ll have to make them myself. In my living room. Which will result in more personal and more nice CD’s but of course alot less copies. And they will be burned, at home. On demand. 

So this is how´s its gonna work from now on: 

First I will release my new music on Klicktrack.com. That´s a swedish mp3-store where everybody who sell’s music online in Sweden sell their music. 

Second I will distribute all of my music through Spotify.com. If you don´t know Spotify - well, check it out. It´s like heaven. For free! So you don´t need to BUY my music, you just need to use Spotify to hear my stuff. At this moment Spotify isn´t really public yet - but it´s simple to get an invite if you know someone using Spotify. And of course - they will go public any time soon.

Third of all, I will distribute all music through all the other major downloadstores, Itunes, Rhapsody, Amazon you name it. Of course. But this is the step, where I really can´t control price and time. You see, Itunes and the other bigshots don´t want us artists to have full control. THEY wanna make money out of OUR music of course. But not give us control.

When I release the music on Klicktrack and Spotify I will have full control. Price (spotify is for free) and WHEN I upload everything is decided by me and my label. Itunes and the others can only be reached through aggregators. I have to send them all the music, and then THEY fix everything, and then takes their share of MY sales (of course, I´m just the musician, writing recording and performing, so please don´t allow me to work with Itunes, instead let some nerds be the middlehand so THEY can make money without even have to produce whatever shit but instead do whatever stuff I could do if they just LET ME. I´m not bitter. I´m just - me. ). So what´s the result of me NOT having any control of this whatsoever? Well - it will take up to (no specified time) 8 weeks until Itunes actually starts to sell my music, and it will ALWAYS be for the standard price they choose. Sorry. But that´s the way. But then again, I choose to release everything everywhere so there are multiple possibilities for people to enjoy my bitter sweet sounds. For free - or quite cheap or a little bit more expensive.

Ok, last of all - I will sell ordinary CD’s. Yep. Very small editions - but I will do my best to keep them as personal and interesting as possible. And IF you buy a real CD you will ALWAYS get a free download. So there you have it. 

1. Klicktrack.com (quite good guys)

2. Spotify.com (hmm. it´s like god’s musicstore if he had one, and if he existed)

3. Itunes, Amazon etc etc. (quite bad guys, still I love Apple so no beef with them. I guess. Big boy wins.)

4. Real CD bought from my (sooncoming) webshop. (Of course your almighty god. Me.)

So anyday now I will start to release stuff.

Cheers, love and understanding for what I’m doing.

- Niels

Another EP soon to be released.

Yes - another picture done for the new EP “The Reminder” is done.

Same people involved.

I am thrilled!

- Niels

Soon to be released.

It´s supposed to be available in about 12 days. So if you´re out of ideas December 22nd you could always buy this as your last-minute christmas gift! I am sooooo nice.

(cover photo by: Scott Andersson)

- Niels

Welcome to the promising town..

I´ve found a few images for my new CD’s. Taken by the most promising photographer Scott Andersson.

I will show you the covers as soon as I get them.

Also, there will be a box available later in december for you to order. But more information about that in a few days.

Tomorrow I´m off to my favourite bar to watch Peter Morén from Peter Bjorn and John perform. Bloody hell, that´s nice. In Norrköping. In fact, there´s been alot of great bands in Norrköping this year. I´ve seen a few, missed alot (lykke li, krunegård) but whattahell. This town is quite nice when it comes to live music.

- Niels

My first gig.

I found this picture from my first gig. It was outside Vaggeryd. Since then it all went downhill.

- Niels

Working with albumcovers…

I´m trying to figure out what I want for cover for my new music.. I´ve been searching the web for inspiration. I found this:

More very beautiful stuff here!

- Niels

Music I like and you SHOULD like.

Since I’m waiting for my new audio-gear I won’t be able to record for a few days. Instead I´ve been listening to old and new music and I thought I could recommend some music for you!

First out:

Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever (myspace)

My friend MR PONY recommended me this CD a few weeks ago and I´ve been listening alot to this. I´m so glad to actually find good music nowadays. In all this shit we´re swimming in, it´s hard to find the goodies.  Anyway, the whole record is fucking awesome, so SPOTIFY it or use any legal way to get a listen to this extremely nice record.

My second recommendation is Linah Rocio (myspace).

Who?

Well, it´s about time you listen to her.

I especially recommend “Just the Spring” and “A good look inside”. And don´t miss her new song “Stupid Café”. Don´t miss anything.

To be honest, I´m not the biggest fan of this kind of music. I mean, normally. But Linah is something really special. The music and the voice melts together into something I just really enjoy.

My final suggestion of the day is my dear friend Per Sahlström (myspace).

This goddamn mastermind of a songwriter just writes the most beautiful, laidback songs ever. I can´t even recall I´ve heard a single “bad” song of all the songs I have on my computer. Great human and a great musician. I hope to see a record soon. I hope more people find this guy ‘cos his music really tell stories!

So that´s my tip for the day. Three different things I really enjoy listening to.

In the wait for my new “studio” to arrive.

- Niels

The Reminder sneaky peaky..

I´ve uploaded my new EP “The Reminder” on my my my my my myspaces…

Patrik Torsson. I thank you!

4 songs. Will be released in December. 

When I googled “reminder” I found this amazing picture. Have NO idea what the purpose might be behind this strange picture.

Anyway. Until next time.

- Niels

A reminding recording

We spent a few days in the studio a few weeks ago. With a little help from our friend Erik Wärn we recorded 4 songs for a new upcoming EP titled ‘The Reminder’. It should be available around christmas?

Here’s a little film from the studio:

- Niels

You Should Be Gone

So the third and last song made for the “We Are Youth” EP was also recorded live a few weeks ago.

Caroline Lindholm filmed it.

The quality is higher if you visit vimeo instead. Link to the right.

- Niels

1.0

Hello again ..

It´s been a while. Haven´t had a proper site for some time now. Well, at least not a site where I can write and post stuff more regular. There´s alot of music and stuff going on so just visit me from time to time and you will find random goodies. I will open an online store any given moment - yeah, that´s right. I know, I used to throw all my music at ya for free. And I will continue to do so from time to time, but I will also sell music and stuff in different ways.

I´ve also set up my own record label now where I will release both my own stuff but also different nice projects I´ve found over the time. Some with a certain level of involvment and some completely without my gentle touch.

There ain´t that much to talk about yet - more news will come about that. 

Oh, I´ve made it possible for you to comment things I post. Hopefully you will. 

Some pics to start off with:

recording new music.

uher. german mic from the 60’s.

- Niels