Its been a while, a few years actually, since my last upload here on SoundCloud. There are various reasons why, and to sum it all up - life happened.

Anywho.. since I use this platform for sharing my sketches, I choose to share a new version of a song previously uploaded (7years ago) this time. I’ve adjusted the tempo and changed the chorus a tiny bit eager to add a kind of “bluegrass-inspired choir”. You might have to use your imagination to “hear” what I mean 😉 

I dropped the “honkey-tonk-piano” and added acoustic guitar-solo instead, thinking that suits this version of the song better. I also dropped the stump-box, the tenor-banjo and all the rhythm instruments used int the previous version. The “fake-bass”, using an iPad was also “fired” from this version. To try to make a kind of “break”, since there is no bridge, in the song I added a mouth-harp in the “nearly-acapella”-part of one chorus after the guitar-solo.
 
I recorded this version approximately in the same way as the previous version. I started with the lead vocal and my Cordoba Iberia C7-CE guitar. Then did various recordings of my guitars, using both my Cordoba and my T-guitar (HD-28) with a “mix and combo” so to speak, using my L.R.Baggs venue D.I.-box  and/or through iRig Acoustic Stage. Trying this way to make a rich guitar sound as before. You can also hear my T-mandolin, as it filled in nicely both rhythm wise and sound wise.

I’ve already mentioned using the mouth-harp and the attempt to create some kind of Polyphonic choir in the “bluegrass genre”. Adding also a track for the guitar-solo, the whole mix added up to 17 tracks, although some of them are copies used for panning when mixing.

The mixing part at the end of each recording is not my cup of tea, as most of you probably know now. My recordings are mainly to give an idea on how my songs can be played.

All my T-instruments are custom-made for me by an excellent local guitar builder named Ragnar Thorsteinsen (T-instrumenter, Elverum).

My demos are simply "black and white sketches" of a painting that needs color. I will leave it to the musicians and the singers who are better in the craft than I am, to colorize the “damn” thing 😉

Feel free to comment. Enjoy 😊

I told you so (v2)

Here is a little attempt to write a "summer-song". Norwegian lyrics this time. Maybe a bit short? I might write some more lyrics to it later, if I can get the words to cooperate :-)

I wanted this to kind of "sound like summer", if that make any sense. I started out with a couple of tracks using my Cordoba Iberia C7-CE guitar. One track with fingerpicking the melody, and one track trying to avoid fingerpicking the melody...I know, it doesn't make sense:-) Both the guitar tracks were done mixing the iRig Acoustic Stage sound with the built-in mic in the guitar. Then I added a track using my T-ukulele, to add both rhythm and a bit summerly touch. Finally I added two tracks with more from the rhythm section, rhythm-eggs and bongo drums.

All my T-instruments are custom-made for me by an excellent local guitarbuilder named Ragnar Thorsteinsen (T-instrumenter, Elverum).

My demos are simply "black and white sketches" of a painting that needs colour. I'll leave the colouring to the musicians and singers who are better than me :-)

Sommer'n er her!

Here’s a little song with Norwegian lyrics I wrote a few years ago. It has been performed live a couple of times with the band Birken Company, but so far not recorded professionally. The song is based on a true story and points out the rather fun experience I had when I arrived at a great surfers beach only to find out there was a sign saying “no surfing” that day, because of bad weather. The fun part was, when I later that night was entering a nightclub and found a “no surfing” sign at the door, referring to the use of mobile devices surfing the Internet. Only two verses so far, but more verses might “pop up” depending on what signs I might come across.  
To those well known to the Norwegian language, I have been told that the way I pronounce the title of the song, or more precisely, the chorus of the song, it might sound like I am singing something completely different. That, of course, is a complete coincidence. ;-)
 
I started out with some kind of fingerpicking using my Cordoba Iberia C7-CE guitar with a capo on the fourth fret. I added a track using my T-ukulele, before adding two tracks using my T-guitar (HD-28). One track with a capo on the fourth fret and one track without a capo, this to try to broaden the sound, if you know what I mean. My goal was to use a real accordion on this take, but after several hours rehearsing and attempts to find what I was looking for, I had to give up. I cheated and used my Yamaha PSR303 keyboard instead. Sorry about that. One day I’ll record the song in a studio with an accordion. Since I don't have a bass-guitar I used my keyboard and added a bass-track. It should of course been a real bass-guitar. Finally, I put tambourine on a track to kind of spice the rhythms a little bit.

