23.11.2010,
State of the Brotherhood
by Jamie
Hi!
The state of the Brotherhood… one of my favorite topics! Every
now and then it is so important to sit back and reflect on the "goings
on" of the last few weeks. Leaning back in an easy chair. Taking
a long and even breath. It is at times like these that the true value
of our experiences shows itself in all its beauty and full color, like
a Butterfly stepping out of its cocoon and spreading its wings in the
first rays of light on a fresh spring morning. Oh the joy of life! With
this exuberating energy filling our limbs and body and soul it comes
so naturally to also look forward and see clearly the path ahead. It
is, in the world of our little friend the butterfly, springtime - and
a radiant sunny day at that. It's time for adventure, time to grow and
learn, time to achieve the inconceivable and, yes, it is time for love.
And now? As if by chance, a brief fluttering of our magnificent new
wings reveals a new power, the power of flight. Fly little butterfly,
fly! At first still timid, perhaps even slightly clumsy, we leap then
surge but finally soar through the open skies on an uplifting current
of warm air. High above all that once held us back, the obstacles and
hurdles of times past seem so very small and meek. As the horizon stretches,
making space for the vast dimensions of our imagination the color palette
expands. The world is a universe of fireworks and beauty. As the splendor
surpasses all that was ever bestowed, as if from nowhere, first soft
but ever clearer, growing with the warmth of the sunlight on the earth,
it overcomes us, the music of life. No longer a faint whistle the melodies
are multiplying. Overlapping forming harmonies, chords, symphonies,
a fanfare of memories yet to be born. We are alive. We are Butterflies.
This is all real. The state of the Brotherhood.
26.10.2010,
State of the Brotherhood
by Wolff
21.09.2010,
State of the Brotherhood
by Joe
17.08.2010,
State of the Brotherhood
by Jamie
Hi!
Oh, boy! I guess now it's my turn to write something about the state
of the brotherhood...
Let me start by stating that this was mostly The Wolfman's idea!
Sure the idea of writing stuff all the time is great, but actually doing
it!?
I think we should take an example of my newsletters. I say that I am
going to write them every month and send out the new dates to all subscribers.
But do I actually do it? No, no, no...
There are many good reasons for this: laziness, forgetfulness, technical
incapability (writing - and then deleting everything before sending
it...). There are even some reasons for which I can't be held responsible.
For example: The gig last Saturday in Rostock at the Hanse Sail was
first offered to us just 10 days before it happened! It was only confirmed
5 days before hand (on Monday). How can I send the tour dates around
when they are always changing??? Monday was also the day that I was
coming down sick. On Tuesday I started taking antibiotics. Even though
I hoped to be well by Friday I realised that playing 2 gigs on Friday
AND 2 gigs on Saturday in 3 different and very far apart cities, was
going to be too much even for us. Luckily the Molly Malone was understanding
and they found another band to play the late night slots in Hamburg.
- And all that just days before the gigs were going to take place.
So that is why it really isn't my fault, despite the laziness, the forgetfulness
and the undeniable technical incapability! Writing regularly is obviously
unnatural and should be frowned upon.
Which
makes it slightly more attractive, let me continue my story about last
weekend:
So, we cancelled the Molly Malone. That left us with only the Knust-birthday
on Friday. That was great fun of course, or rather - it would have been,
if I hadn't have been so sick. Despite a week in bed and all the medication
I could dream of, I was still far from fighting condition. I would have
loved to challenge Norbert (the manager of the Knust) to our traditional
all night drinking contest that he traditionally wins and always ends
in me loosing my phone (and my dignity) somewhere on the Reeperbahn.
Luckily I had already lost my phone, so at least that felt right! -
And there's another organisational handy cap: You try doing the booking
for a hard working Rock n Roll outfit, WITHOUT A PHONE!
But back to the weekend:
We
made a fairly early get away from the Knust but had a very early start
on Saturday to Rostock. It was still main holiday season and Rostock
is crowded during the Hansa Sail (Trade Fair). As is our surprising
habit, we rolled into the backstage area exactly on time - 10.00 AM.
The Crew from the NDR was very professional and helpful setting up and
doing the sound check in what seemed to be no time. We played a fun
3 sets on the huge stage and my sore throat seemed to be holding up.
The stress started after the show. We finished at 2.45 PM and had to
leave at 3.00 PM. Like I said the crew were great and we made it out
just 10 minutes behind schedule! That left us with 4 hours and 50 minutes
to make the 5-hour drive to Stadthagen for the Oldie festival that night.
