The Orphan Songs debut album is back on Spotify. This time I actually get a few bucks when you listen. So keep it playing to support me.
Enjoy and share!
Click here to go to listen to Orphan Songs on Spotify.
Or here to go to the Spotify player.

Go to the Abscondo Podcast to listen to the interview.
http://www.abscondo.com/abscondo/2012/12/chasing-dreams-interview-with-carl-otto-johansson-of-orphan-songs.html

Here is a direct link to the mp3: http://www.abscondo.com/files/abscondo-podcast—43—orphan-songs.mp3

Mark Manney, Abscondo

Neil Young

It should come as no surprise that Neil Young’s music has been a heavy influence on my songwriting and – perhaps even more so – the way I play guitar. I am also very much inspired by the way Neil always seems to go his own way regardless of what critics and fans think.

I remember when I first got interested in Neil Young. It was back in 1994, I was 18 years old and part of a band called “Cosy” with Henrik Johansson and Niclas Lindvall. Niclas was the singer and wrote most of the songs, Henrik played bass and I played electric guitar. I had started writing songs back then but I thought Niclas was a much better songwriter, and I wasn’t particularly interested in singing. Instead, I spent my time and energy trying to become a great guitar player. We were mostly listening to Britpop bands like Blur, Oasis, Suede and Supergrass at the time. I preferred the Britpop bands over the American Grunge scene. I was way into Suede and their guitarist Bernard Butler was my hero.

Bernard Butler

I wanted to play like him and I spent hours and hours learning Suede licks and making up my own. Niclas had written a really good song called “Sparkling Champagne”. We recorded it and I poured my guitar-wrenching sould into that song. It was the best song we had done so far. It probably had something because it got picked for a demo review on Swedish national radio.

That spring there was a big music festival in Lund in southern Sweden and our demo was going to be reviewed live by a panel of well-known critics and artists during intermission in the live music program. We were there, of course, waiting eagerly for the review. I don’t remember much of what was said, but the jury seemed to like it. We felt great!

Host of the radio show was a guy called Andreas Mats and I went up to him afterwards and thanked him. I introduced myself as the guitarist in “Cosy” and he got really excited and told me how much he liked my guitar parts. He then asked me if I listened a lot to Neil Young. “Eh, no,” I said, honestly. “I get most of my stuff from Bernard Butler”. He started laughing and said: “Yeah, but where does HE get his stuff from?”. I was baffled, thinking to myself I better go buy some Neil Young records. And so I did.

I’m not sure he was completely right about Bernards Butler’s influences, but that doesn’t really matter. The important thing is that he gave me a push to start going back to the roots of music instead of just copying what I heard on the radio.

And now, 18 years later, on November 3rd I will do a Neil Young Tribute in my home town Kalmar. It’s just going to be me, my guitar and a piano. I’m going to talk about Neil Young, his life and career but most of all I’m going to play Neil’s songs.  November 3rd at Stensökrogen. It’s going to be great.

I managed to dig up the original version of “Sparkling Champagne”. I still think it rocks. It was recorded on a 4-track cassette recorder so the sound is not very good. But pretty impressive for a bunch of teenagers just starting out, don’t you think?

And here is me rehearsing Neil Young songs  in my home.

Since the FAWM project in february I’ve been busy with a completely different project. Orphan Songs is on hold at the moment, right now I’m all about Dinosaur Songs! I’ve written and recorded an entire album of songs about dinosaurs, for kids, in Swedish.

About a year ago our son Svante became very fascinated with dinosaurs. I realized there are a lot of dino books and dino toys but hardly any dinosaur music at all (at least not very good). So Svante and I started making up our own dinosaur songs. The idea of making a children’s album grew as we wrote more and more songs and in april I decided to I was going to start recording. It took me about two months to record and complete the album. I was kind of impressed myself by my own achievement, but after I wrote 15 songs in 29 days during february I feel there are no limits to what I can do if I put my mind to it. It’s a great feeling knowing that if I make a real decision to do something, I will do it. I’ve never had that before, but right now I have it.

There are twelve songs on the album and one of them is written by a friend of mine, Christian Nilsson. I’ve also written a story to go with the music and I am putting on a show this summer in my home town, Kalmar. I intend to turn the story from the show into an audio book (and perhaps also a book). For the artwork I am fortunate to work with Peter Svärd, great illustrator from Malmö who did the album cover. I have no idea what will come of this, but I had a great trip making the album. It was fun, playful and everything came together without much effort – creativity at it’s best.

