Merry Christmas and a happy New Year!

It´s time to settle down and enjoy the peace and joy of Christmas and to Thank you all for hanging out with us here on Fork backstage.  We wish you a Merry Christmas and a great start on the New Year! We will be back in business sooner than you can imagine.

Here is a picture from our last gig this year.

And here are some pictures from our Christmas party!

 Gregory.                                                                        

 Linda.                                                                            

 Jonte.                                                                      

Kasper.

 Me.                                                                            

Anna. Later on that night.

Happy Holidays!

Inspiration!

Our goal for the beginning of next year is to have time to go into the rehearsal studio and make new arrangements. Since we had a couple of non-gig-days this week we decided to start rehearsals already now. We begun by making a list of what song we would like to do, the list had up to 60 songs and I am sure there will be more after Christmas.

This is the Red list, the list of happy song. We also have a Black list, the list of more depressing but mostly very beautiful songs.

This is a face of an inspired sound wizard. In the beginning of the process when we make the arrangements Greg really can´t do anything else but listen and hope we will find something that works, then he can start doing his magic.

Here Jonte is very busy doing something very important on his phone. And Linda on her computer. Busy busy.

The bad weather hasn´t been helping us much in finding inspiration but at least Anna did her best by bringing in some colors to the rehearsals!

Yesterday we were bold enough to grab the microphones and just start singing. Since we don´t work by using sheet music the beginning is always the most difficult part for us. Neither have we decided who is the alto or the soprano, it all depends on how we want to build up the song and who has what kind of ideas. This gives us a freedom that suits us very well.

The beginning.

Nightclubs

We´ve done two nightclub gigs this week, on Saturday we were in Lovisa and on Monday in Stockholm at Kägelbanan. We really love doing these kind of gigs and even if the sound on stage isn´t the best since the monitors very seldom are made for any kind of a cappella singing it doesn´t disturb us at all. The gigs are sweaty and loud and very up-tempo and the crowd is so ready to be entertained. Since the stages usually aren´t that big we are standing very close to each other and I can see and feel how my colleagues are working hard and enjoying the moment intensely.

Lovisa is a special place for me since it is my hometown and the incredible warm welcome we got just blew me away. This must be what Bon Jovi experience when they perform in New Jersey or U2 in Dublin. What a feeling!

Here are some pictures from the Lovisa gig.

And this is backstage. Tired but Happy.

The photosession

Yesterday we had a photosession for some new pictures. Since we have the greatest confidence in our stylist Minttu she can bring whatever clothes she wants and we will wear them. When she  gave me this to slip into I felt a slight urge to question her choice but decided wisely not to. Because, as been said before, when it comes to style she knows what she is doing.

It took me and Minttu about an hour and a kilo of baby powder to get me into this but once I was in it felt like a second skin...

Also Anna had her share of baby powder and here she is with the wonderful make-up artist Jenni Jansson.

I cannot but admire the models that do this everyday. How do they manage to always look so relaxed? Yes, there are many things you can do by photoshopping the picture but you can´t change a bad face expression to a good. Or a tense pose to a relaxed. Or an empty look to an intensive look. So while standing on high heels in a rubber dress with a wind machine blowing your hair in all kinds of directions we all did our best to give the most intensive look while twisting our bodies into perfect poses. The great Nina behind the camera and Minttu were giving us hints of what they needed more of, or less of, and at some point one of them was shouting yes, that´s it!

If you are wondering what got stuck in Jontes pants it´s just some clips to make them even tighter.

Posing.

So long Casino

This is our last week at the Casino Helsinki and we´ve had a good time. Nothing much new has been going on, no finger gestures, only happy people! Oh, and I need to get me a pair of new leather pants because last week during our gig I was dancing so wildly that I suddenly tore a big hole in my pants. Awkward moment.

Next week we have some time off and then in the beginning of December we are doing two concerts, one in my home town Lovisa and one in Stockholm, Sweden. Very excited about that.

The 23rd of November is the official release date for our Pink Noise Live record, we have already been selling it at our concerts and on iTunes but of course it feels nice with a special date for the release. It is of course a perfect excuse for some champagne, if you ever would need an excuse for something like that?

No time for chilling out during the breaks between the sets at casino. Anna and Kasper are glueing stickers with some important information on the Pink Noise live cd covers.

Excitement

When we go deeper into the fall and closer to the darkest time of the year the Finns starts celebrating what we call pikku-joulut, directly translated as little-christmas. The firms throw parties for all the employees, the bosses drink together with the rest of the crew and we all try to forget that it will only get darker and colder for the next two-three months. The "little-christmas" audience is usually a great crowd, they are there to have fun and they want to be entertained. There has been some funny, or lets say interesting situations during the past years though.
Like the one man who felt the music so much that he came up on stage and asked me to put my mic down so he could dance with me. I tried to show that if we stop singing the music will stop, but he didn´t take no for an answer and while he was trying to grab my mic it accidentally hit my lip and started bleeding.
Or the one guy who threw his belt around me and started using me as a dance pole.
These things don´t happen very often and when they do it´s usually because the people are so happy and excited and full of party feelings.
But last week at the casino I had a new kind of interaction with a person from the audience. There was this young man who throughout the show had been talking quite loudly to his friends, kind of competing with our PA on the volume level, and in my last speak I pointed out to him that we all, the rest of the audience and we up on stage, could hear him very clearly.  This man got so upset over me interrupting his conversation that he gave me the finger.
That was a new experience. Not the finger, I have had that before, but the being up on stage and given the finger.

