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 ;)

Food

Hello readers!

I'm in a good mood, for no real reason I guess. This is a great time to start writing a blogpost. 

I bought some tea from my favorite tea shop on my way home through downtown. At the shop I asked for a random green tea, and they handed me a big bag of green tea to scent... and ohhh, I smelled a marvelous field of new, sweet, spring grass. It was the same tea that I had bought the very first time I visited this little boutique. It  remains my favorite green, even though I had forgot it for a few years. It's a Chinese green tea from the Jiangxi province, named Wu Lu Shan. Luve it!

R.E.S.P.E.C.T.

This meatless oriental yummy-wok was my todays experiment. Being a complete vegetarian this October has opened my eyes for a new super-tasty protein source. These so called soy-slices are one of the best meat substitutes you can get. You can make them so nice and squishy when prepared slowly, or you can fry them until they're crispy and crunchy (and the superlazy one can eat them just as they are...dry...nogood). AND they contain 45g protein per 100g.

So today I decided to wok them together with some veggies. I paired them up with 100g cabbage, one carrot, one sweet pepper, one garlic, two onions and some fresh ginger. First off you have to soak the dry soy-slices. It'll take some 15 min, so be sure to count that in your cooking schedule. Put the slices in a bowl and pour on some boiling water untill they're totally covered. Next comes an important phase in cooking veggie: You have to spice the soy well!! I happened to use this ready mix of spices for thai wok.... normally I don't use those, but I had one free sample from some past event. I must say it worked very well. Well, still. You can switch that for curry, chili, soy sauce, some fresh garlic, lime, and any other oriental(/or not) spices you like or find suit. Just remember to use a lot!

Vegetables.

The soy and marinade.

You will need:

60g dried soy-slices

100g cabbage

1 carrot

1 sweet pepper

2 small onions

1 garlic (or 2 for the soy-slices)

2 sets of noodles

soy sauce

chili

curry or other nice spices

oil

When you have that under control chop the vegetables and take out a large wok pan. Start by putting a lot of oil. 1/2 dl almost. Be prepared to use a lot of oil for woks, otherwise it will burn, or taste dry. All of the other ingredients have little to non fat, so you're safe here. :) Start by frying garlic and onions, together with the soy, until they've gained a little tan. Then add the rest of the veggies. At this point you can throw in the spicy sauce you marinated your soy with in the wok to give it some extra taste. In the meantime pour some boiled water over the noodles, to give them a fast boil. You don't want them to be completely boiled, more like "al dente" however wrong that phrase rings with noodles. And when the noodles have cooked for some 1,5 min, you can throw them in the wok.

Fry 'till all the fluid is gone, and TaTaTaaa, you're ready!!

Serve with some fresh cabbage cut to heart shape //very important!!!


Kisses and stuff!


//Paul

TRE & More

Hi Popsters,

Another month has passed since my last entry. Crazy… :D

Last weekend we were in Tampere playing a gig. It was part of "Lost in Music" festival, which was a showcase festival for music industry people. Shows like that are always odd ones to do, because they are so different from the normal gigs. The audience there is not fans (although some fans showed up too, and thank you for that!) or normal music listeners, but people who make their living out of music (I guess some of them can be normal too...;D). That's why it's very different to perform to them, and I know that many musicians hate it, but I think we've always been good at those shows. As long as we're just having fun together on the stage it's all fine :)

Welcoming committee @Tampere. Thanks guys <3 

So as said the gig went well, but we did have a lot of fun off stage too. Our 15th floor hotel room had a magnificent view over the central Tampere (I guess that must be the highest floor I've ever slept) and the Tampere nightlife proved to be worth of the stories :D Not to forget the hotel breakfast and morning sauna: something I always take advantage of when we're on the road, since those are the luxuries I don't have at home. Or I didn't have…

I shit you not, I just moved into a huge mansion! It's quite an upgrade from my old one bedroom flat :D So now I have like four bathrooms, sauna, jacuzzi and a huge terrace. The catch is, that I'm not gonna stay here for long, since the owners are coming back soon and I have to get a new apartment, which will be a one bedroom flat again. It's gonna take a while before I get to live in a place like this again, so I'm gonna enjoy every bit of it while I can! :)

@YleX

During the past week we did this "mini radio tour". We went to YleX and NRJ and played unplugged set for the crews. It was so cool to meet all these new people, and I think both of those stations have a better understanding about who we are and what we do now when they have seen us live. Big thanks goes to our PR person Tommi! Gotta love Tommi <3

@NRJ

Much Love,
- Olli <3

Ps. If a bus route runs late every single day, doesn't it mean that that is the time it takes for a bus to drive the route and somebody at HSL should just correct the timetable so that people wouldn't have to be FREEZING THEIR ASS OFF FOR THE EXTRA 5 MIN EVERY MORNING?! Thank you.

let it snow

Yolo!

I just witnessed the first snowflakes of this season, I also tipped Axel's seasoned noodle soup on his clothes. While it's chilly outside the chili covers him while the rest of us chums are chilling with champagne doing our chores. (We finally cleaned our studio)

Axel and Olli had really cool vacations abroad, but even tho' I stayed in Finland I had it pretty good! I visited my beloved family (or what's left of them here in Finland) and had some quality time with myself! Movies, computer games, reading and plenty of tea. I'm reading short stories by Hemingway at the moment and there was this one guy who, when he couldn't get any sleep tried to recall all of his life. Every single day from when he first had any actual memories until the present. And as I tried it myself, I was amazed at how many flashbacks you can retrieve from virtually any time of your life once you start digging around. One happening leads to another that leads to a smell or a taste that leads you to a scrub on your knee and a hug from your mother.

