Feeling down...

This aint good, I'm feeling down, depressed, and fucked up!

Insomnia

... or something. Can't fucking sleep, and when I finally do it's from exhaustion. I can only lie on my back, can't fricking move, and if I fall asleep I wake up almost instantly again. This is a kind of hell, fuck it!

Tonight the final mix is being done by Thord at the Seventh Gate Studio. This means that we are done, and now we only have the photo session and layout to be done, besides the mastering, and this will luckely be done very fast.

Otherwise my life have been a bit slow, still can't do much since I had surgery, and my guitar playing is taking a few hits because of that. I can't sit for long, and I feel things are getting harder to play, but I know it will come back fast once I'm 100% healed. It's just boring at the moment...

Oh, and I need a normal day job, anyone got anything for me? Preferably something as a graphical designer...

Cheers!

Aaaarrrrggghhhhhh!

Someone told me to update more often, so here we go... Hm, *scratches head*, och a bug!!! Oops, sorry... The mixing is just about done for the album, and we've gotten feedback from our record company, and now the final process will be done, after one final listening session... The Mastering! Yay! The artwork is also ready, and we'll soon have the long awaited photo session, and then the layout will be worked out, which won't take very long...

That's it for today, cheers!

Surgery, and some updates...

I know, it has been quiet here for some time, again. But this time I have a good reason... I had surgery about two weeks ago, and hasn't been able to sit by the comp much at all...

Besides that not much has happened, well except that most, if not all, the mixing are done for the upcomming album now, and hopefully the mastering will go smooth...

Watch our myspace page for a new song sometime in the near future...

/Cheers

Band of the Month!

Gallows End became the band of the month at Xtreme Metal Radio! There will an interview with us there on november the 8th.... Don't miss it!

Check out the site for more info, and join us there in the shout box...

http://www.xtrememetalradio.com

Cheers!

Here we go again...

...

Jenny found some drum sticks, and I got hurt. As if anything else was expected. That's why I post this particular picture of her here... Mohaha.... Well, I love you anyway... ;)

Then she put down some vocals for the upcoming album. All in all it was a great day...

All the vocals are now done for the album, except the backing vocals. And some reparation work that we will do on some of the songs, things we didn't notice right away. But the end is very near now... And it feels great... :)

Cheers!

What ...

... is Thord doing? Send me the answer, and win a buttload of pellets! Or a kiss kiss... ;)

The vocals is just about done, we just have a few small things to add or change, and then we'll record the backup vocals with a few selected singers from other bands in the area.

So until next time, cheers!

The Unborne Flag Video!

This is an unofficial video for the song The Unborne Flag, created by our fearless Swedish Street Team Leader, Ernie! Thanks for the great work you do for us...

/Cheers!

Dumb & Dumber...

What I didn't do yesterday...

• I didn't get to eat breakfast with the girls (bullcrap)
• I didn't do the laundry (someone else did)
  
• I practiced guitar techniques all day loooong...
• I thought about creating the logo, but didn't...
• I looked at the e-store system, some...
• I watched a swedish thriller, with the girls (yay)
• I sleept... Well, I did two things on the list. Not bad!
  

And my cousin wanted another gig, so here it is...

He got 2 034 567 87 applauses yesterday, he dosn't want any more, thank you! ;)

Over and out, and Cheers!

What to do today...

• Eat breakfast with the girls (lovely)
  
• Maybe do some laundry (don't think so)
  
• Practice (guitar techniques)
• Create a logo for a company (work work work)
  
• Set up a e-store for a clothing company (work work work)
• Watch a movie (horror? Alone, or... ?)
• Sleep (yay)

And I still don't know what the Norweigan mean when they say "Driver du med mig", or something like that. But I think I wanna try it... I'll try anything at least once... Hm, I think... Or do I?

Well, I can say a dirty word in four language now, I'm becoming more fluent with that word than with normal things like; ordering beer, or asking where the toilette is...

Oh, and I promised my cousin a gig, here it is.... :)

Send your applauses to dadda@idontgiveadamn.com, thank you... ;)

Oh well... Crazy blog today...

