Klingenberg Syndrome

Hola,

it's been a long time since I've written anything here...since most of my time has been spent on the road with Sonata Arctica as you have probably read on http://stonesgrowhernameworldtour.blogspot.fi/

Well now, finally some other news :-) We're gonna play some UK show with Silent Voices at the end of May. I don't even remember when my last show was with these guys, probably sometime in 2004 or 2005 and in Finland. The guys already have the songs down and I just got sent the setlist so I'll be spending my evenings programming sounds and re-learning the stuff.

Back at the recording den, I did a solo for a friend of mine and I still have a piano track to lay down for another buddys band since they don't have a keyboard player (what a terrible situation, right ?)

With Sonata we'll be starting the rehearsals and the studiowork immediately after the summer festivals.... haven't heard any demos from Tony yet so it will be really exciting to see what he's come up with at the moment.

btw as you can read on silentvoices.net we released the tracklist and the coverart for our upcoming album. We managed to get a bunch of guest vocalists which was really cool since at the moment we don't have a singer. Tony is singing one song along with the likes of Mike Vescara, Mats Leven and a bunch of other really cool dudes. We even mastered the album in NYC at Sterling Sound....just check out the details at our site if you're interested.

As the SGHN World Tour is nearing it's end the tourblog will also end in August and I try to be more active on this site after that....at least until we go out for the next world tour when I plan to open another world tour blog...and repeat all the , had a few beers and the show was good- type of crap along with more pics of stuff that nobody needs to see.

until then, see you on the road !!

cheers,

Henkka

Hello all,

It's been a while but I've been quite busy (as always) and a bit lazy (as always). Anyways here's some updates about what has been going on in Lanceland.

February 26th-29th

We boarded the train from Kemi and headed back down to Helsinki to do the mastering of the album. Once again we did it with Svante Forsbäck at Chartmakers and the result was of course nothing short of amazing. Not too much to tell about these days, just mainly sitting around and listening, with the occasional comment. At the end the most important thing for us was to check all the transitions from song to song as well as make sure of the trackorder and that we made all the right versions for different territories. Naturally this was also a nice thing for us to come together as a band and put an end to the recording process. Stones Grow Her Name was done.

...a couple of week later we had the first rehersals for the upcoming tour, just a few days getting used to play together again after all the studiowork....

March 20th-22nd

Through a friend of ours we found an abandoned school in our hometown Kemi, and managed to rent it for a few days. So first we had a moviestudio-kinda-setup built in the gym hall. On the 20th and the 21st we filmed the playing part for 3 videos, naturally we changed the setups between songs and shoot a whole lot of different material. The videos will be directed by Tuukka Temonen. It was some hard work but surprisingly easy after all. I guess the hardest part about videos is pretending to play.....somehow I prefer to do it for real and in front of an audience. During our shooting on the 21st, our crew arrived and started putting up the new stage setup and on the 22nd we had a band rehearsal there with the crew and a full PA, just to check some new technical things and run through the show.It was really nice to hang out with the crew guys, some of I hadn't seen since last fall. Having done this we were pretty much ready to play our first show on this tour.

...however we squeezed in a couple of more band rehersals at our warehouse, just to make sure...

April 6th-9th

The first show, can we still play ? We flew out in the evening on Friday and had a night (and you guessed it, some beers) in Helsinki. On Saturday morning we boarded our flight to Brussels via Riga. Confusion, waiting and paying for overweight, at least this hasn't change since our last world tour. Anyways we're so used to it by now it doesn't even bother me, unless it's some extra spectacular hassle. This time it wasn't. When we got to Brussels we were picked up and shuttled to the hotel. The crew guys went to the festival site to check out the tech-things and preparing our gear for the show.

After a couple of hours of rest in the room, the band also headed for the PPM festival. First up was a signing session, it was very nice to see that people still remembered us and were excited for the show. A short interview later it was time for us to get ready...but wait, we hadn't eaten all day so we headed to the festival catering......we got the starters and the drinks right away but somehow they managed to forget our first order.....and our second one....and by the third time they appeareantly got it, so 1,5 hours after sitting down we got some plates before us. My nickname back home is trashcan because I eat almost anything, but this time it was not really worth the wait....of course I chewed it up anyway but.....well, enough bitching...

