Shit... Sick?

I woke up feeling awful this morning at around 7.30. My throat was killing me and I was going to do both some recording and some rehearsal today, so that didn't feel too promising. I had a cup of tea and went back to sleep. Woke up two and a half hour later 'cause the phone rang. It was Anders, my DJ and bass player, asking about the rehearsal. I enlightened him on the situation and told him I would call him around 12 pm and give him a definitive answer if we were even going to rehearse at all. Well at 12 pm I still felt like shit so I decided to cancel both rehearsal and my studio session.

Then I checked my email and found out that I could have a song on a big mixtape project if I sent them an exclusive song/freestyle/remix, and guess when the deadline would be? That's right - tonight. So I had to go to the studio anyway and record my version of "Swagger Like Us" even though I didn't feel too good. The rest is history, the song is a killer and I've recorded a video blog about it. You'll get the song tomorrow and the video blog clip later. Now I've got to work on a verse for a new song and then I'm going to pass out in front of a movie with my baby.

Take care and check back tomorrow for that new new new freshy fresh shizzle.

Update

Nothing happened yesterday as far as music is concerned, but this week will be GOOD. It starts tonight with some writing and continues tomorrow with the recording of "Swagger Like Us" JaeWon style and some rehearsal and more writing. Then it continues all week with at least two studio sessions with Jonathan. I'm also going to record yet another mixtape song on friday I think. I'll let you know.

Later.

Rock guitars

Today I visited Anders Wicander, CEO of Stonerude Records and talented guitarist, to get some of our older recordings that need to be freshened up at Jonathan's. We also recorded some new riffs for a song idea I had, and it was cool. We'll see what happens with the song on Wednesday when I'm back in the studio. Before that I've got some writing planned for Monday and Tuesday, along with the recording of my "Swagger Like Us" version and some rehearsal on Tuesday as well. It should be an interesting week for me as an artist, since I won't get a lot of hours at work this week, so I'll be able to do a couple of studio session and a lot of writing (I hope). We'll see.

Stay tuned.

Two slow days

I've had two slow days of work now, but now I've booked some sessions. I'll do a short writing session by myself tomorrow morning, before work, and one writing session with Anders Wicander, after work, where we will record some guitars for a couple of ideas I have. That should be fun, it's been a while since the last time we wrote something together. Then I'm going to book a studio session with Cloffe to record my version of "Swagger Like Us" on Tuesday, and I've also booked another studio session with Jonathan for Wednesday. So I've got the shit on lock, holmes. Haha...

I also got my new smartphone yesterday which means I can now transfer my text documents I use when working on my lyrics into the phone, and write when I don't have access to my computer. COOL!

Update on me and Jonathan's last session coming later today.

Tiresome Tuesday

I'm feeling kind of beat right now. Just got home from work, so now I'm going to grab something to eat and work-out. Not a lot of music-making to talk about, but tomorrow we've booked a three hour studio session, so we'll see what happens. We should at least be able to make one brand new beat. I'll tell you more about it tomorrow. Check out yesterday's videos below and COMMENT.

Video blog #2

Here is a video blog I recorded earlier today, check it out:



It's funny, 'cause even though we just started working on my album, today I felt like I really got "in the zone" when I was writing. I was really focused, inspired and determined to write top quality material. Just watch me, folks. It will start when I drop that new freestyle in a week or so, you'll start thinking "hey, maybe he can spit...". Yeah, I can, and just because I love making rock influenced songs, or catchy hooks or because I listen to and get inspired by whatever and whoever the fuck I want doesn't mean I can't rap. Rap is what I do, it's what I've been doing since I started this music business. You'll see. Trust me, you'll see... :)

Video blog #1

Sorry it took so long. This is the surprise I was talking about last week. This video is from when I got back from me and Jonathan's third session in the studio - Sunday, September 14, 2008.

Expect more videos like this to appear here on the blog more frequently now that I have started a new Youtube account in honor of my video blog. I will shoot little clips in the studio and my apartment as I'm writing and recording. Expect a video clip of me recording a new freestyle next week.

Lunch break

Right now I'm on a lunch break, having some grrrrreeeaaat Chicken Tikka Masala (thanks baby) and checking some blogs. I got up early today, and I have had some success with my writing today. I have finished a killer, I repeat, KILLER verse for a beat you'll all recognize. I won't tell you which one it is just yet, but it's a real hyped song featuring a bunch of GREAT rappers. You know which one it is, right? In that case, drop a comment and tell me, and we'll see if you're right. Hehe. I will hopefully record the verse this week or this weekend, we'll see.

