I thought I should stop by and wish you a happy new year. thank you for this year and we have felt your support. thanks for listening to our music, buying albums and showing up to our shows.
GATSS has had an amazing 2008 and here are the headlights:
- May: Indienational Tour made a new tour in Europe. This time the line-up was Helena Arlock, Shooting John and GATSS. On the first tour we were 3 solo-performers - time the rythm-section from GATSS, Patrik Andersson and Jon Mattsson, joined us and we could do full band shows. A new Indienational Tour is happening in 2009.
- September: Brilliant Hands, GATSS 3rd release was released after 2 years in the studio. It was a hard but important progress to make but it was all worth it - our most personal work so far. Petra Kalla made the beautiful artwork.
- October: Eileen Rose (USA) asked me to come and support her for her tour in Italy. We all became great friends and I am sure we will see more of each other in the nearest future. Thanks Eileen, Nick, Pat and Rich. Long live the Happydent.
- October: Townes van Zandt tribute festival (ITA): I was invited to go back down to Italy to play a tribute festival to great late Townes van Zandt. Here I met great songwriters from all over Europe, USA and Canada all performing that night
- October/November: 2 weeks before we were going out on a big release-tour in Germany, Belgium and Holland our drummer Patrik got a tinnitus attack and his doctor told him he had to stop playing drums for 4 months. Patrik has been the only drummer I have played with since I started playing so we took it very hard. But we decided we had to do something about it so we called this guy Björn Ehrenstråle who joined in without questions and just went with it. Thanks to Björn we had an awesome tour, our best European one so far.
Also, last new year I wrote down a list of to-do's:
finish album - check! get an apartment - check! get a new webpage - check! thanks to Arlock Design. plan bachelor party for my brother - check! crazy night in Copenhagen. change strings on my lousy guitar, Poker - check! Bought a new guitar, plays unbelievable..it needs a name....hmmm come up with a good delicious title for the album - check! well, maybe brilliant hands wasn't a delicious title but yet a title. find out why every legendary person ate kiwi in school - ... ... ... still working on this one.
So for next year....I'm not sure yet to be honest with you. But I will get back to you. Today I am leaving town to spend new years in a cabin in the woods with my friends. life is beautiful.
back home in Sweden. haven't seen the sun since I came back....long gray days and it's not easy getting up in the morning...especially when you are out of coffee.......
the tour was great, this time our line-up was:
Gustav Haggren - vocals, guitar, mandolin Jon Mattsson - Bass, vocals Victor Widerberg - Guitar Helena Arlock - cello, piano, vocals Björn Ehrenstråle - drums
our original drummer Patrik Andersson got a bad stroke of tinnitus and has to take a break from playing for 4 months, he'll get back stronger and better than ever though. One week before the tour was going to start we called Björn and asked if he wanted to join us. He didn't hesitate, didn't ask any questions..just said 'sure' and that was that. we are very grateful he could join us for these shows, fun guy too.
People in Sweden keep asking us why we play more shows in Germany than in Sweden but I guess you have to be there to know. We know and you know.
Here is a clip from OBA-Live in Amsterdam:
New plans coming up for next year. This year I have my one more solo-tour in the end of November. I am going back to Italy and I am quite excited. This time I will play a few shows with Wendy Mcneill and Jack Harris. After that I will take some time off and do some recordings..finish songs I started earlier this year..
we are right now in Amsterdam preparing for the radio/tv show at OBA Live tonight. it starts 7pm but i don't know if you can follow it online. the first part of the tour has been sweet - the sailors are in a good mood and no one's been in a fight yet. tomorrow we have an easy drive from amsterdam to berlin....only 8,5 hours or so so that should be just fine. these are the rest of the dates
29 okt - 'OBA Live', Amsterdam, (NL) 30 okt - Luzia, Berlin/Kreuzberg (GER) 31 okt - Tonenburg, Höxter/Albaxen (GER) 01 nov - Panorama Musum, Bad Frankenhausen (GER) 02 nov - Cultureel Podium Roepan, Ottersum (GER) 07 nov - Cafe del sol, Bad Salzuflen (GER) 08 nov - Weitblick, Bugewitz (GER)
- we should meet. here is some road pictures and a video clip recorded 10 minutes ago of an unplugged version of the song 'Fingers Crossed' that we will perform at the show tonight..ta-ta..love you
hello beautiful and unbelievable people, you look and feel better than ever,
... the last weeks has been crazy and a lot of things have gone right while some things have gone quite wrong..but we are always balancing. i am tired and I am packing. tomorrow, early we leave Sweden to meet our dearest friends in Germany, Belgium and Netherlands. check out the tour dates and I hope we'll see you there. we will have lots of new material to present and we are also more beautiful than ever.
