My plans today went completely awry. I started with looking for previous Anekdoten rehearsal videos on my computer for my rehearsal today with guitarist Nicklas. It’s not three chords and I have to relearn the songs. Of course, I remember parts of it but not all of it and Nicklas and I have to get together to see what both of us have to go over.

It’s best to film the parts with Nicklas, playing them, slower than usual (haha). It gives me a chance to work on them by myself. But trying to sort out my computer documents, files, music and videos ended up taking some time as I searched. In the end, hours later, I found some of the original vids which helped but I listened to some of the actual songs and did my best to play along with them, at full speed. I have two months to get it right, I hope it’s enough. Have a listen to Shooting Star from Until All The Ghosts Are Gone but listen as if you were going to learn how to play it.

Those that don’t like progressive music only hear the twiddling, those that do like it hear the accuracy, the musicianship and in the case of Anekdoten, the strong songs. Plus Anekdoten are heavy, a complex juggernaut careering towards you. Look out if you’re in the first few rows. So the plan was to rehearse with Nicklas on Skype but he didn’t show, lost in the chaos of his day. So I carried on by myself and some things returned to my fingers but others didn’t, so we’ll get together in the week and see what bits need looking at. We have gigs starting 29th April in Malmö, 30th in Gothenburg and the 1st May in Stockholm. Then Poland depending of course on where we are in May with the war in Ukraine and the refugees streaming over the border. Canada in May too.

Today I was practising with my Nash Telecaster, the problem with a Les Paul, the guitar I play in Anekdoten, is that it’s not only heavy but awkward to hold when you’re sitting down. I was using Terrence Stamp to help with the tone and wrote a nice little riff that I was able to record easily as I have managed to get the basics of Logic down.

So after this, I was supposed to be listening to sessioneer Brian from Indiana’s album but by the time I got to the link, it had expired and he has to send it to me again. Nothing worked today in regards to the schedule. I did find some songs I’d written in my files that I’d forgotten about which inspired me to write more of my own songs, but I still have sessioneer Craig’s songs to play on, Jed and my new song for Space Summit three and I’m still learning how to operate the studio.

On a lighter note, the other day I was walking down the street and found myself in one of those awkward situations where I was walking at the same speed as a stranger like we were walking together. So you either have to speed up or slow down depending on whether or not you are in a rush. Also, there’s the language issue, it’s not like you can just start chatting.

I was doing my regular language sesh today. I’ve been working on four simultaneously, French, Spanish, Swedish and German, all of them are refresher courses and take me further, learning new words and grammar, it’s slow but it’s cool. Portuguese is another issue because, as I’ve mentioned before, there’s no European Portuguese on Duolingo, only Brazilian Portuguese which is different, it’s sooooo frustrating. Different pronunciations, different grammar, and different words for things. They have Klingon but not Portuguese, the world has truly gone mad.

Music today has been Anekdoten’s Until All The Ghosts Are Gone (2015). I play on the title track but the album was just about done when I joined although I’ve played a lot of these songs live. Enjoy.

Music Of The Daze