The day before the third

Ho!

It's Thursday. Tomorrow it's Friday. Fridays are fun. This Friday in particular. 

It's time to release our third single. My thoughts are drawn to Andrew Wiggin, the third. Good thing we can release as many singles as we like to. It doesn't overpopulate the world. Or does it? Has the internet lead to a massively saturated music market with too much to choose from? There's been loads of talk about the situation, the pros and cons regarding the the easy accessibility versus the enormous selection. As an accustomed music listener I think this all is absolutely amazing. Everyone get's to have their way around when moving about the spheres of discovering new music. There is the typical mainstream medias putting out their créme the la créme there for everyone to enjoy, but if you have the time and energy to go searching for musical adventures there's literally a shitload of stuff out there. I remember when I stumbled upon Clean Bandit quite a while ago. I loved it and I remember thinking why isn't this more popular. Then now today I just noticed they're sitting at a spot in the top 100 tracks worldwide on Spotify and just scored a #1 in the UK singles chart . So what does this have to do with anything? Well, it's pretty awesome what possibilities this world wide web creates.  People from all over the world having easy access to music and hearing about it from a multitude of channels is a pretty powerful tool. It does come with a required prior condition. The content actually has to be good and find it's own listeners. There's hundreds of examples of artists and bands starting out from scratch and gaining their audience and finally making it. Just like Clean Bandit started their way somewhere, snatching up interested people here and there and ending up on the top, I hope we can too. Basically just trying to reach a large audience as possible! And with your amount of involvement I'm sure we can. You, our fans, do so much for us. You talk about us to others just from the pure joy of sharing stuff you love to your peers. You should always remember that it's clearly visible to us too. We even get a notifications informing us "You have a new fan". Getting constantly reminded that real people out there actually digs what we're doing is a huge inspiration and drives us to work even harder. And knowing that there's thousands of people enjoying our music helps us reassure ourselves that this is something worth fighting for. And now when I think about it, we've come quite far already. Our third single Expectations is release tomorrow(!) and our debut album in just a few months. o shiee. 

Enough ranting. By the way this blog post doesn't have any fancy pictures or anything, just my thoughts I tried to scribble down on a thursday night (not monday as it should've been :D). And now I'm finished. A glass of juice and a few games of Hearthstone will go perfectly with the mood and after that I'll hit the bunk! Take care and hope to see you in Gloria the 14.2. The album release gig you know? More info on facebook, twitter yadda yadda. 

btw. i think Expectations comes out on Spotify tonight 00:00. not sure tho! Find out yourself, I'm definitely sleeping.

- the kripp

edit: I forgot to mention, our album can be bought and shipped WORLDWIDE from here -> http://www.levykauppax.fi/artist/satin_circus/expectations/#cd
it features our own stories about each song and loads of pictures etc. The leaflet turned out super pretty so I advise you to get it :) 

3 weeeks!

Hey everybody! With all the stuff we've had to do we've been a bit lazy with the blog, but now we're gonna start doing it again every week just as before :)

The start of the year has been crazy. So much to do and arrange, so little time. First of all, our FIRST ALBUM EVER will be released in 3 weeks!! oh my god. We've had this band for over 4 years and we've been working like maniacs, and to finally have the first album out is something we've waited for from the start. 

The other big thing we're waiting for is the album release party, which will be in Gloria, February 14th at 9 PM. Get your tickets here :) 

We've got so many new things on our live show that we haven't done before, the most important being the ability to move as much as we want thanks to our new wireless systems. Me and Paul bought wireless headset microphones, i got a Keytar with wireless MIDI, and Krippe and Paul got wireless transmitters for guitar and bass… That basically means that we can run around the stage throughout the whole gig. We've been waiting for this for years and finally being able to do it feels awesome!!

After the release we've got one week in Helsinki, and we're gonna do TV-filmings and radio interviews and stuff, and then our TOUR starts!! Starting February 21st, the tour looks like this now: Vaasa-Kemi-Turku-Stockholm (5 days on M/S Baltic Princess) - Bergen - Stavanger - Drammen - Trondheim - Helsinki. One month on the road! Oh my god, this is what I've dreamed of since the day we started this band with Olli back in 2010.. A real tour. Gonna be so much fun. I can't even imagine all the stuff we're gonna come up with being on the road for a month :D 

You better stay tuned on our instagrams and twitters and on our SC-vine account for more!

