Wellies, tripod and umbrella. And a video camera in one of my pockets.
Summer is showing itself from the wet side. So far it feels like it mostly been raining.
Might as well make good use of all that water. One of the new songs have a lot of rain in it. And some summer.
So a perfect day to catch some wet scenes for the video.
/Lasse
So let the rain fall
’cause the sun won’t shine
Now let the rain pour down
There’ll be no summer without you
Here’s a new chapter in our series about bus stop dreamers, who like and share our music. Today we travel to United States and meet Johnny Reade.
Bus Stop Dreams: Where do you come from and where do you live today?
Johnny: I am from Hackettstown, New Jersey in the United States, and I currently live there today.
BSD: What do you work with?
Johnny: Currently I am Unemployed. For 20 years I was a Quality Control Technician for an Imaging products company. I have an electronics background and worked with printers and copy machines.
BSD: Is there anything special you are passionate about or care for?
Johnny: I love creating music. I have been playing guitar since I was 14 years old and over the years have taught myself how to play the bass, drums and keyboard. I have a small home studio in my apartment. Some of my songs have been played on various podcasts and one of my songs was played on a local college radio station.
BSD: I found this beautiful song above, “Angel On My Shoulder”, on your Reverbnation page. Can you tell us something about it?
Johnny: I have been very blessed in my life, almost as if someone is helping me along the way. It seems that no matter how bad things get in my life there is something that helps me thru it. Many times I have avoided bad situations because I feel like someone or something is telling me subconsciously what I should do. I don’t know if you believe in angels…. but I do. That is what the song is about.
BSD: That’s beautiful Johnny, thanks. You also seem to have a number of guitars. Have you got a special one to show us?
Johnny: I also like to repair and collect guitars. Here’s a photo on my 1972 Gibson SG that I restored. It was a total mess when I got it. I recently pulled it out and finished up the job with new pickups and pick guard.
BSD: I also know that you are running a music podcast, “The Johnnyrockin’ music show“, and have created more than 40 shows this far. Can you tell me something about that? How did it all start?
Johnny: I started doing my podcast because I was getting my music played on other podcasts and I thought it would be cool if I did the same thing for others. I have not been doing my show on a regular basis like I used to, because I have noticed that when I do them too often people don’t seem too interested. What I have noticed is when I do them every once in a while I attract a good audience. I think that if you do things too often people get used to it being there all the time and figure they can listen anytime. I will be doing another show sometime soon, it has been a while.
BSD: What kind of music do you listen to?
Johnny: I listen to all kinds of music, but my favorite is hard rock. I grew up listening to all the great bands from the 70’s and 80’s.
BSD: Do you have a favourite song among Bus Stop Dreams’ songs so far?
Johnny: so far my favorite would be…. Come Together.
BSD: Can you recommend a book to Bus Stop Dreams’ listeners?
Johnny: This Business of Music. This book is considered the Bible for the business side of the music industry.
BSD: Finally, do you have a an album to recommend?
Johnny: Too many great albums to list. Music is a matter of taste, Listen to whatever gives you pleasure. 🙂
BSD: Many thanks Johnny. Best of luck with your music.
Today we’ll continue with our posts about you bus stop dreamers, that is you who like and share our music. May I present Elaine Parent from Canada:
Bus Stop Dreams: Where do you come from and where do you live today?
Elaine: I am from Canada, I was born in Whitehorse, Yukon. I live in downtown Winnipeg, Manitoba
BSD: Yukon to Winnipeg, that’s quite a large move. It’s like moving to the other side of Europe from my perspective. What do you work with?
Elaine: I am a security guard. I work for 2 firms and at 2 different sites. Both within walking distance from where I live.
BSD: That’s convenient. And when you’re not at work, what do you care for or like to do?
Elaine: My horses. I have 2 rescue horses and I’m looking forward to breaking them to saddle but first they need time to get to know me. I go to a sci fi convention every year , which has just passed, had a ton of fun… I love reading… Sleeping in my hammock in my balcony… I also collect and wear corsets.
BSD: Rescue horses, what does it mean?
Elaine: These horses were slated for auction for slaughter. Bob buys as many as he can and Cathy finds forever homes for them. I am a rank novice, but I shall learn and at the same time they will have a home. They are halter broken but not broken to ride yet, so it shall be quite the learning experience. I look forward to it.
BSD: Fascinating Elaine. Best of luck with your horses. You also mentioned that you love to read. Do you have any books or authors to recommend?
Elaine: I love reading Andre Norton, Anne McCaffrey, Mercedes Lackey. I am reading Skitty at the moment, a short story.
BSD: And lastly, what kind of music do you listen to? And do you have a favourite Bus Stop Dreams-song this far?
Elaine: I like swing and some very old ones, symphonies, pop just about all kinds. I’ve just started listening to your music and so I really don’t have a favourite yet.
BSD: Thank you Elaine for answering our questions and letting us get to know you a little. And thank you for all your support.
We wish Sonja Hewer a great day in the studio today, recording vocals for two new Bus Stop Dreams songs.
Hopefully we get something to listen to tonight.
And we will give you something to listen to in due time, we promise.
Image by Fredric Lambert
I often describe music as a prolongation of yourself, as a look into the soul of an artist. While that’s most often true, I heard someone say the other day that the bottom line with music is not getting to know the artist, it’s the community around the music, the people who are listening. Listening to the same music and experiencing it makes us have something in common, something that we artists hardly can describe, but is better expressed by you who listen to the music, which is an interesting way of looking at it.
