Here’s a pre-programmed shuffle playlist that’ll introduce you to almost all corners of my catalogue. Studio recordings, live songs and demo-like rarities. It also includes a couple of free downloads if you have a closer look at it.
That’s it for now folks. I’ll be back with more news on my new record (RHETORIC SEASON TWO) due this fall.
Peace and love
-robert
I have had some requests about making this song available for the public. And it is one of those songs people search my website for. Now I have uploaded the song on my SoundCloud page for you to check out. The song was originally recorded for the Ocean Sessions EP but only released as a bonus track for the initial iTunes release in 2007 on Nettwerk Records. Have not been available since, but will be included on the LP version of Disarm & Let Go / Ocean Sessions EP that will be cut to vinyl directly from analog masters. Due out TBC.
LYRICS
I HAVE STRANDED ON A BEACH OF SNOW TRYING TO BE CLEVER NOT TO CRY I HAVE WISHED UPON A BROKEN STAR GETTING THE NEWS FROM AFAR I HAVE MINGLED WITH THE BEAUTY AND THE BEAST STILL CAN’T TELL THEM APART I HAVE MADE ANGELS IN THE COLD COLD SNOW WISHING THEY CAN HELP ME OUT TONIGHT I’VE BEEN DEAD SO MANY TIMES BEFORE WITHOUT A HEART I’D RATHER DIE I’VE BEEN DEAD SO MANY TIMES BEFORE WITHOUT A HEART I’D RATHER DIE I HAVE GIVEN HER THE CHANCE TO GET IT BACK THE LOST TIME SHE NEEDED TIME AGAIN I AM SURRENDERED AND NOW OPEN-MINDED TO ANYTHING THAT HELPS HER FEEL FINE I HAVE OPENED ALL THE WINDOWS NOW WON’T MISS THE BIRDS WHO WANNA SING A TUNE IT’S JUST A SHAME IT TOOK ME SO LONG I REGRET I EVER DOUBTED YOU LOVE I’VE FELT THE BEAST SO MANY TIMES BEFORE WITHOUT A HEART I’D RATHER DIE I’VE FELT BEAST SO MANY TIMES BEFORE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE COME BACK ALL I WANT IS TO FEEL ALIVE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE COME BACK ALL I WANT IS TO FEEL ALIVE YOU’VE BEEN WAITING OH NOW FOR SO LONG STAYING IN EVERY SINGLE NIGHT YOU’VE BEEN SINGING WITH THE BIRDS AND ALL THIS TIME I WAS NEARBY BUT HEY THIS TIME I WOULD BE HAPPY TO JOIN AND THE ANGELS WILL FORM A CHOIR IN THE SKY I KNOW I KNOW I HAVE MADE YOU CRY AND ALL THIS TIME I WAS NEAR ABOUT TO DIE I HAVE FELT THE PRESSURE ONCE AGAIN THIS TIME I WON’T BEAT IT WITH A LIE I HAVE FELT THE REASON I SHOULD TRY WITHOUT A HEART I’D RATHER DIE I’VE BEEN DEAD SO MANY TIMES BEFORE WITHOUT A HEART I’D RATHER DIE I HAVE FELT THE REASON I SHOULD TRY WITHOUT A HEART I’D RATHER DIE PLEASE PLEASE COME BACK ALL I WANT IS TO FEEL ALIVE PLEASE PLEASE COME BACK ALL I WANT IS TO FEEL ALIVE
On February 20 I posted this on Facebook.
So I guess I had to do it.
Listen in context of the dogme-like way of which I was producing it. I haven’t used any other recording equipment than the built-in microphone on my Mac and a few software instruments. It was quite a stressful recording situation but at the same time I found it creatively challenging in positive terms. It was moments of fun and some of despair… banging my head against the wall for the obvious reasons you would experience if ever trying to record a bass guitar or drums through a PC-microhone. Even worse – the vocals…
I leave you to it, and present you THE BUTTON MOULDER’S WALTZ:
pt 1 be kind
pt 2 buttom moulder’s waltz
pt 3 fair game
pt 4 operation odyssey dawn
MP3
WAV
DOWNLOAD MP3 right click to download
The Button Moulder’s Waltz
DOWNLOAD WAV right click to download
The Button Moulder’s Waltz
It was done on this:
And finally, as promised – I made the artwork in the Photo Booth!
Best,
-robert
PS i did use pro tools to cut the final wav file and photoshop elements for the title on the artwork. that’s it.
Norwegian streaming service WIMP has exclusively made available The Shins’ new album. So I thought I’d have a listen. I am disappointed.
Should I deepen my thoughts?
I just think it’s too much focus on the production and not so many good songs. Sounds like they’ve had comfortable chairs sitting around the studio making high-fives for every edit that they could produce to make the song better. It’s become common practise.
Or is it just the fever of mine that is shaking my foundation!?!
Hope I get well soon!
Ta da.
R
I just found the original sketch and lyrics for a song from the Ocean Sessions EP (2007).
It's Never Gonna Be Perfect, sketches/lyrics (2006).
Back in 2006 when I was writing for a follow-up EP to my eponymous debut album, I was thinking of doing a duet with someone. Going through different demos and songs that I had laying around I came by a recording of the song “It’s Never Gonna Be Perfect” that I had done the basic tracks for in a studio outside Bergen, Norway.