The Norway tour is just a start, we've got more international plans for the spring… Let's see about those later ;)

Talk to you soon!

-Axel

Home At Last!

Hallo,

So guess what? I finally got a new apartment!! Woopwoop!! Such a relief after four months of “homelessness” :)

So if you didin’t know, I had to move out my old apartment four months ago due to a plumbing job. So since then I’ve been living out of a suitcase, constantly moving from one place to another. I thought that not having a home wouldn’t have affected me much, but turned out it did. Having your own place where you can feel save seems to be one of the very basic needs that a human being has. I only lived this way for four months, put still it really got under my skin. It’s just somehow very stressing knowing that you can’t stay in one place for very long. I can’t even imagine how it would be living on the street.

So anyway, the whole time I was going to the apartment showings, and they always seemed to have the same pattern. Everything was going nice and smooth until the question: 
- “So what do you do for living?”
- “I’m a musician. I play in a band”
- “Uh… Right… Ok so why don’t you leave me your number and we’ll get back to you”
And then I would never hear from them again. 

Now this would be the place where I could go on about how unfair that is and how prejudiced people are, but then again, if I’d own an apartment I don’t know if I would rent it to a musician either… :D

But enough with the crying, let’s concentrate on the bright side: I finally got a place! And not just some place, a really nice one too!! Just renovated apartment on the seventh floor with windows and a balcony facing to the Central Helsinki. I’m super hyped about it and can’t wait to get the keys! I never thought I’d been moving to Kallio again, but here I go :) The neighborhood seemed nice, and there are tons of nice bars near by. So if I someday get some money I could actually go to those places! ;D

Something super cool happened this week, but more about that later… ;)

Much love,
- Olli 

Ps. One has to have a cliffhanger :D

Pps. Next week (17.1 klo 16.15) we’re gonna have an unplugged gig in Ideapark Lempäälä near Tampere. Hope to see you there! <3

Merry Xmas

Merry Xmas!

written on 23.12.2013

Having just put my gravlax in the refrigerator (lol), and almost all gifts shopped, with still one effective day left until Christmas; I can't help not to feel joyful and relaxed. The last few weeks were intensive to say the least, and all culminated in our gig on Barona Areena on friday 20th. I could not think of a better Christmas present than to play for a full size arena packed with people. Thank you! And thank you for this year! I think the Barona gig summed up the year 2013 pretty well. Two singles released, both ranking good on radio airplay charts, zillions of songs written, three fourths of a hounded gigs played, thousands of new fans from Finland and abroad… you name it! And it still leaves next year full of new challenges!

Chestnuts

written on 24.12.2013

So this is Christmas? Yey! I guess. All presents are packed, and I'm soon to take a shower before I leave home, and head for my cousins place. I'm a bit cold and hungry. Happy, but not overjoyed. It's just a normal day after all, this Christmas eve. And I love it that way!

I'm not over fond of the consumerism way of celebrating Christmas with tons of expensive gifts. I think it's ok for the kids… after all I can't deny how important Christmas gifts are for(/and where for me as) a child. But even when a bit grown up I can't say that a really bulls-eye personal gift wouldn't always knock me off! I just love personal gifts. The problem with them is that they are so time consuming and there's no guarantee that you will even succeed. 

And this year I think most of my gifts are pretty dull, but to compensate that fact I have tried to make the wrapping a statement instead! You see gifts packed in wonderful decorative wrapping, but when you open it, the wrapping is often destroyed! What a shame! So this year I have wrapped all of my gifts in excess rubbish (but still tried to make them look nice)!

Foam rubber, plastic film, aluminum foil, baking paper, plastic bags, old rope, toilet paper and an old shoe box.

Some of my gifts were better, like this bark boat i carved for my grandmom! I had a chunk of bark which I started randomly shaping, and soon this sailing boat motive merged from it. :) And for my dad I made some special homemade herring, which he's a fan of. I hope he likes my take on it. 

And thank you for all of the gifts we've got from you fans!!! Thanks!!!

Merry christmas y'all! 
Eat and drink too much! 
Model or not, food is "gott"! 

//Paul

Today it's Sunday, tomorrow's Monday

Yo yo yo!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas. Everywhere you go. It's only 9 days until my birthday and the birthday of our savior and lord Jesus Christ. I haven't felt like this for a long time, and by this I mean progress. We still have the BIG show at Barona Arona coming up before we go on our winter holiday. And after Christmas we have to prepare for our album release and we have loads of gigs! The Norway tour with Isac Elliot and before that we're having a "six days, six shows" situation, so it ought to prepare us well! You can never get enough experience of playing live. We love it and feel pretty comfortable on stage but there's always stuff to improve on.

