n°8, 29th of October, 2009
Dear friends, fans and passing smiles,
first of all let's wish a happy birthday to our friend Hello Kitty on theis 1st of November!
The third song, "Gouttes De Pluie", was written by yours truly Snowcat the old Cat.
1 - Ce coeur qui bat
2 - La tête en avant
3 - Gouttes de pluie
4 - Horloge interne
5 - Lune noire
6 - Halo
7 - En sursis
8 - Rechute
Link: http://www.sousbock-fr.com/sousbock/index.php?page=lela
Kiss also released their new album, Sonic Boom, the first collection of new songs since 1998's Psycho Circus. Even though the cover looks kinda cool, don't be fooled by the images: "Peter Criss" and "Ace Frehley" are fake ones. They're just the new members Eric Singer and Thommy Thayer wearing the make-up of the Catman and the Spaceman. Fake fake fake. Even Genesis and their annoying overdubs wouldn't have done that. Why not giving Thayer and Singer a new make-up? After all, Vinnie Vincent and Eric Carr had their own, they didn't need to copy Frehley and Criss. The answer is easy to get: Kiss just became a tribute-band of... Kiss. Despite that disappointment, the songs sound nice, thanks to Paul Stanley's songwriting skills. 
OK, time to jump into Awa-news number 8!
Artists sometimes say very smart sentences, with or without knowing.
It's rock'n'roll philosophy time!
If a composer could say what he had to say in words he would not bother trying to say it in music. (Gustav Mahler)
Music is the mediator between the spiritual and the sensual life. (Ludwig van Beethoven)
Music is the art which is most nigh to tears and memory. (Oscar Wilde)
What are the hottest news in Awaken's Universe?
MY LAST EVENING IN ÔITA just released!
Now that's a great news! The first new songs from Snowcat since last year's This Mouth (Nha.c cho Em Mèo) collection are out to take you around Ôita station for an unbelievable chase. Meet the office ladies and the cute notes of the mysterious shingô, making that very chase so unique...
Links: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=7FL6IRE5
http://home.scarlet.be/~ping9712/awaken-mp3-engl.htm#oita
Our interview:
STÄNI STEINBOCK: It's a long and winding road indeed!
-Stäni Steinbock: Hello! I'm Stäni! (3 OK?)
-What brought you to become an active musician?
-Stäni Steinbock: First I must ask what "active" means here? If you mean "why did I start playing an instrument" it's probably because i saw others do it and got inspired. One of my strongest sources of inspiration to start was, of course (for my generation) the Beatles.
-You’re on the music scene for a long time. Can you describe that long road for Awa-news readers?
-Stäni Steinbock: Ooh! It's a long and winding road (!) indeed: I sang in the school choir and a little before I was to turn 13 I started learning how to play guitar. I played with schoolmates etc. Later started studying classical guitar and, almost at the same time, also electric guitar - I started out originally on acoustic steel-string.
At the conservatory I met Reijo Lainela whom I recognised from the Finnish-British Folk Club in Helsinki, where we had seen each other. We found out we had similar tastes in music and got along well and started to play together.
I moved to Sweden (1979), but we still both performed and recorded together under the name "Kra" ( http://www.cdbaby.com/kramusic )
released 4 singles and two vinyl albums in the 80's (out of print except for a few singles - contact me if you're interested!) + a LIVE-cassette. Reijo says it's so bad he doesn't want to re-release it even on CDR (!). Maybe I should upload it to my MySpace page or Reverbnation?
In Sweden I found my dream drummer, Lars Lundbom, who now lives on New Zeeland, and he played on two Kra singles and the first album. He also wrote two of our finest songs, La Balena and Rosa Moln (which you can hear on his myspace page) plus played on several of our tours, other gigs and on Finnish National TV.
In 1991 I got a job as a sound FX designer/sound techie/in-house composer at a theatre in Finland, so I moved there, buried Kra, and wrote / recorded some music for that theatre instead (you can hear some at http://www.reverbnation.com/stanisteinbock), but after 9 years got enough of it, organised the recording of a new Kra CD (we also played on Finnish TV) "Guttural Shock" and moved to the Åland Islands which is where my old lady comes from.
On Åland I've been playing with local musicians, doing audio work, and also some taxi driving (just like Philip Glass!) and teaching, one winter played regularly with a celloist, Kristoffer Arwidsson, with whom we founded Turbotrabi (he likes bad old cars - I like good ones). Turbotrabi got some new life after Kristoffer stopped working on Åland, when I performed in Stockholm with MusicThoughstster Marianne Milde on viola and (old friend & music colleague) Mats Tiigiste on percussion (an Atonal Punk Song recorded live with this ensemble can be heard on http://www.reverbnation.com/stanisteinbock).
I also did a tour of the Faeroe Islands september/october 2008 with Kim Hansson on guitar and Kamilla Ravnsfjall on flute and electric organ. We played music written by me for the Finnish national instrument, the 5-stringed kantele+ other instruments. Pictures and some live recordings on http://www.myspace.com/steinbockstani.
