STATE OF K

2007-03-20T01:34:00.002+01:00

NEW YORK - MIXED BLOOD VIDEO-SHOOT
061207 - 061210

On thursday the 7:th of december I went to NY to meet up with Stefan Lundaahl, a.k.a. Omnimotion, to shoot videos for both "Mixed Blood" from my own album, and "Wide Awake" from his album.

My flight left from Arlanda 9 a.m. Though the trip took nearly nine hours, I was to arrive in NY at noon the same day.

Clear day. Sunny. Not at all as cold as the following days...
Our dear Myspace-Friend Terri picked me up at the airport and drove me to Manhattan.

I checked in at Hotel Pennsylvania, a few minutes walk from Times Square and Empire State Building. Later Omni arrived from his trip to California, where he had shot some good footage for his video.

As soon as it was dark we went out. NY by night was busy and glistering.

We visited old friends of mine, brush artist Hawk Alfredsson and his beautiful spouse Mia Hanson. They live in a room at the Chelsea Hotel where Hawks art fill the walls and corridors. We watched his latest paintings and got to see Mia's photographs for the first time. An enchanted evening.

This was my second time in NY. My first time was in my teenage as a graffiti-writer. I came here to touch upon the tags of my heroes and behold the burners of gigants up close.

It became a journey back in time. A slide down memory lane through faint, dreamlike memories of walls, lines, bent angles and living color.

At night we hit the streets, rigged a camera and started filming shots of me delivering Mixed Blood in the middle of Times Square. Cars went by, people crossed the streets and stopped and watched the spectacle. By-passers cheered and wistled, but kept at a respectful distance as we filmed our scenes.

It was freezing cold and and we were tired and hungry but we pursued anyway.
But back at the hotel we noticed that there was something digitally wrong with the shots, and so had to go back to Times Square to redo it all again.
This time I was so tired and angry that I just clenched my teeth and did a couple of unhesitant one-takes, delivering the track without pauses into the camera.
Allready on location we noticed that these shots had a much better, direct feel and determined energy to them, and ironically made us lucky that the first ones were broken and we'd been forced to go back...

Mixed Blood - video uploaded on Youtube.com
and Myspace.com/kristerlinder soon...

2006-12-25T23:20:00.001+01:00

PICS FROM LIVE AT SÖDRA TEATERN 061221
photo: björn@rockfoto.nu

2006-12-13T05:18:00.001+01:00

JOHAN RENCK'S BIRTHDAY BURLESQUE
at Theater Ledermann / Stockholm 06 12 05.

Johan

Magdalena and Johan

J

From left: Nåid, me, Jocke Berg (Kent) and Michael Bindefeld

Absinth mayhem

Me and Miss Tarantula

Klas Åhlund (Teddybears Sthlm)...

...and his beloved spouse.

Papa Dee and Eva Dahlgren

Sarah Grey

Johanna and Nils

Me and Johanna

Jacob Ström

Camilla and Johan Söderberg

Tori

Emma Sjöberg

Henrik Schyffert and Papa Dee

Anna G and eh...Guinevere

Me, beauty and beast

Edward Scissorhands and eh... the Lady of the Lake (?)

Patrik Arve of Teddybears Sthlm

Dunno who 'dis is but but I love the pic

Titiyo

Me and Titiyo

From left: 1. don't know name, 2. Johan Renck, 3. Mikael Nykvist, 4. don't know name

Johan's sister (unfortunately haven't catched her name), and her friend

Silvergirl and Idunno...

Gryttjyng and Eakshlaft

J

J

Thanx for an amazing party, bro.
A truly unforgettable event.
May your path be filled with Truth, Love and Unity...
Power, Freedom and Ecstacy...
And at the end of it,
May you find true satisfaction and everlasting Peace.

Shine on.

- K

2006-12-13T05:12:00.002+01:00

AUTUMN OF 06 GLIMPSES

This was the autumn I lost my father, my faith in fairytales, my beloved since eight years and my home...