I'm going to Nepal for the holidays to see my parents. I've really missed them since I don't get to see them that often. It's going to be a week of godlike food, thrilling adventures and most of all good company. I'm going to go paragliding, bungee jumping and do some trekking in the mountains. I've visited Nepal once before in 2001 but a lot has changed since. Dad showed me some pictures of huge malls and modern architecture, and it looked like any other huge asian capital. Luxury boutiques right next to shacks. I'm flying via Istanbul, which probably my most visited airport in the world after Helsinki! I'll have the usual round via Burger King to the turkish ice cream kart and I'll finish the stopover with buying some Turkish Delight (that I can't eat anyway :).

The last few years I haven't really been that into Christmas. Everything felt so disappointing because I compared it to the childhood days. Now I feel much older and wiser so I started to appreciate it all again. I mean it's not like it's an amazing holiday when everything is perfect and it feels like you've never been happier. But at least it's something different! (Hopefully) You get to meet up with your parents and eat good food and just enjoy the calmness of the Christmas spirit. And not to mention Christmas music ★___★, I freaking love it. 

Yesterday I had a barbershop gig! (yes, I sing in a barbershop quartet with my pals) It was fun, it's always fun to sing. Especially in an a capella quartet. The music resonating throughout your body and the overtones you get when you nail a perfect chord just is something magical! (just like Christmas;)
The gig was in Hanken's (School of Economics) renowned fraternity/sorority house Casa and when in rome....  

notice the book "Finance"

Have a great week before Christmas and don't give up! The holidays are just around the corner <3

Stay Classy dear Popsters,
-krippe ~~~ヾ(＾∇＾)'ー♪ ♥


ps. insane rhyming skills in the Header, right? maybe I should pursue a career in Rap music.

December!

December's here! The last month of the year, and usually also the busiest. Everybody's having their "pikkujoulu"-parties, and we just started our season with one of our own. We dressed up and went to a nice restaurant, then to our traditional celbration bar Viikinki in Espoo, and then to a pool party in Grani. This tradition started two years ago, and you can read about the first time here:

http://satincircus.blogspot.fi/2011/12/well-hello-what-do-bands-do-besides.html 

Besides lots of parties, we also have a lot of work to do this month. We're gonna take some more photos, record acoustic versions of our songs, practice a lot and write new music. The stress of this month will end with our show at Barona Areena 20.12.2013. You should definitely be there, it's gonna be so epic to do our first arena show!! Can't wait! I think it's gonna be the perfect end for a super busy and fun year.

Check out the trailer here ;)

After that gig it's family time! My sister's been in Kenya for almost three months and my parents have been traveling the world for one and a half, so I'm really looking forward to spending time with them on Christmas. We haven't had much contact, mainly because most of the places they all are at don't have internet or even cell phone network. Can't wait to hear all the stories when I see them!

but now I'm off to work, let's write some hits!

-Axel

Clothes

Now, don't take me for a shallow or cosmetic person. But, I love clothes. I haven't always loved them, but during the last few years I've grown a big fan of "couture". It was a mere moment of realizing that what you wear can be more than a warm necessity. Clothes can be art. That's obvious. And all clothes can be art. And clothes are always a statement. 

My love for clothes started in the military. That's a place where clothes are given a very central role. You've got different clothes for different purposes, for different practical situations and formal situations. In the army you're forced to pay attention to the way you dress: clean your boots, tie a good tie and check your collar(and more importantly the rank marks on other peoples collars). Because all the conscripts have the same set of gear, the only way to stand out from the crowd is to have shinier boots. So I started paying attention on the small details, and eventually ended up hooked in the world of menswear dress code. (I'm on the far right on the pic)

The meaning of clothes did not occur to me before I was taken away my freedom to choose my clothes myself. 

When I (finally) finished the army I started experimenting with new styles… first very clumsily… but now my eye is better trained, and I've slowly learned what I really like. A good helping hand for me is Tumblr. It's a good way to stay on top of todays trends. I have an own fashion blog, for inspiration and to keep track of myself.
My tumblr HERE

This is me in ninth grade (16years)… what great taste… ;]

This is me at my best...

This is just a few months ago… so I guess you can say that there's been no real progress.

