A Glorious Night (Part 1)

I'm gonna tell you all a story about a Friday night. One that was gonna turn out to be a glorious one!! But before I get so eager to tell you everything that I go ruining the excitement of the storyline by telling you that that the story has a happy ending and that I fell asleep with a huge smile all over my face, I'm gonna be organized and start the story where it is supposed to be started. Earlier in the day, before it turned into a glorious night.

...Ehm; Now that I think about it, a good story should have some villains, unexpected plot-twists and a high speed car-chase - none of which occurs in my Friday night... Hmmm... Maybe I should add a fire breathing dragon to the story? Nah - I like my story just the way it is. Because it all actually happened. To me. Last night.

It all started with an email from the SXSW-people. "Congratulations! You've won a ticket to see Bruce Springsteen tonight at the Moody Theatre in Austin, Tx" (The email said a lot of other stuff too, but in the interest of keeping things relevant, I'll edit those boring parts out). With a huge grin on my lips and literally two minutes to spare before the ticket office closed, I managed to get my hands on the golden (aka green) entry-pass to this very, very special event: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band (yepp, the whole lot of them) + very special guests Tom Morello (from Rage Against The Machine), Jimmy Cliff, Garland Jeffreys and Eric Burdon!!

All this amaaazing talent in an exclusive, intimate show of only 2500 capacity!!! (pause for effect).

My "golden" ticket and wristband

Needless to say - the gig was EPIC!!! I must commend whoever was in charge of sound that night, because it is the best sound I've ever heard! All instruments and vocals worked together in harmony, and still you could pick out each and every instrument if you just listened for it. And to top it all off: There was plenty of volume, but the decibel levels didn't skyrocket - which meant my hearing was intact after the show :D It is the first time in my life that I've heard such perfect sound! It truly was an eargasm!! <3

I'm not gonna comment on each and every song as I was too busy jumping, dancing and singing along to actually pay attention to the setlist, but I can confirm that The Boss still is in charge, and that he's still mighty fit for his age, running around on stage, climbing up on the grand piano, and even stage diving on several occations!

Everyone I talked to was in full and total agreement that this had been a VERY (emphasis, underline, exclamationpoint) special concert, and that it would go down as one of those rare ones that get's talked about for years to come. As I walked out of the theatre, speechless (and ask any journalist in Tromsø - that doesn't happen a lot... ;) ) all I could think was: I have just been a part of something huge....!

Here are some photos of the finest quality (that my iphone 3gs can provide). ENJOOOOY!!!

Getting to know Austin and SXSW

A new day is shaping up here in Austin. Last night I was so exhausted when I got in that I just went straight to bed without updating you all, so I thought I'd dwell a little on yesterdays events before I start this new day :)

As always when Dreamcatcher does anything, we started with a bang ;) Our breakfast was spent at a closed-for-the-public mingling-party for artists and industry-people, and from there we attended a seminar on how to use modern mobile technology to involve fans even more in an artists career. The lecturers included people who work for artists like Rihanna, Linkin Park, Bon Jovi etc, and we came from it with a few new ideas ;)

Interactive seminar :)

We spent lunch with a great bulgarian artist named Ilona (I've blogged about her previously), and the acclaimed industry veteran Tony Moore. Moore runs his own stage here at SXSW, and at lunch we got to talk extensively about the festival as a whole, what it means to artists to play here, how the whole schabang is run and a lot more...! I'm very grateful that I get to learn so much from the people who are in the know. The music business really is a big community, and the insight that I've acquired so far sends my mind churning to come up with ideas on how to best promote the awesome talent that we have in my home town.

Ilona, Liselotte and Tony waiting for the legendary burritos ;)

Tonight, I'm gonna see Ilona perform on Tony's stage btw. I'm looking forward to it a LOT - and if you're a night owl, you can watch it too online at www.justin.tv/TheBedfordLive. The show starts at 8pm local time which would be around.... hmm... 3am in Norway. (gosh that IS late!). The music is hiiighly recommended though, so if there ever was a night you were supposed to stay up late - this would be the one ;)
  
After lunch, we hit the SXSW Trade Show - a humongous indoor "messe" where different companies present their creative and innovative ideas/products that can ease, revolutionize or simply add fun to the life of a creative business.

Liselotte has been given a complimentary rythm-egg on a stick, and is a veeery happy bunny!!

After a long day of working, our heads felt the need for a break, so we hopped on a couple of bicycles and hit the wonderfully beautiful area of Austin that is the riverside bike and hike trails. Three hours were spent on the bikes, and it was recreation both for the body and soul <3

Sundown at Bat Bridge <3

Talking to the locals about the city

Idyllic

Liselotte has a new best friend :)

Cliffhanging!

A beautiful day in Austin :)

After the sun went down and the bats came out of their hiding place under Bat Bridge (The bridge might have another name... :p ), we hit the main streets for an overdose of music and happy people. Here's a report from the evening:

But now - I'm gonna hit the town again! See you all later lovelies!! <3

Lego City

It's been a loooong day. Got out of bed 26 hours ago and had to dig the car out of the snow to get to the airport in Tromsø. Everything since has been lovely, and now I'm sitting here - halfway across the planet - and am about to embark on an amazing musical adventure.