Cheers!

Report from 7th Gate Studio!

I have been listening to the new vocal recordings for the upcomming album, and I must say that it sounds great. I have been there most of the times Thord have been recording lead vocals, and I think we have something really good here. There as been ups and downs,, like there is for every band, nothing serious though, but now we are starting to see the end of the road to finishing the album...

Cheers!

Yay! Great bonga on fire!

I guess not one single person understood the title here, but that's not my problem, is it? Well, you can always ask what the heck Bonga is, can't you... Sure you can...

Things have been up and donw for a while, but now we have great hopes for the rest of the recording sessions for the album. The doctor probably know what has been causing all the problems for Thord, and we hold everything we have crossed (and it really really hurts) that we have the right information now, or that the new doctor at least find out what it is if it isn't what he think it is... Phew... That was one crazy grammarthingie... I better stop now, and get some coffee...

Cheers!

So, this is what it's like...

... to be your own. My company is finally up and running, and I have had a few customers, and some new orders to do as I write this. My company web page is in Swedish at this moment, since I'm working with Swedish customers to start with, but if things go well, I will broaden that... If you are curious about what it is I do, take a peek here at Samuelssons Grafiska.

Cheers...

White Heat, Red Hot!

So, here I am with a big cup of coffee and a brief update on my life since the last post. Sadly there hasn't been any solo recording done at all...

By the way, the picture to the right has nothing to do with this text. It's Thord going wild (of course you can't see it, it's a still picture, but I promise, he's wild here)... ;)

I have started a business, and I'm ready to test it's wings now, and will start at the first of july. It's a graphical design company, and I will mainly work with web pages and such. But will also do other graphical work, like CD-Covers, Posters, well, just about anything that has something to do with graphical design. If you want to know more about this please contact me for further information.

Within the band things are going in the right direction. Thord is still not well, but he's getting better, and I hope that we will be able to complete the studiowork for the upcoming album soon. We have been rehearsing some, and have started to play around with a few covers... We have also written a few new songs, but that's for the future to come.

Well, that's it for now... Will be back later...

/Cheers

Woooohaaa!

I have a few ideas on instrumental songs that I will record when I get the time to do so, after a few arrangements have been done for them. This time it will be more harmonies, and not as heavy as before. It will be somewhat more layed back, but it won't be without punch. I got these ideas when I was out driving around this evening, and it will be a fun hobby project that I can play around with on the side. And I think most of you will appreciate it as well when you hear the result...

Cheers!

Weeeee!!!

Life has been hectic a while now, and I have been very busy with other things, like starting up a business on the side, working at my father's company, and more of that normal day, boring, life crap... Anyway, now things are starting to look good again, at least on the drawing board... So you can expect more posts here again... Yay!

And on a side note, what is it with drummers? I have been thinking back, and tried to figure out if I have played with any drummer that hasn't done anything crazy, stupid or funny at gigs. I don't remember anyone... Well, the worst was probably the drummer we had in Condemned (no he's not stupid, but he didn't exactly have luck on his side). At one gig he even fell of stage... Yep, he fell right off the stage... Behind the drums there was this big drape, and he fell down there, ended up behind the drapes, and couldn't find his way back up on stage, so he had to run all the way around, and get up on stage again from the side... Me and the other members wondered where the heck the drummer was, and when we looked there was no one behind the drums. Then he came running from the side... Eh, oki... Well, the music didn't stop, and I guess the crowd thought that this was part of the show...

Oh well, drummers... :) And why do they always throw their sticks on me? Well, Mikael hasn't yet, but I'm sure he's just waiting for the right moment to hit me in the back with those things! ;)

Until the next time, cheers!

Now the fun start! Speed training. Start slow and speed up. The midi file below is at 180 bpm, and that's pretty fast, but that's the goal, get fat. Eh, fast.

Standard tuning...

Have fun...

Running Man

I have decided to start running, and I don't look like this when I run... But I wish I did... Today I head out two times, first with Berith this afternoon, and later this evening with Jenny.

