On my very fresh road into the art of producing music I have now arrived to album number three.
My two first albums were (also) recorded at my home, with my MacBook, a simple Behringer sound board, a "RØDE" NT1-A condencer microphone and some different instruments.

The fact that I play the different instruments myself feels a little weird. Two reasons; It's hard to recreate the recorded sound when doing conserts (luckily?) - and - I'm missing out on the dynamic of different musicians coming together with their individual talent and sound. What I'm trying to say is; My way certainly is not the highway, but it's what I can do at this point with what I got.

There are of course ups and downs with my way of recording (at home, playing almost everything myself).
Though the result may not be great, it is a money-saving method, and as a freshman I get a lot of practice playing harmonica, bass tones, mandolin, guitar and slide. Also I learn more about recording, mixing and mastering. Yes, I said mastering... Scary thought to be mastering when you hardly know any basics of recording and mixing.

Funfacts;
I use my guitar as a base (I normally tune the darkest string(s) down), and I also used the guitar as a dobro this time - lifting the strings higher to get a better slide sound as supposed to using a slide on a normal guitar where the strings often get noisy from touching the guitar neck.
You're gonna hear the known sound of a washboard twice on this record.
All the instruments I record, are recorded with the RØDE microphone (no jacks).

This past year (August 2019 to July 2020) I have spent the year at a University here at Notodden, studying Blues. I finally learned to bend tones on my harmonica, and got to learn a new recording program; Pro Tools. 
So far (through the first two albums) I have used Garage Band. Now a whole world of possibilitys lie in front of me due to the Pro Tools introduction. 
I also became more of a blues fan, and you probably hear a difference on my taste, methods and vocal on this new album - As well as using pan in my songs for the first time (don't know if this function exists in Garage Band). 

About mastering; I have used a local "master" in Notodden for my recordings, to at least bring a touch of pro' to the songs. I also planned to do this on the "Jodeley" collection, but as I had recieved the mastered songs, I noticed several wrongs from my mixing job - which I felt a deep need to fix. After a year without normal income/lack of money I didn't want to use more money than necessary, so I decided to do the songs over; I recorded some new vocals, adjustet compressors, EQ's etc, and mastered them myself (also in Pro Tools).
In this process I listened alot to the mastered songs finished by the "master" to get volumes and sound somewhat similar. Now I can only hope the result is somehow okey (I don't have good ears for noticing flaws yet).

Thanks;
One of my class mates agreed to play the banjo on one of the new songs; "Foreign Light", so I want to bring this credit to him. Thanks alot Sigve Wilhelmsen! 
Also, thank you Jarle Hedvall Bøen for taking the cover photo for "Jodeley", and Anita Nevisdal for bringing a modern touch to the album cover (coming soon).

Well, enjoy the songs when they are released the first week of August!
I hope my freshman-touches don't ruine the experience.
Have a good summer and a better fall y'all.

Photo: Jarle Hedvall Bøen

I was lucky enough to have a year of close interaction with my grandfather on my mothers side before he passed away in december 2016. My grandfather was born and raised on the countryside of Telemark, Norway (Akkerhaugen), and I am actually living at the farm where he and his wife Nelly enjoyed their last years.

Since moving to this farm, I have found a personal interest in the family history, and the origins of grandpa Hallvard. The story that fascinates me the most, is the story of his father Halvor. 
Now, I can't know for sure if I remember the stories correctly, but that's the charm of storytelling going down the generations I guess!

The facts are that my great grandfather knew the struggle of life from an early age. I have no idea how bad he felt or how he coped with it, but my grandfather sure remembered there were some hard times on his fathers life. Now, the rest of the story could be bad memory on my part, but he did fly to America at some point before returning to Telemark - eighter to get a break, or to find better work. 

We all face some obstacles in life, and speaking like a wise man in Notodden; We have to work THROUGH the obstacles, not around them. I know I have to work on this, and I think it leaves a bigger sence of peace and release when we don't just avoid our problems, so this is the message I hope to bring through this song.

Enough said.
I hope you enjoy the song, recorded in the guest room at grandpa's old farm.
You might hear an old 40's Fergusson in the background plowing the field(?) ...I kind'a liked the feeling of it, so I kept the recording :) 

Here's me, a painting of my great grandpa and the -47 Fergusson you hear in the background;