When we fall & the Weekend Tour

Days like these are meant for pride and joy.  Days like these are dedicated to the will of searching, achieving and actualizing something we are passionate about. I open my second contribution to the Timshel blog with the exact same words as in my first writing. Because I’d like to say that we did it again, we have achieved another milestone in the history of Timshel.

On the 21^st of November 2012 Markus sent e-mail to the whole Timshel family, the subject for the message was “Ny skit” – freely translated to English it means “New shit”. Honestly, that subject does not give any one an idea or even a glimpse of interest in reading the content. Anyway the mail goes on like this:

“…I was thinking a combination between the atmospheric sound of Bon Iver and the energy in Edward Shape and the Magnetic Zero’s.”

And months later we released out new single “When we fall”. Perhaps a lot of the ideas we had in the beginning did not make it to the final version but one can clearly hear the influences from the artists Markus mentioned in his mail. I am not trying to brag when I say that “When we fall” is our best song so far – because it is. So far I have always considered “Halfway to anywhere” as our flagship, well, things may have changed with our new single.

As for the weekend tour we had with our new friends Comfort Addict, it was an unforgettable weekend with a lot of energy, dancing and laughs. Our greatest thank you to all of you who made it possible, it was awesome! We are looking forward to visit Sweden for shows with Comfort Addict in the fall.

We are rushing towards summer and we are living in exciting moments. “When we fall” has reached out to a lot of people already via different mediums and the response has been positive and overwhelming. The song has a touching summer vibe in it and it is nearly impossible to listen passively to it, you just got to get up and move those feet of yours, shake your soul and let the beat carry you away. 

/Patrick, Timshel

I hear a storm is coming in

This Easter we locked ourselves in the studio to work on some new songs. We had a great time, and the new material is starting to sound really good. It feels like we are threading on new grounds, perhaps finding something that lies even closer to our hearts than anything we have done before.
As always when creating something new, it is very exciting to see where it might lead and we hope that you will follow us wherever it takes us.

All good,
Timshel

Åbo rehearsals.

Feels nice to be gathered again for some quality time with the bro's (that sounds very boybandish but what the heck, we're happy). The joy of playing together is amplified by the fact that we don't have to do a gig tonight or tomorrow witch is usually the case when we meet. This time we can really concentrate on the essentials and improve our act. Like the french duo once said: harder, better, faster, stronger!

All good.
-Olli

Timshel's top 5 of 2012

2013 is now here, open to all the music that we might hear, experience and create. We already started this week by spending a day in the studio working on new songs, listening to music, and recording demos. After hearing the result from that day, I believe that we are now taking new and exciting musical steps, closing in on our "own sound". 

But before we completely throw ourselves into 2013, we thought it would be fun to list some of our most memorable musical experiences from 2012. It took us a few days, but here you have four of the members top five lists from 2012. As you can see, we have both our similarities and differences in our music taste. The differences is what makes being in a band a bit challenging at some times, but also very enriching when these tastes mix together. Hope you enjoy our lists!

Markus

• Burning Hearts - Extinctions (Album). One of my favorite albums of 2012 is actually by a band with their roots in our hometown Vaasa. Fine quality pop and great songs! 
• Over 4 hours with The Boss on a beautiful summer evening in Helsinki is never wrong.
• The soundtrack to the movie Drive just blew me away when I saw the movie in the beginning of 2012.
• Breakbot - Baby I'm Yours feat. Irfane. A two year old song I discovered this year. Probably the grooviest new song I heard in 2012.
• Mumford & Sons - I Will Wait (Music Video). The nicely shot live music video of I Will Wait from Red Rocks really caught my attention. Their energy, intensity and joy playing music is very captivating. 

Runner-ups (There was just too much good music last year)

• First Aid Kit - America Live at Polar Music Prize. First Aid Kit playing a wonderful version of the old Simon & Garfunkel song. 2012 was also the year when I begun discovering Paul Simon
• Wilco concert in Stockholm. With quite simplistic but still marvelous visual effects, and complex but still quite straightforward music, this was a really ecstatic experience.

Burning Hearts - Extinctions

Patrick

• The release of Mumford & Sons ”Babel” 
• Crying during Coldplay's "Fix you" in Stockholm 
• First Aid Kit – Emmylou  
• Mikhael Paskalev – I spy 
• Kindness - House

Mumford & Sons - Babel

Daniel

• Hearing my own music on a documentary airing on national TV.
• Norah Jones - Little Broken Hearts (Album). Not quite the instant connection as I had with The Fall (2009), but it grew on me.
• Erik Satie. Familiar tunes got a name and new appreciation.
• St. Vincent - Cruel. Ok, so it was released in 2011, but I'm a slow adapter in this sense...
• He-man gave me and my friends hours of enjoyment during the spring

Erik Satie

Sebastian

Ukulele-Bass

• 4 hours of the mighty and humble BOSS
• Justin Bieber feat. Nicki Minaj-Beauty and a Beat! Justiiiiiiiiiiin...
• The new Tomas Andersson Wij album, or all albums. He really opened my eyes for lyrics, last winter it was me and Tomas.
• Playing my Ukulele-Bass for the first time, that was a funny moment
• I've watched many interviews, for example almost every Coldplay-interview there is, it has given me many good thoughts. 

