Stay calm and breathe

This week we finally got to try some of our new arrangements on the audience. On Tuesday we were in Ekenäs and had a great time like we always have when we visit this small but sassy town.
The challenge when performing new stuff is to stay calm enough to be able to breathe. It is scary what nervousness can do to you. If you lose your harmony you can always find it again, if you forget the words, well, we are all pretty good at making up new ones as the song goes on... But if the breathing fails, then you are in trouble. Especially if you are supposed to sing a long sweet ooooo.
It will sound more like o-o--o-o---o-hh-h-o.

Sound check. Baba, our local guy, is giving us some last minute advice on how to take over the Ekenäs crowd.

We had a quick brainstorming about what to do to get this thing going.

Of course the answer to that was coffee, which was brought to us by the wonderful Mr. Pöysti.

Sometimes after a successful gig we look like this:

"Yeeei, Ekenäs, Thank you! We are happy and almost sane!"

or like this:

"Money, wuahhahhaa!"


But sometimes we look like this (in a town far from Ekenäs):

"No, that was not fun."

or:

"I want pizza."

To sum it up, so far the week has been interesting and I think we managed to perform our new stuff with our honour intact.

Multitasking in Frankfurt

Last night we came home from a very short trip to Frankfurt. We flew in on Tuesday, did a gig in the evening and back home on Wednesday. The wonderful thing about this trip was not only the great audience we met but also the feeling of SPRING! Once again I realize that we live very far up north.

Major sun-worshipping.

The bad thing about this trip was that Linda decided we could do this without her. Which meant that suddenly I was in charge of all kinds of practical things.

"Where is the car that should have picked us up? Who should I call? "

"Where is the person we are supposed to meet outside the hotel? What was her name again? Are we at the right hotel?"

"Where are our rooms?" "When is our soundcheck again?" "When do we eat?"

While the rest of the group is taking a power nap I am ordering the food for everyone. "Ok, Jonte will have the ceasar salad, Kapser wants the sushi platter, Anna wants chicken, Greg wants french food..."

"Where is the cold beer? where are our sun hats?"

"How long was the set again?""Which songs are we singing?"

Meditation time. 

The penguin

A lonely penguin in the Finnish winter night.

Last week we had a gig where the events manager not only treated the customer with some Fork but also gave them a spectacular ice sculpture show. It was amazing to see what skilled people can do with a piece of ice. Now, the evening could have turned out to be just one of those gigs where everything goes exactly like planned without any surprises. But this time the ice sculpturing must have been a bit too much for the events manager because when we met him, after the soundcheck when everything was still fine,  he immediately started yelling a bunch of non-understandable things to us about mixing table being in the wrong place and us destroying the whole gig etc. It was quite an experience and we more or less looked like a bunch of question marks and since any attempt to discussion led nowhere we transported ourselves back stage to calm down and figure out what to do next.

Well, what happened next was this:
The events manager came back stage, he apologized for being stressed and behaving like such an you know what,  we said everything was cool, we put on our make up, did a good gig for a great audience and everybody was happy.

Two bottles of sparkling was brought to us with a note saying Sorry for us complaining. :)


We had another gig last week as well where these wonderful ladies took such good care of us.

Now we are back in rehearsals.

Really looks like they know what they are doing.

Winter time

Yesterday there was yet again a new record for this winter, the temperature outside was as low as 40 degrees Celsius. Luckily not in Helsinki, here it was only - 23... For us Finns normal life goes on no matter what the temperature is, we put on one more pair of long johns and an extra sweater and we are off to work. I am not saying I enjoy this coldness but there really isn´t anything I can do about it, except move somewhere else of course.

This is not Siberia, this is Helsinki.

And about moving somewhere else, we just elected a new president for Finland (congratulation Mr. Niinistö, hope to see you in the audience soon again) which always is a bit exciting at least in the beginning. And then of course Helsinki is the World Capital of Design 2012 so no way am I leaving this hip and in city at least not this year.

Today and tomorrow we are doing corporate gigs, we still can´t do our new material for the audience, it  needs more rehearsals. Last Friday at the rehearsal studio we experienced a moment of total emptiness, we sat for six hours and nothing happened, not a single good idea or inspiring thought. Luckily Linda came to see us, all tan and relaxed after two weeks in Mexico, and brought some chocolate and sparkling wine with her!

The boys in a sensitive duet.

