Stockholm, Sweden - June 29, 2023
Rehearsal rooms are the same the world over - airless, windowless boxes filled with sweaty men and the occasional sweaty woman fighting to be heard amidst the microphone feedback, the single-coil pickup buzz and the low rumble of the metal band rehearsing next door. In Stockholm it was no different - even if the studio carpark overlooked a pretty lake and on a hot summer’s day the bands could take a lunch break to sit by the beach whilst blonde haired blue eyed kids and their parents splashed around in the freezing cold water.
Having flown in that morning, checked into the hotel and collected the Ford Transit tour van, I found my way to the studio to be reunited with Hannah, meet Martin, Marcus and Oskar for the first time, and get down to the business of rehearsing the Hannah Aldridge set. I’m playing two roles on this tour - I’m the opening solo act and keyboard player in Hannah’s band. I’m also allegedly the band leader - though it’s clear from the first few bars that this band need very little leading.
We finish up around four and drive around Stockholm for an hour or two to drop band members home, before I roll up to soundcheck for the ‘extra’ gig I’m doing - a one-off opening slot for local Americana-upstart Jesper Lindell. I have little recollection of the show itself - except to say that it was outdoors on a wooden stage by some kind of historic homestead. I wondered the grounds during Jesper’s set and soaked in the sweet lilac blossom scent that seems to hang over this city at this time of year. By the time I close my eyes to sleep there’s been the usual late-night fast food collection, though here in Scandinavia that can mean a halloumi steak in a lettuce leaf bun, with sweet potato fries and an avocado shake.
Above: Me at Stockholm Arlanda Airport, then live and unslept, supporting Jesper Lindell.
Below: Seafood and wine, then collecting Dream of America vinyls from the label office.
I begin day two - which promises only another ten hours in the rehearsal room - with a five kilometre run around the park and cemetery, embarked upon to counteract the dubious nutritional value of the waffles and crepes at the hotel breakfast buffet. It’s easy to feel motivated to exercise in Sweden - the locals look…well. Perhaps it’s the saunas, perhaps it’s the icy-lake swimming, or perhaps it’s the prevalence and relative affordability of plastic s
urgeons, but it’s hard not to notice that (many of) the Swedes are glowing with health. Inspired, I made good (post-breakfast) life choices today - sushi for lunch and a seafood dinner (by yet another lake) with Hannah and only two glasses of wine, to dissect the rehearsals, the band and get in the right headspace for the tour.
There’s a lot on the line here for Hannah - a new record, a new label and the first Scandinavian tour with and all-new band. The record itself - Dream of America - which Damian and I produced, is really the reason we’re all here. Hannah and I got started during lockdown, and we brought in Damian late last year in a move which ensured that the record got finished yet maintained the vision we’d discussed and chipped away at for years. It was an ambitious, somewhat avant-garde project, and it has the potential to be divisive. It also includes a cover of an LB and The Wildes song - Portrait of the Artist as a Middle Aged Man - which, in my humble opinion, definitely surpasses the original. Sometimes, as Mick Jagger said so long ago, it really is about the singer not the song.
