Can I come home now?

"I will revive our fallen comrade.
Too long has he been forsaken and forgotten. 
Too long have we neglected his existence."

We're slowly getting back to our usual routines after a fun summer. We met a lot of new people, saw a lot of new places and got to play awesome gigs but it feels kind of good to get back to normal life after all the hassle. It's not only a new start for this blog but also for our band because we've left dear old Lauttasaari behind us. It was time to say goodbye to that 14m2 adorable little cage where we spent the last three years. Change is good. It opens up new opportunities. Our new studio is almost three times bigger, has good acoustics and already feels like a second home.

As a band we're facing big challenges in our future. If you think of our band as a person I'd say right now it's a 14 year old boy who has just had his first crush. It was a lovely time, everything felt right but it couldn't last forever.  It didn't work out for them and he got dumped.  Of course it made him a stronger person and he learnt a lot from the experience but he still lingers in thoughts of confusion and uncertainty. Who am I? What do I really want? Will anyone love me again?

We've written songs for the second album for over a year now. We've done folk songs, progressive pop, mainstream, Motown soul, gritty Finnish "I-cut-my-wrist" rock, hell even turkish dancehall. And out of all of this we've actually managed to make a few good songs. Most of them different from each other but all of them personal and important to us. What we're facing now is deciding where we wanna take this. What sound are we looking for? The songs will define us as a band and the options and opportunities are endless. What are we? What do we really want? Will anyone love us again?

In times of despair and confusion it's good to look back at the good times in life. Just like that 14 year old boy and his (ex) crush should do. All the memories, all the emotions, everything! Despite the outcome, what they will always remember is the feeling. It felt right.

I know what we have to do. We have to do what feels right and go with it. No reservations, no holding back. Try to live up to our full potential and do our best. I'm excited and scared but that's part of it, right?

Thanks for being here for us, it really means the world. I look forward to scribbling down more thoughts for you in the future. (Although I really think we're doing this mostly for ourselves :D)

stay classy
-kripps

Spring Vibrations

Heyyyyy! Long time no see! Olli was supposed to write the blog after Paul's magnificent "running up that hill", and when he didn't this blog kind of died.. but NOW it's time to start blogging again! :D

Ssssooo! Last post was from Norway.. Lots of things have happened since then. We've spent most of our time writing songs for album number 2. Hits hits hits! On the weekends we've played shows all over Finland. We also signed a live booking deal to Norway so we'll be going back there in the summer! 

When I'm writing this we're sitting in our van on our way home from Kyyjärvi. One of the best gigs of my life!! The girls who organized this collected the money themselves and made this all possible. Really amazing! Wish there was more activity like this <3 And the gig was awesome. Almost 10% of Kyyjärvi's population was there, that's the same as having 50 000 people on your gig in Helsinki ;) And they blew us away… I've never jumped and ran around the stage as much as I did yesterday.. I almost went crowdsurfing in the last song.. And I've never seen a crowd like that. So much fun. Thank you <3

The summer is coming very fast and we're really looking forward to playing all over Finland soon! We're going to a lot of places we haven't been to before! Hämeenlinna, Turku, Oulu, Tammisaari, Jyväskylä, Kuopio, Vaasa, Hanko and more.. We're still booking more gigs for the summer so hope to see you around :)

Stay tuned on our twitters and instagrams for more updates on our tour life! @toasterrrr, @kripps_, @axelkalland, @pauluotila, @olli_halonen

-Axel

Running up that hill

Hi!

It’s fun to actually write a blog again after all this video blogging we’ve been doing. To be honest I’m not very good at editing the videos, I’m more involved with creating the stupid comic reliefs (and that does not even happen on purpose). 

From the video blogs you have witnessed that we had an amazing tour. I have to say that Norway is one of the most beautiful countries I’ve been to. The elevation of the terrain gives a third dimension to the small towns, with colourful (or white, as in Stavanger) wooden houses built on the hillsides, creating a web of picturesque small streets. 

