A bad break-up, sleepless nights, and chopping wood

Just go with it, what do you have to lose anyway?

Maarten Besseling did the same. One of his friends, a singer, had a bad break up, so he invited him to come on a trip to a cabin somewhere and make music. Several years later Besseling releases yet another album in his music series “in a cabin with“. By now, he has traveled to remote cabins in Iceland, Greece, South Africa, Australia, Mexico, and fifteen other places.

That last cd happened to be recorded with the designer of this blog, Odilo Girod. Not only is he a graphic designer that can make blog designs which are ahead of its time, he also has a voice that comes close to Mark Everett’s rawness and the surrealistic sound of Thom Yorke. On top of that, he plays the piano and handles sample machines like Jamie Lidell. Talking about multi-talents…

The dream-like album presentation of Girod’s solo project Chop Wood, in the Melkweg last Sunday, blew me away. Girod translated his countless sleepless nights in a performance that touched all senses: light shows, an actor actually chopping wood, a sleeping woman on stage that wakes up and starts singing beautifully, a bubble machine combined with smoke (really cool effect), and Girod discussing his hints of insomnia with the audience: it was all part of the evening. None of this would have happened if Besseling hadn’t taken a poor friend on a trip a few years ago.

In a few weeks, Pakhuis de Zwijger will be the stage of an international blog conference organized by Edial Dekker and me. A year ago I didn’t know Edial. When we met at an eco fashion party a few months ago we discovered we both wanted to do something which was over our heads. On February 2nd, a bottle of whiskey and some good chats led to the idea of BLOG08 – a small bloggers meet-up in Amsterdam. Then we found Boris, Patrick, and Arjen from The Next Web interested to participate in it. Now we’re talking about a gig with 350 attendees, some A-list bloggers, live music, and a dedicated book. Just because Edial and I went with it.

What will you do?

[The Chop Wood album was recorded in Berlin and is available as a free download]

Some other posts you might be interested in:

• An intense evening with Eels in Enschede
• First time on stage with my band Christina Five