Songs

My first song: Cushion

Back in the days… when I was still the lead singer of Teddy Bob Freddys. I went to work in Stockholm for a period. I brought an acustic guitar with me. I had slowly started experimenting jamming a bit for myself and trying to sing along to the few chords i knew then. It was very difficult for me in the beginning to make the sounds that I had in my head, beeing the ones that came out. I recorded my jams and listened to them, but nothing really good assembled in the beginning. I worked in Stockholm for a whole year and had an apartment at Norr Mälarstrand with a varanda with a view over Stockholm.

One day when I got home from work to the appartment, the solitude and the absense of my friends from Denmark inspired me to the song Cushion. I think I am making fun of myself in that song.

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I had a bunch of very dedicated hardworking and friendly colleages in Stockholm and I invited them home to my appartment for some snacks and beer. I played the song for them and they thought it was very good. By that time when I came home to Denmark I also played the song for Teddy Bob Freddys and I also think they thought it was a good song. At that time Teddy Bob Freddys was disassembling, so nothing happened with it in that constellation. Later i introduced the song in Racetrack Babies and it seemed to float right into our repertoirer from day one. It ended up beeing one of the songs of the debut album “Love Sick” from Racetrack Babies.

The song God Bye from Racetrack Babies’ debut album love sick

As I have written elsewhere, the song with the title “God Bye” is spelled correct, which some Danish music journalists did not comprehend.

God Bye was the second “real” song that I wrote. I wrote it back in 1999 when I went to N.Y. to purchase my first guitar. I brought the guitar with me to my sisters apartment on the 33’rd floor in Mahatten and the store where I had bought the guitar had kindly lent me a small amplifier. I wrote the intro there (which at that time was very difficult for me to play) and I also wrote the rest of the song there. That was my state of mind at that time. N.Y which seemed to be so full of people somehow seemed ot be full og many lonely people living seperate lives very close to one another. During my stay in N.Y. my state of mind was on the edge because os some personal issues.

I had given the song a working title “Good Bye”. When I was driving in a cab through Manhatten, the cab stopped right outside a building which had the number 666 on it, while writing this blog i read that it was 666 Fifth Avenue on the internet. This gave me the creeps, but I thought that that might also be a sign. So I renamed the song from “Good bye” and called it “God Bye”. It was the beginning of my musical carrier and everybody talked about loosing their soul at some point(the crossroads), if you want to make it and I always wondered about that, so I thought the title: “God Bye” was perfect for that song, I still do. The song lyrics in the song Soul Snatch dance around that same subject concerning loosing your soul. I was scared stiff about that thought and had no idea what was meant with it. I do now I guess.

God Bye was the only song which we brought with us to the “Summer Salt Santiago” tour, it was a request from Guitar player Søren Ernst Hansen which also plays guitar on The Captain of Sorrow. It is a pleasure to play it live, and it is still one of my favorite songs, because it is so clear in its expression. Especially the “break” after the song just before it takes of again is a sure joy ride to play live.

When we recorded that for “Love Sick” Jacob contacted a museum and we borrowed an air raid alarm, which was used during the second world war to warn against air raids. That’s the sound which you can hear in the beginning of the song. We brought this “horn” with us to the “Love Sick” tour in Denmark and Skandinavia.

midtownbuilding666
666 Fifth Avenue, Manhatten N.Y.