Springsteen impressed many people this summer in Helsinki during his longest show ever.

Year of the dog

Ah. And so we have January. A chance to start anew, write the rest of your story on a clean page, let bygones be bygones... Leave your old self, and set forth on a new trail towards the person you strive to be. However, in order to achieve this it is useful to know where you are and where you have been. If you don't know your current location or direction, it is difficult to set a new course. So I thought I would do Markus, and you, my dear reader, a favor, and share a couple of photos of Markus from about six years ago. Two glimpses of where he has been... but where is he going?

// Daniel

Independence Day

We are not a political band in the sense that we have some strict political ideology that we are trying to spread through our music. Our main purpose with our music, except for creating music for our own selfish pleasures, is to touch people and create around three minutes of beauty with each song. Our purpose is also to provoke people, to reflect about themselves and our world, and to think for themselves. So, we are perhaps not completely non-political, it is after all impossible to stay fully objective, and politics always effect us in one way or another.

With that said, there are some personal thoughts about nationalism and independence I want to put forward today. Finland has now been independent for 95 years, after previously been a part of Russia. To have a nationality, and some sort of identity, is great and worth celebrating, and I don´t think that celebrating your independence makes you a thoughtless patriot. But, nationalism has over the years brought great tragedies and horrors to our world, and still does. And I think the problem with nationalism begins when your national identity isn't built up out of respect of other identities, but by the thought that the own group identity is somehow better than other identities. This can be done by, for example, describing different identities as foreign, lower class or threatening. This quickly creates an us against them polarization, which we have seen causing many wars and conflicts.

Except for creating inter-group conflicts, I also believe that an identity, built without the respect of others, is self-destructive. Because the identity is on such fragile grounds, only determined by a common enemy identity, it can easily produce agitation against differences within the group or nation. Which we sadly sometimes can see examples of in Finland; between Swedish-speaking and Finnish-speaking; Finnish people and immigrants and Sami People; and on a more global scale between Europeans and Non-Europeans.

But today I am proud to be a Finnish citizen. Because, even though I see a great deal of racism and intolerance, I also see a Finland that is built out of respect and caring for others. Where for many people the gender or sexual orientation of the president does not matter. Where diplomacy is considered a fine art. Where social justice is high on the political agenda. Where the poor are not neglected, and social capital is more important than economic growth. Where everyone can feel welcome and at home.

That is the Finland I think our grandfathers and grandmothers fought for, and that is the Finland I hope to see more of in the future. So, happy Independence Day Finland!

/Markus

(The matter of national identity is of course much more complicated than I have described here, but I hope you get the main point. )

Thoughts on upcoming "What if it breaks"

Days like these are meant for pride and joy. Days like these are dedicated to the will of searching, achieving and actualizing something we are passionate about. 
 

Personally I remember clearly when the beginning of our newest single/EP ”What if it breaks” took place. Sitting in the tiny rehearsal room in Turku, Markus mentioned that he had ideas to a duet for Timshel. And then he played the chords and sang the melody. I instantly fell in love with the song. I felt the possibilities in it. But I honestly didn’t, even in my wildest or most eccentric dreams, think that ”It will be around” would become a song that gives goose bumps. And doing so every single time. Regardless of performing it or listening to it.

As for ”What if breaks”, the first track on our new CD. Markus shared his ideas to the song during the same rehearsal as mentioned above. Its lyrics and melody are brilliant and it is simply catchy and makes one doing latent dance moves. And many hours in the studio has resulted in what I believe is, at the moment, a track that represents the sound of Timshel the most.

Undoubtedly ”What if it breaks” is a milestone to Timshel. It has been a process, which has developed us as much as being a significant event in laying our step stones for the future. Because as the explanation of timshel made by John Steinbeck suggests, our road is open. It is for us to be discovered. With “What if it breaks” we have molded our open road a bit. And as we walk forward it will remain as a brightly shining neon sign in a desert. This is a beginning to something else. That is my gut feeling. 

/Patrick 

"What if it breaks" will be digitally released tomorrow. More info here: Digital release of What if it breaks