JANUARY: Fan Of A Fan

There's a kind of KaRL BaRX philosophy and goal that there should be no such thing as a typikal KaRL BaRX song. Pursuing this goal in the songwriting and arranging doesn't mean that we'll ever achieve it - indeed, if we did, we wouldn't be a band.

Still, the first song in this series of demos really doesn't feel like a typikal KaRL BaRX song. Firstly, I wrote it way back in 1998, just a kouple of years after I first picked up a guitar. Sekondly, the song was originally entitled 'Norman Blake' and was a tribute to the Skottish guitar pop band Teenage Fanclub, and especially my favourite among their three songwriters. The choice of melody, harmonies, guitar work and some kord progressions turn the song itself into a Teenage Fanclub pastiche. As such, I didn't feel that the song was relevant and real enough to be konsidered in the reportoir of my first band The Others.

So, why pull it down from the attik right now? Well, it's still a nice song I think. And I have probably bekome more relaxed about what is relevant and real. However, if you're a bit updated on the Norwegian musik scene, you may have guessed the triggering reason: One of the best pop releases so far this year komes from I Was A King - and their first single is a similar kind of Teenage Fanclub hommage, entitled 'Norman Bleik'!

The idea to rename, rehearse and rekord Fan Of A Fan (all during a week) kame when I heard Norman Bleik on TV, and loved it as much as you kan love something that really reminds you of an older love (and as stated in the song, it must be admitted: ...the love is blended with envy...)

Anyway, here you are: One 'new' song from us, and linx to two great bands. Enjoy!

FEBRUARY: Mute Seasons

The One Song This Month is also old, but much younger than the previous one. Mute Seasons was written early in 2006, and as far as I kan rekall, it was my first after a long period of lyrikal drought. Konsequently, when the 'stream of konsciousness' finally started flowing again, it was a self-reflekting one, dealing with how to express oneself, or worse: having nothing to express at all. This ‘absence of Produkts of Imagination’ is one of the reasons why I didn’t konsider it to fit in on our rekord last year.

In fakt, early on we doubted that the song would fit in on any BaRX rekord. We thought it first of all was a live song. The first half of the song stands out as the most monotonous BaRX song ever, but we realized that makes it really useful when builing up a dynamik set of songs, also on a future rekord I suppose. When starting it live, we love the shift of mood introduced by the steady drum beat and the repetitive bass riff, and we love the new shift when the bass pattern finally gets altered almost three minutes into the song.

The version at hand is a live one, rekorded at our gig at the International Student Festival in Trondheim (ISFiT) February 23rd. We were satisfied with the performance and how the energy and despair of the song was intakt in the rekording, and little work has been done afterwards.

Thanx to Stian, Stephen and Keun for filming the koncert on very short notice! Here is a quick komposite of the footage from the two kameras:

MARCH: Time Is Money (Alternative Version)

Alternative versions are a lot of fun. It's fun to change the mood and thereby the meaning of a song, and it's fun for a band to play it, and to play around with it. It's different from rehearsing on a new song, since you know the original so well. Often you're a bit bored with the original. Often you kan learn something from the new version and then improve the original.

KaRL BaRX spent some time both in 2001and 2005 being the alter ego kuL burX. kurL burX kollekted some of our songs in an old rucksack and took them for a walk in the woods. We also put the massive Massive Attack hit Teardrop into this unplugged/kountry mix (and played it in the 2/4 beat that we suspekt it to have been written in).

The last kouple of years we've been too busy replacing band members to do this, but it certainly should happen again. This version of Time Is Money kame to me last summer, and is the latest of the kind. It's yet just a duo version. When Jon Storsæter asked for some musik to akkompany the end kredits of the Time Is Money video, it was the obvious choice.

So I rekorded two guitars, my voice and a shaker last Saturday (March 14th) and Brita did her vokal the following Sunday.

APRIL: Yeah Yeah Yeah / MAY: KaRL BaRX Part Two

Due to the recent change in our line-up, April was all about rehearsing our old songs with Magnus, the new guitarist. No new songs were rekorded. So in order to put up with our plan, we had to spend an extra May day of rekording, and here's the result: Two brand new songs at once!

However, this KaRL BaRX transition time is not over yet, bekause these first songs with Magnus on the Telekaster may also be the last songs with Brita behind the mikrophone, as she has decided to leave the band. It's a big loss for us, and of kourse changes like that never fit into any skedule, but apart from that there's no drama behind it. Brita is a marvellous musician and singer, and as such she has also been able to effortless adapt to our take on indierock and related genres, although her favourite musikal territory is within soul and more klassikal rock, like Rolling Stones. She has several projekts koming up where she kan "be herself" more, and has chosen to devote more time to these.

We have already started to look for a new girl to replace her, as we really like the extra dimension and the kolours added to KaRL BaRX by the female voice. Brita's leave happens at a time when we have a growing share of songs that are aktually written with the flexibility of having two voices and a wider vokal register in mind (most songs on our rekord weren't).

So I guess listening to these two the April and May songs is a perfekt introduktion to KaRL BaRX for a girl who would like to be our next singer: KaRL BaRX Part Two is our first song ever with female lead vokal, and is also one of the quietest KB songs so far. In kontrast, Yeah Yeah Yeah is at the opposite extreme: A bouncy and upbeat (well, at least on the surface...) pop tune where we profit from the extra energy that is generated when two different voices sing the same melody.

