Sweden Part I: Swedes, Heartbeats and Rum and Cokes

Stockholm. I'm sitting in Ineke's grandmother's car with Xania in the front seat, me in the back. Ineke is out buying vegetables and bread. The car smells like old sleeping bags and the floor is covered with crumbs, oranges and candy wrappers. We're discussing where to go now with Trike.

"I think we've achieved what we can with playing these small venues and now we have to move on" Xania says.

"I agree" I say.

"But" I say, with a long pause following "how do we get bigger shows?"

"We ... contact the booker from Crunchy Frog. We volunteer at festivals... work on our recordings, work on our live act. We need to feel creative and I don't feel creative right now... I need to be creative again... otherwise I feel useless." Xania says.

This is a discussion we keep having. The need to change things. Touring has been wonderful, but neither of us feel like we're progressing. We've hit a ceiling on what we can do at this level and we need to move forward. We DID, however, feel like we were progressing in Copenhagen, playing in the streets, popping into Crunchy Frog to play them a song, playing at Stengade 30, doing some solid internet work for the band, moving towards getting our t-shirts available online, being in one place with five free days; making dinner with Oliver, playing for him in the park, jamming on a few songs we rarely play ...

But we just played the King Kong bar in Sweden last night, and although there was, in the end, a positive response, it was a very difficult, tricky crowd (Swedes are notoriously reserved and refuse to move) and a bit exhausting for us. They absolutely REFUSED to dance the Trikey (our signature dance). REFUSED. Complete with arms crossed and everything. Surprisingly, they did put their hands in the air when the angels appeared, doing the Trikey. On top of it, the DJ in the next room kept starting his set during our show. I (exaggeratedly) flipped out on stage, tossing the mic stand, keyboard and keyboard stand everywhere. A Swede in the audience yelled "Hang the DJ!", as a nod to Morissey. He later confessed that he wanted me to incite the crowd to shout "Hang the DJ" in unison. Damn, I wished I'd picked up on that.

Later that night, two cute blonds recognized us in the metro, which was nice.

We're generally not sleeping well, and almost every night, 3 hours before the gig, I feel like crashing like a heap of bricks. But I don't. I have a coke (or a rum and coke) and pull through. And we mostly have pretty good if not great shows. But small venues... always small venues. We need... NEED to make the big step; to play bigger venues. BIGGER!!!

* * *

I have so many ideas on how we can expand on what we're doing: buying a loop pedal so Xania could do some final fantasy-style elaborate violin layering. Using a sequencing program and ableton live so I can start using samples to beef up parts of the songs... constructing beats with sequencing programs because we are running out of pre-programmed beats, PLUS, I like making beats. 'Not only that, but ideas involving more costumes, colours, confetti, balloons,

I was listening to The Knife's song "Heartbeats" and it was so gorgeous and thick and beautiful and sexy and I suddenly felt an overwhelming desire to create something that really emotionally resonates. Something that people NEED to hear many times and NEED to have. I'm influenced by Ladytron, Lush, Stereolab... a lot of "shoegazing", 80's influenced bands. And I think we can. We just need time. Time to be NOT on the road, but in one place, with a space where we can write, record, edit, sequence, generate ideas for the live show...

That's the thing too. We really need to work on our live show. In Vancouver, before we left for Europe, I feel like we were improving with leaps and bounds with each show. And although the last ten months of touring (with a brief 2 months off to record). We were constantly introducing new ideas into our shows; new props, costumes, dance moves... whereas touring constantly has led us to this point; where we feel like we've hit the ceiling of what we can do, for now, without taking time to look inside, reinvent things, toy with new concepts etc...

* * *

Somebody found a painting I did in Saint John New Brunswick and wrote me to say he really liked it. That reminded me how much I love painting, and how it excercises a different muscle than performing. It's introspective for me. Two years ago is the only time I tried to sell art, and it worked! I sold a piece for two hundred in Stanstead, Quebec, at a cafe called Millie's Diner. But I want to do more of that, and I think I'm almost in a place where I can.

I need time to flesh out other ideas, to make other things, to do other shit. That can only happen if we STOP booking constantly and STAY in one place for awhile (ahem... Copenhagen... ahem).

Thing is, we have a toss up: to stay in Copenhagen for at least a month, or to go from festival to festival, volunteering and playing (even if it's just on a pathway to a stage or near the entrance). Fact is, the Festival idea really appeals to me, too, because I think we could meet a LOOOOOOOT of people that way. Perhaps the idea could be: play/ volunteer at Festivals all summer, then stay in Copenhagen in the fall and make serious headway... hmm. Hmm. HMMMMM....

Tomorrow I will see more of Stockholm (and busk in the funky student part of Stockholm). I will share what I experience with you beautiful people ASAP.