Willowtree

On Vacation!

2010-01-20T14:39:00.008+01:00

After 10 years of Willowtree we felt like taking a small break. Currently we're writing songs and working with electronic project "The Vial". Check it out here: http://www.myspace.com/thevial

We're of course also writing new material for Willowtree so check back after the summer for new songs... And let us know if one of your favorite songs is not on any of our albums, maybe you've just heard us play it live? You might get lucky.

Willowtree is playing in Berlin on Thursday (21/2)

2008-02-18T13:00:00.001+01:00

Once again we will pack our bags and head for the city of cities. This time we will play at Rosi´s in Friedrichshain, a club we know quite well since we used to live a few blocks away. We will play together with the great guys in Tykho Moon and DJ team Whatever! Is taking care of the rotating platforms.

Door opens at 21:00. The bands start playing at 22:00.

Cost: 5EUR

Rosi´s

Strolling down the memory lane with [030] Berlin

2008-02-12T18:20:00.000+01:00

Willowtree at Cafe Zapata!

2007-12-10T17:37:00.001+01:00

During the year 2007 Willowtree has been in Berlin to produce material for a new album together with a new concept and a new sound. The result of these efforts will be presented for the first time at Café Zapata in Berlin on the 13th of December.

Willow Tree is supported by the Swedish band Nancy´s Dead.

Info:
Date: 13.12.2007 (Do.)
Location: Café Zapata
Adress: Oranienburger Str. 54 // 10117 Berlin
Open Doors: 8 p.m.
Entrance: 8 EUR (reduced 6 EUR)

Moomin Vs Willowtree

2007-11-10T03:11:00.000+01:00

I hope that some of you guys did get the chance to see our Moomin video for the song “The Others”. The story was build upon the wonderful story “Moominpappa at sea” where the father in the family decides that he wants to live in piece and quiet at the lighthouse outside moominwalley.

Well, all good things has to come to an end. Oy Moomin characters Ltd has contacted us and threatened with a law suit if we continue viewing it. And since we cannot afford a law suit we will have to remove the video.

Eye for an eye

As a revenge towards Moomin Ltd I wrote them a message and told them that they will never ever be entitled to use our songs in any future movies. I still haven't got any reply, but Im sure that the board of directors are sitting in a crisis meeting as you are reading this.

dragon fire at popkomm

2007-09-21T13:56:00.000+02:00

hectic times are almost over for this year again.
well, only the popkomm related ones.

although we didn't play this year we still attended the offical sweden party something at café zapata last night. the the sunshine and the soundtrack of our lives performed among others.
the zapata had a guestlist for 300 people although it only fits about the half, so even though on the guest list we had to arrive pretty early to not be denied entry if overcrowded.
as the evening progressed the zapata became really crazy full, which in itself led to a rather remarkable heating increase.
the zapata though, likes it hot. the unquestionable proof of that lays in the fact that they have a dragon which blows fire a meter above one's head.

but but... all i can say about the eve is basicallly that the sunshine was very good and that TSOOL was just like always.

New Songs on Myspace!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2007-09-19T10:23:00.000+02:00

Going to the Sziget Festival '07

2007-09-16T16:11:00.000+02:00

A hate page about Willowtree might be about to go to the grave

2007-09-14T17:25:00.000+02:00

A few years ago we shared rehearsal space together with a rock n roll band. It was collaboration that would prove rather unsuccessful. Roaring Silence was a traditional hetero normative rock band while Willowtree more had the character of an Indie pop band in favour of homosexuals and queer people.

On the other hand one could say that we were a perfect match. They personated everything we loathed and probably vice versa. And as most people know, it can be very strengthening for a group of people to have a common enemy!

To our great amusement, Roaring Silence (as they called themselves) actually had the courtesy to write a hate page about us on their homepage.

I have now recalled that the page is slowly vanishing from the web. So for preservation and for our international fans I have therefore translated their text into English.

Enjoy!

Hate page written by Roaring Silence somewhere around 2000-2001:

There is one thing you should know…

Willowtree is a really crappy band, with a whole lot of crappy songs.

Prologue: Roaring Silence had the misfortune to share rehearsal space with one of the worst bands of Southern Stockholm.
For a whole year Roaring was trapped in a devastating grip. This was not particularly strong but very distressing.

This happened during the years 1999-2000 of which besides this was problem free years. This is hard facts, from the hard reality in ABF’s quarters located at Skogskyrkogården. How such an although nerdy a meaningless band as Willowtree ever could get hold of a rehearsal space, and even worse play together remains a angst full mystery. What Willowtree is doing today is unknown…

Facts:

• Willowtree loves IKEA
• Willowtree buys rehearsal furniture’s from IKEA
• For example rugs
• Willowtree listens to TOOL
• TOOL listens to Willowtree
• TOOL is crappier than Willowtree
• Willowtree tries to sound like TOOL
• TOOL is a really crappy band
• Willowtree’s Bass amplifier continuously breaks down
• Because Willowtree’s bass player plays with a pick
• Because he is stupid
• Willowtree is using slippers in the rehearsal room
• Willowtree’s slippers is holy and cannot be used
• Willowtree is hiding their slippers from visitors
• Willowtree are vegans
• Willowtree never drink
• Willowtree is actually not smoking
• Willowtree has hung a deer head on the wall
• Willowtree is vegan
• Willowtree loves animals
• Willowtree are cute
• Willowtree admire Ingvar Kamprad
• Willowtree is Nazis
• Willowtree is playing white music
• Willowtree is wild and crazy
• Willowtree is partying hard
• Willowtree are virgins
• Willowtree has never wanted to
• Willowtree has never been invited
• Willowtree is NOT appealing
• Willowtree is sold to the lowest bidder
• No one places a bid
• Willowtree joins the other guys in TOOL
• TOOL are homosexuals
• Willowtree should have known that
• But it doesn’t matter
• Willowtree is feeling weird down there
• Willowtree feel free
• For the first time
• Willowtree lets loose
• With the queers in TOOL
• Willowtree and TOOL forms a new band
• A “BOYBAND”
• TOOLTREE
• TOOLTREE gets smacked
• By skinheads
• TOOLTREE get called but boys
• In the middle of an open street
• And it hurts so ass much
• It hurts
• In TOOLTREES soul
• TOOLTREE feel like losers
• TOOLTREE are losers
• This wasn’t what TOOLTREE had counted on
• TOOLTREE cannot count
• Homosexuals cannot count
• Homosexuals are using calculators
• Calculators are a fag tool
• Calculators are a tool of evil
• Calculators belong to the butt
• All fags and calculators are thrown down to hell
• This was not what TOOLTREE had counted on
• Fags as of we know cannot count
• 1,2,3,4,5
• TOOLTREE is thinking
• Their days is probably counted for
• TOOLTREE has calculated this themselves
• With the help of their butt
• It is warm there
• In hell
• TOOLTREE is sweating
• TOOLTREE curses

Sum up:

Everyone that listens to that fucking TOOLTREE is fucking fags who are trying to steal knowledge with their butt.

Here is their homepage: Willowtree

Link to the Swedish hate page about us:

has there been justice enough?

2007-09-14T13:07:00.000+02:00

yesterday we went to the justice concert at the maria. olle and gustav already has seen them at 103 club earlier this year. olle said this was almost just as good. i think they were very good indeed. but, and there is a but here, they didn't play an encore.
this sucked since the crowd really wanted one. the people were singing the "we are your friends"-part over and over but still they wouldn't come out again. sucked, this meant that the set was concluded after just barely over an hour.
in comparison to when olle and gustav saw them dj for 2.5 hours at the 103 this was very short.

after this we headed home for some pre-partying before leaving for a bar and then later the macaroni club. on the way there i was supposed to buy a case of beer.
went fine, just as it went totally fine to take it on the package holder on the back of my bike. to my surprise though, might i ad.
it actually went good all the way home till i had to get in through the door down at the street. crash boom bang and 10 beer bottles was no more. well i guess they actually are, just not drinkable state.

i fear the smell of that place as i'll have to go there later.

janis departure

2007-09-11T16:18:00.001+02:00

depression has struck, the cause.. janis has left the country.
we all had fun together.
but she was nice, left a cd with a radio show she hosted for us to listen and remember her to.

2x unexpected attendance

2007-09-11T15:55:00.000+02:00

saturday night we attended the by heart gig in mitte part of berlin. lots of people had showed up for the event and we all enjoyed the nice concert till it suddenly was interrupted by the politzei who was keen on shutting the electricity down. this since the loudness contract apparently only lasted till 22.00. there was a bit of rough words between the crowd and the officials. there was also a born-young-rebel-bruce-springsteen-guy running up on the stage 3 times making the whole thing even more amusing.
in the end by heart, to the delight and cheer of the crowd, got to play on more song.

afterwards we hung out behind the stage, standing and having lots of fun with some of the people we've gotten to know here.
one guy i definitely was not expecting to see was the basist kim from the band overlord. i recognized him in an instant and had to talk to him immediately. fun to meet after 6, or so, years.
the reason for his presence was by heart's, for the day, loss of basist. simon was back in sweden and thus kim was recruited for the job. which we did splendidly, might i ad.

the party war geil.

2007-09-08T20:26:00.000+02:00

the party last night was fun, very. the best one so far.
janis played our, for the occasion finished, material which worked well and had us dancing all night.

now we're off to the by heart gig somewhere near schönhauser allee.

hurry hurry

janis has arrived at our frankfurter allee

2007-09-07T16:19:00.000+02:00

our good friend and star dj -- DJ janis and her sister has come to visited us for a few days.
they woke me up at 8 in the morning and asked for our guest mattresses right away. they hadn't gotten any sleep on the bus they'd been on for about 10 hours cos of the only snoring person on the bus sitting right next to them.

janis is here to dj at the sweden sweden party at magnet club tonight. first a pre-party at our place and then off to the club itself.
it's gonna be fun.. it was the last time i attended it.

band-wise it also gonna be interesting as janis is gonna play a few tracks that we're working on to see how they work.
as we're not doing that many concerts at the mo, it's fun to try other forums.

party time

I'm back

2007-09-04T09:58:00.000+02:00

So, now I'm back in Berlin and now the working starts for me to.

PS. good night John.

the return of olle

2007-09-04T09:20:00.000+02:00

sitting here in the studio after another night of creativity.
olle just said hello after sleep. strange, since i've almost gotten used to olle's room being empty.

oops., now i lied.. i kind of slept there while he was gone. he got such a nice big and comfy bed.

btw -- says he's gonna try and keep a a proper being-up-in-the-day-instead-of-night-sleeping rhythm now...
ha! we'll see how that'll go

now i'll leave the studio to him while i get some sleep.

the return of gustav

2007-08-30T16:09:00.000+02:00

came in the door yesterday afternoon and gave me a hug. been almost a week which is pretty long for people used to living together.

his arrival immediately ment some work... we were both up early this morning, this cos of having to attend a tv-show for an interview and performance. which was nice, might i ad.

now we're sitting here in our kitchen going thru some material before heading into the studio.

studio words...