Not having played a show since August 15 2011 the whole band was pretty nervous but that's how it usually is after a long break. As soon as we got on stage, all was well again and we started to enjoy ourselves. Really fucking great to be back !!!! We played three new songs, the show opener: Only the broken hearts, the "koivunen-cover" Losing my insanity and our first single: I have a right, on top of that we also played Breathing which we have never played anywhere live before. The rest was older and more familiar stuff...

...after the show, we met some of Elias friends from Pirkkala, had some beers, said a quick hello to the Finntroll guys (whom offered some local spirit that tasted like Barbie and Marshmallows going to hell)....and headed back to the hotel. Some drinks, a lot of talking and planning and just in time for the last game of the regular season in the NHL, I was in bed watching that and passing out. A great day indeed.

On Sunday, all we had to do was eat breakfast and get to the airport for the evening flight, so that's basically what I did. We arrived at the hotel in Helsinki at around 0200am and at 0530 it was time to get up and head back to the airport, at just before 10 I was home and pretty much went straight to bed :-)

.....and since then... : at the moment we've been starting up the interview-rulette and it still amazes me how many people want to talk with us about the new album. So, well talk :-) Meanwhile I made an audioteaser for youtube, the guys at NBR helped me out with the visuals (as I have no idea how to do those things, and my new mac doesn't even have iMovie on it) ...and the teaser has been online now for some time. While I did that, Tony was working on his making of stones grow her name- series. The first one is already up and the plan is to release part 2 & 3 on the 17th and 24th this month.

The digital single of I have a right, will be out on the 18th and we're trying to work out a way to get an exclusive physical single to the webshop as well.....we'll see how that goes. That will not make it before the 18th however so....shit happends.

The video for I have a right should be out within the forseeable future and the album is out next month. Check our site for updates, and I'll try to be a bit more frequent and up to date on this blog as well. Anyways, that's all for now, I'm on my way up north to do some pyro-stuff......Our next show will be at the Radio Rock Cruise in the beginning of May.

cheers,

Henkka

Hola,

so what's been up ? Well at least I know what's been down and that's the SA website, the SA webshop and these pages. Quite a lot within a few weeks. Anyways everything is back in order and here's a rundown on other matters:

Last weekend we held a listening party for the press (at the Sonic Pump Studios in Helsinki), showcasing our new album. We even let them participate on some "hey" shouts for the song Shitload of Money. It was interesting to see the look on peoples faces when they listened to the stuff for the first time, and I'm sure you'll be surprised too :-) ...later on we did some interviews before we headed out to the FME to do a signing session. As you can imagine being home for the last 6 months left it's mark meaning once again yours truly was in a happy state of mind (=drunk). Nevertheless it was a lot of fun and this week we've been fine-tuning the songs, finalising the album cover and next up is the mastering and after that we're done with the album. Then of course we get to shoot a video, I have a bunch of programming to do, some band rehearsals and a lot of interviews before we're ready to get into touring mode, starting with the festivals. The first one is in Belgium in the beginning of April if I'm not mistaken. I'm really looking forward to playing the new stuff live...it's been too long without any shows. Meanwhile check out my solo album (as some of you thankfully already did)....and I'll make another one as soon as I get to it. I'll be on two other albums that should be out this year (the before mentioned Silent Voices album) and another melodic metal thing....as always I'll keep you posted.

cheers,

Henkka

and, just to have it all in one post, here's where you can get my solo album as well as the new Mental Care Foundation single.

online, cd baby:

www.cdbaby.com/cd/klingenbergsyndrome

at the Sonata Arctica webshop:

www.fanzone.fi/sonataarctica/

You can also get the album through Avalon/Marquee and at Tornion Musiikki.

..and the new MCF sinlge

online, itunes:

http://itunes.apple.com/fi/artist/mental-care-foundation/id464982858

and for the special edition:

Six Pack Attack!!! -special edition CD now available!

Including three previously unreleased bonus tracks from the Hair of the Dog

and the Alcohol Anthems sessions.

