My week at the Secret Festival

The Secret Festival 2010 is over.

It all started on sunday the 27th of June. I was very nervous that first day when I got into my parents car and drove to Sättra. The expectations was not necessarily high but I had an idea of what I hoped it would be like. I got there and everyone was eating breakfast so I grabed a cup of coffea and tried to get to know everyone. It was Manluckerz; a drummer, artist and performer from Zimbabwe, now living in Uppsala, David Flynn; a composer and guitarist from Ireland, Janne and Juhan Suits; a couple from Estonia who plays all kinds of ancient musicinstruments, Vyvienne Long; a cellist from Ireland who played, recorded and toured with very big artists and who now is working very hard on a solo career, Klas Ehnemark; a music producer who composes music for film and theatre and who also makes his own movies, John Leo Carter; from Ireland but now lives in Sättra at the Yellowbox, plays the guitar and composes music with an Irish touch, the brain behind the Secret Festival together with his lovely partner Helle Kvamme. The whole week was also being filmed by Anna Johansson; a girl who´s actually from Borgholm and I recognized her from school. Simon Johansson from Stockholm took photos during this week.

We got to work and since the whole idea was that everyone brought a piece of their own music, we had to play it solo in front of everyone. I brought a song I wrote the week before called "You cought my eye" and to play it alone on the piano was nerve wracking but I got through it.

The first thought when I heard the songs was that everyone was really talented musicians and composers. That felt really good ´cause then I felt like we could really work with the pieces and make something with a high musicial level.

We rehearsed for three intense days and everone got to know eachother better. Except meeting all the musicians I also got to know John and Helles beautiful family and their neighbours. They had a kick-off barbeque on tuesday with good food, lovely people, nice weather. A perfect night and a perfect beginning to all the concerts.

I can now tell you the locations for the concerts but as you know, it was a well kept secret before the concerts. That´s the secret part in the Secret Festival, the audience dont know to which location the bus goes to. This year it went to Vannborga, Stora brottet, Stora rör and Sättra; four very beautiful locations on Öland. We had a lot of other bands playing at the secret places like on thursday we had Anders Linder playing for and with us.

The last concert at Yellowbox in Sättra was absolutely magical! I think that everyone felt like that including the audience. The concert was a part of a celebration to the village of Sättra, so all the neighbours came over and people were selling all kinds of things in John and Helles yard. Manluckerz had a workshop in dance, John and Helles daughter sang, Dave and his girlfriend performed and so did Vyvienne and her Raoul. I stayed the night so that I could say a proper goodbye to everyone. It was a really nice evening.

This week was one of the best weeks in my life. I have never worked like this before but it was such an unique experience. I think that we were lucky that it was this group that got together, it´s all thanks to John and Helle who picked everyone for this project. This week has given me so many new friends that I wish I never loose contact with, it´s given me a new strenght as a composer and musician that I know I can do this, it´s given me new ideas and new input. I want to thank John and Helle and their family who opened up their home and their hearts for us and made us feel so welcomed. Thank you!

I want to finish with two songs. We got the opportunity to play live on the local radio and they were so kind that they posted it on their website. Scroll down and listen to my song and also Vyviennes fantastic piece "Seahorse":

http://sverigesradio.se/sida/default.aspx?programid=3101