Going north

On our way up to Umeå we enjoyed some spectacular views. Naturally we had to stop for a picnic and our daily yoga routine.

Greeting the Sun.

And this would be Down Dog. Very flexible people.

We really didn´t know what to expect of the Umeå audience or would there be any audience at all but after our two performances I feel like we made a lot of new friends. It is always a bit scary to perform in a city you never done before and especially in the beginning of the show you can see people think What am I watching, Who are these people and Where is the a cappella?

We all have our own routines before the show on how to concentrate and focus on the coming performance. I am not totally convinced of Jonte´s and Kasper´s ways.

An average day at work.

Usually we do our own makeup and hair but sometimes it is easier to get by with a little help from your friends.

Gregory reveals some hidden skills of him.

Tomorrow we have a day off, the only thing we have to do is to drive to Luleå because on Thursday we have a performance in Boden.

Thank you Umeå!

First stop

Yesterday was our grand opening for the Pink Noise by Fork tour in Sweden and our journey began in Gävle. Our 18 meter long truck with Tobias, Baba and Henrik already arrived on Thursday and we flew in on Friday. It was quite impressive to watch the guys unload the truck, everything was on wheels and the roading went so smoothly that by the time I got up on stage to give a helping hand it was already done.

This is where we keep our costumes when touring. On the note it says Forks clothes service done. Please take them away. The greeting is from the wonderful people at Svenska Teaterns costume department who agreed on washing and serving our clothes after we had used them for 30 days in Edinburgh. They were not the freshest clothes in town...

First day on tour and they still smell so good.

Soundcheck at Gävle teater. Very relaxed feeling.

Behind the light, sound and video desk the feeling wasn´t as relaxed. I have no idea what the problem was, they usually don´t tell us, but by the time the show started everything worked just fine.
We had a great crowd in Gävle, I am sure a big part of the audience had no idea what they were about to experience but in the end of the evening the house was full of happy people.

Happy people.

Soon we are on our way to Umeå. Tobias and Baba with the truck, Henrik, Gregory and Ubbe in one car and Anna, Kasper, Jonte and me in the other car. I am guessing the level of the jokes will be really high...

                              

                                                                Gävle.

Back in Business!

Vacation is over and on Tuesday we flew to Stockholm, Sweden to do a corporate gig. Since we hadn´t seen each other for such a long time we were all very happy to meet again. The jokes seemed so fresh and new even if they were not.

Kasper and Anna look happy but as you can see Jonte is a bit sad. It´s just because he wasn´t professional enough to catch a cold while being on vacation like the rest of the group did. He got the worst cough ever a few days ago but amazingly enough there was no coughing during the performance. Now that´s Professional.

And this is supposed to help?

It seems like we really have good luck with our backstage rooms wherever we go nowadays. This time we got to enjoy this spectacular view:

On wednesday morning a taxi picked us up at 3.30 a.m (seriously, 3.30?!) to take us to TV 4 where we performed two songs and gave an interview on the Morning show. I cannot imagine what it would be like getting up that early every morning. How do you manage? Because this is what we looked like:

No brain function whatsoever. Nothing. This is backstage at TV 4, if you look really closely at the numbers in the picture you see that it says 03.59.06. Not a good time to sing a cappella. Except of course if you are at a night club and you are hitting the last high notes in the last song of the evening.

But the crew at TV 4 is so nice and they have really good coffee and excellent breakfast so it was definitely worth a visit.
On Friday we fly back to Sweden to start our Pink Noise by Fork tour with Riksteatern. We are doing 8 cities in two weeks and I will keep you updated on what´s going on. So far it seems like we don´t have to change our clothes while singing. But who knows, things might be different on Friday.

Traveling light

Even if we are an a cappella band doesn´t mean we travel light. This is Gregs 108 kg beautybox which he needs with him on every gig. The expression of the person behind the check-in counter is usually not the happiest one when we are the next in line.

This is last Saturday at Arlanda airport, Sweden, on our way to do a concert in Dalhalla.

The concert in Dalhalla took place in a huge mine and was quite an experience. The concert was a mix of the Dala symphony orchestra, opera singer Loa Falkman, actress and singer Åsa Fång and us. It was, to say the least, a grand mixture of music genres but it seemed to work really well and the audience was very happy!

Dalhalla concert place. As you can see there is water in front of the stage and we really had to do some serious impulse stopping not to stage dive. Greg is sitting in the small booth in the middle of the audience. He usually has the best seat in the house.

The stage, the guys, and the orchestra in the back doing their soundcheck.

Our two concerts in Sellosali, Espoo last week were so much fun and we fully enjoyed not having a time limit to have to keep. I have a feeling we were talking more than singing... sorry for that. The concerts were sold out and the crowd was great! It felt good to be home.

The audience and us in Sellosali 31.8.

Now we are having some time off, two weeks to be exact, before we start touring Sweden. Personally I will be focusing on picking mushrooms, washing windows and family dinners. And the task that was given to each and everyone: coming up with ideas for a new repertoire.

Last picture from Edinburgh. Traveling light.