Track listing:

1. Six Pack Attack!!!

2. Chrystal

3. Visiting Hour

4. The Beer Song

5. Green River

More information:

bassmax@facebook.com

January 21st @home

Some quick updates on the state of affairs at the moment:

For the new Sonata album, I only have a few tracks here and there to finalize, most of the other stuff is done and we'll start mixing in the beginning of February.

The Six Pack Attack - digisingle from Mental Care Foundation is out RIGHT NOW, so be sure to check it out:

http://itunes.apple.com/fi/artist/mental-care-foundation/id464982858

if the link doesn't work just search for Mental Care Foundation on the itunes shop and it'll pop up, or buy it from cdbaby:

http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/mentalcarefoundation2

...you can also find our latest album Hair of the Dog here if you don't have itunes:

http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/mentalcarefoundation

As my solo album is being released in Japan by Avalon/Marquee next week, I can also announce a world wide digital release on February 1st, I'll post some links where to get it when the time is due. There might be some physical cd's available through our webshop in the near future but for now this is the situation.

We'll be doing some excursions with SA in the coming weeks (..checking in on the mixing and mastering etc) so I'll try to scrap some form of accounts about those endeveaurs as they occur.

That's about it for now, and I'll be heading back into the studioworld.

cheers,

Henkka

January 2nd, 2012 @home

So...where are we now ? With the Sonata album the drums & bass are done, as are a majority of the keyboards including the Hammond organ. I actually just got a new piece of equipment, the SV-1 by Korg and it's fucking fantastic, you'll hear a lot of it on the album. Anyways by the end of the year/early January the keys should be done and then it's time for guitars and vocals, I'll keep you posted.

...and as promised here's the tracklist and cover for my solo album, out January 25th in Japan (Avalon/Marquee), Europe and the rest of the World TBA.

Klingenberg Syndrome:...and the weird turned pro

1. The White Elephant

2. Nightmares in Nicaragua

3.Awesomeness

4. El Guarro

5. Nemo Saltat Sobrius

6.Post-Party Depression

7. Woodoo Lounge (Japan Bonus Track)

8,More than Rock

9. Toys & Guns

...and we actually managed to get the coverart for our new Mental Care Foundation single, out on itunes within the next few weeks. It's called Six Pack Attack !!! ....and it's hilarious, don't take it too seriously

cheers & best of luck for the year 2012 !!

Henkka

PS.Don't forget to watch the NHL Winter Classic today

Hiya,

So, what's going on right now is: we're currently recording the new Sonata Arctica album and of course as we're all really excited about this, I'll have to put the obligatory "It sounds fantastic" comment in here as well....and as before it's actually true, once again.

Nevertheless next week I'm driving down to Studio57 in Alaveteli to record the Hammond organs for the album, so those of you who wished we're getting rid of that are pretty much, shit out of luck...or as they say: neeeever gonna happend, except you never know, we might do a harmonica album next. Unless something goes totally wrong the album will be out before the summer, meaning April-May in 2012. Once again we have a couple of guests, a cover song and of course we came up with some new stylistic flavours as well....and just one more heads up: there will be hardly any symphonic elements on the new album, so no full fledged orchestra this time.

..and regarding my solo album, it will be released in late January 2012 in Japan by Avalon/Marquee. I'm still working on the Europe/US-deal, let's see how that pans out. It's called: "Klingenberg Syndrome:...and the weird turned pro." The music is pretty much instrumental prog/metal...whatever that means. Elias is doing the guitars on the album (it was easy to twist his hand to do this since I did the keys on his "Fire-Hearted" album) and I got some other old friends with me as well, Pasi Kauppinen (who mixed our live DVD's amongst a hundred other things) played the bass and we got Jari Huttunen whom I played with in Requiem, like 10yrs ago or something, playing the electronic drums. No "special guests" and no vocals. I'll post the exact release date(s) later, with the cover as well as the tracklisting....maybe it would be a great thing to do before christmas ?

That's about it for now, yeah the next Sonata tour starts in April 2012 so before that I might even have the time to make another record with someone....let me check this out...

cheers,

Henkka