Lasse and I discussed this and came up with the idea that this page should be as much about you, as about us and our music. So we thought we’d interview some of you who has showed that you’ve liked us and shared our music on the net. /Pär
First up is Dmitriy Ocheretin from Ukraine:
Bus Stop Dreams: Hi Dmitriy, lets start with where you come from and where do you live today?
Dmitriy: I live in Zaporizhzhya, regional city in southeastern Ukraine.
BSD: And what do you work with?
Dmitriy: I have economic education and work at the University.
BSD: When you’re not at the University, is there anything you especially care for and love to do?
Dmitriy: Besides work, one of my interests is modern Scandinavian culture (literature and music). From 1999 I work on a site about it (Culture of North) in Ukrainian and Russian languages – http://scanculture.azh.com.ua.
BSD: Interesting. And we have looked and found a fair selection of good Scandinavian poetry among other things. Impressive and since we are from Sweden we are flattered.
Except reading, what kind of music do you listen to?
Dmitriy: I prefer different kinds of music. In my profile at Last.fm is dominated by electronic, trip-hop, female vocalists, jazz, post-rock, swedish, norwegian artists. I follow the music of my own country, Scandinavia, Japan, Australia and New Zealand.
BSD: Since we are a band and talking about music, do you have a favourite among Bus Stop Dreams’ songs so far?
Dmitriy: I first became acquainted with the work of Bus Stop Dreams through It’s a Trap in September 2011. It was The Kiss that is one of my favorites song of your group with “Come Together” and “Anything”.
BSD: Last, can you recommend any album to Bus Stop Dreams’ listeners?
Dmitriy: I can recommend, for example, albums of Swedish groups Kent, Solar Fields, Liechtenstein.
Thank you for good music!
BSD: Thanks. And thank you Dmitry for taking the time and tell us a bit about yourself.
We like stuff that sounds good, things than make us sound good. Instruments and gear are very personal and to some you form relationships over time. You fall in love, you break up. They irritate or surprise you. Are cooperative or just refuse to do what you want.
So we though to we’d present some of them to you.
And don’t believe those who say that things are not alive. These things are. We promise!
I actually never thought of buying a piano. Never had the money or the space for it. Synths and sample players would have to do. But when my father died in 1996 and left me his Schimmel Baby Grand I couldn’t sell it. I just had to keep it. He played it everyday and dearly loved it. So space had to be accommodated .
It’s spent time in various awkward places. One time it filled half of my living room, but the family never said a word (as they perhaps should have). Now days I’ve fitted it into the studio (where it takes up almost a third). Finally in the place where it belongs.
It’s got sort of a soft tone with a lot of warm mid punch, not like a bright pop piano or anything like that. Sad to say I don’t use it a lot for recordings since it’s hard to get a fair sound out of it. It sounds to “boxy” which is not a big surprise since the studio room is to small and the acoustics are not good enough.
It’s mainly used for songwriting these days. Both The Kiss and the upcoming Easy was born and written with it’s help. And compared with a synth or a sampled piano it’s a wonder to play. There is no way to compare with a real instrument.
/Lasse
Just short note to tell you that we’ve started a collaboration with wonderful German singer Sonja Hewer, who will sing on a couple of Bus Stop Dreams-songs on the upcoming album.
We are thrilled to say the least.
More info will of course follow but for now you can enjoy her singing with her band Sonic Season:
In 1989 I went to India for 7 month. Most of that time I spent in Calcutta working as a volunteer for different aid organizations.
There I learned to know those who had almost nothing and often lived on the streets.
I dare say that they became my friends but to some extent we came close.
I hadn’t brought any camera with me, as to not burden me with things, but there and then felt the need to document these people.
Getting a descent camera wasn’t easy in India at that time, but I found an outdated second-hand Russian Zenit-E on the black market.
I took maybe 15 rolls and had them locally developed. When I got home I forgot them after some time and now they’ve spent more that 20 years in a drawer.
But I think they deserve a better fate as these people still speak to me when I look at them now.
So I will scan a few now and then and put them here.
If not as a reminder that dignity and hope has nothing to do with what you own or not, but who you are and what you stand for.
/Lasse
I haven’t told you about it before here on the blog, but I also run a music blog called Meadowmusic.se, where I present new Swedish music. It’s a type of of music blog called mp3 blog, which means that there’s also free mp3 songs to download from the artists I present.
I and some other friends started the blog in 2008. We knew of so many great Swedish artists who we thought certainly deserved more attention, and an mp3 blog seemed like a good way of presenting this music. Well, here I am three years and 700 blog posts later trying to keep up with the flood of good music that pours into my mail box.
I’ like to think that there’s quite a span in genres on the blog, as it reflects my taste in music or at least music that I can relate to in one way or the other, but of course there’s a lot of music that I don’t cover. What’s fascinating is that I receive tips from well-known record labels as well as completely unknown artists that no one has ever heard of. And I don’t make a difference between them; if I like it I write a post about them, as simple as that.
And if I write a post, moments later the music in the post appears on other sites as well, like Hype Machine, Shuffler.fm, Elbo.ws where it’s shown to hundreds of thousands of people who love to discover new music. It means that an artist, whoever he or she is, in a flash can get more exposure than if he was published on one of the bigger Swedish newspapers. That is fascinating and the net in a nutshell I think.
Well, you’re more than welcome to have a look at Meadowmusic. There’s a music player on the page which you can start and browse through all the songs on a page, and if you want to download a song, you just right-click it and choose “Save link as…” or similar. I have gathered a few songs here below from past posts that you might like.
Frida Selander – Mountains Define You
The Rumble – Rock ‘n’ Roll Is the Medicine
Kids – My Sincerest Apologies
Vidar – What Did I Know
Six Figure Transatlantic – All Over Town
/Pär