We were meant to be there at 8.00 PM. Did I mention that Rostock is
always really crowded during the Hanse Sail? Or the fact that it was
the end of the summer holidays and the roads were all known to be packed?
Well, we arrived backstage in Stadthagen exactly on time, as is our
surprising habit. I don't know how we did it, as I was excused from
driving duties due to my medical condition. I was asleep in the back
of the tour bus. Stadthagen was great too. My old friends "Razzle
Dazzle" played first and it was a pleasure to hear a good Rock
n Roll band again. I used to play with them sometimes when I was still
in school. We were welcomed to the stage like rock stars and it felt
like I might have been getting some extra sympathy points for my pour
state of health.
We
were back in my pad in Hannover by 4.00 AM and could sleep a bit before
heading off to the Maschseefest to sound check at 3.00 PM. The Maschseefest
is always like coming home to me, I get to see a lot of familiar faces
in the crowd and even some of my old school teachers come to see us
play. Luckily only the ones that always said: "Oh, he'll be alright".
The ones that predicted me on a slippery slope to drug abuse and homelessness
might have felt some confirmation seeing me so sick, but they never
come to our shows.
I
have to stop the "diary" now. But all the gigs last week were
good fun. We received a warm welcome in the Academy after a long absence
for the summer. Carwitz was really full with a nice crowd and it was
great to see the "Stoppelmarkt" in Vechta - a new town for
us, and they have already asked us back!!!
I
am writing in between sets in the Thomas Read. The atmosphere is really
good and it is hot as hell. I am sure it will be a really fun night.
Tomorrow will be a nice closing night of this little tour, chilling
out on the Baltic Sea in the Ostsee-lounge in Kellenhusen.
Now,
to end this report, I would like to inform you that this coming weekend
we will be playing twice on Saturday and not at all on Friday. We just
didn't want to cancel another drafthouse gig. So, no gig on Friday -
2 on Saturday. The first gig will go from 7.00 PM till 10.00 PM at the
"Dat Uhlenfest" festival. That should be a nice big stage,
and we are the main attraction! Then we will play from Midnight till
about 4.00 in the drafthouse!
That's
rock n roll for you!
Hope to see you there!
Jamie
15.07.2010,
State of the Brotherhood by the Wolfman
"Summer, summer, summertime -
Time to sit back and unwind." (Will Smith)
Well, I guess it's my turn now.
I just received an email called "Reminder" - and jumped straight
out of bed: "REMINDER"?! What's happening? Is there a one
o'clock game today and I have forgotten to fill-in my bet? But…no!
The World Cup is over.
Hmm…the email is from Sonja, the "first halftime" of
SoTi, our internet girls. OK. The "State of the Brotherhood"
report is due and it's my turn to write it. I boldly click "Answer"
and start typing: "Hey Sonja and Tina! Thanks for your mail. As
you know, we're having our summer holidays at the moment (Jamie is surfing
down in the south of France, Joey is sort of having his "pregnancy
break" at home in Sweden and I'm a little exhausted from the heat
and this long World Cup Tournament). So, there is really nothing to
report! And one should only write NEWS if there actually are any, right?
: Cheers, …"
I stop dead. OH NO.
Was it me who had generously swept that very argument aside at the last
band meeting, uttering: "But it's very important that there is
always stuff happening on the website! Plus, there's always NEWS!"
OK - think, Wolfman, think. Of course there is news, but possibly also
still a way out? What if it was "classified information",
too private or too embarrassing to reveal?
"Hi Wolff, no information is too personal or too embarrassing for
the SOTB report, so feel free..." - is Joey's spontaneous reply
on Skype.
Well, alright. Here we go:
New Tour Bus
The new, white Mercedes Sprinter has been a trusty servant to us so
far and - as mentioned - is "on tour" at the moment with his
master Jamie (plus Jamie's girlfriend, little brother - yes, even littler
than the "little brother" himself - and an even more littler
son) in the south of France. "On Surf tour" to be more exact!
But this wasn't the hottest news item, yet.
New Mac Book
I've got myself a new laptop. Wow - this one starts up in only 30 seconds
(instead of 30 minutes like the old one). An Apple with complementary
LOGIC STUDIO software. And a midi keyboard. Now I can compete again
in our (band internal) battle of the home studios! So far, though, I
have primarily used the computer for "Keep-my-football-bets-up-to-date"
and less for "Record-hits-for-the-Obsessions". But this still
wasn't the hottest news item. You're ready to hear it? Really? OK. GO.
New Baby Girl
"All hail princess Silvia Carnwath of Sweden!!!"
