pondělí 31. října 2011

Don´t be late

Do you remember the Nirvana´s cover by Mando Diao Come as you are... well, you can download it here anyway.

neděle 30. října 2011

First song sung in Swedish

Sweet review from Luxemburg concert...


Don't you know that I love?


...I just wanted to share with you some love. Gustaf and Viktor Norén.

So think of me of what I did

There is huge rumour about Caligola right now... actually about this wikipedia article and about facebook photos that you can still see on Caligola home page. (facebook page - on Caligola home page you can´t see anything:) )
So think what you want to think and at the meantime enjoy the Sting of Battle...
Also here you can watch some Caligola photos from their first performance.

středa 26. října 2011

Walking on this dusty road a way too long

Caligola is OUT! The new song called Sting of Battle is to be heard here... and if you wanna know my opinion it´s pretty awesome. I really like it.

Lyssna: Musikguiden i P3: Radiopremiär: Caligola

And if you´re on facebook, like the Caligola page....here.
You can also check their homepage... if you are the choosen one...
For those who don´t know anything yet, Caligola is a new project of Gustaf and Björn together with Salazar brothers. The new album will be (probably) released next year.

pondělí 24. října 2011

neděle 23. října 2011

čtvrtek 20. října 2011

Welcome home Luc Robitaille


...don´t need anything except you...

Feels so good

This is NOT a Sugarplum Fairy blog, so please don´t spam it with this!!! (mean me... I HAVE TO!)



...and I would do it again and again, those were so fucking fenomenal few days that I will never ever forget it. (and not sorry about the swearing!)

And now a million years has gone

I just have to post this one ♥
There we go!! Kristian back on track, Sugarplum Fairy back on track. Now let‘s make some fucking music. And noise. (Sorry about the swearing.)
 

úterý 18. října 2011

To fall in love

I´ve had amazing dream about Gustaf Norén´s solo tour (but with Björn Dixgård:) ) having gigs in my hometown. Bad thing about these dreams is...they are just dreams.


pondělí 17. října 2011

We’re going to work together as long as we live

Interview with Björn from Berlin before Coke Sound Up. Enjoy. 


You recorded in Berlin with Juliette Lewis and Ray Davies on last year’s MTV Unplugged album.
Juliette Lewis was a bit of a dream come true. Ever since we were kids watching Natural Born Killers, we’ve always seen her as an icon for our generation. She’s a great singer, and she was the easier one.

Ray Davies was a hard motherfucker. He’s been through a lot, so he wanted to do things his way. He’s known for that.

Is it an acoustic tour you’re doing in October, then?
Not exactly acoustic. It’s, as they say, ‘stripped down’: more of an ‘empty’ sound than we usually work with.

Give Me Fire! was produced by Salla Salazar of The Latin Kings. You guys ended up doing a song in Spanish, and there’s a definite Latin influence. Would you say that’s Salla’s touch?
I think in that way producers are a bit overrated. When it comes to us, we always have the ground ideas and we try to develop them. Even before we had a producer, we wanted to make an album that had a lot of variation. It was a little bit like if we would make a perfect mixtape.

So... no influence from Salazar?
He’s a great guy – we’re starting a new project together in the next months. It was good to work with someone who hadn’t worked with rock music before. The people that have been working in the genre for a while have heard everything. They’re a bit tired. He’s a hip hop producer, and he showed us new sounds, things we’ve never heard before: a lot of weird stuff. It was inspiring.

Mando Diao has had a lot of member flux – Daniel Haglund left in 2004. Would you say that this current incarnation is The One?
Daniel is almost like a band member again; he’s going to play with us on the tour in October. But it’s different with every song. Some songs have the whole group playing; some songs just have two or three instruments and vocals.

There shouldn’t be any rules that every member has to play on every song. You do what’s best for the song. That could be having just a drum machine or a vocal or whatever. It should be a free thing.

That’s a pretty casual approach...
That’s how everybody wants it to be in this band. I think that was the way a lot of bands worked. For instance, Depeche Mode. I’m sure they did whatever they felt like on their songs. With The Beatles it’s much the same. They released “Yesterday”, and it was a string orchestra and Paul McCartney’s voice. It wasn’t the whole band playing but they still called it ‘The Beatles’. It was still as much The Beatles as the songs where all of them are playing.
 
