2016. Germany - France - Scandinavia - Baltics - Poland.

Started slowly in January, performing solo at Egersdörfer & Artverwandte (a fantastic, indescribably bizarre variety/comedy show), supported The Vibrators with The Très Biens, had a most enjoyable 30 minutes feature on BR2 radio in February, first recording sessions for the new album were made with Isi on double bass, Max on drums, Christopher on Sax and Andy of the Goho Hobos on Mandolin and Accordion. What a band! Mixed "Harbour Town" for the digital single release (featuring the wonderful Nightbird who co-wrote the song) plus the "flip side", a rendition of Geoff Berner's "Whiskey Rabbi" with Mr Curley Kauper on harmonica. Played two unforgettable solo shows in France (Strasbourg and Lille) in early April before setting out with Isi Roessler on double bass for the German leg of my tour with Nightbird from Finland. Two magic weeks. From Sarreguemines in France across the south-west and south of Germany it was sheer pleasure. Thanks to all the promoters who booked us there. But listen up now! Whenever things look brightest be prepared for fate taking some of it's funnier twists. It all looked just perfect in early May: from 18 May until 16 June, a nicely booked tour, not necessarily the best paid one but still OK, lay there like a red carpet just waiting for me to walk it down all the way from Germany across Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria and back to Germany again. Some grants to our credit (helpful as the last nine shows were in full band line-up), distances not too rough, all pretty close to what I'd call well organized. Sounds awesome, eh? Well, it was. For the first 24 h least. In retrospect, I don't think there hasn't been a tour I ever been closer to just stop the car, do a u-turn and drive back. That must have been around day six. How come? Maybe a short summary of the first six days can explain this...

Wednesday, 18 May
Meeting with Grae J Wall & Los Chicos Muertos in a wonderful middle-of-nowhere village in the south-west of Germany for a first show. All good. Felt somewhat like playing that indomitable Gaul village. Smooth and pleasant start.

Thursday, 19 May
Ah... Houston, we've got a problem here! This town's name is Kassel which has got one of the best cake shops in Germany which is good. Unfortunately the promoter's buddy set the facebook event to secret so apart from him and Mr Mäkkelä nobody really knew there was a gig... Well, shit happens. Been fed, watered, put up for the night and paid some gas money. Fair enough, thanks. Really.

Friday, 20 May
Off. Kassel to Copenhagen in one go seems a bit too ambitious. So let's drive to the north end of Germany/south end of Denmark find a cheapo Air B&B, take a little rest, sleep and continue relaxed and refreshed. Good plan. In theory. That whole idea appears to be not half as relaxing once you manage to lose the key to the room, unfortunately a master key for the whole bloody students flat, few seconds after receiving it. Results in extra expenses of EUR 250.-

Saturday, 21 May
Back in business. Just a tiny little streak of bad luck. Let's look ahead! Copenhagen is waiting. Last shoppings done in Germany: chocolate, tobacco, few bottles of wine. Things largely unaffordable in most of Scandinavia. Prepared. But hey what's that? What is that big, black, brand new BMW giving me signs on the Danish motorway? What's wrong here? Unmarked police car? Well, maybe better stop on the hard shoulder. This is getting even weirder now... There's a young man in a cheap blue blazer, jumping out of the car rushing wildly gesticulating towards my vehicle... "Man, I'm in trouble! Need your help!" "Sorry?" "Give me 100 EUR! I'm running out of petrol and have to sell this car to some really rough Russian guys in Copenhagen today! PLEASE! You take my gold chain, smart phone, wristwatch, everything! PLEASE!" "Sorry, mate. I'm really broke myself. Can't help, really!" (he's checking the car and apparently realizes there might be some truth in what I just said) "So, what about the chocolate?" "Erm... sorry? What chocolate?" "For the kids! The chocolate!" (I'm really confused now) "What kids? What chocolate?" He grabs the big pack of Kinder chocolate from the seat, runs back to his car and off he goes. Wow. This is weird. Apparently I just became the victim of the first chocolate robbery I heard of. In Denmark. Right on the motorway. Will have to think
about this for a while I suppose. Few minutes later the call comes in from Copenhagen the main act of the evening has to cancel for tonight. Means the band that was supposed to pull at least some crowd will not be there for the door rated show. I'm a bit worried. I'm not even in Sweden and things already look kinda shitty...