band line-up: Gustav Haggren (vocals, guitar, mandolin) Helena Arlock (vocals, cello, keyboard) Jon Mattsson (bass, vocals) Viktor Widerberg (guitar) Björn Ehrenstråle (drums)
... a couple of days ago I went down to Italy again to play a tribute show to Townes van Zandt. It was a beautiful night with a lot of love and brilliant performers. I performed 'Fare Thee Well Ms Carousel'. And if you guys don't know about Townes - learn now. The show took place in a town an hour outside of Milano called Figino Serenza.
... some pictures from our releaseparty that we held for our third album 'Brilliant Hands' at The Tivoli in our hometown Helsingborg. thanks all of you who came, will never forget that night. ... the new album Brilliant Hands is available worldwide on CDBABY - there you can also download the album. we don't care you get the album really.....you know...just get it. ... so I am going to bed now. it felt like a had more to say but I am just too tired. will have more to report after this tour.
The Swedish fall is killing just like it always does every year. I also try every year to stay away from this winter country when October comes but somehow it always takes me back in. Our new album 'Brilliant Hands' is out now and it seems to be going well. Next week we'll go on a tour for 18 days in Germany, Belgium and Netherlands.
∞∞∞
Eileen Rose is an artist from Boston and is right now touring with her band The Holy Wreck (Nick, Pat and Rich). They've been out for a long time now and they are currently in Scandinavia. On Thursday they play our hometown Helsingborg on Club Indienational @ The Tivoli together with Helena Arlock and Maja Alderin. I was fortunate enough to open up for these guys on 6 shows in Italy. I flew down to Milan where they picked me up and it was a great time with fun shows, good people, great food and wine. It's rare when you work together with other bands that you like them this much. I'm sure we will all see more of each other in the future. The dates were:
Oct 1 - Cantina 500, Rimini Oct 2 - Vecchio Scantinato, Morovalle Oct 3 - Pegaso, Arcola Oct 4 - All'unaetrentacinquecirca (135), Cantú Oct 5 - Teatro dei tamburi, Novellara Oct 6 - Teatro Nidaba, Milano
Andrea Parodi who was in charge of the operation invited me back on the 20th of October to play at a Townes van Zandt tribute festival in Figino Serenza (CO). So see you guys soon. Let's have some cafe a parte! not sure of the spelling but you drink a shot of espresso - fill the cup with grappa and have another one. it is truly incredible.
∞∞∞
After Italy I had to fly staight to Berlin on a beautiful Ryan Air plain who loves musicians with guitars to do a showcase during the Popkomm Festival. I shared the stage with Doghouse Roses, Kieran Mcmahon and The Rosenkranz.
thank you Schubalu for the pictures; ∞∞∞
The last show of this little tour was in Uppsala, Sweden. Uppsala is close to Stockholm, 7 hours from where I lived. This was the worst little mini-tour I've experienced. I guess I felt a little rock n roll flying into every gig though...well if I would have my own jet-plane that is... Anyway, the show at Hijazz, Uppsala was great, Helena Arlock came up to open up and to play with me, they booked us into a business room with bathrobes and free minibar, and they fixed my broken voice with giant tea-drinks spiced with whiskey..it was all good..
autumn came to sweden the other day and we all wear scarves now, that's good in some sense I'm sure. I know I'm ready for it, we got shows coming in and it looks like this will be a great autumn. 3 albums I got to help me feel peachy in october:
fleet foxes - 'fleet foxes', 'the national' - 'boxer', my morning jacket - 'z'
GATSS NEWS:
∞ limited sneak presale release on cdbaby today! our new album billiant hands won't be out until next week but already today you can order your copy at cdbaby.com. the link is http://www.cdbaby.com/gtss3. but hurry up, they only have a limited amount of cd's.