2007-08-29T22:45:00.000+02:00

at the moment joel is next to me singing like hell. since we're working in our apartment instead of in some remote studio i must wonder if we're both gonna get killed by our neighbours. but no worries now.. work to be done.
which sounds good btw.
the camp (although without olle this week) is in working spirit.
lyrics and music composing is fun when exercised the wright way.
also the feeling of that what you're working on is one of "the better ones" is fanatically fine, poor others though.

good night (both versions intended)

2007-08-29T05:59:00.000+02:00

nice creative hours have passed. time for bed now though.
last few days has been similar too, wonder why... maybe cos i know a mr. certain singer will arrive from stockholm tomorrow.
we gotta have some material to work with, otherwise not much is happen you know.

welli welli, we wish gustav a pleasant flight, and me some deep sleep to be able to clean up this mess a little before his return :)

good night.

germany, oh sweet germany. pt 2

2007-08-22T10:40:00.000+02:00

are they f*****g kidding me?

they could apparently not find my ENORMOUS guitar case. furthermore no one was willing to take a stroll over to the site with me. no chance they said. i find this a bit too german for my taste but i still kept pretty calm, at least i have no gig to attend to. if so then i’d definitely been more unwilling to oblige to this stupidity.
now though.. i can at least be happy that i won’t have to carry that heavy case all the way home. they’ll supposedly deliver it to my door step within days.
lastly i can tell that i just missed the big comfortable trains into the city. now i’m writing this sitting on the never ending s-bahn trains of hell.

germany, oh sweet germany. pt. 1

2007-08-22T10:04:00.000+02:00

sitting outside berlin’s schönefeld airport. just arrived with my flight from stockholm.
it suddenly strikes me very strong that i’m back in germany the following events took place.

i was waiting in vain for my luggage, which basically contains of my guitar in its case.
after all others luggage had arrived on the track-thingy i tried to look if they were still gonna load any more on. peeked through the opening only to see that there was no more loading going on.
just as i was about to pull my head back out i spot my guitar case laying off the track. apparently gotten stuck and fallen off.
i try to reach for it but just as i’m about to get a good grip the door closes on me. the door for the luggage track opening that is. since the door scares me a bit i pull myself out.. who knows if that thing has any sensors for stopping upon contact?.. i pull my head out just in time... think of the ending of that show set at the fort bayard on the french riviera.
the door was now shut. i laugh about it with some german guys and then goes to ask the closest airport personnel in sight. the customs lady that very harshly briefs me that she can't allow anyone to open the door for me to get the guitar, but that i instead have to walk to another hall to the lost and found luggage disk.
crap i though... leaving the arrivals area. tried to talk 2 other employees of the airport to see if it could be fixed a simpler way... but NOOOO .. it couldn't
upon arrival at the lost and found they first told me that i had to wait for a while. i said that my case could very easily get sorted if i just got help immediately.
help came on its way. i explained the situation and the guy made a phone call.. told me i have to wait for another 30 min while they are gonna try and find my “missing” luggage that i gave an exact address to.
now in this very moment i’m sitting outside writing this to calm down a bit.. my gosh.. it actually works very well.. now the half n hour is gone and i should go there again.

to be continued...

you suck, or do i?

2007-08-21T11:40:00.000+02:00

i’ve now been enlightened with the fact that we actually played three songs at marc’s wedding.. even four counting the special performance at the ceremony.
all i remember is me complaining about olle playing so poorly. but the aftermath all indicates that one should not be too fast in making judgements in whom is the crappier performer.

post-wedding thoughts.

2007-08-19T13:06:00.000+02:00

just woke up out of a alcoholic sleep.

yesterday's event was really fun for me. it's was my first one which made it maybe even a tiny bit more special.
the weather was nice with only a very few rain drops falling for about 10 sec.

location was on årsta holmar, two small islands in the middle of two bridges in the south-centre of the city. the ceremony, which olle and i played a very minor part in, was nice too. our part consisted of playing something for 30 seconds as background music to a transition between something. that was basically the explanation given to us, so when it was presented to the crowd that olle and i, representing the band, was welcomed on stage to play the new piece of music written for the couple we (understandably) started to sweat a little.
but, everything was totally fine.
later in the eve we, upon request, performed a few two (or was it three?, actually i had a bit too much to drink to remember) songs to the screaming crowd. fun fun.

food and drinks was good. all in all this was a delightful first wedding experience.

best wishes to the couple.

in-flight blogging. budapest-sthlm

2007-08-17T18:31:00.000+02:00

sad to have budapest already. the town has won a rightful place in my geographical heart chamber.
sitting on the plane to stockholm. the guys are all there and i'm looking forward to meeting them all tomorrow at marc's wedding.

it'll be a short visit though, 4 days. 1 for the wedding and the rest for family and friends. i must wonder how this it's gonna feel to be back on familiar soil again.
well i guess i'll see that soon, pilot says only 20 min remain now. cool.

seatbelt sign just came on. time to go.

budapesting

2007-08-16T11:55:00.000+02:00

while the others went back to stockholm i decided to stick around in beautiful budapest for another 2 days. it's almost too warm for my cold swedish flesh, but i manage by drinking tons of water.

the sziget festival was cool. it's like nothing else, so big and with so many people but still in the middle of the city.
the gig in itself was also cool. a steady influx of people thoughout the concert and everybody (us included) had a great time.
sziget definitely has to be visited by this band again.

now time for some more budapesting

In Sweden

2007-08-16T11:16:00.001+02:00

After some great days at Sziget in Hungary we are now back In Sweden a few days.

And wow, when you come home you suddenly realize that there are a lot of things that are pretty nice around here. Stockholm is a wonderful city, especially during the summer months.