I'll tell you about the other song I am working on right now in a video blog. Check back in an hour or so, I'm uploading it soon.

Myspace Murderer

Damn, that should make a cool song title. "Myspace Murderer". Watch out for that one, folks.

The reason for the title of this post is simple; the Myspace hiatus is OVER. I'm going to become more active on Myspace, as of today, and I'm going to make everybody on this planet listen to my music and I'm going to spread my songs to every corner of the earth. Period.

Tomorrow I have an 7 hour writing session planned. I'm going to locked myself in the apartment and I'm going to WRITE. Write, write, write... I'm going to finish a couple of verses and start laying down some new ideas and whatnot. On Wednesday I'm going to meet with Jonathan for a studio session, and I'm going to be prepared. We're going to do big things in the studio on Wednesday, and all winter too for that matter. BIG things.

Now it's back to "Movie Weekend", starring me, Malin and some Chicken Tikka Masala. Sweeeeet.

No work done today as far as music is concerned. I'm beat, sometimes it sucks being a grown-up. A good thing about it is that I can eat candy in bed and stay up all night watching movies. Yeah, I'm a do that tonight and tomorrow and get back to writing my ass off on Monday. I'll post something tomorrow to let you know if I've finished all my candy and what movies I've watched.

(I know this wasn't a very studio-related post, but what the hell am I supposed to write when I haven't done any writing or recording for a week.)

By the way, Jonathan Ojeda is recording the video for his first single off his upcoming album "Illusion" today. This is going to be some sick shit, trust me. Stonerude, Break The Norm - Make way, here we come.

Live show tonight

I didn't get any writing done yesterday, and it will be the same today. I'm doing a live show tonight at Brännäsgården here in Norrtälje, so I'm focusing on that now. I've got a tight schedule tomorrow as well but on Sunday I might book a studio session with Jonathan, depending on the state of his cold. Next week I've got some time on my hands, so hopefully we'll do two or three sessions in the studio, and I'm also going to lock myself up in the apartment to do some serious writing. I'm going to try to record a couple of mixtape tracks asap as well. Those tracks will be put up for grabs on the internet as soon as I leave the studio, believe that.

Stay tuned.

How I write songs

Today I might actually get some writing done. It's been hard to find the time to actually sit down and just focus on writing. Actually, I pretty much never sit down and write. Let me tell you how a song comes to life for me.

It often starts with just a melody that I usually come up with in the shower. Yeah, that's right - I sing in the shower. Then I record the melody on my cellphone. After a while it's time to start working on, say an album, and I need my ideas. Then I pick one of the melodies and start imaging how the beat will sound, then I tell Jonathan about it and we'll hopefully make a dope ass beat. Or if I don't have a melody, but more like an idea of how I want the song to sound, what feeling that should be put into the song, we just start by making the right drums. Then we start playing various instruments, humming melodies and me rapping. However we make the beat, I bring the beat with me home, press play and repeat and listen to it like 1000 times while bouncing around, shadow-boxing, jumping rope, doing push-ups - you name it - and jotting down bits and pieces of the lyrics. When I feel that I have enough lines/rhymes to start putting them together and forming verses, I do.

That's the best way I could explain the way I write songs, and I think it's a fairly accurate description. Hope you enjoyed it.

I'll be back to tell you if I got any work done today later.

Cancellation

Today's studio session was cancelled this morning because Jonathan's gotten sick. Hopefully he'll be better in a couple of days and we'll be back in the lab in no time. Get well soon, mate.

As far as writing, I haven't done anything today. I wrote some new shit yesterday though, a couple lines here and there, and it's looking good. I'll get back to it tomorrow and hopefully finish a verse or two.

Wrote some lines

It's officially Wednesday now, but this post belongs to my Tuesday since I haven't gone to bed yet.

I started working on the lyrics for one of the songs we did in our last session. It's coming along good and I think it is going to be a great song. It's way too early to tell how good it is going to be, although I feel that there is something special about this song. Something magical.

Tomorrow I'm meeting Jonathan at the studio at 11 am for a five hour writing session. I'm excited as usual and I hope we'll be as creative as we usually are. It's amazing that we've only had three writing sessions and have already made beats for FIVE (!!!) new songs. Hopefully we'll knock out two or three more tomorrow. Damn, I've got a good feeling about this fall/winter's creating. You'll see, people.