If this makes you kurious, or if you know someone who might be, please get in touch: sigurd@karlbarx.com

ps: I wish to thank my good friend Håvard Sæther for the kontribution to what I wanted to be "A Russian State Choir" on KaRL BaRX Part Two. This ambition wasn't entirely met, though, as neither him or me are natural basses...

JUNE: Danskebaaten (right-klick to download)

And now for something entirely off-Barxway: With the summer holidays infiltrating the band, I decided to rekord something I've been playing around with at my first keyboard. The keyboard, which I bought in 1994, is a General Music CD3 (Italian brand), a magikal musik machine with 100 premade rhytms, each komplete with verse, korus, fills, intro and outro arrangements. Just add kords: They will automatikally and perfektly be played by drums, bass and two other instruments.

I didn't do that here, though. But the June Tune Danskebaaten is based on the elegant drum part of my favourite preset, the laidback West-Indian dance beguine. Hopefully this rhytm immediately puts the listener in a relaxed lounge mood. Perhaps not the sophistikated mood you will experience at the Hilton or vice versa. I rather imagine this instrument to be handled by a Bulgarian one-man-band at one of the ferries between Oslo and Denmark.

Hence the song title...

JULY: We're Building A Machine

...but there was also a hidden double meaning of the June title: We are hereby announcing that KaRL BaRX is moving its entire organization to Denmark!

Yep! The lovely city of Kopenhagen will be our new hometown from January 2010.

This rather radikal change in our musikal lives, as well as our daily lives, will koincide with yet another line-up change. Rainer decided to keep his drums and his family in Trondheim, so our new drummer will be Asle Arntzen, who is already living in Kopenhagen.

Asle has played with us before: In 2005 he was a stand-in when we played at Kroa i Bø. Back then he was also known as the friendly hairy-fairy of another energetik pop/rock band, Superfaun.

During the two days he has spent with us in 2009, he both
1) revealed that he had been praktising a dozen of our songs
2) managed to rehearse and rekord drums on this month's song, We're Building A Machine.

The song is also featuring Karen Therese Ugelvik (bass/harmony vokals in amazing Cyaneed) as the machine-building sidekick on vokal. Thanx!

Another thanx to Alf Prøysen for inspiration (guess which song).

By the way, the song was written shortly before our big Denmark decision.

AUGUST: Being With People
(right-klick to download)

August 31st 11:50 pm: Nothing much to say except, "we made it this time as well".

Asle is back in Kopenhagen, but it was his suggestion to use the Ticket To Ride-groove on some parts of this one. Thanx to Rainer, who tried out and enhanced this idea and helped us out on drums, post-barx.

KaRL BaRX Klassix - A Joy For New Listeners

Due to the kurrent band situation with Asle in Denmark, and the rest of the band busy laying plans in Trondheim, we've decided to put demo making on hold until we are gathered again.

So instead of new material, we're going to do One Song A Month the lazy way for the remaining third of the year. I visited the attik and kame back with some long forgotten Barx material to re-present here.

SEPTEMBER: Hey Sister Supergirl (The Others 1999)
(right-klick to download)

The first "Klassik" is in fakt not really a KB song, it's a tune I made for the predecessing band The Others and inkluded on the demo CD Go See The Others in 1999. I think it's one of the last songs I made before we changed our line-up and took the name KaRL BaRX. We played it live with KB though, but only on a kouple of okkasions.

Apart from some tacky instrumentation (drums, bass and organ are played on my Italian keyboard, see the June sektion), I still think it's a well skulptured pop tune.

OKTOBER: Why Don't You Love Rock'n'Roll? (2000)
(right-klick to download)

This is the almost-title-track from our first demo EP from late in 2000, Why Don't You Love KaRL BaRX?

The song was honored as one of the first Ukas Urørt (best song of the week from "untouched" artist) at Norwegian radio. For me personally it also made me spend a kouple of months on making this Flash video, inkluding drawing the karikatures, which meant that my work life took another big step away from produkt design and into the world of animation and graphik design.

NOVEMBER: Bubblegum Bubbles (2001)
(right-klick to download)

Bubblegum Bubbles is a personal favourite from our 2001 demo album ...And If We Don't Kome Up Again. I still think it's one of our finest moments when it komes to expressing a more downbeat, darker mood.

The overall produktion of this 9-song kollektion (just under 30 min) wasn't partikularly good, as we did all the rekording oureselves on quite lousy equipment. However, I think the sound on this one sounds decent. It's lo-fi for sure, but in a way that seems intended.

One reason for that is of kourse that the song kontains no real drumming, just a sample. By the way, musik quizzers and other besserwissers should rekognize which Norwegian band the sample is stolen from. Hint: It's been speeded up. In our naivety, we didn't ask for permission to use the sample, however the drummer has personally forgiven us later on...

DECEMBER: All I Want For Kristmas (Is A Girl) (2008)
(right-klick to download)

The December song is a not-so-long-forgotten Klassik, as it was our kontribution to the famous Alterrnativ Julekalender only one year ago. All I Want For Kristmas (Is A Girl) turned out to be one of our poppiest songs ever, while the Kristmas wish in the title turned out to be yet another produkt of imagination - so let's repeat it this year...

Which I by the way soon deklare to be over. It's been a busy, but strange 2009. 2010 will without doubt be the most exciting year ever, in the ongoing saga of KaRL BaRX. A flat in Kopenhagen and a new life is waiting for Magnus, Tore and me, and some big changes are in store for Asle and Silje as well. As for the Danish people... well, they don't know yet what they are waiting for, but we will show them.