The first thing on the schedule is to boost the wardrobe with Swedish clothing. And our manager is getting married on Saturday, so now I have a perfect excuse for buying a smart dress.

pt. 1 of sziget rehearsals done

2007-08-12T23:38:00.000+02:00

today and yesterday has been devoted to rehearsing with daniel at noisy rooms here in berlin.
it's been fun, real fun. lot's of future memories created.

now we're back home at or apartment preparing for the trip down to budapest. taxi due in less than 4 hours so no sleep is likely to be the only option this night.

the reason for the title of this blog entry is that we're now done with our rehearsals. that is, the berlin "crew" part of them. now i need to cut up the recording, of how willowtree sounds with daniel managing the sticks, for sending them over to sthlm where johan is eager to hear what we sound like.
it's a very different but still thrilling way of preparing for gigs.

now time to get things under way.
see you in the other side of sziget.

Annika Norlin "Säkert!"

2007-08-09T17:07:00.000+02:00

Once every sixth month I feel that I have to write something in Swedish.

If I do, then I post it on my private blog

http://joelvonekelof.blogspot.com/2007/08/gldjeddaren.html

hectic weekend ahead

2007-08-09T01:13:00.000+02:00

as i just wrote we working on some demos right now.
we’re in quite a hurry though, daniel is arriving on friday and from the moment he lands till when we leave for budapest 06.00 monday morning we will be fully taken up by easily the toughest (and funniest) times of our history. the reason for this is the sziget festival where we got a slot tuesday night.

it’s a festival gig meaning we have to play longer that usual. daniel (drummer of film on four) will fill in for adde at the gig. daniel has played with us once before, in osnabrück, about a year ago. that went well. but then we didn’t have to play for as long as now. hence, a hectic weekend for the gang of us.

shit.. it just came to me that i haven’t booked the rehearsal room we usually use here in berlin. it’s called noisy, as it pretty much is.

later. gotta get that booked immediately.

the seven

2007-08-09T00:47:00.000+02:00

joel and olle is in front of me, working on drums for another demo. we’ve set our goal to record seven songs this evening. good thought, but even for us that might be too much. we’re starting the sixth now but there’s still a long way to go. if we’ll get

just a short notice to let you know that we’re working hard.

Willowtree in Emmerich

2007-07-30T01:40:00.000+02:00

I hereby give you a confused compilation from Emmerich ;)

2007-07-29T18:27:00.000+02:00

Written during sound check at Emmerich:

I am currently backstage at the festival area. I have decided that everyone in here will have to listen to Jazz from my laptop. People here are really nice, it seems like they want us to be drunk on stage. They have offered us beer five times by now.

Picture taken by Lisa from Unna

Hotel Herrlich in Emmerich

2007-07-29T18:15:00.000+02:00

First night when we arrived to the Hotel in Emmerich it was empty. The door is open to the hotel, and not a soul working there!

another brother treating the keys right... good night.

2007-07-26T04:34:00.000+02:00

up with olle creating and recording.. it's fun, a lot of fun. i always tend to think that i'll never be able to outdo previous events. songs that is. but, fortunately i'm always incorrect. good for me, good for the band.

this night's new creation sounds something like 70s-groove-am-the-autobahn type of music. cool. olle really hit the right keys on the wurtz this time. i myself handled the guitar. songwriting is fun. especially in twos.

only downside is of course that we have to get up in 3 hours. BUT that is sooo worth it.
speaking of the autobahn, that's were we'll spend the day tomorrow. on our way to emmerich.

now time for bed

27th is the shit

2007-07-25T09:43:00.000+02:00

almost forgot.
another pulse raising thing is that it happens to be my birthday on the same day as the open-air festival. hopefully this will be a nice get together for us all.

now i'm off for yet another morning meeting with joel and olle, today at the simon dash strasse in our neighbourhood of friedrischain.

excitement

2007-07-25T09:17:00.000+02:00

ahh, tomorrow is getting really close.

nice.

see, at 10 o'clock i need to pick up the rental for the trip to emmerich. fun, i'm looking forward to it already.

today we're gonna go thru some newer tracks, all for the purpose of making them justice on friday eve. also exiting is the fact that since johan and adde is in stockholm at the moment, we can't do it all together, but apart. this is a new way of doing it for us, but i must say it's really tickling my musician nerves in a good way. we've all been hanging out in the 'ol rehearsal room for ages thruout history so we kinda know what to do by now. hence excitement.

post-party berlin life

2007-07-23T09:33:00.000+02:00

after last night's party night. i got up at 16.00 in the afternoon. after the arising some of us felt like breakfast and started to prepare accordingly. took a while to get out of the door but at 17.00 we had taken ourselves across the street. at the place we immediately scanned the menu for breakfast. now to the interesting part. when the waiter kindly let us know that breakfast was no more (only till 17.00) we were a bit mad about that they could treat us that way. i mean, of course we are the the customers and thus always right.
well well, we ended up with some good food and could instead sit and reflect on whether we are just spoiled berliners that demand breakfast possibilities the whole day or if we're just... well, spoiled berliners demanding optional breakfast into oblivion.

same same

maybe the spoiled needs a trip back to stockholm to remember normal breakfast hours.

In the last minute

2007-07-23T03:08:00.000+02:00

So here it is, my third blog post. Made in the middle of the night just because I have too. I feel ashamed and will try to be better this coming week.

Three really nice things in Berlin at the moment:

1. The “Wunchteller” at the Libanese place “Babel” on Kastanienalle. Costs 7 Euro. Its hard to describe how it taste. But if I would have had a great Libanese grandmother, she would probably make food like that.

2. Bar 25 any warm summer night.

3. The skyline from the terrace at Week-End. Damn.

Yet another week gone by.

2007-07-22T11:41:00.000+02:00

just another berlin night

2007-07-22T00:14:00.000+02:00

at the moment we're waiting for better times.
that is, olle, jim and i waiting for this typical berlin night to begin.
pre-party starts at 1.30am
our swedish restlessness makes us not wanna wait for that long though.
so we just decided to leave early.
bye bye

Donations are welcome!

