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

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.

Tonight we are putting down the final mix.

This album is my proudest moment. It feels like it’s first now, after so many years since my debut, that I have finally come back to be the playful, spontaneous and unstudied musician and artist that I so much enjoyed being in the years before signing to a major label and the whirlwind of rules and regulations that came with that. It’s been a roller coaster ride where the valleys are deep, dark and depressive, and the mountain tops, that I so much love, are reaching sky high. Luckily, for me, I enjoy both – it breeds something interesting in both ends and I have always believed in keeping it real. And reality is not toneless.

With love,
-robert

If you wanna hang with me on my journey towards my third studio album release, I am going to post updates, describe songs and show you videos from the studio sessions here on this site. Today, all fresh from today’s session, a video of Rune mixing Hold Your Hands Up High.

Frontline

Cross the lake / Don’t give, just take / Over on this side it’s much nicer / Leave old habits / Come on catch the rabbits / We’re looking for toy soldiers in line / You’ve never heard screams / At least don’t know what it means / Not so many of them can be trusted / It’s a certain call if you don’t accept the call / We have won the war on both sides already

So hold on to your dreams / And I will find a meaning / While you fight the frontline

A fallen boy in a frame is nothing without a name / That’s why we keep hiding the tracks / So if someone needs a hand / Don’t forget about the plan / First look for victory then the man / There is the one and only truth that’s been given / And after that there’s a world of misguided souls / So don’t give in / You know you will win / Even if it’s in your grave you first find forgiveness

So hold on to your dreams / And I will find a meaning / While you fight the frontline

Now remember your brothers / Get them over the borders / Leave a country of mines left for the innocent / There’s nothing you can do / Now you have seen them chase their own / Just leave your hat on and run / Run

So hold on to your dreams / And I will find a meaning / While you fight the frontline

It’s strange how few cover songs I have managed to put in my shows the last 5 years. I am more and more attracted to the idea that I will always have one or two of my favorite songs in my set list and do my own interpretation of it. So far the list is very short. I can mention Detroit Rock City by KISS, Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds by The Beatles, We Are The World by USA for Africa, and these I only played parts from in the middle of a Newborn-jamming situation. 1979 by Smashing Pumpkins is the only song that I played full length. These are songs I’ve done at live shows. And as far as I know I have only covered two songs on radio, one being Yesterday by The Beatles on German radio in Potsdam back in 2006 and Even Flow at some Paris radio show dating back to 2005. That’s it I think.

Well enjoy my first full length YouTube-cover song. Sadness Is A Blessing – one of my favorites this year.

Love,
-robert

I see people like robots on their round
In and out, in and out, it’s so sound
And the man behind the keyboard he smiles
And the girl behind the counter walks the extra miles
For the customers who bargain on the prize
And swearing, for they cannot find the right size