Day 21 – Istanbul

Day 21
Istanbul

On our third day in Istanbul I teamed up with Stella and friends, whom I met at the hostel and we’re also travelling the world. The plan was to go to an island in the black sea, which was kinda closeby, but because we missed all the boats and I had to play that night, we just took a boat which was travelling over the Bosporus river to another part of town, the asian part.

When we got there we hung out in a park, walked around and took lunch. It was great to chill out and a good way to get ready for the show of tonight. Around 6 I got back to the hostel to pick up my stuff and to meet up with Steffan and Meldy. This day was the third and last day in Istanbul, the Spektro Festival people organised a show in a small recordstore near the venue where Steffan and I were supposed to play as Preliminary Saturation. Meldy played along and the set turned out pretty good.

After the show we sold almost all of our merchandise, I never experienced a run on cd’s like this, but it was a good thing: we didn’t have to carry all the stuff with us… The moment of selling stuff ended pretty fast, because we had to take a taxi to the central busstation, where we were expected to be around 11 PM to catch the bus to Sofia.

Day 20 – Istanbul

Day 20
Istanbul

On our second day in Istanbul we just redid the previous day; hang around, drink coffee and the amazing Turkish tea: just chillin’ bro! Around 6 PM we were expected at the venue to do a small soundcheck.

Because the stage was rather high and the audience coulnd’t see a thing of what I was doing because of the monitors, which stood pretty high, I decided to play on the floor, just like normal. This was a good idea, because the other acts filled the whole stage with computerscreens, record players, cd-players and all kinds of other stuff.

Steffan, who decided to play on stage on a table, got only 50 x 50 cm to place his equipment, which is a shame for such a great artist, hehe! The first act were from Turkey, the second was Staplerfahrer and as third I was up. Before our show, during the soundcheck we met with Q, the sound engineer. His name isn’t Q of course, he just made it up to make it easier for us to get in touch with him during the show and soundcheck.

Steffan’s show was amazing, maybe one of the best shows of the whole tour, especially the last part of his set, when he played with high pitched harshnoise sounds, was great. Q, the soundguy didn’t feel that way; after the show he started shouting that Steffan was ruining his joint, that he didn’t know what he was doing and used a lot of ‘f-words.’

At this point I was quite worried for my show, because when he would not dig Steffan’s shit, he would probably also not like my stuff. During my show the sound was amazing, Q did a really good job. I pumped up the volume to end my show in a epic way, like I do more often. So after a big blast of sound, a lot of bass, I simply switched of the power of my mixer and it was completely silent, which sounded great.

Just after my show I packed my stuff and everything was fine. Around 2 AM, when it all finished, I got up to the second floor to thank Q for the great sound and help and it was there when he verbally attacked me. I was an motherfucker, I was ruining his PA, I was ruining his club, I was the devil himself. And formost: I was an amateur.

No-one calls me an amateur, so I said: “Thanks for the sound, man. And hey: I played 160 shows last year, i’m not an amateur!” (hehe, arrogance is bliss) After this his mood changed completely and he invited me to go to the bar to drink shots together…. No thanks, bro.

Day 19 – Koln-Bonn – Istanbul

Day 19
Koln-Bonn – Istanbul

At 4 in the morning we got on our way to the airport to catch our flight to Istanbul, while the other two were up and running already (they slept during the night), I was tired and broken (i didn’t get any sleep during the night, jetlag, you know). The flight went well and after a nice 2 hour flight and a 45 minutes transfer to the city centre we were standing in the middle of Taksim, the party/shopping/coolest part of town.

At the drop-off point of the shuttlebus into town Batur, the organiser, came to pick us up. He and his friend organise together the Spektro Festival in a well-known Istabul club called Dogzstar. Fun! Because Istanbul is such a big city and all his friends are living all over town they organised a room for us in a small and nice hostel in the center of Taksim, just around the corner from the venue where we were gonna play the next evening.

Because we arrived early in the morning we had a lot of time left to check out town, hang out with all kinds of people from the hostel and just to enjoy this amazing city where everything is possible and happening. This visit to Istanbul was my third, but even 15 visits are not enough to see all the beauty this city has to offer.

The festival was already going when we arrived, so of course we were gonna take a quick look on what was going on. But of course  I got some jet-lag problems again, so after being in the club for a small hour I went back to the hostel, it was just too hot and clammy. Meldy and Steffan also came pretty soon and we slept our jet-lags off.

Day 18 – Dusseldorf – Cologne

Day 18
Dusseldorf – Cologne

While I’m writing this part of the blog, more than a week has passed since we got back from our tour in the USA/Turkey and Bulgaria. We simply didn’t have enough time to update our blogs properly, so I wrote a lot of stuff down during travelling and now I try to get everything up online.

When we landed in Dusseldorf, at 7 in the morning, nor me or Steffan were tired, but you know how a jetlag works: you feel it 6 hours later. On all my touring the last two years i’ve taken a lot of flights and i have tried to learn to sleep in a plane, but i just can’t.

