Winter greeting from Ask and Carol

Hey guys!
 

Wow, what an intense time this Autumn and Winter has been. From the high of going on our first tour after Covid (with an amazing crowd!!), to the lows of loosing all our music equipment after a break in in Gothenburg. 

We want to thank all our amazing fans who came out to our shows. You guys are awesome, we love you all! <3 Even after that sad incident, you guys made this tour an incredible experience. :D

The Gothenburg story

So, for those interested we'll tell you all about what happened on that cold and rainy day in Gothenburg. We were on tour in Sweden, with only a few shows left. It was a late night when we arrived in Gothenburg, and we discovered that the garage we had pre-booked at the hotel was too small for our band van. After exploring our options, and discussing with the receptionist, he convinced us to use a parking space he said was super safe and with video surveillance. We trusted him. Well, maybe not 100%, so just in case, we brought our guitars and some of our effect pedals inside the hotel. We got some funny looks, and several comments on why we had to bring such huge amounts of stuff into the hotel. It turned out to be very lucky we did that.

On the day after, Carol left to pick up the car. It was 4 hours until get-in and sound check. Everything looked fine with the car, all the doors were locked, no sign of anything suspicious. There was stuff inside, and at first glance it just looked a little more messy than normal. After cleaning up a bit, Ask looked over at Carol: "Where is your floor tom, Carol...?" Something wasn't right. Must have been the early morning that made us a little slow, but it suddenly hit us: There are no amps. The PA is gone too. Trombone, speakers as well. And who knows what else. It was now 3 hours until get-in and sound check.

I think we'll remember that moment for a long time. That moment when we realized what had happened. The first thing that went through our minds were, what do we do at the concert, only hours away? The next thing was to call the police and our insurance, and then the promoters and venue. We sat down in the lobby of the hotel, and after what seemed like an eternity, it was finally our turn in the phone queue. All we got was instructions to do things online. It was now only 2 hours left until get-in and sound check. We had to find a solution for the concert, or there would be no sound! After lots of back and forth with venue, promoter, and the support band, our contact at the venue actually managed to get hold of some guitar amps we could borrow from his band mates. The amps were at a rehearsel space on the other side of town, though, and with only 1,5 hours to sound check, traffic jams were the last thing we needed.

Luckily the opener also managed to find an amp they could borrow, and we were finally set for the gig. The synth and drum pad with all our sounds were still missing, though, so we would just have to improvise a lot. But, now that we had the amps, there would at least be sound! At this point we were about an hour behind schedule, and with a lot of technical issues during sound check, people started getting impatient. At that point we said, oh well, let's just go for it. The concert had to start. 

All things considered, it was a really successful concert. Some people had left due to the delay, but the ones who stayed loved it. That made an otherwise strange day a little more bearable. The next day we had to find solutions for the rest of the tour. I think we must have been to all music stores in the whole of Gothenburg looking for replacement synthisizer, pads and cables and stuff. Most importantly, though, we had to report the break in to the police. Easier said than done. After waiting for hours, the policewoman had so much trouble with our norwegian names and ID-numbers she had to bring in half the police station it seemed.

In the midst of all of this mess, we had a single release of "Control You (Alt version)". We have to admit it wasn't exactly on the front of our minds at that time. It wasn't until we were back in our studio in Auma we could really take in everything that had happened. It was hard to not think about: Standing there in our studio, thinking we should get to work recording, there's only one problem.... The studio is almost empty! There's no stuff there. 

Luckily the thieves didn't take any of our 100s of CDs or T-shirts we had in the car. Unlike the amps, that stuff we would love to get rid of. So, if you find yourself wanting a CD or T-shirt for the new year, you know what to do, just "Ask Carol"! (Get it here)

Yey, two down, many more to go!😄🎸🎶 Building our rig, one piece at a time. After endless phone queues and conversations and arguments with the insurance companies, today, four weeks later, we have these two replacement amps in place. 

Finally we can practice with sound again, now it's time to get ready for Bastard Bar, Tromsø, in two weeks!🥳🌅

For those of you who celebrate it, hope you had a very merry Christmas, a cool Yule, God Jul as we say here in Norway. And to all others, have an awesome January, and hope to see y'all soon.

We have some exciting news coming up. More on that later.

Big hugs from Carol and Ask <3