2007-07-20T10:23:00.000+02:00

Tilateos - Laitosmainen empatia

2007-07-20T02:50:00.000+02:00

Author: Unknown

more exchanges

2007-07-17T20:19:00.001+02:00

sadly ville left earlier, in a hurry i might ad.
i had to phone the crazy german taxi companies in order to find him a taxi witin minutes.
it work out in the end.

now as i'm writing our friend jim is arriving.

i better go and say hello.

Berlin - Helsinki is track of the day today at Garageband!

2007-07-17T13:35:00.000+02:00

Morning Meeting

2007-07-17T11:25:00.002+02:00

So, this morning we had a really good meeting about our new homepage. Sometimes you should be really glad that we can be serious too... well, you’ll get what I mean when you see it.

why timerlake will never be a musical partner

2007-07-16T04:58:00.000+02:00

the birthday party of a friend is already over. everybody left about 30 minutes ago.

the fact that the party is over is of course sad… but.. not to forget.. the good in the bad this night, is that the room housing the piano, now is available.
thus, i sit here humming along to the melodies of the eve.

soon it's time for the hard part though. hard part being to remember that last night's (tonight’s) glorious creation was. what actually has been created. will i remember the song or not?

there are different solutions on how to go about with the addressed problem. justin timberlake is an outspoken fan of the „standing the test of time"-technique. The STT-technique is about letting go of the fear of forgetting.
their claim: what is good will be remembered.

i think timberlake and his fellow believers beliefs are not for me.
they say:
"no good songs get lost, period."
but, I must wonder how can one really know that for sure?
instead maybe we should look at it from another perspective, actually the right across opposite one.

how many bad songs are, well, just plain bad, but yet remembered till the next day? even though they might face and cause next day’s laughter, i still think that this is an important clue to a greater insight into this highly important issue.

conclusion:
only if a person writes music and it always, and i mean always, turns out to be that masterpiece of music composition. even as the person listens with fresh ears post-awakening in the morning. then, but only then, you could say with some kind of certainty that mr. timberlake has a point.

The creator is then a genius and I must rest my case. I agree to that extent.
It's just that in my own case I don't feel that way. I feel that the band’s speakers and mind’s has had it’s fair share of there is crap and that in itself is my proof.

Thus the post-conclusion must be that:
I need to be paranoid about forgetting.

Anyways… since this took me this damn long to write, the party that left earlier actually somehow made it back to the flat again. Funny, well well. enough musical small talk for now. gotta go see if they brought some newcomers.alk for now. gotta go see if they brought some newcomers.

Women and children free zone?

2007-07-16T01:14:00.000+02:00

And also, what the hell is this about? Can someone explain?

Is this the Colditz Castle?

2007-07-16T00:50:00.000+02:00

Why do I always forget my keys, can someone please tell me. Is it just me or am I in a prison? I really need to know cos tomorrow I'm suposed to leave the apartment again....

Alex out, Ville in.

2007-07-15T21:08:00.000+02:00

Alex got his apartment on Friday evening. He will furthermore not need to stay in my room. We will all miss the nightly visits of Alex with a six pack cold Jever under his arm.

Instead we have a guest from Helsinki here in the apartment. Ville brought two wonderful gifts. The latest CD of Tilateos and a bottle of Jaloviina.

Tilateos is a remarkable band, one CD costs 211,01 EUR. And the album cover consists of an old six pack of the beer that they consumed while making the album.

Jaloviina is Finnish national liquor and consists of a mix of cognac and vodka. Despite all odds it actually tastes real nice. According to Ville, the only thing you should mix it with is tonic water. Same proportions like a gin and tonic. If you do that you will get a cocktail called “Rokkitähden kuolema”

Jalo and Tilateos

Ville

earplugs or empathy?

2007-07-15T08:11:00.000+02:00

hello blog,
doorbells in germany are very loud. especially when pushed for longer that a few seconds.
i'm awake since joel and his friend ville just decided to come by to sleep over, we're at this other place i sometimes hang out at.
i took them to the adjacent room where some girl already (in true german fashion) had been out really early to get the best spot, in this case the couch. i handed them a pillow and a blanket, showed them the foldable 180x80cm mattress and left the room quickly. I wish them the best of sleep.

this is just another display of how we adopted to the berlin lifestyle.
or.. could it actually be that berlin have had to adopt to us?

crazy but funny thought.

band economics for dummies

2007-07-15T07:32:00.000+02:00

i don't think of myself as a non-thinking individual, but sometimes i have to doubt my level of expertise. this is one of those days.
the day has been spent trying to figure out why the studio suddenly decided to go "out of order". after 7 re-installations of the music making tools we use + an additional 3 for the whole operating system, it was clear to me that this had to be sorted with a hardware upgrade.
the way i see it, i think problems generally have a tendency to solve themselves when cash is handed its way. with that in mind i happily pulled out the visa from my pocket for some serious troubleshooting. only problem was... account balance approx 5€.. which gives room for some thinking on how to proceed.

5 min later.

the deal’s closed. ebay, a trusty place on (cyber)-earth. all one has to do is to press the button. the “buy it now” one, easy as easy can be. other side of the (non-existing) coin is of course the actual lack of money. but that we can call tomorrow’s problem.

why live for the day when you can plan for tomorrow?!

disclaimer: don’t try this at home

Aerodynamic device for Eastern Germans?