You and Gustaf go back a long time. You once spent six months cooped up together, writing music.
We’ve been friends for 15 years, and we work better now than ever. He’s like the brother I never had. We skipped pretty much everything else – school, girlfriends – we just wanted to do the music. It’s almost like a cliché but that was really the way we did it. He has his farm up where we are from, we go work there sometimes.

When we’re in Stockholm, we share a studio with a couple of painters and artists. It’s a great vibe. I couldn’t live without it now. I don’t think any one of us would survive alone. We’ll see what happens, but I think we’re going to work together as long as we live, pretty much.

Still, you did a solo tour once.
It wasn’t really meant to be a solo tour in that way. It was meant to be a guy playing songs. The booking agency wanted to promote the tour as “The Björn Dixgård Solo Tour”. I just let them do what they felt like. I didn’t play my own songs. I played Mando Diao.

You moved from EMI to Universal recently.
That was a good move. You have to work with people who understand your music.

Did you feel that EMI didn't get you?
They just didn’t know our material, or where we should go. They had a lot of problems with everything. They still have a lot of problems with everything. It’s their business. But we’re not interested in business.
We don’t let so many people into our music. We do the music the way we want to do it. We don’t let any producers or people like that have a say.

Some have said that with your rise to fame the band has moved away from its garage roots.
I’d say we’re an independent band. I never thought we were a garage band. Not by purpose anyway. What does that even mean? Is it a sound? Garage to me is doing things yourself. No matter how it sounds, you do it yourself or with somebody you pick. That’s the band we’ve always been, and we’re still going to be that.
I guess maybe the first record turned out that way because of how it was recorded, on a portable recording machine. Everyone was asking us if we went to a studio. We did, we just didn’t know how to record. I still don’t think we know exactly how to record; we’re just lucky sometimes, you know? [laughs]

So what would you be doing if the whole band thing hadn’t worked out?
There’s no good answer cause it’s my only fucking talent. I would probably be... I don’t know. I’d be dead, man.

čtvrtek 13. října 2011

There’s so much that you missed

The best photos of the best band... taken by Nina Stiller. Simply click here and here and enjoy the perfection.

středa 12. října 2011

Silent dream, silent shout

Pictures fever...

 
...from Frankfurt...just click here
...from Oberhausen go here
...from Zurich go here



And finally some more photos from the last gig in Luxemburg here and here!

pondělí 10. října 2011

Will you do that for me?


"I wanna dedicate this song (No More Tears) to the Mando Diao Citizens. They stole it, illegally put it on youtube, embraced it and then asked us to put it on an album. And we did."
 
Gustaf Norén, Zurich - 9. October 2011 
 

These are the days of our lives


Mando Diao Street Team in Munich, 4. October 2011 with HQ Katrine.

neděle 9. října 2011

...my first, my last, my everything

Only two more shows left and October tour will be over. Today in Zurich (again) and in two days in Luxembourg. Then, God knows. 
Mando Diao are currently planning about three different projects, as far as I know, but not that I was so sure about it. There is a Swedish album made with lyrics by Swedish poet Gustaf Fröding. Caligola project and unknown Mando Diao album.
What I´d love to see is Mando Diao on Tout again. Or not a tour, maybe just small winter concerts, just a few. But concerts. More and more... don´t stop now.

Until now Mando Diao played in Munich, Zurich, Oberhausen and Frankfurt. Let me take your for a ride, far away from the reality...

MUNICH

Ok, let´s be honest. I´ve already written about this particular show. Anyway let´s look into the production office together. Here you can see Carlos - tour manager - working and loving Mando Diao from the bottom of the heart. He thinks Mando Diao is the best band ever. I do agree. 


What is also important to know is Carlos´ assistant Max from Luxembourg. Here you can meet him...



What else?
 
ZURICH

Here goes Zurich gig... Komplex 467... No words necessary.




OBERHAUSEN

Look at these photos to make an idea how it was: here

And watch this video (awesome quality) of Sheepdog from this event...



FRANKFURT

Mando guys had great time at Lufthasa training center...


Watch the video here:


And the concert itself? Let´s enjoy it...


