Single Of The Year...

Here we are... Just a few weeks 'til my new and in fact very first vinyl 7" will be released on 9pm Records. That feels good. Almost as good as putting on that cute little thing and listen to what has been recorded not very long ago in the heat of a Finnish summer in klate May this year. I have to honestly say: it's different. Different to just insert a piece of plastic in a slot. Not sure if a thing can have something like...uhm...soul? Well, anyway if it does -  speaking of records - the one that gets closest is probably a 7". Or maybe I'm just getting to excited about the whole thing.

Apart from this I have to say the songs are not too bad. I quite like them. Give it a go! I put up the first of those four songs on soundcloud. That's here:

Crisis

Tomorrow will be the last hometown gig (at Hemdendienst in Nuremberg) for a couple of months as a try-out for the tour I'm just about to play with the amazing double bass player Isi Roessler. Also it's going to be the last gig under the name Mäkkelä's Trash Lounge. The "Trash Lounge" will be history from this next Sunday on. To celebrate this little change I will do a special DJ set after our gig putting on a whacky mix of my favourite off-the-wall records. So be prepared for an eclectic mix of Taiwanese love songs, Finnish lofi-blues and Christian pop songs from Papua New Guinea.

For those of you who don't live in Germany there is some interesting news too. From 31 Oct until 8 Nov I'll be touring with my Anglo German Low Stars compadre Grae J. Wall in Catalonia. This will be FUN! In capital letters. Early December there'll be a two week stint in the UK before finally taking some time out around x-mas. The dates are still being worked on but I hope I can soon announce them here. The UK tour is very likely to happen from 26 Nov until 8 December. Let's see how this turns out then.

BTW: the download code you'll get with the purchase of the 7" includes a bonus track. A wonderful x-mas carol written by Mr. Grae J. Wall. Enjoy!

Here are the tourdates. Those will be regularly updated on my website www.maekkelae.com. Have a look there if you're losing track...

21/09/13 D-Nuernberg, Hemdendienst (MÄKKELÄ’S TRASH LOUNGE)
10/10/13 D-Hamburg, Nachthafen (Mäkkelä feat. Isi)
11/10/13 D-Kiel, Prinz Willy (Mäkkelä feat. Isi)
13/10/13 D-Berlin, Ma Thilda (w/ Roy Wilde & Golda Heart)
15/10/13 D-Berlin, Madame Claude (Mäkkelä feat. Isi)
18/10/13 CZ-Prague, Blaze Zizkov (Mäkkelä feat. Isi)
21/10/13 A-Salzburg, Denkmal (Mäkkelä feat. Isi)
23/10/13 D-Karlsruhe, Konzerttagebuch (Mäkkelä feat. Isi)
02/11/13 E-Banyoles, Ca La Flora (Mäkkelä & Grae J. Wall)
13/11/13 D-Wuerzburg, Kellerperle (Mäkkelä solo)
15/11/13 D-Weissenburg, O’Keys Irish Pub (Mäkkelä feat. Isi)
11/12/13 D-Köln, Kulturcafe Lichtung (Mäkkelä solo + On Foot)

18/12/13 D-Nuernberg, MuZ Club (Mäkkelä feat. Isi + Phil Shoenfelt & Pavel Cingl)
21/02/14 D-Frauenau, Gasthaus Gistl (w/ SILVERDOLLS)
22/02/14 D-Deggendorf, Bergkeller (w/ SILVERDOLLS)

The coast, the photographer, the day common sense disappeared

We did this on our last year's tour and apparently Mr Clark Nova and me weren't that much of a pain in the neck even though it was the last couple of gigs then. Frank Johannes, an old friend and fantastic photographer accompanied us on the last days of our tour in 2011 and just captured everything that was to capture. On stage, off-stage, backstage, stage of losing it. The result was an amazing documentary in black and white of the daily routine of a singer-songwriter tour in Germany. When Frank heard of us being on tour again he invited himself for a short three day stint including our gigs in Berlin, Kiel and Hamburg. The latter most likely because of the lamb's head soup that became a tradition for us in a Turkish restaurant opposite side of Nachthafen, the place we played this year the third time.

Our tour photographer, Frank

Only seen a few of his shots of this trip so far and they were really amazing. Looking pretty much forward to what's coming there. I think there is a preview on his web magazine BRUNO.

We kicked off in Berlin's King Kong Klub with a decent gig being filmed by Frank's crew and continued to Kiel. Not that much of a drive and with Hamburg the next day (just an hour away) we had enough time to do some sightseeing. Well, there isn't really a lot to see in Kiel, to be honest. They got a pool with seals in it of which we spotted a head for about 30 seconds, a rowing club called KKK and a lot of water.

Seal in Kiel. Shy.

We skipped Clark's suggestion for visiting two big junkyards even though he was pretty enthusiastic about it. Understandable. We're talking about a guy who watches tractor videos on YouTube first thing in the morning. Instead had some local food containing a lot of meat and cabbage before setting off to Hamburg.

After 24 hours travelling in this company I had a remarkable moment in Hamburg waiting for our venue to open. Sat in a bar with Clark and Frank and literally saw my common sense disappear. It just stood in front of me waving me friendly good bye. Gone. Still trying to figure out if I miss it. Here we are.


Good gig at Nachthafen Hamburg though.

Back to Berlin to drop off our photographer and spend an off day there. Been to the pictures to watch ther new Bond. Loved it. Went for a drink at Fabelhaft Bar where we met Erin Lang and her friend Iggy and had a nice chat about particularly whales. Tour is sort of picking up speed.

Next stop Unnersdorf near Bad Staffelstein in northern Bavaria. Always weird here. A great audience anyway and it's a special thing to meet Norbert, the owner. He keeps an old guitar in his kitchen and plays the blues there which is probably the most appropriate thing to do in the solitude of winter nights in a place as remote as this.

Frankonian food. Quite rich. Might be healthy too.

While writing this mails came in with information about new gigs on this tour. Clark Nova and me will have a last one on 1 December in Biel (Switzerland) at the Biotop, I'll do another solo gig in the UK on 13 December in Winsford at the De Bees Music Bar.

Regular updates you'll find on facebook. On top of that a lot of more or less intelligent comments and remarks on what's hapening on this tour.