I went to Stockholm and stayed at my close ghostfriend I AWAKE's place and hit rock bottom.

Then I figured I mustn't waste more energy on feeling low. So I took a gig and went to Falkenberg...

...sang my songs in the eventing, hung out 'til late...

...and cried 'til morning.

I went back and forth to the hospital for pains in my back. But no matter how the looked they couldn't find anything wrong with me. They asked me lots of questions about stress and grief...

Finally my volverine-homie Per got back from a month with his grandparents in Barcelona. He had stayed in their house on the green and lush country side. Once home he started longing to go back, thinking about his grandma and how he could help around the house and spend more time with her.

I went to Belgium with my sister, brother and mother (not on the pic) to visit relatives there. They did their very best to cheer me up and talked about everything that layed before me, all the wonderfully shallow things I could do and create with my so called freedom.

I sang at the SIME-convent at Berns in Stockholm...

It was quite different from Falkenberg.

We shot a video with Enter the Hunt for our track "One". Our debut album had gotten great reviews, lots of attention and everything was supposed to be fun...

...but during the video-shoot our bass-player left the band and the group experienced a major setback.

We completed the video, but afterwards everyone was so tired of the drama that the future of the band was uncertain...

...until we played what was to be our last gig, at Club Debaser in Stockholm, ferocious and armed with a new stand-in bass-player, rocking so hard that we once and for all evaporated all our doubts about wether we should go on or not.

...And in the midst of chaos, disillusionment and disintegration, I got a strange telephone call late one saturday night saying that I had just won the first prize in some prestigious Film-music Festival in Auxerre that I had never heard of.

Bye, most blessed and horrid autumn of 06.
Please, let there be purpose and Grace
in the heart of pain.

2006-12-13T05:11:00.001+01:00

This was the summer I finally went to the Gagnef festival.
I threw my bag into my friends' car and got on my motorcycle.
I spent tree days at the festival.
Great people, nice music and beautiful scenery.
This shot was taken with my mobile phone
on a walk back to my sleeping place after a long night of dancing
in the lush forests and misty meadows of Sweden.

Gig shot: Anija Johansson

The summer 06 was the one I went to the Glade-festival in England,
stayed in a tent and danced till dawn...

...and stayed with my friend George at his house on the English countryside...

...and got to meet his lovely sister Camila...

...and laugh with Shabba...

...as we chilled out by the water...

...having the whole place to ourselves...

...drinking tea and chillin' out 'til sunset...

...when the gnats attacked.

The summer 06 was the one...

...when I buried my father...

...and instead of mourning him, I had to keep appearances
and sing "Turning Daisies" in church...

...in a black suit and white tie.

This was the summer when my homie Per built his cottage,
out in the Stockholm archipelago...

...the perfect spot for afterparties and spontaneous retreats.

This was the summer...

...when Stefan a.k.a. Omnimotion decided that we shall all buy bikes...

...and then got himself the phattest one ever.

At first I got one as well, but after tree days of constantly having to answer to questions about where I'd got it from and how much it cost, I decided to return it to the store, and return to my old, faithful, urban-customised mountainbike.
I touched it up with some nice spray paint and it was as good as new.
Color? - Dry Black.

It was the summer I decided to celebrate my dads departure at the Loveboat party,
with the Socially Hazardous crew...

...and Perra played a wicked set...

...while we all chilled out on deck.

It was the summer when our band, Enter The Hunt
made an impact on the swedish metal scene, got signed by Epic and crafted our EP and album
with the producer of Rammstein...

...and I packed a light bag and went to Norway, to stand alone on stage and sing there for the first time.

And it was the first summer in twelve years that I,
after numerous instrumental releases,
had a new vocal album of my own, mastered and ready for release,
and didn't have to feel bad about spending my time in the sun...

Bye, beloved summer of 06.
It's been a strange and beautiful ride.