The album is actually (fiiinally) getting close to being finished... *yaaaaaay* I..ve been spending the whole summer in different studios, and slowly but surely an album has emerged. What hasn..t emerged though is any colour on my skin - I..m calling it "studio tan" and as soon as I get insanely famous I plan to make a huge trend out of it. I might just have to lie and cook in a sunbed first though, since it..s hard setting trends being invisible (I..m virtually see-through this summer). Invisible trends never do seem to catch on.
I..m currently working on a song called Save Me, and I thought I should give you a bit of a peek into the studio of the fabulously talented producers I..m recording it with; Mr Big and Mr Bear (irl names are Ronald and Björn, but Bear and Big are more fun, right?). Here..s what you find in BigBear-land:
Big slippers for Mr Big. A true viking.
Mr Bears favourite shaker - the (leaking...) skull. It..s actually a part of Sweeeedish indiepop-history since it once belonged to the legendary Janne Kask of Brainpool. Where Janne Kask went, thousands of smitten panda-eyed teenage girls went in the nineties.
Speaking of Sweeedish indiepop-history - this is the piano of the marvellous Marit Bergman, indie-queen of ABBA-land. Where Marit goes, thousands of outcast-feeling panda-eyed teenage girls go today.
This has absolutely nothing to do with Sweeedish indiepop-history. But every studio containing super-duper-hot-shot-producers should have a storage of these; inflatable travel pillows. For all the private jet flights I mean. No word yet on whether the girl in the above pic will have her own following of panda girls (for the record - I accept all animals; hippo, jellyfish, gerbil), but in a year or so we..ll know. Either I..m sipping champagne resting my Ken Paves-styled head comfortably on an inflatable travel pillow on my way to have a Starbucks coffee in LA with Lily Allen. Or I..m handing Lily Allen her daily Starbucks coffee over the counter, charging her 3 dollars while trying to slip my demo in her frappuccino. Time will tell.
Cheers!
Currently
listening
:
Alright, Still
By
Lily Allen
Release date: 2007-01-30
About the turkey bit - just thought I..d come up with some kind of group name for those of you who follow me and this blog, since Mariah Carey has her lambs and the Pussycat Dolls have their crabs. I..m sorry to say that most of the cool animals were already taken though; the Chicago Bears, the Detroit Tigers - even the Penguins were claimed (damn you Pittsburgh). So domestic turkeys it is. They..re not very smart I..m afraid, since possible causes of death are drowning in rain and forgetting how to eat. Oh well. At least they..re sexy.
Anyway, thought I..d share with you my Midsummer..s celebration. Big thing here in Sweeeedenland, remember? I told you about it last year; it..s all about drinking your own bodyweight in schnapps and dancing around a pole shaped like a male genital, while singing songs about how we are little green frogs. All this to celebrate fertility. Makes perfect sense, right? Well, it..s great fun anyway. If you swap schnapps for red wine, I..m proud to say I did all of the above and then some. Albeit around a more sophisticated pole. Just to show you the difference:
This is a classic midsummers pole. Around this people dance every year to celebrate fertility. Yup.
This is the pole of the village where I celebrate Midsummers, a bit more refined don..t you think? If you look closely you..ll see yours truly at the bottom of it. It..s taken the day after the bodyweight-drinking and frog-dancing, so obviously it..s from far, far away. But I..m there.
Later that day, with red wine still working as a replacement for blood in my body, I decided to go Britney and chop all of my hair off. I also dared to get a bit closer to the camera. But I wouldn..t offer any face.
Just kidding! The hair is still there... *all-the-male-readers-breathe-a-sigh-of-relief* It will take more than a red wine-blodstream for me to chop my hair off. Like my hairdresser having a red wine-bloodstream. I..m even closer to the camera now. Still turned away though, didn..t want to break the lens.
Slowly daring to face the front, making sure I..m keeping my "go-away-please-you-hungover-woman-you..re-scaring-the-children"-distance though.
And....tadaa! Full frontal! At least a half full frontal. Had to cut my right side out (to my personal paparazzi Mr N..s despair; "you..re destroying my beautifully composed picture!") since it had some catching up to do in the looking fresh-department.
Me and my lovely cousin striking creative poses (anyone up for drunken ballerinas?) the day before. The bloodstream obviously already affected.
Yet another lovely cousin. His bloodstream consisted of Negrita rhum instead of red wine. Obviously both beverages kickstart the nerd in you, since we..re both doing the peace sign.
That..s all for now folks, finishing off with a nice (and not drunken at all!) pic that also managed to capture the sun halo that day (upper right corner):
Cheers!
(Most pics by Mr N, others by random drunkards.)