We only have love and happiness in our group. This is from last Friday when we did a benefit appearance for the Red Nose day on Radio Vega.

Fan mail from a very young lady. Thank you Cassandra!

Odd situations

Tuesday was quite an interesting day for us. The day kicked off with an appearance on FST5:s morning show on Finnish television which once again meant really early wake up. And once again I was amazed and thankful for the great make up that has been invented cause honestly, when you look yourself in the mirror at 5 a.m the first thought that comes to your mind is not: wow, this face is meant to be on tv right now! The happiest guy in Fork that morning was Gregory who didn´t have to be there to build up any sound systems or mix anything since the studio didn´t have the possibilities for that. So we went total a cappella, four microphones and some reverb.

In the evening we had an corporate gig and while doing soundcheck we realized that the guest dinner table was set for ten people. That´s a fairly odd situation, both for us and for the audience. Also the backstage was different..

We pointed out the obvious right from the start - you are the smallest crowd we´ve ever had so please don´t start text messaging or use the toilet or go for a smoke right now. But we didn´t need to worry, they were loud, laughing and singing along all the way. It´s not the size that matters.

The Fork massage.

Yesterday we were back at the Casino and here are some pictures from that gig.

Finnish schlager at it´s best.

Swedish schlager at it´s best.

Attitude at the casino.

Casino time

Last night was our opening at the Casino Helsinki where we will be performing for five weeks, 4 nights a week. The opening went fine but the hours before the opening, or lets say even the minutes before entering the stage, were pretty hectic. I´ll give you a small glimpse of what was happening backstage:

This is in the morning. Tobias is programming lights and Kasper and Greg are trying to figure out how to get the tvs working. And to their own surprise they succeeded!
After this we had soundcheck which went fine except that we have this new song with lots, I mean lots of words to learn by heart to sing all together at the same time with the right words in the right key. Gregory looked really concerned during soundcheck and also the rest of us didn´t feel too comfortable but let me tell you, it is amazing how these old brains still, at times, work! Not a single word went wrong in front of the audience. Tonight we are going to find out if our long-term memory still works.

Yesterday we also got new stage clothes which we were all looking very much forward to. Actually they were supposed to come already on Tuesday so there would be time to, well, at least try them on once before entering the stage. But they came one hour before the show so the following pictures are a bit unsharp since the atmosphere was quite tense.

Yes it fits! Now we just need to get the zipper up.

Yes, great, except a shirt is missing. This is our own little Slash.

I am ironing Annas dress on a chair. Of course with a glass of champagne. Wait, why am I ironing Annas dress?

Oh yes, because Anna is trying to get her shoes on.

Jonte and his new jewellery.

Seconds before entering the stage. The smiles are a bit tense I admit. Especially Annas and mine since we weren´t totally sure if the dresses were going to stay up or not.

And then we have Linda. Who no matter how busy we are always have the time to strike a pose.

Games we play

Only two more performances and our Sweden tour is over. Tonight we are in Vaggeryd, tomorrow in Falköping and on Sunday we are flying home. I will miss all the fun we have had but I wont miss the unpacking and repacking of the suitcase over and over again..

Last night was a night off and the whole crew went bowling. We divided into two teams - Technicians and Artists. We have done two game nights already, Mega Zone, which the Artists won and Combined sports with mini-golf, thai chi, shooting sports and intelligence test, which the Artist won as well.  Yesterday it was time for the Technicians to finally win. And oh that joy.

Ubbe, Henrik and Baba. On their way to victory.

You can´t always win.

We do have the best technician crew ever, they make life so easy for us. The only thing we have to do is show up for soundcheck and then be good on stage for 120 minutes. We do try to help them sometimes but I have a feeling they just think we slow things down.

Jonte is helping Tobias.

On our way to work.

Heading South

Yesterday we finished our week up in north by doing a concert in Östersund which is situated in the mid of Sweden. We had some fantastic days up in Luleå and Boden, not only was the audience wonderful but also the scenery was incredible. Here some pictures from Storforsen, Big Rapids, in Älvsbyn.

Yes, sometimes we look like dorks.

This place was really energizing!

We had the weekend off and Kasper, Jonte and Anna went to visit some friends and do some fishing. According to them the size of the fish they caught could feed the whole swedish population for a decade.

Me again I flew home to see my family and on Sunday I flew back via Stockholm, Arlanda to Östersund, in good time before the concert. The trip didn´t go as smoothly as I was hoping for - of course the flight from Helsinki was late and when we landed in Stockholm I had exactly 12 minutes time to make it from terminal 5 to terminal 4. There was nothing else to do than to use the advice I got when I as a teenager was training for the 800 meters. Picture me running, like a nordic elk with its butt on fire, while pulling down the quite short skirt I was wearing and holding on to my hand luggage. Then through the security control where you nowadays have to strip down to almost nothing and pull out everything you have in your bag and still the alarm is beeping and you have to go back and take off your shoes (at that point I might have said a bad word to the security woman and for that I am sorry). But yes, I made it and the whole crew of the aircraft was cheering for me.

Today we drove 550 km to Västerås where we will be doing a show tomorrow.