4 posts tagged “hello saferide”
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Download Episode #29: Firefox AK and The Midway State (33 min)Download Episode #30: Meet Kate and Lara (41 min)Download excerpts of our shows at W♥M Excerpts.
I have to explain and apologize for some things: First of all, the phone Andrea was using came through really low and so the sound quality is not so hot. It also had a short delay (combined with low output) causing us to ask "what?" and pause a lot. Boo to the technical problems :(
The Midway State's interview was delayed by 30 minutes, plus the time zone thing kicked my ass! The problem with the delay was that I was on a tight schedule and could only record for fifteen minutes before having to export my audio and have the computer ready for another recording session in 10 minutes.
ALSO: talking to Kate and Lara ran nearly an hour, even after I threw away such spectacular questions such as "What's in your pocket?" and "I hear you collect comic books"; it still ran nearly 40 minutes. So I decided to make it into its own episode - consider this a bonus episode this week!
PART ONE: FIREFOX AK
firefoxak.com ♥ myspace.com/firefoxak
Please check out my previous article with Firefox AK. Spending her morning in New York to talk to us about:
- Her live shows descriptions
- Her exploration of New York and eating pancakes
- Working with Hello Saferide
- Tgr Lou
- Berlin
- Razzia Records and Minty Fresh Records
- Firefox AK Vs Laid
12/03/08 Uebel & Gefaehrlich Hamburg
12/04/08 Festsaal Kreuzberg Berlin
12/05/08 Forum - Visions Party Bielefeld
12/06/08 Live Station - Visions Party Dortmund
12/08/08 Schocken Stuttgart
12/09/08 Ampere München
12/10/08 Gare De Lyon Wil
12/11/08 ISC Bern
12/12/08 Schlachthof Wiesbaden
12/12/08 Projekt 7 Magdeburg
PART TWO: THE MIDWAY STATE
themidwaystate.com ♥ myspace.com/themidwaystate
Derek previously reviewed Holes by The Midway State, so I was more than happy to have Nathan on to talk to us briefly:
- Arlene's Grocery is not a grocery store
- Headlining tour throughout Canada
- Their funny Minneapolis story, trying to make it to a gig with Mika
- "Holes" to be released domestically in early 2009
- Touring with a piano
- Process of writing music (inspired by Beyonce haha)
14 Nov 2008 The Starlite Edmonton, Alberta
15 Nov 2008 Marquee Club Calgary, Alberta
16 Nov 2008 Amigos Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
17 Nov 2008 Royal Albert Hotel Winnipeg, Manitoba
19 Nov 2008 Cowboy’s Bar Guelph, Ontario
20 Nov 2008 Tattoo Toronto, Ontario
21 Nov 2008 Mavericks Ottawa, Ontario
22 Nov 2008 Le Studio Juste pur riere Montreal, Quebec
kate.weheartmusic.com ♥ lara.weheartmusic.com
LOLing through it all:
- The secret orgin of Kate & Lara
- Upcoming concerts: Ben Sollee, The Hopefuls
- "Wisconsin doesn't count as a state."
- Music venues we hate
- "Screw the Current."
- Living in New York
- Music we're listening to
- The three Bens: Ben Folds, Ben & Jason, and Ben & Jerry
- Chromeo
Special thanks goes to Jennie at Minty Fresh Records, Andrea from Firefox AK, Myles from Sneak Attack, Nathan from the Midway State, Kate, and Lara. Music used in the show includes: Firefox AK, Hello Saferide, Ben Folds Five, Ben & Jason, Alina Simone, The Midway State, Pavement, Chromeo, and more.
If you would like to appear on a future We Heart Music Radio show, please contact
. Thank you for listening.I found out about Maia Hirasawa through Vu and while doing a bit of research, found that she's a backup singer for Annika Norlin's Hello Saferide (W♥M post). Hirasawa is a Swedish-Japanese singer-songwriter who was born and raised in Sweden. She's signed to Razzia Records, the same label as Annika Norlin (Hello Saferide / Sakert!), Jonna Lee, They Live By Night, and others. In other words, she's among wonderful Swedish musicians. Her debut album, Though, I'm Just Me, was released last year and according to the press release:
It is a logical name for the album, originally a phrase from one of the songs that didn’t make the cut, because this album is Maia Hirasawa, all the way.
She didn’t just write all the songs by herself, she also produced, arranged and recorded them in a terrace house in Sollentuna and in a cottage in Skåne. Maia thought long and hard about with whom she wanted to record her debut album, before she realized that the most logical choice was to do it on her own. She had to teach herself how to record in the midst of the process of recording but already had a flair for arranging.