Sometimes I try to dress up a little

Take care

//Paul

Office destruction & other theories

Hola Popsters,

@Spotify finland

Last week we had an unplugged gig at the Spotify Finland. The gig itself was very nice and once again we got to meet great new people in the business and had some great time. But it was the next morning that was worth of a story… :D
So I left the party somewhere around 1 am and, as always, Krippe stayed to be the last guy leaving the party (some traditions you just don't mess up with). The next morning we came back to pick up the instruments, and the seen was some what amazing. The whole office was flooded with these small styrofoam balls (and when I say flooded I really mean it: the floors were covered with 20-30cm thick layer). There had been several "accidents" and many Fatboys had blew up covering the floors with these things. Also the pictures had been torn down from the walls and the place was bashed beyond recognition. Of course Krippe, according to himself, didn't have anything to do with any of this and he had been just an innocent bystander witnessing the events. Yeah right… :D

The gig @Spotify

My extensive and scientifically widely accepted studies have come to the conclusion that the time between 6 and 7 am is pure evil and should be banned from the face of earth, and if the human civilization ever should go to another planet or colony in space, from there too. Let me explain.
Last week we had one of those crazy early wake-up calls since we were guests at the YLE morning show called "Min Morgon". My alarm clock was set to 4.30 am, which always seems scary, since you think you're gonna be so tired that you can't get up. But no. It was one of the easiest morning ever, and I felt good and energetic. And it's always like that if you have to get up that early. Also after 7 am it gets easy to get out of the bed. It's only between 6 and 7 am when you're body is designed to put up the fight for not getting up. An evil plan put-up by the higher powers to ruin your mornings. I say we fight back! Let's take those hours out of the clock. Straight from 5 to 8. Problem solved. They should put me in the power. I'd get things done… :D

@Min Morgon

The "pikkujoulu" season is almost here! Now it seems that we're going to have three different parties: Rähinä, Sony and our own Satin Circus pikkujoulut. I can't wait….

Much Love,
Olli

Ps. You always gotta have a ps.

lollero

fun facts of week #45

- we had like 6 gigs in three days. (All of them were acoustic tho'. But it's equally fun! Just a little bit different)

• made a trip to Lahti for the radio station Voima (1) and after that we played in the mall called 'Trio' (2)

• It was the international Red Nose day and because of that many radio stations had a broadcasting marathon with loads extra happenings. We played and had interviews with Radio Nova, YleX and Radio X3M (5)

• a few friends of ours at the hilarious sock company Happy Socks opened up a pop-up store so played at their grand opening! (6) I recommend checking it out! the store is located at Iso Roba in Helsinki and in addition to socks it features some great artwork by David La Chapelle 

rad

I guess I'm all out of fun facts. But it was an eventful week :) 

Thank you all for being there with us all the time. It felt like a we spent a whole week with you :)

have a good week guys <3

-kripps

Oslo

What a weekend! Can't describe how awesome that was.. We flew to Oslo on Saturday and while the Sony people were having dinner (where we were supposed to be..) we went straight to meet our Norwegian friends instead. Me and Julie had a surprise for Adelén: we booked a limo a drove around the city for an hour listening to the best pop music :D that was awesome and the birthday girl seemed to like it ;)

Check out Julie's blog for the Norwegian version of it :D http://juliebergan.blogg.no/1383518111_surprise.html

photos by Julie Bergan

The night ended up in a hotel room party, and with less than an hour of sleep we went to the soundcheck at Sentrum Scene in the morning. What a venue! Perfect for pop music, there are no places like that in Finland!

When we were supposed to do our soundcheck we realized that our backline was missing.. 20 minutes before the doors opened.. Good thing they found some amps somewhere just before the audience came in :D

The gig was beyond magical. I've never felt anything like that on stage. When I went on stage first and started to play the intro synth I just couldn't believe what I saw and heard. Thousands of girls screaming on the top of their lungs to a band they've probably never heard of! Oh my god. I had goosebumps during the whole gig, from the first chord to the last words. I wish we could play more gigs like that in the future.

We got hundreds of new fans in Norway and they're doing their best to promote us, calling radio stations and showing our music to friends. All of this makes me happier than you could imagine. Thank you so much!<3

And thanks to the boys, Adelén & Julie, Isac & his crew and everyone else involved for making this the best weekend of my life! I don't know if I've ever been this happy<3

-Axl


ps. There's a video blog from the Norway trip coming up soon ;)