Now and then

This website was my home for about three months in early 2007. At the time I wasn’t doing too well and in order to find a way to hold myself together I started writing one song every night and posted it on this site. Shortly afterwards I also opened a myspace page. Starting on February the 12th, I wrote 103 songs altogether. Listening to them again with half a year distance, I still like all the songs, from the very first one to the very last. I am mildly embarrassed by my voice on a few of them, but hey. And even though I really don’t remember how to play most of them, the lyrics I remember all too well.

After I put my songs up on myspace and changed them almost daily, I got confused on how personal that space became to me. This dumb claim “a place for friends” became true to my life. I really miss some of my friends today and besides the public face of the site there was a lot of communication and care going on in the background. I was touched when Remi February contacted me and asked if she could use a track of mine in her art work. And I was just as moved when Silje wrote a song for me … and I was struggling to write a reply that would do her song justice.

And of course it was only a matter of time until some old friends I hadn’t told about the site stumbled across it. Firstly, I was really confused by that. But then it actually did me good to bring the two separate worlds together. Slowly. Olly Farshi, whom I had known a little from Manchester, was one of the first people I knew to run into me on myspace. And the first break I had on “writing one song every night” was when he invited me to come to Manchester for a week to work on his record.

For most of 2007 I thought I would start working on “getting up every morning” in autumn again. But if I am honest, I have to admit to myself that the 103 songs on this site describe a part of my life that has found its balance and as much as it meant to me, I now can admit that I should let the songs live and close this chapter at the same time.

My personal favourites

So you can find the complete archive of all the songs and the diary notes to go with it. And all the lyrics. And some videos. Also, since I have been asked this quite a few times, this is my favourite song still:

• That one string (March 8th, 2007)

It’s the shortest still but if I had to find one song to describe the time I lived while writing these songs, this would be it. Another one I really like is:

• Flying through thin air (March 24th, 2007)

And the first song that I wrote looking ahead and not inside so much, the one song that I feel happening now in my life (and the one that I still have a video in the making):

• One day (April 21st, 2007)

And finally, from the later songs, I am really happy with the only song where I did not play the guitar (or any other string instrument). Instead I was…:

• Pressing buttons only (August 8th, 2007)

I also made a top10 site here - but haven’t updated it ever.

What’s next?

As far as this site is concerned, I don’t know. Some people asked me to release the songs on a CD – but I wonder why, since they are here already.

One thing I did do was wrapping all the songs into one ZIP file for people to download (including track numbers and cover pictures for most of the songs). It’s free, but I decided to make it available only for people who register, because I will pay so much traffic, it’s about 125MB of mp3-files. It’s the same as if you go through the site and download them manually. But if you want to ZIP, register and you will get the link on your profile page.

“I am getting up every morning. And so are you.”

This was the opening line I had in my head if I would ever do a live performance of my material. I’ve done a few performances, but haven’t used it yet.

Feel free to contact me: everymorning[(at/]gmx{dot.}net (hope you can decipher my amateurish spam protection…)

(End of my update, here is the original text from February 2007)

why gettingupeverymorning?

until i know, enjoy one song a day. i am pushing myself to write one song every night and upload one song every morning. that gives me a reason to get up every morning.