(Tons of details from the abovementioned long road have been left out so as not to write a novel, but I'm grateful for everybody who helped me make my musical dreams come true).
-Among your work, what is the piece that you think represents you the most, and why?
-Stäni Steinbock: That's an extremely difficult question! I think everything I've done does represent me very much! Maybe the songs I did with Kra are closest to my heart, but on the other hand I seem to like my new song "Hoummous for Houdini" a lot too.
-Any song you’re ashamed of, and why?
-Stäni Steinbock: Maybe some songs I wrote a long time ago - pretentious, perhaps, and silly lyrics. Hope that's enough?
-If you had a magic wand, in what band would you play right now?
-Stäni Steinbock: Kra, I suppose, or perhaps Turbotrabi! But if you mean some band I haven't founded - I'd love to be in Smiling Men With Bad Reputations with Mike Heron. or à Austrvega, whom I did play with, but which doesn't seem to exist anymore. Nobody seems to have time for it. Or else maybe a new band where I could have all the right players around me & exchange ideas and create music together, maybe even do so many gigs that we could make a living from it.
-What would you say to Awa-news readers who might not know you, to convince them to listen to your albums?
-Stäni Steinbock: I wouldn't try to convince them except by describing what I do, hoping there would be someone who would be intrigued enough by that description that they would like to listen to them!
What? You want this description? Hmm... difficult again, cos I seem to do different things: The Kra albums (and singles - maybe one day collected into an album?) are quirky (that's the term people seem to like to use!) folk music with strains of Reggae, Gamelan, and perhaps some Balkan music. Both Reijo and I are great fans of Spike Jones, so somewhere some of that may creep in, as well as our classical "roots". The last Kra album is available on CD or as downloads at http://www.cdbaby.com
There's a video suitable for your "Year of the cute" campaign to the tune of "Tribal Pursuit", a song Reijo and I wrote together, on http://www.myspace.com/steinbockstani
The Kantele music I do is mostly "fragile" due to the nature of the instrument, but still I try to inject some variation by using other instruments to accompany it - cello, guitar, sampler, violin etc. There's an album of it that i hope will be released soon. Soon. Soon... Listen to some of it on http://www.myspace.com/steinbockstani
Then I have a more experimental side, too, as evidenced by tracks like "Rikkihappo Boogie" on http://www.reverbnation.com/stänisteinbock
-You seem to be a fan of vintage cars. Do you own some, which one(s) and do you use them for an everyday use?
-Stäni Steinbock: I own a Volkswagen Passat 1978, from the year when I went vegetarian, and also the year Kristoffer Arwidsson (the celloist of Turbotrabi) was born. I ride it almost daily, and hope it will pass the annual inspection once more, or maybe twice.
As a reserve car to use when the Passat's being prepared for the annual inspection, I have a Ford Escort 1988 which I received as a gift from a friend who was about to take it to a scrapyard. I have bought new front shocks for it, which will be installed soon. Very soon, cos the Passat has to be inspected in october, I think.
-Last but not least, would you openly admit that you are an Awaken fan?
-Stäni Steinbock: Absolutely!
Links: http://www.reverbnation.com/stänisteinbock
http://www.cdbaby.com/kramusic
http://www.myspace.com/steinbockstani
What happened on October some years ago?
Let's jump into Awa-news' time machine...
12/10/1942: Hello Melvin Franklin from The Temptations.
22/10/1979: Bye bye Nadia Boulanger. In her long carreer, she taught music composition to various people, including music genius Philip Glass and Aaron Copland, Vladimir Cosma, George Gershwin, Quincy Jones, Michel Legrand, Astor Piazzolla, to name a few!
29/10/1984: Deep Purple releases "Perfect Strangers", reuniting after 8 years of separation.
You like Awaken? You *will* like this album:
MỸ TÂM, Yesterday & Now (2003)
There's no Autumn in Việt Nam, and one could think Vietnamese friends are missing something not to know the pleasure of walking among dead leaves with the sound of Yesterday & Now in their ears. But they have other jooyful moments, and still they have Mỹ Tâm. Mỹ Tâm is a pop diva in the S-shaped country, crossing Eastern and Western influences, old-school Vietnamese songs with modern pop and rock. Vietnamese language is a music in itself and suits very well pop music. Some pieces are borrowed from foreign artists (“Về chốn thiên đường” is Jean-Jacques Goldman's “Comme Toi”) or classic Vietnamese songs, like the superb “Đêm thấy ta là thác đổ” from Trịnh Công Sơn and the nostalgic piano-driven “Bóng cả”. Not to be forgotten is a splendid cover of Lara Fabian's “You Are Not From Here”, sung in both English and Vietnamese.
Links: http://www.mytam.info
More about the It's Oh! Music Radio, an interview with keyboardist John Sinclair (Uriah Heep, Heavy Metal Kids, Ozzy Osbourne), and whatever you can expect!
Take care and see you!
email: awamail(at)hellokitty.com
Awaken main sites: www.awaken.be
© AWAKEN-Awanews-
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