∞ new songs up on myspace, reverbnation, i like, facebook,, last.fm etc
∞ new shows added to tour schedule.
take care for now and we'll talk soon again. i also want to apologize if i'm sending too much stuff at the moment but there's a lot of things circulating..
thank you, Gustav
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, It is the only thing that ever has.” Margaret Mead
tune in on Head Case Radio tonight at 6pm (pacific time). They will do a feature on GATSS and play songs off the new album 'Brilliant Hands'. If you would miss the show, we'll probably put the podcast on here as well when we get it.
long time...well it's been a weird summer, I won't go into that but the good news is - the new album is almost out. more info coming soon. for now - here's an article on a cool music blog - it's in Swedish though.
Indienational Tour 2008 (featuring Gustav and the Seasick Sailors, Helena Arlock and Shooting John) March 28 - April 6 (Germany, Holland, Belgium)
I remember we said during the indienational tour last year that nothing had gone really right, but nothing had gone really wrong either. This time everything was right. And I mean everything, I finally could bring GATSS rythm-section along. Patrik (drums), Jon (bass) and me have played together for almost 10 years. Also traveling with the caravan was again Helena Arlock and Peder Gravlund from Shooting John - a band which I used to play in. So the setup this time was me, Helena and Peder one set each. And all five of us backed each other up. I got to play a lot of lead guitar which was great, I don't know why I keep singing all the time - I just want to play telecaster in the back. One band playing songs from three bands, you get the picture. I get the feeling that it will be more Indienational tours.
Friday, March 28 'Eisen', Bremen, Germany Me, Peder, Patrik and Helena got into the Marilyn Records minibus, left Sweden and started driving towards Bremen, Germany. Jon was in New York City so we had to manage without him this evening. We met up with old music and soccer-lover Nando who once again took us into his big Bremen heart. The gig was a great start of the tour and maybe we were lucky that Jon wasn't with us because I don't think we would have fit on stage!
Saturday, March 29 'day off', Bremen, Germany
It's kind of funny that the second day was our only day off but it suited us fine since our dear friends Nando and Benno had planned a busy schedule. It started with brunch before we took off to the arena of the soccer team Werder Bremen. It was great to go and see a big game again. Too bad Bremen didn't play to well...actually Nando told me it was the worst game since 1999.. so much for timing. I had a great time although it was a shame that the Swedish Markus Rosenberg played awful. After that we went to see a show and it all ended at a place called Heartbreak Hotel...ouch
Sunday, March 30 'Astra Stube', Hamburg, Germany
It wouldn't take long after leaving Bremen that we would meet more familiar faces, Nils Rose - the brain behind Astra Stube and Mikael - our excellent sound man. The show was going to start 9.30 pm and Jon arrived by train from Amsterdam at 9.15 pm. He flew from New York City, landed in Amsterdam, got on 5 different trains to get to Hamburg. Thanks Jon, you're the best.
Monday, March 31 'Ä', Berlin, Germany
I have to admit, we didn't take too much chances when we booked this tour. We had been to most of the places already and we knew that the venues were run by great people. This night though I didn't know much about but our great friend Ute made this night beautiful. Check out her myspace! She set it all up and played with us, the venue was like a big living room packed with perfect people, there were even people on the streets cause they couldn't get in. Thanks Berlin, thank you Ute. Also thank you Paul for giving us a place to stay for the night, we didn't want to leave any instruments in the car so we carried it all up to Pauls flat on the 5th floor. The rule stands, no elevators in cool old buildings. Watch some live clips from the show: Sweden Slow Homesick Seven Nation Army (Encore, White Stripes Cover)
Tuesday, April 1 Desmet Live, Amsterdam, Netherlands
7 am the car left for Amsterdam. But first we had to carry everything down again. We had to be in Amsterdam early since it was a radio show so we had no choice but to leave one of my favorite cities without giving it the attention it deserves. Watch live clip from the show: Don't Stop (to let it die)
..and none of us thought of making an April 1st joke...