The result is the finest of pop, but “with quite a lot of stage musical influences, perhaps a bit like Björn and Benny”, a vague feeling of classical music and melodies you love the first time you hear them and that you’ll never grow bored of.
Her first single "And I Found This Boy" (video) is an upbeat, pop song about
finding love ("for the night") and regretting it. In "Mattis and Maia", she gives the love song a modern spin; instead of the conventional face-to-face break-up,
MySpace is used as the source of messaging. Although their relationship is over, both feel it might not exactly be the end.
She'll
be performing at The Grammis Awards (which is basically the Swedish
version of The Grammy Awards) on January 9. It'll be broadcast live on
TV4 (buy tickets here).
I also wanted to point out that her song "Crackers" features Miss Li, another great musician I'll be posting about soon.
| Links: Official Site | MySpace | Razzia Records /// Similar Artists: Miss Li | Oh Laura | Sarah Blasko | Regina Spektor | Posted by Jason |
Band Members
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Säkert! is the Swedish-language project of Annika Norlin from Hello Saferide, which I previously mentioned on W♥M.
Recently, the band have been nominated for numerous awards in Sweden: Best Female Artist of 2007 on Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet's reader's choice award Rockbjörnen, the Swedish's version of the Grammy's (The Grammis Award) for Newcomer of the Year, plus Album of the year and Female artist of the year, among others!
It's easy to see why people are raving about Säkert! (which means "Sure!"), their debut album has one of the poppiest/catchies song called "Sanningsdan" (meaning "Truthday"?). Looking at the liner notes (all in Swedish), I think the male vocals is called Martin Hanberg from the band Sibiria. This song is excellent, in any language.
The only downside is that the whole album is in Swedish, although the album is well worth checking out if you are a Swedishpop fan (such the whole writing staff on W♥M).
I would have to say that though I can't understand it, I do get the general idea of what the song is about. For instance, "Det Kommer Bara Leda Till Nåt Ont" sounds like a dialogue between Norlin and Markus Krunegård. (I think it's about being naked or something).
Currently, it would seem that Norlin is quite busy, she's apparently the co-host (with Mattias Lindeblad) of a Swedish music radio show called Musikjournalen Live Session. I looked up Lindeblad, to see who he is, and apparently he was a bassit for a metal band called Liers in Wait from Gothenburg, Sweden.
Anyroad, I leave you now with Annika in an elevator, courtesy of musicadebolso.com.br:
12/28/2007 19:10:37
vu
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sakert.blogspot.com
Hello Saferide
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Footnotes [1] From myspace.com/saferide |
I really should let someone else (Jason) write about Hello Saferide because everyone seems to know more about her than me. I've only really discovered her recently through another voxer.
Hello Saferide is from Stockholm, Sweden, and is really just Annika Norlin. The name was inspired by "inspired by an intelligent bus driver in a drug-addicted small town" from Willimantic, Connecticut.[1]
Regal Recordings, who's probably most famous for picking up Lily Allen, have decided to release Hello Saferide in the UK, their first 7" single is "I Was Definitely Made For These Times" with "The Quiz" as the flipside. It's marketed as a double A-Side.
Norlin is currently involved in another project, called Säkert!. They are only recording Swedish language-only releases. If you speak Swedish, you can read about them on Razzia Records. (Maybe someone can translate for me).
The song that I really like (from what I've listened to) is "Long Lost Penpal", featuring Firefox AK (Andrea Kellerman) singing the penpal part. The song is very sad and I believe might be based on actual correspondents.
I
really identify with this song on more than one level. You know, before
the internet, people wrote letters and we had penpals. At the height of
my bedsit days, I had over forty penpals, and I'm still friends with
some of them to this day. Although we don't write traditional letters
anymore.
There is one woman who I dearly miss and wonder what she is doing these days. Her name is Silja R from Finland. She's an artist, loves Sparks and Davie Bowie. This is one of her envelope (I don't live there anymore).
We used to make FBs (Friendship Booklets) and send each other mix tapes. I sometime wish I could get back into letter writings and sending/receiving packages, but with my schedule as of late, I don't think I could have the time (and not to mention the costs associated with postage).
Some of the envelope art that we'd send each other were pretty creative, and I remember spending hours and hours putting just the right touch of hidden words and art. Those were the days, weren't they?
In order to save money on postage, there is a trick we used to do. We'd coat the postage stamps with a small film of glue. When we receive a package, using just a little spit, you can wipe away the canceled ink. We'd then send back each other's stamps and, of course, we'd never re-use the stamps that much, it gets suspicious after a while.
09/22/2007 10:57:38
vu
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