Welcome to the bottomless pit of information on the band Graceskull.

We are currently wrapping up our third album, due Fall 2011. We've been working on this particular record for more or less 7 years now but worry not, it wil be worth the wait! Enjoy some news while waiting.

NEWS by ove
14.11.2011 I've been battling with a couple of new song this past week, a duo of dynamic opposites actually. "Sidestep" is a doomladden moody fucker while "Feel It In My Bones" is probably one of the most joyous pieces of songwriting I've ever done. Both are actually quite rhytmic songs, at least for now, maybe I've been listening to the new Feist record too closely harhar. Anyway I'm hoping to find some time to demo these too.

03.11.2011 Been writing lyrics to the new song and I'm pretty glad over the progress I've made. I think I'm probably just in need of a good one line chorus, the most difficult line to come by, I know, but the rest of the song should be done now (apart for a couple of lines that might need some minor fine tuning). The lyric touches a subject I've been meaning to write about for a long time so I'm pleased to have "exorcised that demon" now, you of course get to make your own interpretations on what it is about when we get it on record. I believe this one's called "The Hunger".

02.11.2011 Made progress on the new song which I sketched on the iPad last weekend. I changed the main instrument from a piano to Rhodes (actually it was a lucky accident) and did some backwards piano stuff and also added some other keyboard stuff. Also some strings were added but I'm not that sure I want any strings on this one, we're starting to have the damn violins etc. on every fucking song, should probably start cutting out shit too instead of just piling it. And I also feel that this song, it being the slow and sad type, would gain a lot from being quite stripped. I also have been trying to get a melody for "Accident" happening but the right one still is out of my reach. I mean I get a great idea which always sounds like shit the next day. Oh well, I'm world renowned for my patience...right?

31.10.2011 Another new song in the works, inspiration struck late on Saturday and I demoed some ideas on the iPad which was a first. It's actually quite a nice tool for sketching out ideas, the keyboard sounds on it are not too bad. Well anyway, hope I get to flesh out these ideas soon.

26.10.2011 Worked on a demo for a new song yesterday, I got the intro sorted and it sounds really promising I must say. I couldn't really get a melody for the verse sorted out which kinda bugged me but I must try to be patient, it will come to me I'm sure. I'm calling it "Accident" for now but I'm pretty sure I'll change it sooner or later.

15.10.2011 Worked on "Before We Begin" a bit last night. At first everything was rolling smoothly as I slowed the song down some and made a new middle eight happen but then when I started adding guitars on the song I got a little frustrated. I just couldn't find the right lines that would've added something to the song and having got stuck there I kinda ran out of time and energy to get everything that I had envisioned done. Next time, Mr. Bond!

31.05.2011 Recorded some demo guitars and vocals for Hills' "Hello" yesterday, also spiced it up with some effect sounds, sounds nice. After that I worked some more on Graceskull's "White Chalk", I've been troubled not to have the ending of the song right but now it should be just about the way I want it to. Julle seemed to agree when we met later on but had a few testworthy ideas for a couple of the transitions between different parts of the song that I still need to try out. But it's very close to a "finished product", I like this one a lot. Apart from discussing "White Chalk", we also worked on "Before We Begin" and got a good thing going which I will try to capture to the demo sooner or later (the demo currently is sketchy, really sketchy). I guess we also played around with other stuff, mainly the couple of song starts we came across at last weeks session.

30.05.2011 Some minor Hills doodling yesterday, me and Coma hit the rehearsal space and worked on "Hello" some more, I think we have a pretty good idea on the arrangement for that one. Also worked out a possible arrangement for "The Dark Side of The Sun", we'll have to demo it to see if it truly sounds the way we want it to.

27.05.2011 At the rehearsal space yesterday with Paati, we actually played around with some Conquistadors material. Was once again pleasantly surprised how good that stuff still sounds. I mean Citiscapes is only a year old now but the songs are quite a bit older than that. Anyway, good times, good times.

