The art of rehearsing

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Every band has their own special ways of doing things, and so does Blå Kongo. Here are all the ways we can manage to have a rehearsal without actually playing very much. Per and Maria Kvist always argue about which chord is best, to this the rest of us look on resignedly. Maria C starts to tell us a story about what happened today on the tube or yesterday on the bus, Dee shouts "LETS PLAY" looking mad, then Per decides to have a snus so we have to wait for him, meanwhile Johan's mobile rings and he gets his filofax out…time is ticking by…. We start to play the first few bars of a song then Maria Kvist says "STOP IT'S TOO QUIET I CAN'T HEAR THE BASS" so we turn it up, Dee's just popped out to the toilet and Maria's testing all the knobs on the PA system to get the right sound. O.K. everyone's back. Johan was just hitting Maria K with his drumstick, but he sat down when Maria C said "PLEASE!". Per looks at his watch - the rehearsal room is booked at 8 pm so we've only got an hour left. We start to play again. "TOO SLOW" shouts Dee impatiently, then follows a long discussion over the best tempo for the song, during which Johan is screaming obscenities at Maria C and Maria K's mobile rings… Per remembers that he had to meet his Aunty from Östersund at the central station at 7.30 pm, so he has to go. "WHAT??????" everyone screams. So ends another Blå Kongo rehearsal.

GIGS

Now we've rehearsed, it's time to gig. That must be simpler surely? Actually, no. Sometimes we wonder how we ever manage to make it up on stage with all the things that seem to go wrong before Blå Kongo gigs, usually the set backs are to do with the practical task of getting to a gig on time with all the right equipment and all the band members.
We can laugh about it now but Blå Kongo has had its fair share of trouble with cars. It's not really our fault, we've had to borrow cars from our friends, boyfriends and parents and they haven't always been in the best condition Occasionally we've had to borrow Dee's boyfriend's car, but only as a last resort as it's a risk to put all your faith in that 20 year old Citroen. As long as you know that the petrol gauge is broken it's OK, but Per nearly had a heart attack when he saw the needle at zero whilst driving on the E4 on the way to a gig. The fact that the engine cuts out at every red light is slightly annoying, or not being able to wind down the window because the handle fell off. When Maria Kvist drove the car back to it's rightful owner she parked it and walked away, leaving the doors unlocked and the keys in the ignition. Unfortunately nobody stole it.

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Södertälje Jazz club "Jazz på berget"

Dee and Per made their own way there and the others were coming with the gear in Carlman's dad's car. We were due to start at 8pm but at 7pm there was no sign of anyone. This was an important gig at an established jazz club and it felt the least we could do was turn up. Dee smiled at the club owner nervously and called Maria, "we're in a traffic jam just outside Stockholm"…great. As the public started to enter the building and sit down in front of the empty stage, Maria called again to say that the exhaust pipe had fallen off the car and she didn't know if they'd make it to the gig, in the background Maria Kvist laughed wildly. Meanwhile Dee and Per (who'd just arrived) were trying to calm down themselves and the club owner. 7.55pm and we heard a car pull up outside, by some miracle they'd managed to get out of the traffic jam and drive 50 kilometres with a dodgy car all in 15 minutes. We dragged all the equipment up on stage and assembled it in front of the patiently waiting audience. It was a good gig by the way.

Örebro

The gig in Örebro was another near miss, we set off to the gig with plenty of time to spare, and we were going to play before Claes Jansson at Just Jazz Club. 60 kilometres outside Örebro, we listened to an interview Maria Carlman was doing on the local radio station, everything was going amazingly well until we suddenly hit road works and got stuck behind a massive lorry, our speed reduced to 30 km per hour. This time it was Maria who was at the club trying to reassure the owners that, yes they'd be here any minute. When we finally got to the club, the entire audience was standing in a line outside (it was sold out), waiting for us to arrive and take our stuff in.

Linköping

A few hours before this gig at Flamman's student pub in Linköping, Maria Carlman, who was taking the train from Örebro to Linköping, called Dee's mobile and said: "There's been a power failure on the rail tracks, I don't if I'll make it to the gig." Just another typical pre gig set back. This time everyone actually made it to the gig on time, including Maria. It was after the gig that things went pear shaped. During the gig a storm had blown up, so when we set off home the roads were in a terrible condition. A snow blizzard and slippery roads meant that we had to drive really carefully; it was going to be a long ride home, and guess whom we had to ride home? Yeah, just a short detour from Linköping to Örebro to drop off Maria Carlman before making our way back to Stockholm.

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We were the only people mad enough to be out on the roads that night, and Per was staring wide eyed through the windscreen trying to make out where the road actually was under all the snow and ice. Suddenly a deer jumped right out in front of us forcing Per to swerve drastically to avoid an accident; luckily he managed to save us from crashing into a ditch in the middle of nowhere. A few minutes of silence passed and Maria C asked Per if he was OK, "No, I'm scared". We had run out of petrol…

Stockholm

In the middle of august we decided to do our bit for world peace and did a charity gig for Svenska Freds och Skiljedomsföreningen. The location was perfect, at Lasse i parken. It's always a nice change to do an outdoor gig as a contrast to dark smoky bars. The band had no problems getting to the gig and things went really smoothly. Remember last summer? It was scorching almost everyday, it only rained once or twice. Guess which day that was.

THE RECORDING

We recorded the album Blå Kongo last summer. The studio was really hot as it was 30 degrees plus outside everyday. The recording took two weeks and a couple of weekends. It was an intensive period. Ulf Turesson our producer was really talented at making us feel relaxed, he was also hilariously funny, so we spent a lot time laughing. It was really the first time Blå Kongo got to hang out with each other and relax. A lot of the time we weren't all recording together but we stayed in the studio anyway, none of us had any other commitments so no one was really stressed. It was fun to make a record, it's a dream come true for any band.