Miami & Key West

I don't know where to start.

This week has been the best time of my life, honestly. Words can't describe it. Imagine yourself doing the coolest things you know, playing music on the hottest locations in the world, doing this all with a world-class team, and having your best friends in the world around you all the time. Staying up late on the beach just playing acoustic guitar, watching the Miami sunset and talking about deep stuff, dreaming about the future, sharing secrets nobody else knows. Driving the coolest convertible with a camera car on the side filming everything. Jet-skiing in the Caribbean and watching the sun go down behind the beautiful Florida Keys, playing saxophone on the long Miami bridge in the night with the most beautiful skyline behind you. Having the best time ever. I should write a song about it.

North Beach

As for dreaming about the future, there's really something special about dreams coming true. A year ago I couldn't have imagined flying to Miami to film a video with the best crew in the world. MIAMI. That's f*cking insane!!? Seriously. The best part is that I know we've deserved this all by working like maniacs. The idea to the song that's the single now came in the dark autumn days when we thought we had lost it. We tried to write new stuff 7 days a week, 10 hours a day but everything sounded bad. The idea came on a day when we just really wanted to go home and do something else. I'm glad we kept pushing. I guess this trip is a part of the reward :) The single is freakin' awesome. The video will be. And you don't have to wait too long, just one more month.. Hang in there! 

I love it here. The people are nice, the food is good, the cars are greatttt. I've seen SO many Ferraris and Lamborghinis.. They're pretty cool but not as cool as our Mini convertible! ;) 

our Mini Cooper

We've got the best crew in the world working with us. Our camera man just flew here straight from L.A. where he was doing a video for Nicki Minaj. After seeing some of the shots he took of us I don't wonder why he's being hired by the biggest artists in the world.. It looked soooo good.. His assistant just worked with Simon Cowell and our make-up artist did a Hollywood movie. Cool. The director is awesome, and he knows exactly how to get the best out of us. There are so many amazing things coming.. I'd love to tell you everything about the video but let's keep it a secret ;) you'll see it when it's ready, and I promise you're gonna love it!

USA is great, but there's a place i love even more: The Caribbean, my second home. Okay, it's not really my second home but I wish it was.. As nice as it is to be in Miami, my favorite part of this trip (along with shooting the video) was our trip to Key West, the southernmost part of the US. We drove through the breathtaking landscapes with the roof down and listened to country on full volume! Key West is a Caribbean island that's still kind of part of the US mainland, but it's as close to Cuba as it is to Miami. This was my fifth time in the Caribbean. I truly fell in love in 2009 when I visited some of the islands and saw the coolest things I've ever seen. The culture, the people, the island food and the beautiful landscapes are something that don't exist anywhere else in the world. The mentality can be described by a shirt a waitress was wearing stating: "First I do nothing for the whole day and then I relax." In key west we were chilling at the beach, driving jet skis, partying all night long... The Caribbean small town vibe was a perfect contrast to the Miami metropol.

Highway 1 from Miami to Key West

But there's always something about a big city. We drove back in the night and saw all the skyscrapers in different colors while driving the 5 lane highway at 100 km/h (in the middle of the city!!) Pretty cool.

It's been toooo good here, I don't wanna go home to cold cold Finland. But the good thing is that once we're in Finland we've got plenty of exciting stuff coming up! Can't wait. And with the energy we've got during this week we'll manage to keep up the good mood until the summer, when it's actually quite nice in Finland too.

Thanks for watching our twitcam btw! Hope you liked it!

See you soooon<3

Luv from Miami

-Axel

Jet Skis

Beach Boys after swimming

SC

Tricks and treats

Hello Popsters!

Tomorrow it's time for Miami!! And hold your hats, cause the new song is a killer, the video is gonna be killer, and we will look FABULOUS on it!! All thanks to our stylist Tarja and our hairdresser Tom Wennerstrand!! Personally I'll have to thank my friend Atte Heikkinen for borrowing me a crucial part of my dress. ;D 

One of our sponsors for this video is GoPro camera. The thought is that we are shooting extra material ourselves thru-ought the whole trip with these small cameras. We'll have one each, and with these versatile cams you can even film underwater!!!  Check out this trailer if you wanna se something spectacular!!! Everything we shoot with the GoPROs is bonus for the video. You know, if we get a crazy idea on our way somewhere… to go parachuting for example… then we'll do it! And then we'll persuade our director to add it to the music video! Awesome! 

Our crew in Miami consists of the director, Sami Joensuu, who has done bunch of Finnish music videos. From U.S.A. we have Mikko Timonen, who sports a pretty prominent CV if you ask me!! He's  50 Cents and Foo Fighters videos!!!! OH YEAH!! And there is also some producer waiting for us in Miami… still unsure what his role is and who he is?! =D And of course a few makeup and hair stylists are running wild, trying to keep Krippe from touching his powdered nose… perhaps? And last but not least, our wonderful A&R Olli is pulling the strings with his tender record company hands. That's our crew!

(c) Aliisa Jaakkola

And, I'll once again have to thank our fans for the extraordinarily good treatment after last thursdays gig @Rautatientori. The amount of sugary sweets we got was simply astonishing!!! We were handed cupcakes, all kinds of puddings, and candy... each one tastier than the other!! The band will get diabetes soon enough!! =DDD Also we got a package packed with Japanese sweets, straight from Tokio!! Cool! 