Good night.

This afternoon

Right now I'm off to work, but when I get home at 17.30 I've got a couple of hours to work on my lyrics and I'm going to make the best of it. I'll post another blog tonight and let you know how things went.

Have a good day.

Still no lyrics...

Unfortunately some new things came up for me to do. Important things around the apartment, like cooking and shopping for groceries, so I won't be able to write as much as I would've wanted to today. I will get some lines down before the day is over though.

I'll keep you posted.

No all-day session

My plan for today was to write all day, working on the new songs we did yesterday, but I just got called in for some last minute work so I will write a little when I get back from work around 17.30. I'll let you know how it goes.

Monster

Third session: Today's session was very good. We did two new beats and also recorded a hook for one of them. The other track (the one we didn't record a hook for) is actually going to be the opening track on the album, and this is a track I have been dreaming of making since I first started writing songs. It's a beast, a real fucking monster. I swear to you; it will blow your minds when you hear it.

- But Jae, you shouldn't create a hype this soon and get people's hopes up - then they'll just get disappointed.

Fuck it, this is the one track that will actually make people scared of fucking with me. Lots of cursing, I know, but I needed these exact words to describe the feeling I got today.

I will update this post tomorrow with a surprise for you guys.

Tomorrow it is

Just wanted to do my daily post and tell you that I'm really looking forward to tomorrow's studio session. The goal is to knock out two new beats tomorrow, maybe even three, and then I'll work on the lyrics until our next session on Wednesday.

I'm also posting a little surprise for y'all to watch tomorrow. Check back tomorrow to see what it is.

Good night.

Finally booked another session

I have been hard at work at my "day job" all week doing inventory, so I haven't done much as far as music is concerned. Now the inventory week is over and I'm going to work approximately three days a week there, and the rest of the time writing and recording. Me and Jonathan booked a studio session for tomorrow and one for Wednesday, and then we decided we were going to do at least one more next week. So we should get some serious work done during these sessions. Since we got started I have developed a whole bunch of new ideas that we are going to work on during next week's sessions.

If you wonder why I'm not telling you more about the songs we have started working on, letting you know titles and parts of the lyrics and whatnot, let me tell you. The reason is actually quite simple; the songs are still in such an early stage that I don't really know which direction they will go as we proceed working on them in the studio. We work fast though, so even as soon as next week I should be able to give you a little something something to still your hunger.

I will also tell you about a new project I am working on VERY SOON, I promise. I just have to make some critical decisions about how to get that project started the way I want to. Once I've made those decisions things will hopefully run smoothly, and you will be very happy because it will lead to me giving you new songs for free. Confused? Interested? Don't worry, I will tell you all about it SOON.

Take care.

Some work done...

Yesterday I didn't finish one of the three songs I'd started, like I said I would. I worked on all of them and two songs are almost done. Just some little adjustments to be made. One day soon I'm going to explain to you all how I write my songs, from idea to finished song.

I was going to the studio today, but I got called in to work at the last minute. Then I'm working all week, so our next session is scheduled for Sunday. We will try to get two more songs started then, and after that try to work at least two times a week for like a month, until we have enough demos to start cutting tracks and eventually start recording. It will be lots of fun, I can't wait to get started on more songs.

I've got some other news for you, that includes some information on a new side-project I'm working on so you will be able to hear some new music from me before my next single drops. I'll tell you all about it when I have more time. Now I've got to work.

Good morning

Good morning world! I've been up for an hour, taking care of some business and now I'm going to have some breakfast - then it's writing time. Like I said in my last post, I'm going to finish at least one of the songs we started last week, and I've also got a couple of new ideas that I want to develop for our session tomorrow. I might go visit Anders Wicander in his lair tonight to record some guitar and bass for some of my new ideas and also burn a CD with some leftovers from spring's recording sessions. I know there's a couple of things Jonathan would like to get his hands on, so I'll try to make that happen.

I'll let you know how it all goes.

Yesterday

I had some internet problems yesterday as well, but I think that they have fixed them now. Here's what I wrote yesterday and saved for when the internet would be fixed:

Sunday. Today I woke up late and enjoyed a "day off". It felt good to just relax and be with my girlfriend all day, watching movies, walking and enjoying each others company. Tomorrow I will be ready for a new week and I will start writing early tomorrow morning. I've got the three songs we've already done, and I'm also going to work on some new ideas for Tuesday's studio session with Jonathan. Talk to you tomorrow.