Sunday, 22 May
Well, Copenhagen is a nice city. Let's leave it to that. I wasn't robbed and they gave me free drinks at the venue. I'm sure the sky will clear up now. Leaving for Sweden, a safe and sound country with a strong and organized police force, maybe the safest place in Scandinavia. Going to meet Nightbird in Gothenburg for our first show together. Will be very likely completely broke after paying the toll for the bridge but that's it! Now the merch sales will increase, the Swedes are friendly and generous and the weather seems to be alright. It turns out there is no point in parking a car out in the street in Gothenburg. Also, the hostel guys recommend to pay few crowns extra for the basement car park. Not much more than out on the street and much safer of course. Done. Sorted. We're early, so Nightbird and me have a little stroll down to the venue which looks... erm... not really very open. In fact this place looks absolutely dead. But, as I said, we're really early. Nightbird calls the promoter and...: "Oh no! You guys are the only ones I forgot to inform. We're closed since today for renovations for the next three weeks. There won't be a gig tonight. But maybe you can call this and this number. They might put you guys up on short notice...." This seems to all follow a certain logic. This streak seems to last a bit too long for my liking. Even though on short notice We surprisingly end up with a replacement show in a lovely venue named Pustervik. Dragging our gear back to the hostel after the show I start feeling kind of optimistic we're back in track now. Waking up late morning I realize I'm out of tobacco. No problem - there's enough in the car. Just down the stairs in the garage. The same car where there is the emergency stash of red wine, my fresh t-shirts, panties, all this. The same car that is parked safely for 150 Swedish Crowns in a car park off the terribly expensive and dangerous streets of Gothenburg. The very car I'm just now looking at, intensely trying not to believe what I'm staring at. Part of my brain just doesn't want to accept the fact that the nearside door lock is dangling from it's designated position in a most unfamiliar way on a thin lead. Houston, we... Fuck. Sorry for using swear words. That could have been the moment for packin it in. It's been a close call. As shitty the situation was, at least no instruments or valuables were in the car and the guys who broke in had apparently unusual preferences. They didn't nick the case with mics and leads. They left all the merchandise apart from a box of 7" eps "Single Of The Year". They took all the tobacco (of course), all the red wine (of course), a bloody cell phone charger for EUR 5.- (why on earth?), an old suitcase with t-shirts, panties, socs (well,...), my old black suit (that wasn't fair) and my old tour jacket with all the badges I collected en route (may you rot in hell for that).

Monday, 23 May
Sightseeing. Mainly Gothenburg police department. Might be worth coming back, the officer were really interested in what kind of stuff I'm playing. So much about the less fortunate bit of this year's touring season. The overall situation slowly improved after this, i.e. moving on towards Finland was sort of easy to handle. Getting on the boat in Stockholm (after a lovely Tuesday, playing an afternoon show at the TWANG!) had no more difficulties to offer than two cancelled shows prior to entering the cuntry. Ooops. Sorry for that. Don't get me wrong - we had some really pleasant shows in Finland. Surprisingly enough we found on very short notice replacements for the gigs that fell through. Thanks a lot for helping us in HKI (House Of Love) and Turku (Sointu)! Vastavirta, Tampere and Vakiopaine, Jyväskylä plus the one I played in Rovaniemi with Otto Mikkola were particularly amazing. Had a fun afternoon visiting Radio Helsinki with Nightbird for a little interview at Njassa's show. People who turned up for the shows were great and seemed to really like what we did. Enjoyed meeting friends again I haven't seen in a while made up for a lot of trouble even though I think this can be done with less effort by just flying over. But still there is something in the back of my mind that keeps on nagging that more and more promoters/venues up there seem to fancy the concept of seeing artists like some sort of aggravating, exotic life form turning up primarily to reduce the venues liquid inventories and thus should not be treated too friendly.

So let's move on to the Baltics. Kultuuriklubi Kelm in Tallinn, Estonia was a lovely place to perform in. The nights bill looked promising: Mäkkelä solo, two progressive/post-rock bands from St Petersburg and a local headliner. I wasn't surprised to hear the local headliner cancelled on short notice. Business as usual. As the two young lads in whose flat I was supposed to stay the night were in party-mode full-on I decided to leave town right after packing up in the wee hours and drive straight to Liepaja in Latvia. Ambitious go but not feasible. It's a nice drive, probably even nicer in daylight. Made it almost down to Riga for a little nap on the Baltic Sea shore. The exciting bit started from there. If you ever happen to make it there by car be prepared that main roads or roads classified as A-Roads are not necessarily asphalted roads. This might take more time than you would expect after checking your road map or following instructions of your GPS. You won't regret it though as you will see herons, cranes, foxes, storks and all kind of wild animals both on the roadside or just crossing the road without giving too much of a fuck on who or what is just coming their way. Exciting! I liked that. As much as I liked the people at the Ideju Bode and Martins the guy who organized the show. Very special in a lot of ways, very rewarding concert. Among my favourite places 2016.
Hope to catch up some day soon.