26.05.2011 Work it baby! Some lyric writing yesterday, this time the song was "Before We Begin" (which might've had a more cryptic title earlier on). I went through the demo pile and this one stood up because it sounded good and right for the album but had no lyrics and the demo was only halfway done. I also had a new idea about the last part of the song, the one currently on the demo sounds like it's been ripped off of the theme song to Perry Mason, I hope I get this new idea working and it will bring the song closer to the other material on the album. Been talking about the album al lot this week, probably because we realised that we have quite a lot of quality shit for the album, could even say we're only a couple of hits short, so I've been starting to think about the big picture of the album.

25.05.2011 Some new equipment was hauled to our rehearsal space yesterday, Julius had gotten wind (no pun intended) of an unwanted pump organ from 1963 that we picked up and gallantly carried (it was a heavy son of a bitch) onto our second floor studio. It was in fine condition, no major wear nor tear and had a nice sound too, especially from the bass end of the keyboard. I guess it wouldn't have hurt if the sound would've been a bit more ragged and scruffy, you know the Neil Young kind, but it's a nice instrument to have nonetheless. After playing around with the organ (again, no pun intended) we proceeded to discuss "White Chalk" and what changes needed to be made and came up with a few good ideas which I'm hoping to implement later on in the week. After that we jammed a bit and suddenly we had two new song ideas (pretty nicely fleshed out, I must say) in our hands. The first one resembled some Beatles song said Julius but I got a Turin Brakes vibe from it actually (I guess my sorry knowledge of the Beatles could be to blame). The other song landed somewhere between Iron & Wine and Mercury Rev's "Tides Of The Moon", especially after Julius moved from playing the Rhodes onto the pump organ. I don't think these will be strong contenders for the next album due to their lighter kind of feel but felt pretty promising song ideas despite the fact. So the album after the album after the next album, maybe?

24.05.2011 More work on "White Chalk" yesterday, found a suitable solution for the middle eighth and also added some much needed guitar on the song. Also some work on the drums for the chorus, Julius felt - and rightly so - that the track neede more oomph so we simplified it some, it's not perfect just yet but we're getting there. Worked a lot on some details too, not to forget the lyrics which are starting to take shape. I even contemplated on changing the song title because of a pretty strong line in the chorus but we'll see. I always say this but damn, it feels good to work on the new stuff!

23.05.2011 My head's been buzzing all weekend, can't get this new Graceskull song outta my head. It's called "White Chalk" and the original idea came to me whilst driving my car sometime last week. I recorded it on my cellphone when I stopped for a red light but quickly forgot all about it until I ran across it when I checked out some other voice memos on Friday. Immediately a vocal harmony popped up in my head and then a whole arrangement brainstorm happened and so now I've been working on the demo on and off all weekend, sending versions to Julius for comments and further ideas. It's a different kind of Graceskull song, that much I can be said, and we both got a Doors kinda vibe from it. Yeah, not one of my favourite bands, The Doors, but they had their moments (though it must be said that they're an important band to Julle) and that's what I hope we'll manage to capture too with this song. There's still a lot of work to be done before we have a definitive arrangement aced but we're getting there. I even have the majority of the lyrics done already which is rare nowadays for a song this new. Oh yeah, and I also managed to demo the Bullets song which me and Paati worked on on Thrusday, it might be called "The Party's Over" or then it might not. It's even got a chorus now, but we'll see how it changes when we get the rest of the band on that MF.

20.05.2011 Kinda odd lineup at the rehearsal space yesterday, the original plan was to play with the Bullets but since Colt and Magnum bailed, me and Paati decided to go and play some stuff anyway. Paati brought Marokko's bass dude Tinu with him to tackle the lower frequencies while I was on the guitar. I had an idea for a Bullets song that we went through and got it working somewhat, although the chorus was still left missing. We played some jam shit too and even some Graceskull songs, "Building Blocks" at least. It felt a bit strange since it's been a good while since I've played with someone outside the Nature Sucks Anyway/Atyd circle of friends. Actually me and Tinu have jammed briefly together some years ago, maybe more that five to be honest, but it feels like it happened in another lifetime. And as he pointed out, it was me on the bass that particular time.