We first arrived to Bergen, a city at the atlantic coast in western Norway, late in the evening. We did not really have time to discover the city that night, so I decided to take a jog around the town next morning. I had already located a mountain (Bergen is surrounded by seven mountains, creating an interesting weather phenomena resulting in all the humid Atlantic sea air raining down on Bergen as the clouds climb up the mountain, reaching the colder air of the hilltops. Thus it rains 270 days each year in Bergen on average. It was perfectly clear weather during our visit though.) that I wanted to run on top of the first night. We had to leave the hotel at 8:30 the next morning, so I had to get up at 6:30 to make it on time. But hell yes it was worth it! When I left the hotel it was still dark, and I could see the lights of the sightseeing spot on top of the mountain, far away, so I headed towards the light with no real clue of the streets there. I ran through wonderful small wooden houses built neatly side by side, each reaching over the other as the hill elevated. All of the apartments there must have had a great view over the city, as each of the bright coloured houses stretched over the previous one. It was a far more exhausting run than I had expected, with the hill soaring many hounded meters above sea level, but when I finally reached the top of the mountain, the sight was even more breathtaking than the workout itself.

I’m surprised of how effectively I could utilise the free time that we had on exercise, reading and occasional songwriting. I can almost say that this tour was one of the coolest things in my life so far, and I’m expecting a lot from our future tours! I really hope we can come back to Norway as soon as possible, and in fact it is very likely to happen in the near future (inside information). BEWARE! WE’LL BE BACK!

See you!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wp43OdtAAkM

//Paul

Lovely Norway, do you wanna hear a [storey]?

Hi there!
I'm sitting in our hotelroom as we speak (I write). The other's are at the gym but I couldn't make it because I had to go and buy new rubber thingies for my in-ear headphones. Get this, I only need one tiny pathetic piece of rubber but I'm forced to buy a whole new pack of headphones -.-'. I misplaced my  (expensive) Shure In-Ear Monitors that I usually gig with on the Baltic Princess :( Now I have to use my normal ones and I was a bit nervous before the soundcheck in Bergen because I didn't know how well they would work. Well, they turned out fine but after that gig the tip of the right earphone somehow dissapeared. So now after my shopping trip in Stavanger I'm stuck with an extra pair of the cheapest headphones only for the sake of a piece of rubber! But at least I'm all set for tomorrow :)

Being on the road has been awesome! A lot of flying and super long days but it's all worth it. I taught my favourite card game Heathbridge to Paul and Axel I'm looking forward to play some more with them! Today we also went bowling which was fun! We usually hold Satin Circus Championships and so far I've won both of them! So now I'm not only a kartingmaster but also a bowlingmaster! And all this despite the fact that Pauls distant relative is a world champion in bowling!

The boats dry air and the multiple gigs had taken it's toll on my throat but slowly but surely I'm making some progress towards recovery! A huge thanks goes out to Fredi and Isac who let me borrow some of their high-end vocal nurturing accessories. There's a humidifying bong-looking can which through I inhale eucalyptus vapor! It feels really good to get some warm steam going through the breathing system. I also sprayed the honey of a queen bee as deep in my throath as I could get it. Kind of tickled but it soothed my throath effectively! And you can never go wrong with a warm cup of water with lemon and honey.

Tomorrow we're playing our second show in Stavanger and the concert hall is brand new! It looked amazing! Speaking of amazing, I really wanna go have an other look at the city before we leave so I'll better get going before it get's dark! If you're wondering about us, we are all doing really fine and enjoying this journey to the fullest. Thank you for making this possible for us! <3

take care guys
~kri-kri-kri-kripster

SC on tour !!!

It's Sunday morning, 9 am. We're sitting in a van on our way from Kemi back to Helsinki. I've slept one hour.
Expectations was released last Friday 14.2, and our album release gig in Gloria was the best gig we've had so far. Unbelievable audience. The music peaked at 105 dB and the audience at 114… Crazy screaming all gig long. So nice to finally be a headliner, and having all the people listening just to us.. Can't describe the feeling! Thank you all for being there, you're the best <3

The Expectations tour started this friday with a gig in Vaasa, and yesterday we played in Kemi. Our first gig ever in Lapland! Crazy audience once again, and I just love being able to move around freely, especially in the 3 songs where I'm playing keytar!