Okay, where were we? Oh yeah, we landed in Dusseldorf and the next day we were supposed to take off again to Istanbul from an airport nearby: Koln-Bonn. So we took a train to Koln to hang out there and to sleep. As soon as we entered our room in a hostel in the centre of Cologne I felt the jetlag and slept for 8 hours straight.

In the evening I got up around 6.30 PM to finish up some emails and later Steffan joined to have dinner. We found a nice italian restaurant and we were anxiously waiting for the third person who was teaming up with us for the last part of the tour: Meldy from Meldy Peaches!

Meldy arrived late in the evening and we got all back to the hostel. We did some chatting, so then we knew that our friend Vince The Prince got a new tattoo, that the shows in 013 Vatican Analog organised went well and that we were all looking forward to the next stop: Istanbul!

Day 16/17 – New York City

Day 16/17
New York City

OK, New York City. A lot has been said, a lot of stuff has been booked, but in the end we didn’t play there… Whats the story?

Well, when we started off booking the tour, we had 5 offers to play in New York City: this went from small venues like Cake Shop to big ones like The Knitting Factory. For all of these offers, for some strange reason: they didn’t work out… Some got cancelled, some we cancelled and in the end: no show in the Big Apple!

But: thats not really something to worry about, because now we had the chance to check out NYC in a relaxt way. During the day we walked through Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens, had some nice cheap meals and drinks. The weather was amazing, so we had a nice end of the US part of the tour!

In the evening we went to our hostel in Harlem, where we slept in a dormroom where also a nice lady was sleeping, but she was snoring so loud we were happy we had earplugs with us!

The next morning we took breakfast at a Irish place in Queens, hupped on the Metro and went back to JFK airport to catch our flight back to Dusseldorf. Also this time no problems at all when it comes to customs, securitychecks or whatever. We expected a lot of hassle, but it was all really easy! Next stop: Istanbul!

Day 15 – Portsmouth NH – New Haven

Day 15
Portsmouth NH – New Haven

Today Steffan’s got a date with Leilani, the girl we met in Chapel Hill, so I went to New Haven, the town of Yale University, to meet up with my friend Jon Eriksen and his wife Alison. This was the first time I met her and their child Sindre. Sindre is a crazy 3 year old, who speaks both English and Swedish. I had a lot of fun hanging out with Sindre, play with his strange stickers and chill with Jon and Alison.

Also fun was to hear his progress when it comes to a remixtrack he’s making for a remixalbum of my latest record Exhibition. So we also hung out at his homestudio, listening to stuff and he and Alison showed me the beach, we went into town to get a bite to eat and had vodka in the evening, which made me sleep really good. Somewhere around 4 in the night Steffan came back from his date, so my sleep was also limited, but all for the greater good, right?

It was a great day, with sun and really cool people! Finally a day where I had some time to recover !

Day 14 – Manchester NH – Portsmouth NH

Day 14
Manchester NH – Portsmouth NH

Waking up in Manchester was a painful one for me. I slept on some pillows on the floor and my whole body was numb. Soon i forgot about this when breakfast came: homemade pancakes with maple sirup! In the morning I did some business stuff: calling people, sending emails to bookers, checking out the travelling intineraries for the next couple of days.

I was nice to hang on one of their varanda’s/porches and just drink tea and coffee. Around 2 PM it was time again to head of to  Portsmouth, NH, a small town at the seacoast, around 1,5/2 hours driving from Manchester.

In Portsmouth we we’re playing at the Ello Gallery, which was runned by John and John, a married gay couple, who were really nice for us and really tried to make us feel at home! After our arrival at the gallery: putting our suitcases away and relaxt for a moment, we went out for something to eat. After having pizza for 4 days I was not really into having yet another pizza, so when we saw a place where they sold flatbreads I was quite happy: a flatbread is not a pizza, right?

When we entered the store the only thing we saw was a beautiful restaurant with large woodovens. I took a look at what the people were eating, and it looked really good, but again: pizza! No! So after a short look at the menu i figured out that the best choice for me would be the taco’s. In the end it turned out that even the taco’s were pizza’s, or eh: flatbreads. fuck it. I think i’m the only person in the world who actually lost 4 kilo’s by only eating pizza… It’s a strange world.

Around 8 PM the show started and John and John made a fun installation of dutch flags, Hup Orange signs and shows movies from their time in the Netherlands. As a gay couple there is one place in the world they would love to live: Holland, and they have been there also for a dozen times. It was fun to hear their stories. Steffans solo show quite good, but mine sucked a bit, especially the last part, where I lost my concentration a bit. This was not the fault of the audience, more of myself. whatever.

After the show it was time for a afterparty. I hung out with Sheena, who gave me a sort of a fur hat and Steffan chilled at a guys room who knew Jos Smolders from Tillytown. Nice! And I found a baseballglove. John and John offered us a nice place to sleep in the house of John’s parents, where they were also living, which was really nice! I had a nice conversation during the night with the mother of John, who was still up around 2 AM when we arrived at the house, John told me she usually went to bed around 5/6 AM. Respect.