I actually helped build this studio back in the days when I was recording albums with Sissy Dogfish. We recorded the single “Win This Race” (2000) and “What Happens Next?” (2002) there.
Then, recording the EP at Ocean Sound Recordings (the original boat house studio), I thought why not include this song and get a female singer to do parts on it. Since I had already gotten my management to ask Marit Larsen’s people whether she’d sing with me on the A-side, Message, and without any luck on that (she was probably too busy or not keen) decided to think of someone else for the B-side.
FILMING FINAL MIXDOWN OF MESSAGE
In 2005 I toured with Aimee Mann on shows in the UK, Ireland and France. We got along well. She gave me some well advised “things-to-think-about” and look out for, me being signed to a major label, and she told me about the ways of being independent and how to run my own little business. Anyways, I sent an email to my management asking them to contact Aimee.
It was a good idea, they said, but decided that they had a better plan. One of the bands on the Nettwerk label called Sixpence None The Richer had a lead singer who was a big fan of my debut album and they thought she would be the perfect match for the song – so they asked her.
I knew of Leigh and her beautiful and cool voice from Sixpence’s hit-single Kiss Me and was instantly keen on working with her. She replied with “I’ll literally eat shit to do this” and from that moment on we didn’t look back. My engineer put down a rough mix of the song, sent an mp3 over the Atlantic, Leigh recorded her lead with two harmony tracks and I got it back by no time to put it in the final mix. Fantastic!
KISS ME (SHE’S ALL THAT OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO)
That was my first and, to this day, only transatlantic collaboration. I have ever since been tremendously thankful to Leigh for her help on making this song so much better and that’s why I now, after finding the original hand-written lyric, had to tell you the story behind the recording of my first duet.
The song was released digitally on the Ocean Sessions EP worldwide on April 29, 2007 through Nettwerk Music and distributed in Norway on CD through my own label Bobfloat Music and Playground Music on May 15, 2007.
Here’s the song:
You can hear the whole EP on SoundCloud. If a physical copy is what you like, send an email to Bobfloat Music and they’ll give you the details on how to go forward.
Peace and Love, and thank you LEIGH NASH!!!
-robert
I finally got one of my full-length albums on vinyl. My new record RHETORIC was released on November 4 on LP and CD, as well as the modern way of buying or listening to music… digital download and streaming. Anyways, let’s focus on the fresh smell of this black circle of beauty. From before I only got a couple 7inch singles out (Got None and Beirut) so this is the first Long Player I have put out on vinyl.
When I was a kid, my brother and I threw half of my dad’s record collection as Frisbees all over the vast fields outside my grandpa’s house and all the way down to the ocean. And they all got smashed. I remember that they wore different colors and that there were lots of them. We didn’t know what was on them. It was a lot of fun. We left the small pieces of plastic to be buried and forgotten between growing green grass and wild flowers. Later I found out that there was music on these round plastic plates that I so playfully tossed away.
I discovered another passion in life. It’s just the feel when I lay down that crooked arm, the paper sleeve…
Just like Eddie Vedder sings it in the song Spin The Black Circle from Pearl Jam’s Vitalogy. “Viva la Vinyl” – scribbled down next to the lyrics in the booklet. It was huge for me to understand that my biggest idol at the time had the same love for vinyl records as myself at a point where the CD took over the whole market and LP’s were being stopped manufactured (at least from the major labels). I kept trying to get hold of any record that I loved on vinyl. Most of them I got from record dealers selling old records. New releases on this format were few and far between, but Pearl Jam kept it real all along and that’s why I got to collect LP’s of their complete catalogue up to this day. They even put out Christmas singles on 7inches just for the fans and members of the Ten Club. I always loved them for doing that.
So when I was invited to a student’s club night in Oslo called Vin & Vinyl (Wine & Vinyl, see how similar Norwegian is to English?) to play and talk about vinyl and also do a show I had no choice but to pay tribute to the number one band of my teenage years. I covered the aforementioned song. Here’s a video clip of it:
-robert
I have sent the RHETORIC master and artwork to manufacturing. Been struggling all week with the sequencing of this album, sometimes a tough nut to crack. After exchanging views on this with my good friend Egil Olsen and my girlfriend, who’s occasionally been working as a DJ and therefor has this natural hunch about the order of songs or maybe it was that…
female intuition thing that shone threw,
pew,
(and that helped a lot.)
THANKS You2.
The album will be released on CD (Digipack) unlimited and on 12″ vinyl (180 gr) limited to 500 copies and numbered. On the digital releases there will be one extra song. The vinyl is just gonna be the good-looking fella and therefor doesn’t need that extra song. And here you have the album sleeve as designed by Egil Olsen – the singer/songwriter – not the football manager (just had to, just had to clear that).
You like that?
I do.
So about time I release another song from the album. In form of a video. You have heard this song before if you took the time to listen to the live album that I released in July this year. Frontline and Landing – the two first songs that I finished in the process of making RHETORIC (season one). And here’s the official LANDING music video.
You like that?
I do.
Hugs and Kisses,
-bOb tOast
PS! Listen to a live version of the single from Live at Ocean Sound Recordings, you can also buy it on iTunes, Amazon, etc. plus stream on Spotify and WIMP.
