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Jeg skrev "Vi er ikke kommet for at danse" under corona som en slags "Lad os komme ud at skændes med hinanden i virkeligheden i stedet for på Facebook, og lad 2020'erne være ligesom de brølende 1920'ere"-slagsang. Little did I know... at verden tilsyneladende mente, at vi også skulle tage de autokratiske og små-fascistoide tendenser fra 1920'erne til sig. Men altså, du kan også bare vælge at høre den som fest og ballade.

Titelsangen fra mit seneste studiealbum

HISTORIEN Det var blevet sommer 2023. Jeg havde netop udgivet mit første selvkomponerede album i 14 år, Brick By Brick, i maj måned, og havde egentlig ikke forestillet mig at jeg skulle til at skrive nye sange sådan lige med det samme. Men jeg kunne åbenbart ikke lade være. At det skulle være sange på dansk, ville jeg heller ikke kunne have spået. Jeg har altid holdt af dansk musik, men jeg har måske ikke følt at jeg havde den modenhed, der skulle til selv at kaste sig over modersmålet. Ikke før nu i hvert fald. Da jeg havde skrevet den første sang, fik jeg blod på tanden. Og så gik det ellers hurtigt derfra. Alle sangene er skrevet i løbet af sommeren og efteråret 2023, på nær julesangen, der blev skrevet året før. MUSIKERE Denne gang har jeg forsøgt at uddelegere lidt flere opgaver end jeg plejer. På nær to numre er det Sonni fra The Mumes der spiller bas, og Danny spiller guitar på et enkelt nummer. Gunnar spiller mandolin på to numre, og så har jeg Winnie og Lee med på kor. Det er skønt! Tak for det! TAK Det er altid lidt nervepirrende at sende et nyt hjertebarn på gaden, uanset hvor mange gange man har prøvet det før. Jeg laver musik fordi jeg ikke kan lade være. Men det er unægteligt sjovere, hvis der er nogen, der gider høre på det. Så jeg vil gerne sige tusind tak til DIG, fordi du lige nu bladrer i det her teksthæfte, og måske har smidt CD’en på anlægget. Og tak til dig der møder op når jeg er ude og spille. Det betyder alverden!

Behind the scenes In January 2023 I joined Århus Sangskriverværksted (ÅSV) and participated in a five day winter retreat, strongly focused on songwriting, along with about thirty other participants. After more than a decade had passed since my last attempt at writing my own stuff on any scale, my friend Gunnar Snær Gunnarsson convinced me to join the community and give it a go. It took a few days for me to get going at the retreat, but then I managed to write and co-write some interesting songs, a few of which ended up on this album. The rest of the songs on here were written during February Album Writing Month (fawm.org), an online community where songwriters are encouraged to write an album’s worth of material during the twenty-eight days of February. I have always been a fan of odd time signatures, but I haven’t really explored them much myself before now. On this album I’ve experiemented with how crazy I could make it sound rhythmically while still preserving the strong melodies in the songs. Lyrically the album plays around with science fiction themes like space flight and time travel while also exploring more down-to-earth material such as cats up to no good in the garden, relationships and inner strength. In the digital booklet you might notice an image associated with each song. The images look a little off-putting, and that’s because they are all generated with the use of AI in a text-promt-to-image app called Night Café. I like the way the images are almost perfect, but there are inconsistencies in almost all of them. We live in interesting times. Soon the AI will improve to the point where we can’t tell the difference. Musicians Everything is performed by me, except the guitar theme on Brick By Brick and solo on The World Is My Playground which is performed by Gunnar Snær Gunnarsson and backing vocals on The Ballad of Tír na nÓg by Ellie Mackey. The recording process was fairly simple and standard: Drums first, then bass, then layers upon layers of guitars, keyboards, clarinet and vocals along with a broad selection of percussion instruments. If less is more, imagine what more could be! Thanks It’s been quite a ride. When I joined Århus Sangskriverværksted in January I didn’t expect to have a finished album by the end of March. I didn’t really expect to get anything done at all, but here we are. I would like to thank everyone who has backed me up during the process. People at ÅSV have been extremely helpful and welcoming. If you are an aspiring songwriter, I really recommend joining. Most of all though, I’d like to thank you for picking up this album and giving it a listen. It means the world to me. Thank you.