Wednesday, April 2 't Elfde Genot, Sint-Niklaas, Belgium
We reached the home of Jerome and Veerle, our great friends who we got to know on the last tour as well. They run Cafe Carnot in Kruibeke but managed to arrange 3 shows for us in Belgium. Two of the days would be the Folk You Festival but we started up with a show in Sint Niklaas.
Thursday, April 3 'Folk You Festival', Cafe Carnot, Kruibeke, Belgium
I've mentioned before that the Cafe Carnot is one of my favourite places to play. This day as the first day of the Folk You Festival and it was GATSS + Helena Arlock who were performing this night. It was a typical Carnot night in all its glamorous ways During the daytime thought, we went into Antwerpen to check out the city and celebrate Jerome and Veerle's 4th anniversary. We saw the church with one tower and I bought some vinyls. For the show we got Jerome and Veerle a candy cake which looked great but when they had eaten everything on top it was just foil left, the Belgium pastry store ripped us off..
Friday, April 4 'Folk You Festival', jugdhuis 'terwalle, Kruibeke, Belgium
Day 2 was about Shooting John and another Swedish band Giant Wide. I was on stage but only as guitarist which was perfect. It's just the best feeling to back someone up, not taking the responsibility, just to play without singing and drink beer..I am a very simple man sometimes. Anyway, it was a fun night and later that night I met a guy who said Clawfinger was the best band ever to come out from Sweden. Maybe he was right. We all ended up at the Carnot once again and someone was stupid enough to order a bunch of "wake up the dead" shots.....why would you want to mix vodka, gin and tobasco?
Saturday April 5 Tonenburg, Höxter/Albaxen, Germany
We said our farewells to our Belgium friends and starting driving back to Germany. Everything was looking great but then the GPS ate some space-cookies and didn't direct us anywhere.....we took a chance, started driving but after one hour in the wrong direction our agenda did not look too good. I mean, who brings maps anymore? Finally we ended up at Tonenburg one hour too late and it was a great finish on our tour. God damn the sound was good, wine extraordinary and people really seem to like us...we ended up at Glitterhouse Records somethingsomething party in Beverungen playing fussball.
Another indienational extravaganza is completed. Thank you.
One of my favourite people/artists/songwriters right now runs a really cool recently started music blog...and I was honoured to be invited to answer a couple of questions. Check out "Vänbloggen" by Thomas Denver Jonsson
// GATSS.COM on www.gatss.com you can find our band new website where you can find all sorts of things like pictures, reviews, chords etc etc.. even a gatss game...
//SPRING TOUR also if you guys have missed, we are going on a tour in Germany, Netherlands and Belgium soon. 3 Swedish acts on the road together: GATSS, Helena Arlock and Shooting John. Here are the dates:
Also if you are not on our mailinglist, this is your chance. It's pretty harmless. Send an email to gatssmail@gmail.com - please include your location (city,country)
greetings and happy new year. i thought i would start 2008 with doing things I never got around to do in 2007. i know it doesn't sound too exciting but let's say I will do all those things the first week...then 2007 was a very productive year..!
quick new year to do's............:
finish album get an apartment get a new webpage plan bachelor party for my brother change strings on my lousy guitar, Poker come up with a good delicious title for the album find out why every legendary person ate kiwi in school
if anyone have suggestions of where i should be, what i should do and so on in 2008 please let me know because i never could plan too far ahead.