I thought I'd die several times, but maybe someday I'll be able to loose the extra pounds and be able to run the whole way around that bloody track in the forest...

Tomorrow there will be more work, and later rehearsal with Gallows End. We are in the process of deciding what covers we should choose to play, and it's pretty exciting. I'm thinking of Iron Maiden's "Murders in the Rue Morgue", but I'm open for ideas? So don't be afraid to hand them out... :)

New Video

Oh well, I'll let the video speak for itself...



/Cheers

Work, work, work...

As they say in Warcraft... The season for my normal day job has just started, and I have been working two days now. I'm a bit soar, but not as much as I usually am when the season start... Today I'm free from work, but it's just for a day when they fix the truck. What I do? Well, I'm driving around in a big truck with lots of grave stones, that we're setting up on different cemeteries. I also do some other work with stones, but mostly grave stones.

Last night we had our first rehearsal at the new place... We haven't been rehearsing for some time now, and it showed, but we had fun, and we'll be back up there where we want to be in no time, hopefully... :) Thord managed several hours without coffee, yay... And I was almost going nuts without any coffee, but I don't think anyone noticed, hehe...

Oh, I had tuna sallad for lunch yesterday, and when we rehearsed I farted, it was one of the worst farts I have ever had. It smelled like something had crawled up and died in my arse. I was amazed that the other's managed to continue playing, and they didn't even look sick. I was ready to leave the room, and it was my fart... LOL (I guess you didn't want to read that, but what do you expect of a crazy guy?) Moohhahahahahaha...

Well, back to practice and my coffee... Will be back soon again with a new exercise, and some more babling... Oh, Datis wrote this as a comment to another post here: "Datis here. Why don't you tell us some crazy stories from all the years of playing with different bands, or for that matter with Gallows End?" Well, Datis, I will post such things also, I'm afraid that no one will believe the stories, but there will be more of that soon. I promise... :)

/Cheers

Final Stretch & Warm Up

Here's the final Stretch & Warm Up exercise. This one doesn't sound that good, but it's great for stretching. But don't over do this one, and play it slow, you don't need to go out in a frenzy to warm up and practice, you'll just hurt your hand by doing that. So take it slow, and easy, and stop if it hurts.

Below you'll find the midi-file at a bpm rate of 120... The midi is in standard tuning...

Have fun...

Stretch and Warmup Exercise

Here's a little stretch (not extreme, I will post another stretch exercise that is great a little later) and warm up exercise...

Below you'll find the midi-file at a bpm rate of 120... The midi is in standard tuning...

Have fun...

New surroundings...

Yesterday we moved to another rehearsal room, down the same corridor where our old one was. Now we share it with a few other bands, temporary, until we find a place of our own.

What else is new, hmmm... Nothing I guess, but today I will rearrange my pedal case/board (well, I haven't done anything with it before, so everything is just laying in piles of coords and thingies without order)...

/Cheers

Bass players are crazy too!

At least the
one we have
in Gallows End,
Niklas Nord... :)

Aeolian Scale...

Todays exercise is a normal minor scale, called the Aeolian scale. This is usually how I play it when I want to get the blood flowing in my fingers, and do a little stretching (not much but a bit), as a good way to exercise the agility and flow, together with the coordination between left and right hands. To make it a bit more interresting I usually play it as triplets, but try playing it in other ways as well. The important thing is to get familiar with the scale, and get it to flow well. This is a great scale to use in heavy metal music for soloing. This particular exercise is in Am. After you are comfortable with this scale box, try it in different keys, and also learn where the notes are in other positions for the different keys.

Below you'll find the little player thingie with the midi-file loaded, with the scale being played at a bpm rate of 120... Oh, and the midi is in standard tuning...

Have fun...

Different Eyes Solo - Thord Playing

Here's a video of Thord Klarström playing his solo part on the song Different Eyes, one of the songs from the upcomming album that will be released this summer. I hope you enjoy it... Note: I play the solo just before this, you can hear bit of it (well, the end that is) before Thord starts to let his fingers and pick loose around his strings... ;)



For more videos please visit our official Gallows End channel on YouTube!