Currently
listening
:
Gently Weeps
By
Jake Shimabukuro
Release date: 2006-09-19
...not me - but the guitar is. Or the ukulele to be exact. Whoever stated that playing the ukulele is uncool need to be hunted down and showered in Eurovision Song Contest music immediately. My goodness - just had to share this with you - it..s my new addiction. And just like a born again Christian I feel the unexpliccable need to inflict my newfound drug on everyone; I..ve Facebooked it to everyone I know (and don..t know), I..ve e-mailed it to all of my family, and here I am doing my best to make you see/hear it. It..s pure magic. Meet ukulele master Jake Shimabukuro:
Ahh.... I..ll just play it another ten times now before going to bed. I have a slight feeling my neighbour isn..t as keen as I am anymore on Mr Shimabukuro. ("Slight feeling" in this case reads "sick-to-her-stomach-I-guess-since-shes-constantly-knocking-on-my-wall-shouting-at-me-to-shut-the-noise-off".) Oh well, she should be happy I..m not addicted to Eurovision Song Contest songs. THAT would actually call for constant wall-knocking. Then my drug might be something as charming as this: meet Dustin, the singing turkey:
As I was on the subway on my way home tonight I just HAD to pick up my camera and snap these pics for you:
If the first thing that goes through your head when you see this pic has to do with cake frosting, you..re too young to read this blog post. If it has to do with fireworks, you need glasses. Smoke? Put the excavated melon down please. For all you other people, yup, it is what you think it is. Only in the Sweeeeedish subway folks.
"Stockholm celebrates the condom - wanna join?" it says. *frantic-booking-of-plane-tickets-wave sweeping across the world*
We sure do our best to maintain the image of the Sweeeedish Sin. "Sweeeedish-sin-isn..t-just-a-rumour-please-come-see-for-yourself-this-summer-and-let-us-rob-you-blind-with-our-very-very-expensive-hotels-and-restaurants-while-you..re-at-it" is more like it. Well, image is everything as you know and it IS tourist season after all. Paris has the Eiffel tower, Barcelona has the Sagrada Familia, London has Amy Winehouse. We have slutty blondes. But slutty condom clad blondes mind you.
Oh, and I put a new demo song in the player. It..s called "I Still". Thumbs up or thumbs down?
Strings and leopard print shoes
Current mood: stressed
Hello there,
I..m a bit stressed out at the moment, trying to wrap up the album so we can meet the deadline which is the end of May... Gaaaaaahhhh! It..s a bit much to do at the moment, but it..s all good; I..d rather be stressed out by editing vocals and recording strings than flipping burgers. Talking about strings, I thought I..d post a clip from the string session we had for a song called "Never be the same me". It..ll be on the album so you..ll get to hear the finished results there. Amazing and weird thing, to have four musicians play a string arrangement on a song I wrote... It..s a long way from Kansas... The only bummer was that the musicians were a bit too good - in 40 minutes they were done - I wanted to be there aaaaaall day...ha ha... Apart from the string guys you..ll also see my newest love in the clip - and don..t worry, me and Mr N are just fine. It..s a pair of leopard print shoes. Couldn..t help but give them eternal life on camera. They really deserve it.
Come peek into my apartment...
Current mood: happy
Hello there my lovely MySpacers!
Hope all is well! It..s my birthday today, so for me life..s a peach. Or a beach. Or whatever they say. It..s a good day! So, since I..m in my bestest mood, I thought I..d blog a bit. Since I don..t have any funny pics lying around at the moment, I..ll post another vid. This time I..m inviting you to my livingroom where I rehearsed for a cocktail gig last week. It..s also my bedroom, my dining-room, my workroom and my studio room. For once it..s a good thing being Olsen troll size. And luckily my musicians are skinny. Here goes:
..
Lots and lots of virtual salty liquorice to you all!
First of all - sorry for being a bit absent lately; I´ve been a busy little business bee making sure my album will turn out as fantastic as I need it to be. (Read: ReallySuperDuperMajorExcellent - otherwise I´m afraid I´ll get mob lynched by a heap of angry MySpacers whom I´ve been promising an album now for longer than it took all those Chinese scholars to write the Yongle Dadian...) Well well, you live and you learn. Next album I´ll try and toss together more quickly, and within a more modest timeframe; think Carl Lewis on the running track, think Lindsay Lohan´s period of sobriety, think teenage boys endurance abilities. Oooops! Strike that last metaphor, too graphic. But you get my drift.
Anyway, I´m halfway through the album now, and I´m as pleased with the results this far as (insert + 25 Hollywood actress of choice here) is with Botox. *yaaaaay* Soon I´m going to start working with two more producer teams to wrap things up. Just a bit of paperwork to be done with first, but as soon as I´m in their studios I´ll be sure to document all the juicy stuff for you guys. Hopefully no more "sh*t happens" posts though.
Also, I´ve decided to post a new demo song every two weeks or so... Some of them will end up on the album (properly recorded of course, I can only put my demo versions here...), and some won´t. Opinions about which songs should make it all the way are mental salty liquorice to me, and as appreciated as laxatives by Nicole Richie. Ooops! Too graphic again. Sorry. *snorting soap to cleanse my brain* I´ll start with a demo of a song called "A World Gone Cold"; obviously another happy-go-lucky Vanja tune... *dripping with irony* Thumbs up or thumbs down my friends?