anyhow we finally finished the last part of our indienational video log. this one takes place in italy, austria, slovakia, germany, sweden and norway. i will also upload some pictures here but for now you can look at my little youtube television below with live clips from the tour. it was a great run and I feel gratefull to have met have met all these inspiring people...and if anyone is missing - blame the rockets. thank you:
Anders & Jacob / Hallands Nation (Lund, Sweden) Ulrika Peyron - for a good nights sleep Helsingborgs Dagblad Hasse, Hoff, Malin / The Tivoli (Helsingborg, Sweden) Hans Haggren / Marilyn Records Jon Matsson & Sara Doverhed - DJs @ Club Indienational, Helsingborg, SWE Tommy Hansson - for building us the bed in the car Family & Friends - for your help and support Nils 0 co. / Cafe De Luxe (Vaxjo, Sweden) Radio P4 Kronoberg Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (Ronneby,Sweden) Malin Andresson - for performing with us in Ronneby Rickard / Best Wishes (Goteborg, Sweden) City Goteborg Lady Patricia (Stockholm, Sweden) Fredrik Wallberg - for the relaxing days Royal Music School, Sthlm, Sweden - for lending us equipment Christian Clemen & Nils / Astra Stube (Hamburg, Germany) Haus 73 Pille Peerlings / Kulturrampe (Krefeld, Germany) Peter - for your support Michael / Skek (Amsterdam, Holland) Vincent / Lloyd Hotel (Amsterdam, Holland) Alma and the dancers - for the attic Signe Tollefsen - for the invitation to amsterdam Larae and housemates - for the red light district Arjo @ LaLaLa Productions Desmet Studios Jerome & Veerle / Cafe Carnot (Kruibeke, Belgium) Andreas & Arne - for the support show in Kruibeke, Belgium. Tom Kershwill & In The City Festival Trof (Manchester, England) John / Hark To Towler (Tottington, England) Dave / Head of Steam (Huddersfield, England) Aga, Mark & housemates - long live Poland John / Tower of Song (Birmingham, England) Eddy & Tom - for the couches Peter Dixon / BBC Radio Darren Bunting / Tigers Lair (Hull, England) Danny / Blue Cat Cafe (Stockport, England) Darrek - for the showers and the story of your life Hamish, Jemma, Stan and Graham - for a great night off Dave / Hollybush (Cradley Heath, England) Cath / Huddersfield University Barry / Cassidy's (Dublin. England) Martin Diamantodis & housemates - for the sort of "apathy" reunion Gugai / Roisen Dubh (Galway, Ireland) The irish sisters and Mike Andy, Rabb, Mike / Tikki Lounge (Cork, Ireland) Chris Martin & Anette Buckley - support act in Cork T'elfde Genot (Sint Niklaas, Belgium) Rudy & Co. - for the perfect sound Bert / T'Guildenhuis (Rupelmonde, Belgium) Sala Monasterio (Barcelona, Spain) Magnus & Marta (for being family) Pol Martin (performing on the Indienational Tour, Spain) Christian (thanks for helping with tickets!) Contraclub (Madrid, Spain) Heliogabal (Barcelona, Spain) Pancake - for a great night in Barcelona Tirtha, Laksmana and Goranga - for saving us from the cold and showing us the temple The Italian Cowboy w/ Cows - forthe miking lessons Silva / La Galera (Corregio, Italy) Christoph Storbeck - for making the Indienational Tour, Italy happen. The Second Grace - Fabio, Fabio, Fabrizio and John....I Would! Pjazza Club (Rimini, Italy) Lorenzo & Alex / Etnoblog (trieste, Italy) Bonko & Co. / Tetris Club (for saving us from the cold) Kamila / LUKY Culturehouse (Bratislava, Slovakia) Swedish Embassy - for the cash Nando & the rest / Eisen (Bremen, Germany) Frank Fenken Immylou Coalminer - for knowing music, relaxation and fantastic food. Noergelbuff (Gottingen, Germany) Christina Seckelmann - for representing us in the best way Olaf & Dirk / Cafe Del Sol (Bad Salzuflen, Germany) Niklas Hegfalk & Beatrice - for the support show at The Tivoli, Helsingborg Tom H Brekke / Cementen (Stavanger, Norway) Sebastian, Maggi and Luka family Sebastian Waldejer (performing on the Indienational Tour, Norway)
and of course the Indienational crew: Helena Arlock and Christian Cuff .....thank you guys, there are no words and I don't know how but damned..we pulled it off!
and if anyone ever want to play in Slovakia, make sure to bring money to pay customs or they won't let you leave...
gustav.
INDIENATIONAL VLOG PART VII
LIVE @ CONTRA CLUB, MADRID w/ Tirtha and Helena Arlock performing Lovely G.
photos: Filippa Edghill