All my T-instruments are custom-made for me by an excellent local guitar builder named Ragnar Thorsteinsen (T-instrumenter, Elverum).

My demos are simply "black and white sketches" of a painting that needs colour. I'll leave the colouring to the musicians and singers who are better than I am :-)

Surf itte her

An attempt to write a cheerful song, maybe a kind of drinking song? Hopefully it will spike up the mood, both text wise and rhythm wise. It’s about friendship, and togetherness, while out on tour whether it is in nature or out on town. The point is to have fun together. 

I started out using my Cordoba Iberia C7-CE guitar with a capo on the fourth fret. Seems like this is my “favourite fret” these days. I then cloned that track and added the vocal track. I recorded some piano, using my Yamaha PSR303 keyboard on one track before adding a couple of tracks with something from the rhythm section. I played around a bit before landing on this tambourine track and found it naturally to use rhythm-egg alongside of it. At last I added a track using my T-ukulele, both to widen the sound spectre and to sort of match up the tambouring rhythm wise. 

All my T-instruments are custom-made for me by an excellent local guitar builder named Ragnar Thorsteinsen (T-instrumenter, Elverum).

My demos are simply "black and white sketches" of a painting that needs colour. I'll leave the colouring to the musicians and singers who are better than I am :-)

Feel free to comment. Enjoy :-)

Ut på tur - aldri sur

Sometimes, while writing a song, the story changes. The chorus on this song came rather easy it just popped into place. While writing it down, I had a specific plan for the story of the song, what the verses should be about. However, when I started writing the first verse, something felt wrong. The words did not cooperate, not with me and not with the melody in my head. After struggling a lot, both with finding the right words and the story I was planning to tell, I gave up. I was rather pleased with my chorus so I kept it and started to play it over and over again, trying to lure out the story that I knew was in there. Suddenly it just kind of came out. And it was all so naturally. The words fitted my melody and fell into place in a matter of minutes. Of course, this was what the song should be about from the beginning. The writing process this time was both fun and a good experience. Needless to say, I am rather pleased with result.
 
I started the recording using my Cordoba Iberia C7-CE guitar. This time without a capo! I did the vocal track and the Cordoba track at the same time. Then I added another guitar track using my T-guitar (HD-28) clean through my L.R.Baggs venue D.I.-box. A second track with my T-guitar was added, and this time through iRig Acoustic Stage. Trying this way to make a rich guitar sound. I then added some tracks with rhythm instruments, such as eggs and tambourine. I also tried for the first time using a stump box, a Shadow Stompin’Bass. Then I added two more tracks using my T-mandolin and my Gold Tone tenor banjo, both for rhythm and sound. I kept hearing a piano in my head, so I added a piano track (Yamaha PSR303 keyboard) and gave it a solo part in this recording. Another first on this recording was adding the “bass guitar”. I use quotation mark because I used an iPad and the Garage Band app, recording the bass. I know this is kind of cheating, but at least I played the iPad throughout the whole song. :-)  The mixing part at the end of each recording is not my cup of tea, as most of you probably now know. My recordings is mainly to give an idea on how my songs can be played.

All my T-instruments are custom-made for me by an excellent local guitar builder named Ragnar Thorsteinsen (T-instrumenter, Elverum).