I'm gonna keep my blog brief this time. Mainly because I'm insanely tired! :p But I have a couple of things I want to share with you :)

I WENT TO NEW YORK TODAY!!!! We had a 6 hour stopover in Newark before our connecting flight to Austin, and since passport and customs were running smoothly today, we decided to take a little detour into Manhattan. My first ever visit to New York - and I can tell you it made an impression.

The thing that struck me about the architecture at Manhattan is that it looks like the buildings were made of lego-blocks that didn't quite fit together, so they are angled and terraced and have all sorts of weird shapes to them. I absolutely love it! It is so beautiful! I could just walk up and down the streets looking at buildings and weird features all day and be very happy. I must say I've fallen in love with the city. On the plane from Newark to Austin I ended up having all the impressions of today churning in my head and I wrote a new song. It's been a while since the last song I wrote, but I'll try to arrange so that you guys can hear it at some point. That point is not going to be today though, but instead - I'll leave you with a few snapshots to look at whilst I crawl into bed and fall asleep ;) <3

05.30, And Away We Go

It's 5.30 in the morning. I've already been up for half an hour, having breakfast and getting ready to head out to the snow-heavy airport in Tromsø. Today is a long awaited day. The day when me and my sister Therese head out to Austin, Texas for a week of musical nirvana at the worlds largest music business festival SXSW.

The preparations have been going on since INTRO announced Dreamcatcher as the winner of the "Talent of the Year"-award three weeks ago. Meetings with industry-people have been arranged. A gig-schedule has been put up. Promo-material for Dreamcatcher has been designed and printed, and a special promotional-CD has been made - shining the spotlight on four fabulous artists from the arctic north; artists that WE believe have a bright future in the music industry! The artists we've chosen are: Peter Estdahl, Oh!, Heidi Solheim and Cazadores. We love them all to bits, and hope you will too!

As we're painfully aware of - music industry representatives such as managers, record-company officials, promoters, bookers and festival-people get given heaps of promo-CDs at SXSW, so to make sure OUR CD stands out, we've hand made individual album covers for all the 50 CD's we bring with us. Armed with misc scrapbooking-equipment, we sat down and spent around 100 manhours on creating these special edition CDs. A huuuuge thanks to the creative people who helped and made it possible. Here's a couple of photos of the album-covers:

If you see us at SXSW, make sure to get a copy of this CD. We personally vouch for the quality of the artists we present there! I've also updated the website www.dreamcatchermusic.com so that you can read more about the artists there and link up to their websites and stuff :)

Anyways... It's time to go to the airport now. Avinor says the airport is still open despite of the ghastly weather, so fingers crossed there will be no major delays.

Please check local newspapers website www.itromso.no every now and then this week, as we'll be having a very special SXSW-blog there reporting on all the weird stuff we're up to ;)

See you soon, peeps! <3

3 Bands You Should Check Out On SXSW!

Wow - there are so many things I want to blog about these days that I don't know where to start! I've spent a lot of my time lately researching all sorts of weird and exciting stuff relating to the upcoming trip to SXSW in Austin, Texas. In case you haven't heard... Me and Therese are going to the superhuge South By South West (SXSW) Music Festival to spread the word about Dreamcatcher, upandcoming music, and to network to the best of our abilities! :D We head out on Mon 12th of March, and there's tons of stuff to prepare before departure! I'll make sure to throw out a few blogs about it this past week and a half before we leave just in case you: A: Want to feel jealous of all the cool stuff we're gonna do. B: Are nosy and want to know what we're up to. Or C: Are going to SXSW yourself, and want to meet up or know what we think are cool things to do while there.

Speaking of option C... I want to tell you about a few bands and artists that I've kept an eye on for a while and that you shouldn't miss when you're in Texas!

THE DUNWELLS (www.thedunwells.com)

These five great lads from Leeds, UK are on the verge of their BIG breakthrough right now! Touring all over USA at the moment, their gigs are PACKED with fans and an astonishingly large percentage of heavy industry people. And the acclaims are superb - as The Dunwells rightly deserve!! I've been enthusiastically following, supporting them and loving their music for a couple of years, and have had the pleasure of seeing them live on a number of occasions. They just keep getting better and better, and I highly recommend that you check them out on one of their SXSW-shows (full listing on their webpage) - I know I won't be able to stay away!!

The genre is hard to pinpoint. They bare resemblance to the folky Mumford And Sons - but are more rock'y and upbeat - and their five-part harmonies and expert musicianship blow all competition out of the ballpark! Check them out and judge for yourself:

The Dunwells - I Could Be A King

ILONA (soundcloud.com/ilona-t)

The next artist I recommend you check out is from Bulgaria. Her name is Ilona and has a strong voice and sassy sound that reminds me of Shania Twain! Although quite fresh to the music scene, she's sparked much attention for her work so far, and I'm gonna make sure to catch her performance at Creekside (Hilton Garden Inn) at 11pm on Wed, March 14th! Hope to see you there too :)

Ilona

ANTONIO LULIC (www.antoniolulic.com)

This guy is also one to check out! His deep, husky vocals combined with intimate lyrics gives the audience a powerful experience of rootsy, passionate and soulful music. I've seen him play a couple of times before, and I've loved every second of it! Therese, however, has never seen him play before, so that will be my excuse to go see him again when in Austin. You should meet us there! And then we can sing along to this one together:

Antonio Lulic - Hey It's Ok