Hey friends!
Well. I’m in Berlin at the moment. Finishing up a project that has started almost two years ago. And I must say I’m having the time of my life! The people are so friendly. The city is so great. I arrived on Monday. It was a perfect day for travelling. Blue sky. Sunshine. By plane from Köln I arrived at Berlin Tegel with Margret from Hillsuite7. From there we went by bus and U-bahn to the Tel-Dex Studio. A nice building with a really long and rich history in recording and mixing: Rammstein even recorded here. We met Peter Schmid, also known as Black Pete. And listened to the first mix of ‘I want to be you’. After a few corrections and details we really liked the result. So first one finished.

For the first two night I found a place to stay via Facebook. I didn’t know where I was going since I never met the person. His name was Joe. So. It took me an hour travelling from one side of Berlin to the other. U-bahn. S-bahn. Then I searched for the street, looked up the number and rang his bell. The door opened. I walked up the stairs.
And before I knew it I was in a party at a room, drinking whiskey. Talking with all these people I never met before.
They came from all over the world. There was great music on the background. Nice atmosphere. Great! Joe was telling al kinds of great stories from Berlin and books he was reading. At one point I went to sleep on the floor, since there was no mattress neither blanket, in my clothes and woke up the next morning. There were still a few of the people left. Sleeping here and there. Turned out he was giving shelter to some homeless people from Berlin. I went out of the house. Got myself a cup of coffee and a few sweet breads and stepped in the bus towards the S-bahn. Bacl to TelDex and Ballsaal.

By 10.30 we were on a roll again. Working on the single that’s about to be released: ‘A brand new Heart’. At the end of the day it was done and then we send it to New York via internet to get it mastered at Sterling Sound. It was great to hear that Sterling Sound was going to do it. Because since I’m interested in music, I take out the booklets of CD’s and read every letter I can read in it. So many times I red: Mastered at Sterling Sound. And I created this image of al my heroes getting their music mastered overthere while having a drink and talk about great records.  And now my music was sent there, got mastered and came back via a digital server. Times have changed.

We listened to the results and were really proud to have finally finished the single: Booze! We started working for a bit on ‘Lady, drive home. Went out for dinner. Had some great Greek-food. Worked again on ‘Lady, drive home’. And then I went back to Joe’s place. No party this time. But a nice and relaxed atmosphere. We drank whiskey and talked abut all kinds of things. Joe played me some songs, I played some. The I read some in a book and fell asleep. I woke up around 10.30. Said goodbye to Joe and went out of the house, into the streets of Berlin. I drank my coffee in the U-bahn while staring out of the window or looking at people.

Thursday
Peter was already working again on some bits and pieces. In the meantime I was mailing my ass of with all the people at home, working on the clip, the promo, the CD-presentation. It’s so special they are all putting their energy and talents in this project. I’m touched by their enthusiasm. Of-course you know as well as me, they hope to get very rich with making this a big success..
But then…Joe Jackson came by in the studio. He wants Peter to mix something for him. It was great to meet and talk to such a great musician and brilliant person. He was calm and almost shy but in his eyes you could see the manic passion for music lingering.  I heard him talk about his way of working and his new plans. Just great! Amazing to meet such a person. Then I pinched his butty and he ran away crying. No, of-course not, I pinched his cheek.

Today it’s Thursday. Tomorrow last day of working. And then straight to Schiphol by plane from Berlin. I have to rehearse with Beans & Fatback. On saterday we will rock the Noorderslag festival in Groningen. On Sunday the last bit of the video-clip. These are busy times. But first there’s still some work to be done in Berlin. Today I went to East Berlin to get the master-CD of the single. It was a nice ride by bus and U-bahn and I saw even more of Berlin. I made some pictures and video-footage of this week. Soon I will upload them to the website.

We are now working on ‘Fire Walk’. The last song. It’s a fun song to mix because there’s some guitar track from Ruben Block. He played great parts and we’re al going to use them. In a way. In an hour we;ll go out for dinner and drink beer. Tonight I sleep at an appartment. I got my own key to a house in Berlin. And it feels great to travel by night and walk to the house while a light drizzle falls on my dizzy head. Well folks, that’s about it for today.

Take care and hope to see you soon!

Grtz n Love,
Gerhardt