2007-07-11T04:04:00.000+02:00

Tonight we went to the Zitadelle Spandau to see Tommy (a Swedish friend of mine) perform. He's playing in a band that's supporting John Fogerty during his German tour. I must say though, It was really interesting to experience a Fogerty concert. It will definitely stay with me, at least for a couple of days. I don't think that I've ever felt so young as tonight, the average age must have been at least 65. And I've never seen so fuckin' much old people getting together, drinking beer and singing along to such an old and worn-out artist as Fogerty. We stayed to see some of the Fogerty stuff but It was really hard to focus with all those mullets out there... My god, I mean what's up with those Fogerty fans. It seems like they all decided to cut there hair just like Jaromir Jagr, and then dance away to Fogerty's swamp rock. Could someone please explain to me; what kind of connection is there between Fogerty and the mullet? The only thing I'm sure of is that my eyes have gotten a life time supply of interesting hairdos.

Wikipedia info on the German mullet:
"The German term is "Vokuhila", meaning "vorne kurz, hinten lang" (short in the front, long in the back). The opposite to this is "Volahiku". It is topped by "Vokuhilaoliba", meaning "vorne kurz, hinten lang, Oberlippenbart" (short in the front, long in the back, mustache). Because of its supposed popularity among men from the Eastern parts of formerly divided Germany, the hair cut is in Western Germany also known as "Ossispoiler" ("aerodynamic device for Eastern Germans")."

Insane manager

2007-07-10T15:27:00.001+02:00

Our manager will be insane now. Because in the last second of our final demo mix, we just decided five seconds ago to record one of the songs all over again. Heee…

Oasis is “power pop” in the US

2007-07-09T16:29:00.000+02:00

No wonder European bands have a hard time breakin in the US. I am currently trying to plant some Willowtree songs on music sites over there, and I have understood that we fall under the category “power pop” together with 90% of all the other European bands.

“Power pop” :D

When I hear that word I think of pink bubble gum.

Oasis = Pink bubble gum
Creed = Big juicy double whopper

Other interesting categories listed are:

Modern Rock (Creed, Fuel, Stone Temple Pilots)
Pop (backstreet boys, Christina Aguilera, Destiny's Child, Elton John)
Indie Rock (Pavement, Modest Mouse, Built to Spill)
Alternative Rock (Radiohead, Smashing Pumpkins, Pearl Jam)
Alternative Metal (Incubus, korn, Staind)

My conclusion:

If you wanna be a proper American, always listen to Creed and always be way too hungry to settle for chick food.

under the spell? time will tell...

2007-07-09T06:38:00.000+02:00

to the ones that wonder about why the hell this guy, the guy that once swore to never have a blog, is now having one…. the answer is easy. capitalism. see, i have been threatened by dark forces to pay a fee if not writing in the blog at least 3 times before the dawn of monday. verdict: he fell for the sake of money to be kept in his pocket. i find it funny though. now that i’ve had to do this, i think it was all for the greater good. now I know how it feels and I must admit that for the duration of these writings, i’ve felt quite amused by the whole idea,. who knows? i might even grow to like it.

crappy us

2007-07-09T05:47:00.000+02:00

why are we always stealing? we (us), the people. warum? the only reason that i could write about my u-bahn experience earlier is cos i no longer have a bike. see, someone decided that my bike was now his/hers. sucks, dince now i’m stuck on the public transport with people i wouldn’t have had to have even in the vicinity if rolling down the street, tv-tower in sight, with just enough (usually a bit more) music to work on in the headphones. damn, it’s just not the same anymore. should i weep? no, instead i play it like a man with some lidl lemonade in my hand, missing train after train cos of my non-scheduling brain. i bet a new bike is gonna be in my possession by the end of the week.

u-bahnitory

2007-07-09T04:45:00.000+02:00

this city is something special, that one understands as one find himself seated next to a drug junkie on the underground. not sure of what kind of lines was drawn there but it was as hell no idealistic ones. seemed more to me like this fellow berliner had landed himself a morning treat.

to quote one of the not great: “only in belin, kids, only in berlin”

gute nacht und viel glück.

Mayumi & Nomi

2007-07-08T23:24:00.000+02:00

Yesterday we had some visitors over. It was are great fan and friend Mayumi and her friend Nomi. We made them dinner, gave them some merch and then we did a secret show here in our apartment. It was a great night that ended up at the CCCP-bar at Torstrasse. Way! Thanks for coming over to our place and hope that we see you in Emmerich!!!

Mayumi & Nomi waiting for dinner...

Mayumi & Nomi RED

Mayumi & Nomi WHITE

Willowtree giveaway

Midsommar!

2007-07-08T23:13:00.000+02:00

So, not to long ago we had our Willowtree midsommar dinner. We invited some friends and had a really nice night even though we didn't have a real midsommarstång. :( Better though was that Johan got he's hair done at the same time by our personal and very secret hair stylist.

Our very nice midsommarstång

don't show my face...

I said: DON'T SHOW MY FACE

Well, I know I'm a bit late with the reporting of the midsommer shit but what the heck, better late then never, or?

There is a fine line between genius and madness

2007-07-07T17:35:00.000+02:00

The apartment here in Berlin is amazing in its own depravity. The toilet and heater is broke, fortunately though we still have a few warm months left. The ceiling sets off four meters from the floor gives us a sense of creative freedom.

The musician is living the life of the nomad. In our case we got a laptop each and a pair of blazers. The music has completely ruined us, and our expensive jeans have been patched too many times.

At the moment we are mixing Rachmaninoff vodka with synthetic orange juice from Lidl, while we are closing your eyes trying to imagine a Harvey Wallbanger cocktail.

Berlin has given us inspiration for something greater. We have a separate hard drive in the apartment filled with songs for the coming album. And at the moment the music is overshadowing everything else that could have priority in our pitiful lives.