Although there's been a few days when I thought this was it, Winter is no longer coming, it is HERE! This morning really cheered me up. Not that many leaves left on the trees but more sunshine than ever! My apartment is getting pretty darn cold tho'. Maybe I should finally phone the landlord and try to get him to fix the window and get rid of the draught.

aim for the stars... or something

"Words empty as the wind are best left unsaid."
- Homeros

It's the last day the amusement park Linnanmäki is open so I'm going to have a look at what's happening! I know there's gonna be fireworks and Paula Koivuniemi! I might have a go at the Kummitusjuna (Train of Terror?), Vekkula (House of Horsing around) and Top Spin! Those were always my favorite rides. Not to forget going up with the Panorama thingy and gazing out over Helsinki. The evening is called Valokarnevaali (The Light Carneval) so I bet the view is going to be beautiful.

Have a great night guys and thank you for your support.
It's there everyday and it helps us stay focused. I can't emphasize it enough.


-krippe

wake me up when October ends

Fall is here. I love it. The nights are getting darker and colder but I don't mind. Music always sounds much better in the fall, at least some kinds of music. My favorites right now are Hey Brother by Avicii, Lifesaver by Sunrise Avenue and Atlas by Coldplay. 3 of the most amazing songs this year and they've all been released during the last month. Check out my Spotify-list here if you want to know what songs I like the most at the moment :)

Every summer I've been somewhere abroad for at least a couple of days, but not this time, I simply didn't have the time with all the band stuff going on. But on friday I'm leaving somewhere for a couple of dayssss!! yeaaa. I'll tell you later where I'm going cause I don't even have the flight tickets yet :D

I've been feeling overly happy the few days for no apparent reason.. I don't know why but I'm smiling all the time haha. I even said I love fall even though I've always hated it.. Weird stuff.

Maybe it's just because we've been doing lots of fun stuff during the last few weeks. Fan-meeting & unplugged gig @ Sony, roadtrip to Vaasa, golf-day (:D), TV-gigs (EL & MGP), parties.... Follow our Instagram and our twitters if you wanna stay tuned :)

Love
-Axel

Running and stuff

Hi,

I'm sitting in my sofa, got too much time to spend. That's unusual. That never happens. Usually I'm always running somewhere. Like yesterday, when I ran a half marathon race, witch is exactly 21.097494 km. :D

That's me there in the red beanie! I started off the race with Miley Cyrus - 'Wrecking Ball' playing. Man I love that song, it really gave me a kickstart! 

Now I have to brag a little, you see I've only been jogging since this april, but I still managed to get a pretty decent time. My time was 1:50:46! Yeyy. 

Apres vingt-et-une kilomètre! 

Well, it's pretty damn cold in Helsinki at the moment I tell ya'. Just a few degrees past 0 C°. Last week I actually encountered some snowflakes falling in the Helsinki city centre!! Crazy. Soo, that's why you're rather spending your days inside right :)

So just hanging inside today... Practiced some jazzzz. Poor quality on this recording but... =) Palle Danielsson's bass solo on Keith Jarret - Country

By the way the whole band is gonna be vegetarian for the coming month because of a thing called "Lihaton Lokakuu". It translates to Meatless October, and is a campaign for cutting down peoples meat intakes. So why not join in =D And then we have Movember coming up soon too ;)

My family's dog Kilda always has Movember. But never Lihaton Lokakuu i presume because this is her puppyface prior to eating some pasta carbonara. Can you say no to this?

Olli's and my hotel room in Vaasa. I always iron on the hotel... just because I can.

Take care.

//Paul

Popster love

Hi,

You know I came to realize on the other day that right now we're in a situation where we (the four of us in the band) can't really affect to the things that are going to happen to this band. What we can do, is to write the best music that we possible can and learn to perform it the best we can, but what happens next is entirely up to you. Now that the record is near to be ready and the singles are already out there all we can do is to hope that everything goes well and people are gonna like our music. What happens next lies in the hands of our fans and other listeners. It's only them who can spread the word about us, watch our videos and listen to our music. The radios want to play the songs that people like to listen and the press writes about the artist that people want to read about. Knowing that the ball is now handed to our fans is actually quite relieving, cause I know we have the best fans in the world. Popsters <3 You decide what happens next :)

The treasure at the end of the rainbow: Tampere 

Last week we went to Vaasa and we had a wonderful weekend there! It was so nice to see many of you to show up at the gig <3 Like so many times, many of you had travelled great distances to be there. It's just so overwhelming to see the devotion and support you guys show us! Many times I just find myself so helpless as I just can't find the words and ways to show how much it means to me to see all the things you guys do for us, but I want you to know that we are forever grateful to you <3

The 10th floor swimming pool was nice!! Again... :D

Much love,
- Olli 

Btw you can vote "If You Love Me" at the YleX Himoituimmat chart!! http://ylex.yle.fi/artisti/satin-circus/biisi/if-you-love-me

Ps. EMMA won the Music & Talang's "Radio song of the year" prize! It was a prize voted by the public, so thank you so much for voting!! 

The radio song of the year: EMMA

Pps. Yeah I know, I signed this post differently. No more Social Joe :D Maybe it's time to let him go :)

Pps. Here's the world's first Satin Circus tattoo!! Thanks Henna <3

Henna's SC tattoo <3