News

A few days ago, there was a girl asking me if I could make a song or two for her dog frisbee shows. She needed them by this upcoming weekend, and I said I would like to, but that I’m unfortunately very busy with working on the album. She then offered to pay 138 euros for it (get it, 13/8!), so I couldn’t really say no. :) Also, she had already bought t-shirts from my shop!

So today, I spent a little while to record the two pieces of lyrics she had sent me. This is the shorter one of them, they’re quite silly, so you probably don’t want to hear both:

FreddeGredde – Go Gina

By the way, I got this message regarding my album poll:

“Are you kidding? We’re supposed to pay 10$ for a drawing? that’s in no relation to the “only music”-price…. Just saying..”

So I thought I had to clarify: Those ten extra dollars are for those who want a signed copy. I will have to pay to get CDs shipped to me, sign all of them (and make little drawings) and put them all into individual envelopes that I have to buy, and finally get them to the post office and pay to ship them away again to all corners of the world. I will probably not make more money this way, but I’m doing it for you.

My schedule said that I’d have to finish two songs last week, but things took longer than expected, so I only finished them just now. It’s okay though, I think. For this week, I also have to finish two other songs, and then spend the last week with the final 15 minute track!

Yes, I have to get everything finished by July 10, because the day after, I’m going to a video game gathering outside of Göteborg, and will be gone for a whole week! The sound engineer will start mixing while I’m away though, and when I return, we’ll finish it up in time for the release! Sort of hectic, but it should go well.

Just thought I’d show you a vampire trick I learned while filming Vampire Bride.

Seriously though, we filmed a lot of different scenes for the Vampire Bride video, and lots of silly mistakes and stuff, so we thought about putting together some “the making of” video later. But I recently looked through all the material, and it honestly wasn’t that funny at all. :P This was probably the funniest though, so I put together a little video of just that.

This new poll to the right is made so I can know how to plan things, so it’s quite important that you’re honest! Shipping possibly hundreds of CDs to my apartment, sign them all individiually (with a personal note and possibly a little drawing) and put them in envelopes I have to buy, and then pay for more shipping so that you’ll all get it around August 13, will take quite an effort.
So I’m going to estimate that I’d want 30 USD for that, and I’m thinking of setting up a pre-order section on the website, on which you have to actually pay (via Paypal) before August 1st, if you want a signed copy. (Unsigned CDs and digital downloads will be handled by a distributor though, and obviously be a lot cheaper.)

I will later post a link on the pre-order section, to the website from which you’ll be able to pre-order/purchase unsigned CDs. Digital downloads will be available on most download services, like iTunes, Amazon MP3 etc.

Here are the results of the previous poll.

I’m glad to see that you want something completely unexpected, instead of just the old normal things! Although, the next month or two, I’m just going to focus on my own songs. But those songs/videos might also be different and unexpected!

Not sure if this happens to everyone, but I’ll explain anyway:

So, at 3:00am, I was still lying in bed, thinking about what I have to do tomorrow, if I’ll be able to finish the album in time, etc, saw what time it was and decided that “hey, I really need to sleep now!” and started counting, to try to make my brain calm down:
“20… 19… you’re getting tired… 18… 17… you feel your arms getting more and more relaxed… 16…“, but then your old thoughts just keep coming back:
“14… Hey, maybe I will have time to send out personally signed copies of my album after all, if I just HEY FREDRIK, STOP IT, you need to sleep!! … 20… 19… 18… I just need to know how many copies I need, and then order them to my place in time, and send out right away. It will be expensive though, like 30 USD, to make it worth it, and I wonder if anyone would want that HEY FREDRIK, SHUT IT! … 20… 19… 18… AHA! I should make a new poll, asking how people want to buy the album! Good Fredrik, do that tomorrow. Now, sleep! … 20…”
But it just keeps going on, and I forget the idea of trying to focus on sleeping. At 6am, I’m still thinking about practical details, like how to take pre-orders, how to design the new poll, how to be able to sign and ship 1000 copies, if I’d get that many requests! My brain just won’t stop!

At 9am, I come up with the idea of finding a Swedish cd manufacturer instead of the American I had previously planned! “Hey, that will be a lot cheaper, gotta do that right when I wake up! And I should also write down what I’ve been thinking all night too, to show people that nights can actually be productive, even when you don’t get any sleep. I just have to remember everything I’ve decided..”

After that thought, I suddenly felt very tired, and probably fell asleep right away!

Today, we celebrate “midsummer” in Sweden, which means that everyone will be partying, singing and dancing around a midsummer pole, eating traditional food, and getting way too drunk.

Glad midsommar!

I really need to get my sleeping abilities back. Today, I was half dead until noon, so it took a good while until I could really start working. I think it went pretty well after that though!
My plan is to finish Track 1 and Track 3 before the end of the week, and I did almost all the vocals today. But there are surely a few semi-bad things here and there that I will have to redo later. I’m sending the tracks to a friend or two to hear if there are any lines they think I could do better! (That can be a difficult thing when doing everything on my own; I’m the only person here, so I have to rely completely on my own judgment. And then change details later, if people complain!)

Oh, and my Killer Queen cover is actually up on iTunes now! So, feel free to support me by buying it from there. :)
(The current deal I have is only for iTunes, sorry about that, non-iTunes users. My album will surely be available on more services than that, like Amazon MP3, Spotify etc. And at the moment it looks like I will release the physical CDs through cdbaby.com, because no label has shown much interest so far. That’s not a disaster though, I’ll get more per sold CD this way, and I’ll be in full control of everything. I’ll just have to find the consumers by myself!)

Here’s something interesting, I thought! A few nights ago, I decided to film the sky at night time. Not really sure why, but later, I learned that it was the very night of the Summer solstice! Which means that it was the time of the year when the night is the very shortest. What a coincidence.

Up here in Gävle, Sweden, it means that it basically doesn’t get dark at all. I don’t have a very good camera, but even with the one I have, you can clearly see how light it is outside. So here’s the video I made:

And well, we usually have pretty good window blinds/curtains here, so it’s not that big of a problem when trying to sleep. It got pretty darn hot in my apartment this morning though, when the sun was beaming at my windows at 5:00am… (Yeah, I went up for a little stroll around my apartment at that time.)

Since it’s free shipping from my shop today (if you add the coupon code T-DAY2011 at the checkout), I got one too! :D (I don’t make these myself; I think they’re sent from a factory in Germany, but it’s cheaper for me since it’s my design!)
I’m thinking about using it in a future video, to show people how cool it is, haha.

Oh, and the drummer has contacted me again, so now we’re on track again! :) All is well in FreddeGredde land!

Oh, so apparently it’s the International T-Shirt Day Tomorrow. So the European shop will also have free shipping if you add the coupon code T-DAY2011 tomorrow.

And a small update about how things are going, regarding the album:

Today, I’ve been polishing and finishing everything on Track 5, so now I’m 100% finished with that one. I’m just waiting for the drummer (who’s been updating me quite slowly the last week) to send me his drum tracks for the song, and after that I’m sending it all to the sound engineer who’s helping me with mixing.

So far, I’ve completely finished Track 5, Track 6, Track 7, Track 8, Track 9, Track 10, Track 11 and Track 12. And tomorrow, I’m going to finish the album opener! So, it’s going pretty well for me, overall.

The question is what the drummer is doing. =/ Almost getting worried here.