Biala Poslaska. The least I would have expected was a vegan restaurant in the very east of Poland, not too far from the Belorussian border. Neither would I have expected to play a wonderful show there on an early Sunday evening. Before I came here the first time with Ozzmond I had to look it up on Google. Not the place you would regularly travel through I suppose. Not really on a main route to anywhere but one of the most welcoming places I've been to. Some of the nicest people there I met on tour. Very special. If playing there was like diving into a strange and friendly new universe the first time in 2015, this time it was touching the hearts of an audience and being touched the same time. In the unlikely event you're coming through town, look for some Karma. You'll find it. And you'll know what I mean.

Insertion/Polaroid
They took away the great balloon. The one you can have a ride with for a few Sloty. They would let you rise up into the clear blue sky for a sight across town. Maybe further. I didn't go there. I just saw it up there and it was enough of a promise to make me come back. One day, I thought, I'd take a ride. Missed it. Got the best ice cream in town instead and a walk on the bank with Michal and Paula. She said "I don't think I'll ever go back. I became too European living here." I think I understand. Firemen on a mission blocked the road next to the bridge we took across the river, with our ice cream, with life being sweet, strawberry flavoured and easy for a little while in the sunshine, the sculpture of a pig in the middle of the mighty stream. I could set there, watch it flow, not let go of a fist full of bliss while time would just stop for a little while. There is something about rivers I can't name.

 

Mäkkelä's tour blog 2016: the big chocolate robbery

I suppose it was a sign. Just about leaving my flat for this tour's first date I flushed the toilet and - bang! - that damn thing is jammed. Even though being not the most caring person I kind of understood it wouldn't have been a good idea to leave the place like this for four weeks. Calling some plumbers, wait for them to arrive, being late, being even more late, calling girlfriend and leaving this all to her (sorry for this) and setting out for a place called Hessenau. Lovely little first gig teaming up with my St Albans friends Grae J Wall & Los Chicos Muertos in a wonderfully bizarre location, middle of nowhere in the backwoods of Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Next stop Kassel. Arriving early enough for a cuppa in my favourite cake shop just to realize I forgot my mic stand at home. Made it to a music shop just before closing time to buy a new one. The show turns out to be, let's say, semi successful. They accidentally set the facebook event to "secret". Didn't work out very effectively for promoting the gig. Well, that kind of stuff happens, but still I didn't see the signs. Maybe because it always takes a while to realize a tour is a tour, not a holiday trip. Things got more interesting on day #3 heading north for Copenhagen. This being a pretty long drive I decided to stay the night in Flensburg, Germany right on the Danish border. Air B&B is what we touring lunatics use these days. Basically a good idea if I hadn't lost the main key to the flat about one minute after it was given to me. Excellent. Turned out to cost me EUR 250.- unless I'd return the key before August. Not very likely to happen after all that was still to come. I assume that key is now somewhere in or near Gothenburg/Sweden but more about this later.

But let's move on to day #4. A real highlight on this tour. Still don't know what this has been.
Been driving for about one hour on a nice motorway in Denmark, one of the strongholds of European civilization and sure no country one would associate with being particularly dangerous, when a big black BMW gave me signs, made me slow down and stop on the hard shoulder. "Are they in trouble?", the writer of these lines asked himself, or maybe an unmarked police car? None of this. A youngish person in a cheap blue suit jumps out, approaches my car asking me to turn down the window. Alright, apparently no policeman. A desperate human being as it turns out. "Man, I'm in trouble! Need to get that car to Copenhagen, sell it to some Russians. Running out of petrol, please give me EUR 100.-! You can have my smartphone, my rings, my gold chain, the whole lot!"
It took me a while to convince him there's nothing even close to EUR 100.- as me being a musician on tour not doing very well money wise. Next thing the guy points at the pack of chocolate bars on the passenger seat. "What about the chocolate?" "Sorry????" "I mean the chocolate bars!" "Whatcha talking about?" "For the kids! The chocolate!" This confuses me. A lot. Even more confusing, the guy grabs the pack of chocolate bars, runs off to his car and gone. Both. Big black car and all of my chocolate bars. Didn't even get one of the rings for this. Sad but true. Still wondering what this has been.