04.05.2011 A spectacular Bullets rehearsal yesterday, it was the first Bullets session in our new rehearsal facility and it went great. Everybody was just smiling while playing the songs, it just went so effortlessly despite it having been probably a year (two?) since we last played together. Some damn fine songs we're played and a new one was written too, "Falling Down" it's called for now. Great, great.

11.04.2011 An Atyd gig in Helsinki last Friday, had a really fun trip although it left me tired as fuck. We drown down first without Jocke, he followed us on the train later on and made it in time for the soundcheck. The venue was called PRKL which of course suits this band perfectly, although I guess it was more of a heavy metal club actually. The first band on stage was Bob Malmström who play hardcore with an ironic touch which you can't possibly understand if you don't live in Finland. They rocked hard and were pretty dang funny too. Our set was pretty good too, certainly not perfect but I guess people liked it, judging from the comments after the gig at least. It was funny because between the songs the audience seemed a bit baffled as to whether they should applaud or not, we usually have some samples of feedback on even between the songs so I can't blame them. It was fun to rock out, don't get to do that too often nowadays.

23.03.2011 An unexpected rehearsal yesterday, Andy J. was in town and summoned us to a jam. Or at least it was a very jammy rehearsal. Lots of laughs and lots of songs were played, we tried out some reeeally old stuff from the first record that we've never played as well as some we've last played a good few years ago. It was nice to notice that the old songs are not that bad, actually some were really good, it's just that the recorded versions sometimes don't do them justice. Super time.

22.03.2011 Some writing yesterday, this new song is called "Company of Wolves". I got both the chorus and the verse done, just some lyrics are missing. I love it when inspiration hits, even if the hit is due to some unfortunate events like this time. No more delving into that, I'm just hoping to find some time to demo this sucker.

07.03.2011 Thank you Turku! We had a really nice time playing despite the late hour of getting on the stage. The start for the entire evening of music was delayed due to the fact that there was a boxing match on the flat screens at the venue Pikku Torre which a small but loud part of the customers couldn't seemingly miss. Anyway after one or the other of the guys was knocked out (a technical KO, I think) Marty The Random Guy hopped on stage and played his rootsy kinda indierock, this guys really good at handling his instruments, check him out warming up for the legendary Grant Hart next month! After Marty it was Soft Rabbit's turn to rock it out, and they did so gently. The Rabbit himself Coma was accompanied by Andy J. on the electric guitar, he got to utilize his crazy arsenal of pedals and some of the sounds he got out of those boxes were kinda crazy but definitely cool. Liked the new song by Rabbit that I hadn't heard before, missed the name though. Our set went pretty much fine and dandy, with some minor tempo woes on "Kings & Queens" (slllllowww!) and "Remains of You" (faaaast!). My personal fave of the evening was "Faith" which is a new song that I was a bit worried about but I thought we pulled it off just fantastically. Anyway, it was really fun to play some Graceskull stuff on stage for a change, would've gladly driven to the next gig the following day but our destination was Vaasa city. All gigs accepted, so get on the horn if you're in need of that sweet Graceskull live sound!

28.02.2011 In the meanwhile...some new shit you might wanna hear! Sadly not the new Graceskull album (wait for it, it's still coming this year) but an instrumental-ish EP from myself called "Sunday Morning". This shit's free and you can download it here! The music has been recorded as a part of a project to get some art into the halls of hospital ward for the long the ill here in Vaasa but I thought that maybe some of you might enjoy it as well. Head on for the download, hope you enjoy it! Also remember not to forget the gig we have coming this Friday in Turku, we're gonna rock you in that gentle Graceskull style, o yea.