That´s all for today. Two more shows to come!!!!

Aaaand as a BONUS ♥
Photos by Nina Stiller, more here...

Love/Malegria ♥

sobota 8. října 2011

Give me a sign

The mission was simple. Just print or write or draw so many posters with inscription One Heart, One Blood, One Soul as possible. And then hold it during DWS. And the mission was also success:) So watch it here. 
(If you´ll watch it carefully you can see our czech flag on the video:) )

And few words from Katrine:

A live report from the production office:
Mando Diao just did a brilliant show here at Zenith in Munich. Everybody's thrilled! Crippe was dancing like a hippie next to the stage, Carlos was screaming out that Mando Diao is the best band in the world, Björn was stagediving and the whole venue was so hot it felt like it was burning. Just wanted to give you a feeling of how Munich was like tonight. And I hope to hear your opinions about the concert tomorrow! //Katrine, HQ

One blood, one heart, one soul.


čtvrtek 6. října 2011

All the lonely people

The hall is shrouded in colourful smoke, when we enter, we can only hear them. Hear them playing the new song, in Swedish. Mando Diao is taking on the world again, this time in Munich. And everything´s gonna be little bit different...

The soundcheck. Two new songs that sound through the empty hall of Zenith, the Swedish one, we´re gonna hear that night again. Seeing them at the soundcheck first, before the actual gig,  is strange feeling. And I could be there forever. It´s much more real that the concert itself. It´s somehow raw. It´s somehow human. It´s like watching YouTube video, however I´m truly inside. One of my silly dreams is becoming true. The soundcheck last longer that it´s usual and I´m enjoying every second of it. Nevertheless, we have to leave.

VIP Backstage Tour with HQ Katrine is wating for us. We´re almost running up to the stairs, to their secret place. There we meet Carlos, watch their dressing room, catering... little escape to Mando Diao world. Then frozen tour bus. Maybe little bit in a hurry, but it was worth it. Definitely.

Wating for the concert is very pleasant this time. Me and my friends have an early entrance that allowed us (almost the whole Prague special Unit) to stand in the first row without fight. We´re holding our huge czech flag during the concert, five freaks in Munich. Then Daniel comes and it´s Dalarna again that fills the air. Welcome Home Luc Robitaille in special version. Its rehearsal we´ve been watching just few hours ago. This time is for real.  
High Heels, Song For Aberdeen, All My Senses, Long Before Rock´n´roll.... Your Lovers Nerve - Gustaf didn´t forget to mention that it´s this song that it´s his absolute favourite...and Dance With Somebody till the end as always. Longer than ever before. What remains is One Heart, One Blood, One Soul.

And Mando Diao...., Carlos is right, you are the best band in the world, no doubt about it. Whatever might other people say.
Thank you for this wonderful, completely different experience. I will never forget.


Här inte brått

Have I ever told you how horrible is to come home after Mando Diao concert? 
Instead of sitting in class on the most horrible lecture I have at the university, I was standing on Mando Diao soundcheck listening to this song... yes, it´s pretty hard to get back. Instead of being dead I was alive. 

And I will always love you


...so many things have happened recently in Mando Diao world that I have no idea where to start. Mando Diao played two shows this week. The first one - and The Very First One on the OCTOBER TOUR was held in Munich on 4. October, this Tuesday, so to speak. I was part of it and will write about it later. The second one, show from yesterday was in Zurich. Maybe would be the best go even more back, to Coke Sound Up show from Berlin where Mando Diao played on 2. October... I wanna share with you some more really wonderful photos and one video. Review and interview are in German so I won´t share it here, just wait patiently till some translation. Anyway the October Tour seems to be huge success so far... and tomorrow there is another show in Oberhausen. Don´t miss it.


neděle 2. října 2011

Lightning on a sunny day

Don´t forget Mando Diao TODAY in Berlin at Brandenburg gate for free!!!!! Be there:) (If you´re not there already) AND day after tomorrow in Munich
That´s what will happen next, now about what have already happened. Mando played SECRET gig yesterday, as a rehersal for today´s gig. The gig took place at C-club (don´t ask, I´m not from Berlin). The result will see some of us today, at about 21:00 in the evening.