I wouldn’t argue against anyone that would claim that it is complete madness to spend your last set of euro on an expensive blazer or a microphone preamp instead of having proper food to eat. But as someone said in the past, there is a fine line between madness and genius.

Report from the god forsaken apartment at Frankfurter Allee

2007-07-06T19:23:00.000+02:00

John and I are currently sitting in the studio. I have spended some time lately on writing lyrics for our new demo. A good friend of mine, Alex Ljung is currently staying in my room. He has moved to Berlin in order to market his new web-concept. The Swedes are really invading Berlin!

Uaah!

Alexs blog:

Welcome to Graceland

2007-07-03T18:03:00.000+02:00

haha, no no no... drums is a bit to athletic for me I don't even think that I will be able to play guitar after eating stuff like this... :)

photo: das chaos in deinem kopf

So as mister Gustav said have we been recording today. We are working on new songs and I really hope that we can post some of them really soon on myspace. Way!!!

Working

2007-07-03T13:26:00.000+02:00

Full activity in the Studio. John is writing chords for Johan and Olle is working on a drumfill. Perhaps Olle is considering change of instrument?

More rehearsals...

2007-06-21T01:50:00.000+02:00

So now we're at it again, we've rehearsed for a couple of hours tonight so we now that we are still good at this shit. Hope to see some of you guys tomorrow and on Friday.

Well, now I need some sleep before we are of to do the sound check at Knaack. agh, I hope that I wake up in time...

Film On Four has been visiting

2007-06-18T14:04:00.001+02:00

Day 1

2007-06-06T02:04:00.000+02:00

Ok, today we have rehearsed all day. I've been waiting for this a long time now. The first day is already over. Bah... well, there's a new day tomorrow.

Fact of the day: Today Bob Geldof was rehearsing in the room next to ours. I'm glad that I had my ear plugs with me.

Gustav

Andreas

John & Johan

The view from a shoegazer

Rehearsing

2007-06-05T10:21:00.001+02:00

Ok, time to rehearse with the guys.... and we have some new songs that are the greatest fuckin songs you ever heard. Soon you'll know what I mean.

Working

2007-06-02T19:56:00.001+02:00

Did you know that musicians also have to work? WELL, we know that! And you just think that we’re getting drunk all the time… shame on you!

Okay... enough with the bullshit, now it’s time to party.

The boys are back in town.

2007-06-02T19:54:00.000+02:00

Soon they are here! Andreas and Johan are coming down for a couple of days so we can rehearse and work on some new stuff. Maybe but just maybe, you’ll here some new stuff very soon. We are working on some songs for the new album and are thinking of releasing some demo recordings for you to hear very soon.

What’s happened??!!??

2007-06-02T19:43:00.000+02:00

So, maybe you wonder what’s happened since we last updated the blog. Well, a lot of stuff has happened, some of it you just don’t want to know. Mostly we have met a lot of funny people. My friend Janis was in town to DJ at the “Sweden, Sweden” party last weekend. That was a fucked up weekend. Thanks for all the dancing Janis...

Janis the dancin DJ

Shit, it was such a long time ago that I wrote in the blog that you don’t even know that we went to see Justice some weeks ago… that was the fuckin party of the year. You can look at all the videos on you tube and see for your self. It’s the shit.

Afroman

2007-05-22T23:12:00.001+02:00

Afroman - mp3

Written By Eggvatten, performed by Don Tomaso and Gustav Greve

Submitting to you

2007-05-07T13:02:00.000+02:00

Submitting to you - mp3

Written and performed by Don Tomaso and Gustav Greve

Don Tomaso and I visited the Jewish museum

2007-05-07T12:45:00.000+02:00

One day before we went to the Jewish museum, I let Don T walk around the streets disguised as the common man. He did the following observations:

3/5, Observation Berlin:

Jag suger på skumkronan medan damen i förklädet lutar sig over mig; den tunga bysten , mjukt skvalpandes. Weissbier!
Livet här har betydligt mer att erbjuda än skvalmusik och potatis, och även om Albert Speers dunkla byggnadskonst inte längre är tillgänglig så måste jag säga att estetiken är magnifik då den sköljer in over mig medan jag vandrar längs boulevarderna.
De tyska kvinnorna håller hårt på sina lutheranska ideal. De ser ut som polacker där de sitter iförda stentvättade jeans och ribbstickade koftor.
Jag tar trammen genom staden. Små stenar som pulvriseras under denna tyngd där människor färds over räls.
-Ich bin ein Berliner!
Staden med de många anonyma ansiktena. Nere under mark I u-bahns kompakta trängsel skriker någon åt mig. En snaggad man I trettioårsåldern pekar på mig med en ihoprullad tidning.
-pardon me, sorry, sorry…
Jag tanker på Sting som sjunger englishman I New York.
-Oh, oh, I am an alien…
Jag beställer mer öl, klockan är fem.
En ung kvinna med tvinnade dreadlocks kommer till mig med penne und gorgonzola und blaaaaaspenach.

Don Tomaso stole my camera this morning and went outside

2007-05-02T20:09:00.000+02:00

"Berlin has made its way into the future; where the past, as we know it is no longer seen, but thought upon as of curiosa. I walked through Checkpoint Charlie, and the feeling that came to me was of the kind you get when you're not bored, not disappointed, but just not thrilled.
Of the past is nothing yet to come. But in the moment of the present now, we achieve await ness. From the future we gain the sovereign lust to breathe; to let the oxygen reach the bottom of our lungs. Inhaling what is yet to come."

-Don Tomaso

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spacetime#Spacetime_in_general_relativity

Fabi Fire about the difference between Stockholm and Berlin Girls

2007-05-01T12:43:00.001+02:00

Fabi Fire comments the always so burning topic about Stockholm contra Berlin people. Do Swedish men lack of romantic stature? And do the citizens from Stockholm represent a decadent “sex & the city” lifestyle? Please help us to clear out the issue here in the blog.