My demos are simply "black and white sketches" of a painting that needs colour. I will leave the colouring to the musicians and singers who are better than I am :-)

Feel free to comment. Enjoy :-)

Don't mind me - I told you so

While looking through some old sheets of choir-music I inherited from my grandparents many years ago, I came across three handwritten sheets of lyrics. It was ten verses, in Norwegian of course, about the rather famous ski-competition called “Birkebeinerrennet”. It was written to an old melody I have not managed to find so far, so I decided to make a new melody. I found it to be quite good and fitting both the lyrics and the rhythm of the song. I have no idea about the origins of the text, who has written it or in which context it was made. Maybe as a song to a dinner-party or some sort of celebration? Talking to my mother, she thinks maybe it is something my grandfather got from his uncle. Maybe the lyrics is from pre second world war? This year Birkebeinerrennet celebrates its 80th year and I think its extra fun to have found this old song “just in time”. It tells about a time when the start of the ski-competition was in Lillehammer and the finish was in Rena, and it is quite clear that there were no women in the race at the time.
 
This recording contains only one track using my Cordoba Iberia C7-CE guitar, which I cloned, and a vocal track. Very simple and plain, I did the vocal track and the Cordoba track at the same time. I mixed the guitar-sound using my iRig Acoustic Stage sound with the built-in mic in the guitar, through my L.R.Baggs venue D.I.-box.

As always, my demos are simply "black and white sketches" of a painting that needs colour. I will leave the colouring to the musicians and singers who are better than I am :-)

Feel free to comment. Enjoy :-)

Gammel Birkebeinervise

You’ll find this song on Birken Company’s album “…enn nå a…”. This is a slightly different version of the song, that kind of “popped into place” while goofing around playing guitar and singing old tunes. Which version I like the most, I don’t know, and neither am I sure this version will be used by B/C. It was fun recording it though.
I started the recording using my Cordoba Iberia C7-CE guitar. I did the vocal track and the Cordoba track at the same time on this song as well. Then I added one track using my T-guitar (HD-28) and one track using my Ibanez 12-string acoustic guitar. The bass is played using my Yamaha PSR303 keyboard. I added my T-ukulele on one track and a little bit tambourine on a track at the end. I used iRig Acoustic Stage only on all the guitar-tracks this time. Finally, I added some backing vocals on the chorus. I used iRig Acoustic Stage only on all the guitar-tracks this time. 

All my T-instruments are custom-made for me by an excellent local guitar builder named Ragnar Thorsteinsen (T-instrumenter, Elverum).

As always, my demos are simply "black and white sketches" of a painting that needs colour. I will leave the colouring to the musicians and singers who are better than I am :-)

Feel free to comment. Enjoy!

Stubben (ver2)

I’ve been struggling a while with the lyrics to this song. The first two verses came rather easy, but the next two verses were harder to find. I was quite, as the title of the song indicates, stuck! for a long time writing this before the words finally slipped into place. I try to point out how hard it is for some to move on from a life changing experience. It could be a break-up or losing someone close. For some, life goes on and they move on rather quickly, others must work hard to prevent themselves from being stuck in the past.

When I started to write this I “heard” it in my head as a kind of an up-beat pop-song. But after recorded a couple of tracks, the whole song sort of changed into a country song. I had to start recording from scratch again and I’m rather pleased with the result. I think it probably was a country song from the start after all. 

When starting from scratch again, I did so recording my T-guitar (HD-28) in one track, and a lead-vocal in another. This was to set the tempo in the song, recorded it flat through the whole song. Then the “fun” started. I used the two first tracks as “ghost-tracks” or “lead-tracks”, and recorded a new track using my T-guitar (HD-28), fingerpicking, as you can hear in the two first verses. Then I added another track using my T-guitar (HD-28), trying to create a bit dynamic and rhythm throughout the song. I recorded a similar track using my Ibanez 12-string acoustic guitar. Then my Cordoba Iberia C7-CE guitar played the role as rhythm-guitar, kind of a “snare-drum” on a track while my T-mandolin filled in nicely both rhythm wise and sound wise. I used iPad and GarageBand playing the bass (I have no bass guitar at home). I added my T-Dobro, trying to make that county sound and I also found room for a little bit harmonica. On this song I also added choir on the chorus, I had luck finding a fitting tune. I cloned several of the guitar-tracks panning the sound into a nice “sound-spread”. I used iRig Acoustic Stage only on all the guitar-tracks this time too and I must say I’m very pleased with the “natural” sound this device picks up. I’ve tried to experiment a bit with my SonarLE when mixing this song, hoping this demo might be a bit better than the previous one. 

