Rehearsal studios are difficult. They are either too cramped or too dirty, or both. Too many bands sharing the same studio with different agendas and taste in music. Beer cans and snus are spread around the room.

So I found this little spot just outside the city. It is not the most sound proof of studios, hell no. When the neighbouring bands starts to play I either have to turn up the volume to maximum or, as happens in most cases, I leave. But during daytime and early mornings during the weekends it is bliss having the place. For the last year or so I have shared it with Jonas and really, it was ok. Jonas does not drink beer in the studio and he plays the guitar. Brilliant. We get on just fine. Jonas is actually the only co-writing person on the album: we wrote Sundrenched Seasons together in this place. First he played this sad little tune in minor and I sang something ever more sad to it.  We had that tune for ages and it didn’t get anywhere. Then one day we decided to just write a chorus to it. Jonas played something and I said change this chord and that chord. Then he went home and I wrote the melody and the lyrics. I didn’t have to look very long for it. It just came. Anyway, today Jonas decided to move out and once again, I am alone. All alone.

American in Me is the first single from the album but before it is released, here is a remix.
In Late 2008, (yes, I am a slow mover) I took my gear and met up with Björn Synneby at his studio in Göteborg. I had a handful of songs that we would chose from for the then unnamed debut album of Dear Martin. The two tracks we agreed on was American in Me and He´s a Singer. The latter was actually written after a pacific! gig I attended earlier that year and Björn does not to this day know that he basically produced a song with himself in the title. I haven’t told him. Anyways. Björn is extremely talented and has an uncanny precision for harmonies. He ended up producing two versions of American in Me and I still ponder the idea of releasing the one version not on the album. It is just as awesome.

As if that was not enough, he just recently made me this pacific! remix of American in Me and to top it off he threw in this video. Enjoy!

The single American in Me radio edit will be out in January 2010.

http://www.musicpacific.com

In the process of creating The Dearest I had to deal with the ever so frustrating issue of graphics and pictures. I was once, as we all were, an Art Director’s  assistant at an advertising bureau, and I do consider myself having some sense of good design. But it is hard when it is about yourself. Fortunately, I got in contact with Hicke. I don’t think anybody ever calls him Henrik. He turned out to be genuinely interested in taking the same pictures I wanted so it was a blast working with him. Night shots out in the countryside of Drottningholm outside Stockholm rendered I think the best shots of me ever taken. It is not me being pretty, it is Hicke working his ass off in that wheat field.

For the pictures taken on location in that huge flat with high ceilings, Hicke brought along make up artist Rikki. Together with good lighting he made the touch up work so much easier. Thanks both of you!

For press, please go to Pictures at the top of the site.

www.hickephotograpy.com
www.petrinipetrini.com

I don’t really blog, I definitely don’t twit and I rarely text. I simply write. I write music and lyrics and, from now on, I am keeping a journal. That is how I see it. I know, it can easily be mistaken for a blog. The difference is, I guess, I am not ready to take on the pressure of writing a proper blog. Also, I tend to dwell and correct what I have written for some time after the first letters have been tapped in.

Anyway, the reason being, I am releasing an album and this journal will unfold to be the story around the album.

So. I have got an album coming out soon. Don’t we all, someone might say and yes, we do in a way. An album or a script or a film or life to live. Everybody is so damn creative. As Lily Allen would put it: everybody is at it.