On July 7th, 2010 Joe's and Sara's second marvelous daughter was born
in Uppsala, Sweden. So far I've only got a look at her through Skype
- but I'd say the two have done really good work again! Oh man, so sweet
and so tiny. Maybe we shouldn't be giving Joey so many off-days?! Like
rabbits, I tell you...
Another fun little detail is that Silvia bears the same name as the
Queen of Sweden. German-born Queen Silvia is the only "trump card",
I can always play in the eternal battle with our Swedish Producer Lasse.
He likes to humiliate us on a daily basis with our "German roots":
Bratwurst, Marschmusik etc..
He even made his (world-famous) Colleague Max Martin memorize that the
name of our band is "G-E-R-M-A-N-I-A". Ach, I can't wait until
Lasse meets little Silvia…
New Life
This has nothing to do with music now, but I must admit that the World
Cup 2010 has given my life a nice and pleasant structure in the last
4 weeks.
I guess, I'm alone with this in the band. Sweden didn't even qualify
and England and the U.S. were knocked out in the Eighth finals, which
Joey wasn't too happy about. And Jamie more or less agrees with Duncan's
view, that "football fans are a bunch of strange men getting in
touch with their ancestors".
But what can I say, the daily "get-up, keep-football-bets-up-to-date,
watch-one-o'clock-game, check-football-bets, get-angry, watch-four-o'clock-game,
check-football-bets, get-angry, watch-eight-thirty-game, check-football-bets,
get-angry, watch-after-game-reports, sum-up-today's-football-bets, get
angry" - all this has given me a somewhat warm feeling of achievement,
like "Man, I've really got a few things done today."
What am I supposed to do all day now? Well, maybe "Record-hits-for-the-Obsessions".
New Wembley Goal
Surprisingly, English newspapers didn't really protest that much after
the - clearly false - decision of the referees. Instead, "We got
Müllered" sounded almost admiring, like a compliment to the
young "New German Football".
One might say that Thomas Müller has done at least as much for
the DFB Team's reputation around the globe as "Pulpo-Paule"
(a.k.a. Paul, the psychic octopus) has done for the reputation of eight-legged
marine oracles world-wide!
And the Vuvuzelas? (My buddy Hans said the other day: "To me, the
constant whining about them was much more annoying than the little bugles
themselves!")
Now that their song has quieted down to silence, I miss them.
Cheers,
Wolfman
14.06.2010,
State of the Brotherhood
by Joe
At our last band meeting, Wolff pointed out that we were not doing a
very good job of keeping people informed with what the band is doing,
so he has set up a chain of command which has resulted in Sonja being
responsible for telling me that I am responsible for writing this month's
"State of the Brotherhood" report.
So here you go:
People
have been asking what happened to our "The Obsessions" original
songs project. Well, after the release, promotion and subsequent sales
figures of our last album, I came to the conclusion that, unlike the
proverbial chicken and egg, there IS a natural progression that needs
to be followed when it come to releasing CDs. I believe that the order
of events has to run like this:
Step
one. Write song that someone thinks is good enough to record
Step two. Make recording that someone thinks is good enough to release
Step three. Release song that someone thinks is good enough to promote
Step four. Bask in the glory of playing your hits to an adoring public
all over the world
Step five. Buy mansion in the hollywood hills with guitar shaped swimming
pool, then die, fat and bloated on a gold plated toilet.
Maybe
our mistake in the past has been spending too much time looking for
real-estate agents in California while ignoring steps 1-3!
Luckily,
in March we signed a deal with a publishing company who believe that
step 1 is well within our reach. The good news is that they are sure
that all we need to move on to step 2 is a catchy 3 minute single that
captures the essence of the band. The bad news is that they are sure
that none of the 9 songs that I have spent every free day this year
writing and demoing in my home studio are THAT single!
More
from me next time Sonja calls to tell me my number is up!
Joe
12.03.2010
OBSESSIONS SIGN PUBLISHING DEAL
"Here's to future world domination!" :)
The Obsessions have just signed a publishing contract with AMV Talpa
- who are impressed by the songs and quality of our last album.Now,
they might well get us a good record deal within the next six months!
In the meantime, keep your eyes and ears open: Songs from "The
Obsessions" in movies, computer games and...uh...as customer telephone
waiting loops are also very possible! ;) Cheers ("pling!"),
30.01.2010
Thanks do Danni from the Rockhouse Sisters for putting together her
personal best-of video from our short gigs on SAT.1 breakfast television
after the CD release last year: www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfKWC5eAdTk
16.01.2010
A long long time ago...we can still remember how that diary used to
make us smile....After more than month of abstinence, you can now read
a new diary entry on the diary section! Have fun!