All my T-instruments are custom-made for me by an excellent local guitar builder named Ragnar Thorsteinsen (T-instrumenter, Elverum).

As always, my demos are simply "black and white sketches" of a painting that needs colour. I will leave the colouring to the musicians and singers who are better than I am :-)

Feel free to comment. Enjoy!

Stuck (in the past)

Dancing is about the unsynchronised flirtation between two people who has feelings for each other, but maybe not on the same time... If that make any sense at all. To find “the right one”, both parties must connect at the same time. Getting older we carry more and more luggage with us, and it’s even more important to be on the “same page” simultaneously. Both must be willing to take a chance, to do the leap of faith, but at the same time. When out of sync this “game” can go on forever. Some never connect at all. Sadly, that’s life for way too many.
 
I wanted this song to sound very up-close and personal. Only my T-guitar (HD-28), using iRig Acoustic Stage only, and vocal. I also wanted to do the recording in a “one-take”. Trying to make it sound like a live-recording. Easier said than done. I must admit I added the bass-guitar mostly to try to cover up small “error-sounds” from my guitar. Once again, I used iPad and the app GarageBand playing the bass-guitar. I also had to add the harmonica in a fourth track, making this not a “one-take-recording” at all. I’m truly a beginner when it comes to playing the harmonica. This is the second song, and also my second go, on playing that instrument, but I’m rather pleased with the result. It’s supposed to be a bit “off-key”..kind of.. 😉 I reckon most people hear who I'm influenced by in this song.

All my T-instruments are custom-made for me by an excellent local guitar builder named Ragnar Thorsteinsen (T-instrumenter, Elverum).

As always, my demos are simply "black and white sketches" of a painting that needs colour. I will leave the colouring to the musicians and singers who are better than I am :-)

Feel free to comment. Enjoy!

Dancing

Even though the technology today kind of makes the world smaller and gives us endless possibilities to connect in various ways across the world, more and more people feel alone and sort of forgotten. Asking for help or reaching out to those who are struggling has never been easier, but it seems even more difficult to do so these days. Sadly, it is only when someone chooses to leave us far too early that we wake up and react, for a while.. 

Norwegian lyrics in my own dialect this time, and yet another song I wanted to sound up-close and personal. I used my Cordoba Iberia C7-CE guitar, recording two tracks simultaneously. One track using iRigAcoustic Stage and one track using the built-in mic in the guitar, a Fishman, through my L.R.Baggs venue D.I.-box. I’ve bought a new guitar, a G-Sharp (G#) guitar (created by the Norwegian guitar builder Øivin Fjeld) and I had to record a track with it as well. Clean sound through my L.R.Baggs venue D.I.-box. I used iPad and the app GarageBand playing the bass-guitar (sorry, but when in need…). I did my own whistling although not sure it will remain on a more serious studio shoot.

As always, my demos are simply "black and white sketches" of a painting that needs colour. I will leave the colouring to the musicians and singers who are better than I am :-)

Feel free to comment. Enjoy!

En del tå hele væla (alene er det itte grett)

This is my music sketchbook. Some of the songs I've made during the years, will be published here. My demos are simply "black and white sketches" of a painting that needs colours. I'll leave the colouring to the musicians and singers who are better than me :-)This place is used to give you an idea of how the songs could sound like.
I'm a singer-songwriter, although maybe more a songwriter than a singer;-) I've been writing songs since the late 80's, some with norwegian lyrics, some with english lyrics. I'm a rookie when it comes to learning to use Sonar LE on a Surface Pro3 with a Tascam US-2x2 along with various instruments, mostly guitars. I'll use Soundcloud to upload demos of my songs, hoping to get feedback and useful tip about my songs and recordings. Hope you all enjoy my music :-)

tRerik

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