Since pictures are fun, I´ll leave you with some wintrish ones from Stockholm town. Theme: "Dirt poor girl musician in need of fun, equals children´s playground at night"; absolutely free of charge, but you still get a dizzy head.
Don´t waste money on beer people. Just ride a merry-go-round. Same result, much cheaper.
I´m trying to figure out which one of the steering wheels I need to master to control the direction of the merry-GO-ROUND. Obviously confused. Above game plan apparently working.
Glassy eyes, dizzy smile. In five minutes I´ll throw up and go home. Just like a night on the town! *I kid I kid*
Finishing off by (as promised in my latest blog post) delivering the New Photo Face for 2008 - voilá!
...had to throw this one in, couldn´t stand the thought of having the above pic burned on your retinas until my next post. I´m so weak, I know. I totally blame it on the dizzy head and the merry-go-round.
Cheers for now!
Ps - Pics by the very lovely Mr N and the equally lovely Miss Pickles...
Currently
listening
:
Youth Novel
By
Lykke Li
Release date: 04 March, 2008
Just a quickie to wish you all a Happy New Year - I hope 2008 will be your best year yet!
Thank you SO much for all your sweet comments and messages this past year, I have so much fun with you guys! I hope we´ll continue to follow each other´s journeys, and I´m very excited about hopefully being able to bring you a record before 2008 is over! *yaaaaaay*
I´m signing off with a few New Year´s resolutions. I hereby promise to:
...try and make more money so I won´t always have to stockpile my beer during Happy Hour. I can now manage more glasses at a time than a Hindu god. But then, they don´t drink.
...never try to purposely look sexy on a photo - EVER again. This pic´s so high on the cheese factor it´s practically Stilton. Or Hilton. I blame the stockpiled beer. The poor thing standing next to me is obviously melting from the embarrassment.
...start using self tanner to prevent being a safety hazard at the beach. It´s anyone´s guess where the sand ends and I begin. If I didn´t have that towel to make me pop out of the background, no-one would even know I was there. Hmmm... If this music thing fails, I can always pursue an alternative career in beach spying.
...start practising on a new Photo Face. I seem to possess only one single facial expression. Me and Keanu.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!
Cheeeeeeers from Sweeeeeeden! (The Photo Face again, I know. For 2008 I´ll come up with alternatives, promise.)
Holiday greeeeetings from Sweeeeeeeden!
Current mood: jolly
Hello there my lovelies!
For a very special holiday greeting from me to you - click here! *hehehe*
Thank you sooooooooooooo much for all your sweet Christmas comments and -messages, you are truly the best!!! Now please have the loveliest of Christmases, and let´s make 2008 the best year yet!
Heaps and heaps of virtual Christmas presents and holiday hugs from me to you!
accomplished
*yaaaaaay* 
pleased
Well, it..s great fun anyway. If you swap schnapps for red wine, I..m proud to say I did all of the above and then some. Albeit around a more sophisticated pole. Just to show you the difference:
ecstatic
giggly
stressed
It..s a bit much to do at the moment, but it..s all good; I..d rather be stressed out by editing vocals and recording strings than flipping burgers. 
Talking about strings, I thought I..d post a clip from the string session we had for a song called "Never be the same me". It..ll be on the album so you..ll get to hear the finished results there. Amazing and weird thing, to have four musicians play a string arrangement on a song I wrote... It..s a long way from Kansas... 
The only bummer was that the musicians were a bit too good - in 40 minutes they were done - I wanted to be there aaaaaall day...ha ha... Apart from the string guys you..ll also see my newest love in the clip - and don..t worry, me and Mr N are just fine. It..s a pair of leopard print shoes. Couldn..t help but give them eternal life on camera. They really deserve it.
happy
curious
angry MySpacers 
whom I´ve been promising an album now for longer than it took all those Chinese scholars to write the 
Strike that last metaphor, too graphic. But you get my drift. 
*yaaaaay* 
Soon I´m going to start working with two more producer teams to wrap things up. Just a bit of paperwork to be done with first, but as soon as I´m in their studios I´ll be sure to document all the juicy stuff for you guys. 
Some of them will end up on the album (properly recorded of course, I can only put my demo versions here...), and some won´t. Opinions about which songs should make it all the way are mental salty liquorice to me, and as appreciated as laxatives by Nicole Richie. Ooops! 
Too graphic again. Sorry. *snorting soap to cleanse my brain* I´ll start with a demo of a song called "A World Gone Cold"; obviously another happy-go-lucky Vanja tune... *dripping with irony* Thumbs up or thumbs down my friends? 
jubilant
I hope we´ll continue to follow each other´s journeys, and I´m very excited about hopefully being able to bring you a record before 2008 is over! 
*yaaaaaay* 
Now please have the loveliest of Christmases, and let´s make 2008 the best year yet!