Life on the road has been great, it's so good to finally go out of the studio and play live for everybody! We're already rating hotel breakfasts from 1 - 5 like we would have been doing this for ages :D And this is just the beginning. This night we're gonna be home and from tomorrow we're gonna live on the cruise ship M/S Baltic Princess for five days.. Nine shows! I've never played on a cruise before and I'm really looking forward to this week. We've even made our gym programs already :D

After our week at the princess we're going to Norway for 2 weeks and then back to Helsinki for our tour end shows Nosturi 15.3 and Malmitalo 18.3. This is the dream life I've been waiting for for over 4 years. And finally it's happening! THank you so much for the amazing support and hope to see you all at our shows! <3

-Axel

watching hockey in the van!

Keytar hero & bass hero!

writing the blog. right now!

The Dream Coming True

Hi,

The day we’ve been waiting for for SO long time is now only a day away. This Friday our debut album “Expectations” is finally coming out! We’ve been talking about this from the very first day of Satin Circus and now it feels kind of unreal. You know when you’ve been waiting and thinking about something for a long time, you can’t really comprehend it once it happens. But I’m so glad that after Friday it’s out there for everyone to listen. It was a long process to make this record and we learned so much during it. I hope you’ll enjoy the final product even half as much as we enjoyed doing it.

Signing "Expectations"

Another “first” that we’re gonna experience this Friday is the record release gig/party that we’re having in Gloria Helsinki :) We’ve been practicing for this for over a month, and people are gonna see a whole new live show! We spend all our money buying new gear to our live setup, but finally we’re at point we’ve been dreaming about… WE’RE WIRELESS!! It may not sound that epic, but I assure you that it truly is :D No more we are stuck with the instrument/mic/IEM cables on the stage! The amount of freedom and energy is going to be phenomenal!! :) I hope we’ll see all you guys there!

Unplugged gig @ Bettina

Even though this is gonna be an important milestone in our career, I’m sure this record is gonna be one of the many that we’re gonna release. Every day that passes by assures me more and more that we’re gonna go a long way with this band. I hope that years from now I can look back to this moment as a start to an amazing ride. With that being said, one can release one’s first album only once, and therefore this is the dream come true moment for me :)

- Olli :-)

Totally incoherent

Hello!!

I'm writing this while sitting in the studio control room waiting for my turn to rock the string bass to the song Beautiful.

We could make the acoustic video on with TV in the control room! Good ol' VHS

Out studio home-boy Hannes

Yea, we're finally doing acoustic versions of the songs properly in the studio. We'll more of that when they're ready.

I'm killing my abs with this exercise every second day. Try it out! It's good! Thank's for the tip Sampo <3 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-9L0J_9qag

What else?

Check out the radiostation LOOP regularly, cus I'm making a fashion blog with their reporter Jekku (<3) Berglund. Already done a few episodes, and the future is bright. Breakthrough concept. Fame is behind the corner. It's a lot of fun! This is a link to my tag on their site: http://www.loop.fi/#!/esiintyja/Paul%20Uotila
More stuff is pouring in constantly!

-Out of context picture-

Less than two weeks till the album release!!!!! And our Finnish listeners have had the opportunity to hear the album on forehand on YleX website starting today. Exciting to say the least!

Made some weird mascarpone dessert today. I'm not usually the best chef when it comes to dessert. To be honest, I'm not a fan of many of the classic deserts. At least not making them. But the things I love are cream and fresh berries (or fruit).

Soooo. This is a sweet heavenly dessert cup with the following layers (starting from the bottom):
- crushed "domino cookies" or any cookie you like, digestive is fine.
- mascarpone cheese(2/3) blended with quark (1/3)
- berries! (strawberry, raspberry, blueberry)
- whipped cream
- crushed dark chocolate

Tadaaaaa!! :D

//Paul

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