Internet problems

My internet has been down since yesterday, so I haven't been able to update the blog the way I would've wanted to. Sorry, that's the downside of technology.

Yesterday I had a lot of things to do and I did not do any work at all as far as music is concerned. Today I have tried to develop a few of my ideas a little for next weeks studiosession, but unfortunately that didn't go too well. I'll do some writing for the songs I'm working on, and hopefully things will go as smooth as I want them to.

I'll give you an update tomorrow.

Note: My updates will be more frequent the further into the writing and recording process we go, and we just started this week, so expect more from me and my blogging as soon as next week.

Peace.

Not much work done today...

I worked at my "dayjob" today, so I got home a couple of hours ago. Then I cooked some dinner and worked out. Now I'm going to do some work on the lyrics for one of the three songs I'm working on right now. I don't want to tell you too much about it since I haven't finished it yet, and I may still do some changes to the lyrics and the beat is just a demo so far. But I can say this much; it's a hard, street single type of track. A real, raw banger. The first verse is pretty much finished and I am really happy with it. I think it's one of the best verses I have written so far, and I have written a lot of cool shit, folks. Hehe...

Well, back to work. Later.

Three songs in

Today we finished the demo of the beat we started on yesterday, and we also did a whole new demo beat, also based on one of the ideas I brought to the studio yesterday. Now we'll work on our own until Tuesday, then we'll meet for our next session. The way we've gotten started, with three great demos in two days, is simply astounding. If we keep this up... Well, things'll be pretty awesome.

Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures or anything during these two sessions since my girlfriend has the camera with her on a work-thing. Next time I'll give you something.

Now I'm going to work on the lyrics for these three songs until Tuesday. I'll keep you posted.

Lil' update on yesterday's session

As I was saying, yesterday was a good day. Really good...

I met Jonathan in the studio to discuss some ideas and to get things going with the album. At first I told him about a couple of ideas I had, and we discussed how we should make them reality. Nuff said, he started making a drum loop for this song I had been working on the day before and before you knew it we were back to Mars when we wrote and recorded my EP "Some Kind Of Hero" together, except more experienced, more determined and most of all I think our friendship has developed into something that really works to our advantage in the studio. Jonathan made the entire beat for that song and I wrote most of the lyrics on location. I'm going to finish them today when I get back from the studio. We also started working on another song which is going to be magical as well. Something really special, I can feel it already.

I'm going to the studio in less than an hour to keep working, and when I get back I'll tell you about what's been going on today.

Second day

Today was a good day. I met Jonathan this morning and we went to the studio to get started with the album. The song I mentioned I was working on yesterday, well let's put it this way; we did the beat and I wrote most of the lyrics to it today and it's going to be awesome. Matter of fact, it's going to be the shit.

I'm going to bed now to get some rest, we're meeting tomorrow for another session. Before I go to the studio I'm going to tell you more about today's session though.

Good night.

First day update

The first day is almost over and I am happy with the way it turned out. I finished the first verse and half of the second verse for a song I'm working on. I think this song will be something else, something real special. You'll see...

Now I'm going to watch some "Everybody Hates Chris" and try to get some sleep. Tomorrow is a big day - first session with Jonathan!

Sleep tight.

First day

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls. Today is the day when it all starts for real. Approximately four months ago, right after me and Jonathan Ojeda finished my five track EP "Some Kind Of Hero", we decided that we were going to start working on my debut album together on this very day, September 1st, 2008. The album will be released by Stonerude Records via Plugged Distribution in 2009. I am excited as hell to make this album, I have been waiting for this since I first started dreaming of being a rockstar when I was just a kid and let me tell you something - I am ready. Everything will be documented on this blog in the form of diaries, pictures, video clips, snippets of song ideas and all that you can imagine. No matter what we do in the studio, how good or bad my day has been, I will post at least one blog every day until the album is finished, telling you what my day has been like music-wise. That's a promise.

So. Let's get it started.

Even though it's only 2 pm, I have done some work today. I got out of bed at 7.30, had my breakfast and started working some of the ideas I have developed this summer. Today is a writing day, and tomorrow me and the producer of the album, Jonathan Ojeda, are meeting in his studio to discuss ideas and get started with the album. I am stoked and I probably won't be able to sleep much tonight. Like a kid before Christmas.

Now it's lunch time. I'll be back later for another update.