The Year of the Dragon

It´s the year of the Dragon and we are looking into the future. It is said that during the Dragon year the impossible is possible and that we want to believe!
We have been in the rehearsal studio for ten days now and lots have been done. Five new arrangements has seen the light and everybody is still alive and happy. Well, actually today the spirit wasn´t the most creative one and a scent of frustration was in the air. It felt like we had an idea but we couldn´t find the right way to make it happen. So frustrating! And when you have been singing for many hours and your voice is tired, your ears are tired, the ideas and the jokes are just bad and Kasper is threatening to suggest a Bee Gee song if that will make us more inspired, well, then it is time to stop and go home. And come back the next day with new energy.

I don´t know if you can read what it says on the voice live but this is one of the songs we have been working on. Lots of screaming from my side and I enjoy every minute of it.

Tomorrow we have a corporate gig, it would be great to try some of the new songs but it is still too early. Gotta work some more.

Kings Place

Last night seven happy and tired Forkians arrived at Helsinki-Vantaa airport after having spent four great days in London!

This could be the cover picture of our next album but it isn´t. It is Fork arriving at London Gatwick airport and waiting for Linda to tell us what to do next.
We had the privilege of staying at the Finnish ambassadors residence, thank you Pekka and Liisa Huhtaniemi, at Kensington Palace Gardens (right next door to William and Kate) and the taxi driver had a very hard time believing that the hippies he was driving from the airport really had the right address. He asked us at least seven times if we were sure and do we know princess D used to live there next door and that it is a very high security area and so on. We were his first customers ever to go to an address on that street. I guess cabs usually aren´t needed around that area...

The Finnish hippies at Kensington Palace Gardens.

On Thursday we visited the Finnish Embassy to give an interview. Jonte and Linda took the chance to pre-vote in the Finnish President election since they wont be in Finland on the election day. Linda will be in Mexico on vacation, she needs some after this trip I guess...

We had a nice lunch with the people from the Embassy at the Star tavern which is known from the Great Train Robbery. Somewhere here in this room there might be millions hidden. In this picture - Linda, Tanja, Jouni, Tiina, Otto, Kasper, Jonte (what is he doing?!) Anna and Pirjo.
In the evening we went to see the Boxettes, a very good a cappella group with five hot women and a heavy beat.

On Friday we had soundcheck in the morning and in the evening it was time for us to get ready and do our thing. I was quite nervous before the gig since I knew the audience would be a very professional a cappella audience and what we do is break all the rules of traditional a cappella. I could sense in the beginning of the show that there were some question marks of What are they Doing? but when we came to Final Countdown and Jonte put on his wig it was clear that the audience had decided to like what they see. Even if they weren´t  sure what it was. It was also clear that Modern talking wasn´t such a big hit in the UK in the 80´s as it was in Finland...

On Saturday we went to see The Swingle Singers who hosted the whole a cappella festival. They were really one of the best groups I have ever seen. So spot on. Multi-grammy award winners...

On Sunday morning we were hungry and tired.

But then we had some English Breakfast and the sun was shining again.

Today in Helsinki the sun isn´t shining at all, instead it is snowy and cold outside. Tomorrow we are going back into rehearsals and I am very much looking forward to that.

Thank you LACF for having us!

London baby!

The new year has started and we are back to work after a very nice and calm vacation. Anna was enjoying some sun in Spain, Jonte was fixing on his new home, Kasper burnt his fingers on a fondue pot but then again he saved a house from burning down, Greg had his parents from France over for a visit, Linda was working (always is) and I have been scraping off paint from a ceiling.

Monday and Tuesday we spent in the rehearsing studio. It is amazing what a bit of vacation can do to the inspiration. In two days we did two new arrangements and the jokes were better than ever.

Today we fly to London to enjoy the LACF - the London A Cappella Festival! We are doing a concert  at Kings Place on Friday the 13th (we are NOT superstitious!) and I am very much looking forward to that. This will be our first gig in London but hopefully not our last. We are also going to see other groups perform and of course mingle with all the a cappella people. Time to brush up on the a cappella vocabulary, like microphone, voice, tune, harmony.... Some of us are also really excited about Saturday afternoon when we are going to a local pub to watch a local football game. Some will focus on the game, some will focus on the local beer.

In Finland we finally got some snow. A cappella nerds going for lunch.

London, here we come!