 

It was a heart and had ALL the names on it before we started... =D

We get so much fanmail and presents, and we try to keep up with you guys, cause you can be sure that each little card, gift or poem matters the whole world to us, and makes all of this even more worthwhile!! Love you all!! Oh, and the last picture is a piece of art I made of the candy I got (before I ate it) from the lovely Ameliia and Linneea sisters ;D!!

=D We got new haircuts today! Yup! I think my style took a little step in the Beatles direction maybe? That may to some of you sound interesting, but I think it looks neat!! I won't show you a picture yet!!! X)

No on to packing again.... X-]

Kisses

//Paul

A song brand new & a dream come true

Hi Popsters!

A new song in process

We just finished recording our first single last week! So now we can take it easy!(?) not quite…. 

Right after we got the last backing vocals recorded we went back to our own studio and got an idea for a new song. A couple days went by and the song got ready. We thought it was a very good song and so we decided to play it to our producers and the record company guys. We had a meeting at Sony Music where everybody gathered around a big table in the meeting room. We played the new song and I got a bit nervous as usually, wondering whether they are gonna like it or not. After the song ended there was a long silence until the the CEO of Sony opened his mouth: "Um… Guys, I think we're gonna change the first single". It was followed by a even longer silence until we got a word out of our mouths: "Um…ok…right…so…seriously?". After a short discussion about if this was actually possible in such a short time frame, we decided that this new song is gonna be our first single! I think it was quite "ballsy" move to make just two weeks before we're gonna fly to Miami to shoot the music video (I guess that the director wasn't crazy about the idea at first, considering that the script was already done, but after he heard the new song he was convinced). 

A coffey break with the producers

I guess there is always some crazy story behind "the all-time greatest hit songs", so we're on the right tracks :) So now we're spending all of our time in the studio recording the upcoming single. It's far from ready as I write this, but I can tell you that this one is a killer, just wait until you hear it…. :)

Krippe found a new friend in the Sony lounge.

Oh, and if you haven't heard yet… WE'RE GOING TO MIAMI NEXT WEEK!!! :D I can't tell you how excited we are about all this. We're gonna spend the week laying on the beach, cruising around, watching the sunsets… 

Years ago when we had just founded this band and I was dreaming about all the glamorous things, like getting a record deal, playing a gig for thousands of people and so on. Back then those things seemed like light years away, and I remember thinking that what would be the first time when I would feel that we've achieved something really REALLY big, something that I couldn't have experienced without this band, and how would that moment feel like. And now as I'm going to board a plane next Tuesday that will take me to Miami, I know that that moment has come and can't describe the feeling! After all those sacrifices and the countless hours of hard work, I get to fly to the USA to shoot a music video! I've heard the phrase "this is not why I started to play my instrument" being said by musicians too many times, and now I'm very proud to say that this is exactly why I started to play drums back when I was 9 years old! 
But this is all because of you. Without you Popsters we wouldn't have a record deal, there wouldn't be anybody in the audience and without you our record company wouldn't be willing to invest all the money to our music video, and we wouldn't be going anywhere. Thank you so much for all this! I love you all <3

- Social Joe

Ps. As corny as it might sound, dreams really do come true. Just don't ever stop believing and don't let anybody to tell you that you can't do something. You can <3

Pps. We're having a gig next Thursday 14.2 in Helsinki, Rautatientori at 15.30! It's free, and I'll see you there :) 
More info here: http://www.facebook.com/events/475648952482446/ 

Logos & upcoming leisure, what a pleasure!

Hey guys!

This week we launched the proto version of our logo! It's nice to have something small and recognizable in addition to your bands name. I think it's super cool! As you can see it says SC, like in Satin Circus. But at the same time it's a heart! Hearts are cool. You can't live without 'em! n_n

fun fact: Grab a tennis ball and squeeze it tightly: that’s how hard the beating heart works to pump blood.

Since this was just the first draft, it's black and boring. Well, not actually boring... black is classic and stylish. But we still feel it might need to get retouched a bit. I'm thinking it could actually work in any color you want! That the logo would not be associated with a specific color per se. So when we subtly hinted that you could make own color versions of it we got this! ----------->

Thanks you Venla H. Straight from Ponyville <3

Feel free to make your own version our logo if you have a need to express your creativity. Let your imagination flow! You can pimp it up to the max or just paint it single & simple.

And since Venla accepted our challenge I feel obliged to present her with a new one! Come up with a new color!          

[edit: a new color as in try to think of a color that doesn't yet exist :D not make the logo in another color (unless you want to :)]
                                      n_n'




So you might wonder what we've been up to lately? We're still working on our upcoming album which we still have to be very mysterious about :) Trying to get as much done as possible before our vacation/video shoot in Miami. (I'd rather call it vacation!) I've never been to the states before so I'm super excited. The threshold has always been so high. It's so big! You never have time to see everything. I always thought I would road-trip around U.S.A for a year and then return a wiser traveler. But this is even better! Just take it slow and start in Florida for a week :) I have to see the Everglades, the Kennedy Space Center and Key West! That would totally be enough to take me to 7th heaven.

trying to catch snowflakes!

☁  I saw the sun today. It was nice. She hasn't been around that much lately. ☁ 

Hopefully you have a great week! Stay strong and if you feel down, Paul will cheer you up.
 -------->

Take care and stay classy dear popsters!

over and out 

-krippe ~~~ヾ(＾∇＾)'ー♪ ♥

EDIT: Apparently you can live without a heart!