Nightbird with coffee. Gothenburg.

But now let's stop whining as we're approaching day #5. My first show with Nightbird on this tour and my first ever in Gothenburg, Sweden. What an adventure.

Met Nightbird, checked into hostel, booked car park in nearby garage rented out by the hostel for SEK 150.-. Good. Drove to venue. Ok, we're pretty early this time, but hey, this place looks kinda very shut down. And not just for now. Good thing is, Nightbird is a multilingual bird, she even speaks Swedish. As also being a pretty clever bird she decides to ring up the promoter what time we may expect the place to open for soundcheck. Turns out to be a smart move. The guy forgot to inform us the venue is closed down for renovation the next couple of weeks from today on. Show cancelled. But: there is an open-mic night in town this very evening, we're told. You guys might get a slot there... After all I don't really mind. Why not. We're screwed anyway. But you must never give in, miracles still happen as we all know.
At Pustervikens Bar, a fantastic bar & concert venue, they wouldn't let us participate in the open mic thing, instead they offer us a proper gig in the bar area, put up a stage & pa, we get fed, all hunky dory. I'm impressed. This place regularly hosts shows of all the big names touring Sweden. Mark Lanegan was here, The Jayhawks and Ian Hunter are coming and now it's Nightbird and Mäkkelä. Seemingly my streak of bad luck has come to an end. Well, let's wait for day #6.

That's me waking up late morning, a happy person with an off-day on tour, taking a stroll to the garage to pick up some clean shirt and a pack from my stash of rolling tobacco.
You might know that kind of moment in life. You're staring at something that's actually there but your brains try to tell you it's not. Just because accepting it's there would make you feel extremely unhappy. It's a good thing for which I like the brains being what they are. Then, after a few seconds time that very brain cautiously would make you figure there's not too much about this you can do but cope with the fact it's really there. Like for instance the sight of the lock of your car door dangling on a lead from the place you've seen it the last time. Which is not exactly the place it should be dangling quite apart from the fact car locks aren't usually dangling anywhere. Obviously the respective lock you're just staring at is not in it's designated position. Next thing your brain would tell you is, this is in fact your car and it looks pretty much like a car someone has broken into. It'll be by that time you realize you might be in trouble and rather check what's left of your belongings...

Counting the losses results in a surprisingly strange selection of nicked items. Two boxes ( ca. 45 copies) of 7" eps "Single Of The Year", limited edition hand numbered, the black sleeve version. Eight packs of rolling tobacco. Six bottles of red wine. A brown leather suitcase without handle containing all I've got to wear on this tour. One black suit, worn out. One old Swedish army jacket. One blue jacket with a lot of badges on and a patch my Slovakian Skate-Folk (that's right, a new genre I just discovered last year down there) friends of Sketord gave me. An inner sole of one of my shoes. A shoulder bag with my Opinel knife in. A carrier bag with old table cloths, books and some kind of charity shop stuff I was planning to drop at my family's cottage in Finland (why on earth this...?). A car adapter for my phone charger. A Finnish mobile phone card. Lemme think... Oh yes, there is still the chance I lost that Flensburg key in my car while leaning over unloading my gear few days ago. In that case this key has possibly found a new home somewhere in Gothenburg.
Interesting also what remained untouched. A brand new quality mic stand. An alu case including a sm58 microphone, all my leads (good quality, expensive ones), all the CDs, all the LPs (apparently they had a look at them as one was taken out of the box and not put back.... well, that's alright, I put it back, good you didn't like it), most of the 7" eps. Hey boys, I might be wrong in this, but I've got a feel if you carry on this way you won't make it big time in your profession. Also they left me some litter. The wrapping of two Swedish chocolate bars. I'm slightly worried about the future of organized crime in Scandinavia after this. They've got some weird chocolate thing going up here.


At least it has been an unexpectedly professional job. No windows smashed, they just drilled open the door lock. Thanks for this. Looking at the positive aspects of this we've got a lot more space in the car now and it does make a lot more sense playing "Light Enough To Travel". There is some comfort in this I suppose. Also the car is still moving and we can continue to Stockholm. I've got a vague feel we do urgently need some sort of turning point on this whole trip. Realistically it's been going downhill so far. A good gig, with some pay and a some merchandise sales might cheer us up.