Guitars I've owned

The very first guitar that I got was a Acoustic guitar, and to be honest I don't remember the brand or name of it. I got it when I was 6 or 7 years old, and it was on this guitar that I learned the guitar boogie, power chords and later normal chords. My second guitar was a Duke, an electric guitar (real cheapy crapy one), I also had another cheap guitar that I put my saw in to make it look more tough, it didn't go well. Don't remember the brand on that one either.

Now over to the goody stuff...

When I started playing in my first band, when I was around 16, I got a Washburn (the same model as the guitarist in Nazareth had), and after the neck on that one cracked (I dropped it on the floor in the rehearsal room) I got a Yamaha guitar. Which I blocket the floating tremolo on, because I couldn't get it to stay in tune.

Now a long time followed where I only played Fender and Squier Stratocasters. I started with a cream white Squier Stratocaster with a humbucker at the bridge, that I had for more then 10 years, and I still consider this as one of my best guitars. I have also had a few Fender Stratocasters and a Fender Strat (with a Floyd Rose bridge), and the last one I consider as one of my worst guitars ever. I only had it for a couple of weeks. My last Stratocaster was a Squier, white again, but this time with the original single coil pick ups.


After this I switched to Ibanez, and got a black RG570, a blue SZ520, a blue RG320 and a black Prestige SZ2020EX. I also had a Gibson Les Paul Studio, fire burst. I considered the Les Paul as my main axe during this time, even though I played my SZ520 just as much. It was now I started to use Seymor Duncan pick ups on my Les Paul, a Jeff Beck at the bridge and a Jazz at the neck. On my SZ520 I used EMG pick ups, 81 at the bridge and 85 at the neck (I also had EMG pick ups on the SZ Prestige, but I got that one later).

I still can't tell which pick ups I like the best. I only use EMG as I write this post, a 81 at the bridge and a 61 at the neck on my Vintage Black ESP Eclipse. Which is my only guitar at the moment, and is the same model as the one in this post.

Todays Warm up Exercise...

Damn, can't sleep... Oh well, here's todays warm up exercise for the guitarist. Use alternative picking, and use a metronom. Start slow first, around 120, and speed up after a while. Make sure it doesn't hurt of feel uncomfortable. Remember that this is just a warm up exercise, not a shred-contest (unless you want it to be).



I use this exercise most times I warm up. I don't play it very fast at all, but I do change the rythm and sometimes I play it as triplets.

I have also added a midi-file with the exercise, which you can play by starting the player below... The midi is in 120bpm.

Good luck...

Gonna head to bed...

Yikes, didn't know that it was so late, eh, early... Ay ay ay ay ay!

Time for bed, but first I'll share a picture just for the heck of it. This is from the Evarest release party last year in Sweden, a great band from the Czech Republic that are on the same record label. We we're one of the guest bands...

Hollow Breed from Torsby, Sweden opened the show, then we head up on stage. Then it was time for Evarest to perform, and christen their new album with champagne. Lastly the special quests , Gaia Epicus from Norway, entered the scene. It was a great evening with lots of hard and heavy metal from three countries... Datis, from the record label was also there to surprise the bands, and help out.

Mats Andersson was the photographer, allthough a bit drunk as he took the picture. ;)

Well, I'm off to bed, cheers...

Here we go...

This is my first blog attempt, and I will mainly write about how life is as one of the guitarists in Gallows End. When I started this blog we are almost done with our debute album, which will be relased this summer. Last year we signed a deal with the Ohio, USA based record label; Farvahar Records LLC. As of now we are just waiting to get the vocals recorded, which has been a bit delayed due to sickness, but we will soon be back in the saddle, as soon as the doctor give Thord - our singer and other guitarist - the thumbs up to start singing again...

In the meantime I will leave you with this great video, I just love these guys... Don't forget to check out the rest of the movies... :)



So, until my next post... Cheers...