Posts Tagged ‘Sarke’
The Plan
January 3, 2012 | Author Jens F. Ryland
Artisan
No, I wasn’t quite done…
As you have probably noticed we have had a pause in the blog-posts. I think it’s time we gave a statement to why and let you know what is going on. I’m not going to elaborate on details, but let you in on some of my thoughts.
Things simply don’t always develop as planned, such is the case with “The Artisan Project”. This blog was established at a point where it looked like I would have a lot of “band activity” and the idea with the blog was (and still is) to report from these activities. With Asgeir joining we had even more bands to write about. And to keep up the continuity and communication with our readers we wanted to post some personal stuff.
It seems like the idea was just fine, only the circumstances haven’t been in our favour. Who would have believed that with an arsenal like Artisan, Sarke, ICS Vortex, Spiral Architect, God of Atheist and Borknagar we still wouldn’t have much more to write about then the occasional booking of an Arcturus concert! Ok, exaggerating a bit now, but you know what I mean…
And the result has been that our blog has been dominated by the personal posts and at some point I felt that I couldn’t continue with that.
It has been a steep learning curve with this and part of the process is to learn from the mistakes and develop the strategy. I have also developed a taste for working against the tide with this new media technology, because some of the feedback I get from people inside the music business on this blog is quite negative and arrogant. This is off course always the case with evolution, some people simply can’t grasp the concept of development and will fight to keep the old ways. And I end up even more determined to succeed.
We have attracted a fair amount of readers during 2011 and I think it’s not necessary any more to keep feeding you with insignificant posts. But our communication can’t stop now, I’m as always positive to the future and I’m sure that I still have some stuff to share that has a bit of interest. And we do have at least a couple of concerts booked for 2011 for ICS Vortex and Borknagar which I’m going to share with everyone who can’t come. And we have a Borknagar album to release as well. And I guess I could keep you updated when there’s something going on, like tomorrow when I’m going to the Lock Up concert here in Oslo, anyone want to see some pictures from that?
And don’t forget that Artisan is also a band. I have ideas, but need to find time for it all. Did I mention I have started playing Star Wars; The Old Republic? hint hint 
Does this make sense to anyone? As always I would very much appreciate some feedback on my thoughts.
———Jens
Autumn music
October 21, 2011 | Author Jens F. Ryland
Today I have done a couple of important things: I changed tires on my car, done some shopping and brought the new baby and her Mom back home 
And I have to admit, this kind of moment is life-changing, all sorts of stuff goes on in my head. I’m thinking about how to change our menu into something more healthy, I’m thinking about buying a new car, getting a bigger apartment, and the thing I want to talk about here: teaching the kids about music!
Music should be important to a child. It will lighten the mood, learn rhythm and words, sing and dance and I believe it does make a foundation to what they will listen to as adults. And taste in music is for many of us essential to important choices in life, it influences your image, your style, who your friends are, your spouse. Think about it…
Some of the greater bands have influenced me a lot and sort of made me into what and how I am today. I still listen to these all-time favorites, and with the kids in the house my plan is to increase this. Hendrix, Pink Floyd, Iron Maiden, Dream Theatre are some of the major ones.
A week ago I made a post on the Borknagar Facebook, and I got very good response.
And with the baby in the house I guess you can tell where I’m going with this: What bands/ albums/ songs/ videos would you play to your kids to teach them properly about music? What would be your favorite choice in first concert for the kid when he or she gets old enough?
Autumn is perfect for some moody, powerful and diverse progressive music. Winter calls for ice-cold metal!
Anyway, as you probably figured out by now, Century Media have removed all their bands from Spotify in the ongoing feud. But I don’t use Spotify, so this doesn’t affect me. I use WIMP which is like a Norwegian spawn of Spotify. And while I’m not sure if you can even access this service from outside of Norway, it’s worth mentioning anyway. You see, nothing is removed from WIMP. And as WIMP has special focus on the Norwegian music, you can find a lot of the metal bands here also. Like Borknagar. Only missing the first album here.
And the ICS Vortex album is here also:
And Sarke
Just a tip from me.
These days I’ve got Devin Townsend and Opeth as current favorites there.
————-Jens
ICS Vortex-fan interview signup
October 5, 2011 | Author Jens F. Ryland
Yes, let’s hear from a random ICS Vortex fan some somewhere on Earth:
ICS Vortex
ICS Vortex
ICS Vortex- Asgeir Mickelson
ICS Vortex-Jens F. Ryland
Same procedure as always, make a comment below if you want to participate, then I’ll close it in a few days and send a mail to the one who’s drawn. Then the interview itself will be posted sometime next week. Have a look at the two previous ones, the Borknagar-fan interview and the Sarke-fan interview giving nice reports from Uzbekistan and Chile.
————-Jens
What’s on my mind?
October 2, 2011 | Author Jens F. Ryland
Hei there.
I almost have to introduce myself again now, haven’t made a post all week! But I still have plenty on my mind, let me blurb some thoughts I’ve had during the week:
I’m glad that our fan interviews are being welcomed so good. We already have another one ready for you, the Sarke-fan interview is up next week.
The coming weekend I’m heading into Toproom studio with Øystein and ICS Vortex to do some more work on the Borknagar album. It’s looking very good already, got some classics there I would say
Battlefield 3 open beta has begun and I’m there. I am using JFRyland as my game-tag on the beta, was a bit fast there I think. I usually use “Fear” as tag in fps and I use “Baro” or “Borx” playing mmo’s. Using my real name as tag feels a bit wrong, what do you think about this? Should I change to my “gunslinger-pseudo” or is it easier to find me with JFRyland?
I’ve spent too little time in there to give a proper impression, I know Asgeir’s not very impressed, although he’s a sworn CoD-fanboy anyway he he. BF3 has a different feel then the previous ones, and I need to get the grip. I see the forums are raging, trolling and crying, which can be both a good and bad sign.
And I also want to comment on one aspect about Social Media. It seems like a whole lot of bands need a course in how to use Facebook and Twitter. Too many band-accounts are managed 100% by a label- representative who use it only to spam concert dates and release-news. It’s a bit sad to see although I guess it’s better then to not be present at all like some are. How do you guys feel about this? Do you follow a band no matter who handles the news-feed?
But I have to admit the upcoming “arrival” is dominating my head these days, only 3 more weeks now and the family is increasing again :O We don’t even know yet if it’s a boy or a girl he he. Today we bought another gadget, a chair like the one above. We should be all set at least, now only the last wait…
Let’s have a look at the past week then:
Tuesday September 27th it was 25 years since Cliff Burton died and Asgeir marked that with the story: “The day I met Cliff Burton”
We could also reveal that “ICS Vortex reveals debut gig“ that Asgeir followed up with his “Drumcam ICS Vortex-Flaskeskipper“. This weekend also saw this years edition of the festival “Til Dovre Faller” and Asgeir went on a trip back into ancient days of gaming with “Old Games: Rage Racer“.
Ok, time to get the kids to bed and test out some more BF3
——————Jens
Focusing on the fans, and Sarke.
September 25, 2011 | Author Jens F. Ryland
It started as a crazy idea last week and by Tuesday I already had Viki picked out for the first -fan interview. Wednesday I sent her a mail and Thursday she had already answered and also provided a picture and all. I’m talking about he Borknagar-fan interview that we posted yesterday. Great fun and I for one really enjoy putting a face to some fans all around the world.
Sarke