An important thing to mention here is also my deepest gratitude to all of you out there who reacted on my facebook posts re. this incident. That was a massive wave of helpfulness and support. I've been offered red wine, shirts, jackets, money, you name it! Countless people reposted this, some I know, a lot I never met. All of this highly appreciated! Thanks to all of you for these encouraging messages, posts, mails. May the chocolate gods be with you.

More or less interesting images taken on this tour can be found on the maekkelae facebook page or group.

Harbour Towns

Once more this was it. My annual crusade across Finland, this time the comparably stripped down version. Six shows up here, every single one again memorable in it's own way. It's been wonderful again to meet old friends and fans, mostly hard to tell whether there is still a difference or not. It sure had a healing effect. No matter how exhausting the travelling can be at times, in my case it sort of got me back to look at certain things in a more positive way. Before leaving what I'm tempted to call one of the sleepiest, if not most boring, cities in the south of Germany - statistically one of the, if not the, safest town in Germany, that tells something, eh? - I honestly couldn't really imagine this trip might bear big surprises in whatever way. Most importantly this time I had to get away to do something I'd consider sensible and worthwhile doing. I mean playing shows, get people emotionally aroused. Move them. Have this short time every evening they and me can just focus on living. Even if it's just a limited time, the time a gig lasts. Make strangers realize there is something out there that's worth discovering. Whatever it is. Go there. Find it. It's all yours. I like that. I need that.

The magic thing about touring are the surprises, which do usually come very unexpected. That's why they are surprises I assume. They are probably one of the reasons why some people get almost addicted to touring. Things happen there that would happen no where else. You really do miss this once you're staying in one place for a longer period of time. It doesn't really help if the place is being considered the safest town in Germany, or anywhere else.
But let's not forget there is a downside to this ever changing, exciting, life of travelling and performing as well. After doing a lot of touring, particularly solo,  for a longer time, let's say some years, you might find yourself in a slinking process of becoming some strangely introvert individual. Wearing a shell of fucked-up-ness to prevent yourself from taking things too serious. Particularly things that go wrong. And I tell you there is always things that go wrong. Sometimes just slightly wrong, sometimes completely wrong. So in a way this self-defence shell is a healthy thing but then again it will also make it difficult for the nice things, the surprises, the positive, emotional and exciting ones to come through. So rather not wear that suit too tight. You might end up being just that tiny little notch too fucked-up to see them happen.

I've been lucky this time. My third show up in this country, the 13th on this tour, happened to be in Turku. The monthly Flavour Of The Month evening at Pikku-Torre. Always a nice one. Always two live acts. That's where I saw Nightbird play who opened up for me that night. Swedish-Finnish female singer-songwriter. Dark, intense, folk-blues songs, occasionally accompanied by her hauntingly beautiful slide guitar playing. One of those slow nights with a small audience, every one of which just sitting there mesmerised, like in a gloomy, oddly misplaced Sunday service.  

Played a cosy, little arts gallery with Helsinki based Songwriter Juhana Iivonen in Helsinki the next day. Good stuff, lovely place. That very singer whom I've seen just the night before turned up with some friends. We had a fun night out in Kallio, I had some terribly expensive beers (well, I'm afraid these are just regular prices up here), that was it. That's what I thought. Sunday morning I left Helsinki for spending two off-days at my family's cottage in the woods of southern Finland. While rehearsing for the following, last Finnish gig in Helsinki there was this new song. It was just there. Don't know who put it there. The one I could hear Nightbird play slide guitar on and do the second verse. The words were there too. Sometimes things like that happen to materialize out of nowhere. Back to Helsinki again on Tuesday for the last show there, together with probably the craziest folkpunk solo act over here, Ozzmond, with whom I'll share the upcoming eight gigs across the Baltics. Thanks to Asko and P-K of 22-Pistepirkko I had the privilege to stay in one of the most inspiring places I've been to in Finland, the band's Altai Studio. Owe you guys for this. It's a haunted place in a very friendly way. Some weird Utajärvi voodoo I guess. Had the opportunity to rehearse and arrange two songs with Nightbird there which I hope can be recorded very soon. For the time being all of you got to wait for her upcoming debut album. Will be out this fall. September if I understood right.


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