There is a separate website for my new kids music alias ”Pappa Kapsyl” here: www.pappakapsyl.se

I’m not sure what I will be doing the rest of the year, but I have promised myself to release a new Orphan Songs album. I intend to keep that promise.

RAAAOOW!!!
/Carl-Otto

UPDATE: I’m making an English adaptation of Dinosaur Songs. Check out the Daddy Donut website for more information about the project.

Here is a screening of the entire album by some Swedish deep throat dude

A song for Japan

When Japan was hit by the earthquake and tsunami in March 2011 I was moved in a way that I had not been before. Sure, I’ve always felt for people who are suffering, whether it’s from hunger, poverty, war or  natural disasters. But this time it was different. The feeling was deeper. I don’t know why.  For some reason I have always been very fascinated by the country of Japan and Japanese culture and I would love to go there, but that’s not really the reason my compassion was so strong – it just was. So I followed the news in the media, I donated money and sent the people of Japan my thoughts.

Shortly after the incident I wrote a song called “Help a brother”. It came to me while I was doing the dishes one day. As I recall it, I wrote it all in one fell swoop. I started recording it right away, but then for some reason I never finished it.

Today it’s been one year since the disaster and a week ago I decided I would finally finish it. Here it is, and even though it’s specifically about the events in Japan its message is one of brotherhood and oneness.

The song is free to download and share. If you like it, please don’t donate to me this time, instead consider donating some money to people in need.

Get the mp3 in the download area.

Japanse flag cover art by Dominic’s pics.

Songwriting is a mystery to me – as is creativity in general – and I have learned not to think about the process too much. Thinking just gets in the way. However, the FAWM project has made me realize a thing or two about how the creative flow works. I thought I was writing one song at the time as separate units but that’s not at all how it works for me. Instead everything flows together and several songs are being written simultaneously and one song leads me to the next.

For example, last night I started writing a very slow and melancholic piece of music. I sat with it for about 45 minutes and as I was working with the break I came across something that I felt I had to try in a bit more up-tempo. So I did and then went on writing another song instead based on that little melody that came through working on the first song. The second song was not at all similar, it was more of a jazzy bossa nova. Come to think of it – that is exactly what happened with ”I’m on my way” and ”The dying voice too”.

You know what? I’ll upload the clips from one of my early FAWM sessions and let you listen to the sketchy recordings I always make as I sit writing. You can actually hear ”The dying voice” being written as a break for ”I’m on my way” One thing leading to another – and nonsense becoming something. Here it is:

Oh, and for the record: I’m a great dad and I do not neglect my children just so I can sit alone and write songs.

When I write a song I just try to stay with what comes out spontaneously. Often the best melodies and the best lines are stuff that I just blurt out. The trick is to know what is good and catch it on tape as quickly as possible. A tape recorder is a must if you aspire to become a songwriter. Too many different ideas and versions are passing through you when you sit there playing and writing, it would be impossible to keep them all in my mind and remember them all. It has happended to me many times that I have forgotten what I have written just because I forgot to record it. In my opinion, that is one of the most frustrating things you can experience as a songwriter.
So tip number one to any songwriter: learn to know when you are onto something and record every little bit of the stuff that could become useful.

Well, this wasn’t really what I was supposed to be talking about in this post, but I guess the creative source of the universe wanted me to write this down for some reason. Now I won’t forget it.

Let’s also do a quick sum up the FAWM status on the 20th day with 9 days to go.
I have written 5 songs that are completely finished.
I have 6 more songs that are pretty much done.
Then I have a few more seeds for songs that I’m not sure about. But all in all you could say I have written 11 songs in 20 days. I’m on track!

Peace,
Carl-Otto

Today I uploaded the third song called ”The dying voice”. It’s softer and more more dramatic than the first two songs. I took my time recording this one as I felt I needed to get the mood right. Also, I tend to work harder on songs that I really like -  and for some reason this one is special to me.

Tomorrow I’m off to Stockholm for the weekend and I won’t be able to record anything until next week. I guess this means I will fall even further behind. But I already have three new songs in the making that just need some lyrics and arrangements. Hopefully I’ll be able to catch up next week. Worst case scenario is that I have to record some of the songs with just guitar and voice and don’t put so much time and effort into arrangements and production. Writing the songs shouldn’t be a problem. Songs come easy to me.

Well, that’s it for now. I can’t sit here writing about writing songs, I have to get back to writing… and recording.

Peace,
Carl-Otto