Day 13 – Portland ME – Manchester NH

Day 13
Portland ME – Manchester NH

Because Steffan is the driver, he always gets the best place to sleep. Thats the most important rule when it comes to touring. Drivers need more rest the anyone else. Because of this rule, i’m always fucked on tour. I can’t drive, because I don’t have a driverslicense, so I always get the worst couch, bed, floor etc. which most of the time isn’t that bad at all, but not as good as a normal bed!

As a result of that I tend to sleep a lot in the car while driving, which is not the most social thing to do, but hey! someone gotta do it, right? Our car is, as said already, a Chevy HHR, a USA type car and you can put the seats all the way back, so most of the time, while driving I had the best place to just lay down and look at the trees and people in the other cars.

Driving in Maine and New Hamshire is amazing, the trees in fall are beautiful, sometimes you pass the coast, a lot of rocks everywhere. The drive to Manchester, NH was also pretty nice. A lot of people in the US have satelliteradio instead of the normal FM radios, and thats quite good, because the reception of the FM radio;s is terrible! So every 50 km we were searching for another station with 80’s classic rock! Luckily there are a lot of those stations in the US.

The drive from Portland was a short one, only 1,5 hours, so we left Portland late and by the time we entered the street where the venue was located we were stopped by a police car. We couldn’t get any further, because of a hostage situation in a restaurant 3 blocks from the venue. A guy with a guy had taken a hooker hostage and the whole street was checking out the crime scene. We took a detour and came at the venue where the rest of the people didn’t really know what was going on.

The show in Manchester was organised by Marc Bisson and his wife, who were also the opening act for the evening as Birdorgan. Steffan and I played as Preliminary Saturation and the show went pretty good, not a big crowd, but the ambience was nice and we sold some cd’s, which is always nice. After the show we hung out at Marc and Dei’s place, drank some local beers and around 2 AM we went to bed.

Day 12 – Boston – Portland, ME

Day 12
Boston – Portland, ME

Because Ricardo had to go to work early in the morning, we also had to leave early, but that was not that bed, because we finally got some time to do the laundry and get a nice breakfast in town. Steffan also bought a US phone, so he could stay in contact with me whatever, whenever, you know.

Early in the afternoon we drove to Portland, Maine to our next venue: Strange Maine, a small recordstore in the city center. Strange Maine is amazing: great heavy metal records for 2 dollars, strange VHS tapes and every now and then some crazy noise shows. Its one of the hang-outs of Crank Sturgeon, which should say enough…

The owner of Strange Maine is Brendan, one of the nicest people i’ve ever met. We both played solosets and the other act on the bill was Birdorgan, who would also organise and play with us in Manchester, NH. In Portland only Marc and Dea from Birdorgan played together, which resulted in a collage kinda piece of sound. Steffan played a solid set filled with electro-magnetic tricks and fun. My set was different than the other ones i did this tour, very dark and doom with vocals, dig it?

There were 2 visitors, but we had fun with Brendan, Skot and the guys from Birdorgan. Who needs an audience anyway?

After the show we went to Brendan’s place, where he lived together with amongst others Tom, who is a conductor for a church choir and plays the organ in various chrurches. Under the influence of a bottle of Shipyard (locally brewed beer) and of course the bottle of Jim Bean we had discussions on music, politics, freedom and touring.

Day 11 – Providence – Boston

Day 11
Providence – Boston

In the morning we met up again with the Scots, who slept at a different location. Around 1 PM we went together to a Oz’s Restaurant, a famous $ 2,- diner, where we got big plates filled with home fries, egg’s over-medium and toast! Thats how we like it. Don’t expect a nice ambience, don’t expect good service: it’s just cheap and good.

After breakfast we drove to Boston, together with the Scots who would also play at the same venue as us. Providence and Boston are close to each other. It just took us an hour to get to Boston and there we went to a small recordstore, owned and runned by Jessica, a friend of the Scots. While they were jamming together in the room next to the shop, Steffan and I did some business, which means sending emails, emails and some more emails.

By the ways: when you are in Boston, you should really check out this record store, the name is Weirdo Music, it is located at Cambridge St in Cambridge (you will find it, just do the google, you know). They have a lot of stuff, both on vinyl and cd’s in the underground genres (a lot of Black Metal, Noise, Ambient and Drone). You can also buy Vatican Analog cd’s there now!

Around 5 PM, when we finished with our job and the Scots had finished recording we drove down the street to Greg, who would take us to the venue where we were going to play that night. It was just a drive of 10 minutes, but as all the drives in the US, it turned out way longer. Around 7 PM we arrived at the Piano Factory, a beautiful venue in the cosmopolitan city center. The guy who booked us, Ricardo, was already waiting for us and as soon as we parked the car, a lot of people were everywhere.

The line-up for the evening was Nacktinsecten, Usurper + friends, Steve Pyne and last but not least: your favorite dutchies: Preliminary Saturation. I really enjoyed all the sets, maybe it was the space, but the sound was great, the ambiance was great and the people were nice, just like everywhere. Our show wasn’t that bad, i wasn’t really satisfied at the end, but the crowd liked it. After the show we sold a lot of cd’s and got a lot of interesting questions, so we were happy .

This night we slept at Ricardo’s place, but first we stopped by at Greg’s place to smoke spliffs, drink whiskey and just to hang out. This country rocks bigtime.