John is trying a new outfit

2007-05-01T11:50:00.001+02:00

John is seizing the opportunity to get a new exiting wardrobe here in Berlin. Stage clothes or just leisurewear?

Lovely Ulrike

2007-05-01T11:49:00.000+02:00

Lovely Ulrike is going to show us her favourite second hand shops. We are late as usual.

Swedish visitors and "Efterfest"!

2007-05-01T11:46:00.000+02:00

We met a really sweet Swedish couple out in the mess. Since we are Swedes then of course we agreed to have an “efterfest”. We DO understand the complete irrationality of having a “efterfest” here in Berlin. But we will probably have to continue with this strange behaviour for a while so that we dont get homesick.

Welcome Don Tomaso!

2007-05-01T11:45:00.001+02:00

Don Tomaso has just arrived. He has brought a big map with hand written comments and notes about important places here. Don will be here for 10 days and are of course welcome to stay for a while here at casa de Willowtree.

“For every song you do you will get a free beer!”

2007-04-27T00:10:00.000+02:00

Streets have no name
Leonardo / Gustav

Lets Dance

Gustav / Leonardo

“Don’t get caught in the Berlin trap”

2007-04-25T15:54:00.000+02:00

I have heard it a couple of times now. The Berlin trap means that you can find a really nice party somewhere in Berlin any day in the week. Pretty much the same as you can in all the other main capitals. Avoiding the Berlin trap requires self-character, but it feels really nice to have the opportunity.

Our apartment is a couple of hundred stairs up (no elevator of course) and we started with an empty 96m2 flat. We have carried a few tons of equipment up here so far, haven’t seen our muscle strength approve yet though…

I have switched my name to Gustav, which has been on the shelves as my middle name for a couple of years. I’ve heard that there is a campaign on Internet to change my name to Joel again. But Gustav is here to stay for a while. Germans seem to understand the name Gustav better.

Famous Gustavs:

Gustav II Adolf

Gustav Gans

Finally: I have found a coffee with a quite nice taste. The manufacturer is free to send me a check for this commercial.

//Gustav

Last night

2007-04-22T23:05:00.000+02:00

Last night we finally met up with our friend Fabi Feuer, he came over to our place after Gustav made a perfect pasta dinner to me and John.

Gustav's perfect pasta

Fabi was staying at Gustav's place in Stockholm a while ago when doing some recording stuff with his old band 200 Sachen. That was kind of how we met. We went to a fantastic party with him at some Australian guy's place and then to Rio. I won't give you any more stories now because you already know to much...but I'll tell you more soon.

check out his fabi's music at: http://www.myspace.com/fabifeuer

Party Tonight

2007-04-21T18:51:00.000+02:00

And for all of you that's in Stockholm right now. Don't forget the Pandaland release party tonight at Debaser Medis.

I can't wait to get my hands on this game were you run around the streets of söder in true "paperboy" spirit. YES!

My New Haircut

2007-04-21T18:39:00.000+02:00

At last, now it's done. I'm a new man or should I say boy... well, here's the fantastic result. Thanks Ellen. We must do this again sometime.
Maybe I should get rid of the beard too... hmm

Ellen Scissorhands

INTERNET!!!!!!!!!

2007-04-21T15:14:00.000+02:00

Were back in the world of Internet!!!!!
So, to update you on what's happening today - in an hour I'm gonna get me a new haircut. :-)
Tonight I guess were going to Rio and tomorrow it's White Trash brunch.

Moving in Party!

2007-04-19T18:21:00.000+02:00

So, last Saturday we had our already famous Moving in Party. Because we are new in town we decided to go out to some clubs and invite people that seemed cool. That idea was probably not so good ’cos the whole week ended with drunken debauchery as I guess the Americans would say.

In true German style we went with the free alcohol model for this party.
After inviting 14 swedes (Incl. the great Swedish band ”By Heart” and 9 Swedish girls that we found outside the ”magnet club”) a lot of Germans plus 8 liters of vodka, the party was well on it’s way.

In general Swedes can’t really handle alcohol and I guess that I’m one of them. We always tend to drink to much!?!

So after throwing out a burning speaker (well, that’s rock ’n roll at least), having our gas stove almost blowing up and a couple of windows crashed by our friendly neighbors...I felt that it was time.

After partying a week and not eating, I passed out (in true "Hey! I’m fourteen style", I must add) thanks to the vodka. The partying went on after that but I guess that Gustav Is the one to tell you more about that.

And by the way, thanks Benedikt for taking care of our apartment while we were out in the foggy world of alcohol.

Lizzy & Alex

Venus vs. Lizzy

Leonardo (By Heart)

Benjamin Tholl & Simon Liebe (By Heart)

The day after

So let's get that damn Internet to work!

2007-04-18T18:14:00.000+02:00

Finally, the guy from the Internet company came to our apartment today. We've been waiting for two weeks now. The only problem we have to solve now is that we are stupid swedes that have lost our login info fuck fuck fuck...

Well, so now we're back at the very nice bar across the street were we can surf and get drunk at the same time. yeah! Berlin is wonderful.

So all you people waiting for emails... wait some more. Soon we'll be back in the world of Internet.

The First Days in Berlin!

2007-04-16T22:47:00.000+02:00

our house

the view from our door thing.

my room.

the kitchen

the hallway

gustav's room

john's room

eating at IKEA - stupid swedes!

trying out the studio

at the frankfurter alleé

I guess that all swedes get this one...

trying out the food at Kastanien alleé

on the boat to Poland

On Friday there's a big party and you are welcome!

2007-03-21T13:59:00.000+01:00