Grandma's gone

So my grandmother just suddenly died from a blood clot.

Just one single week after a big family party that she was much in charge of (my grandfathers 80 year old birthday).

It has been some strange days.. The day before yesterday I drove across the (little) country to visit my grandfather and be with my mom in the situation. Today I went again (this time with my mom, dad and sister) to see my grandmother in the casket and be with my grandfather.

On Friday the funeral will be. She's a great loss and it came VERY unexpected for the whole family, but we're all talking a lot about it which is the right thing to do. The whole family on my mothers side (mothers 3 siblings, my grandfather, us 13 grandchildren + 2 great grandchildren) believe in God which is so awesome. 

It's some strange days, but things are well considering the circumstances. It makes ALL THE DIFFERENCE IN THE WORLD (and beyond!) to have God as our loving Father carrying the family through the hard times. Not pass the hard times, but THROUGH it. This is where we learn about life. And love.

Solace the EP

Solace The Day just spend 3 days and 3 nights in a great studio (BMmusic.dk) recording 6 tracks for our first release: "Solace the EP"

Above: The biggest dread head of us all, Jonas in his drum-cage.

Below: I, in the room where we did all guitars, vocals and violins. 
Love this picture below. Pretty spent after working from 9 AM to 2-4 AM everyday, but it was a lot of fun! On the picture you see David (vocals) in front, drummer Jonas on left and bass Mads recording violin in the back. Guitar Levi behind the camera I guess.  
Still need to do the mix and mastering - so it might take a while before the disc is out.

Living with my nephews

My brother just became a doctor and has started working at a hospital a good distance from where they live. 

My brother, his wife and two kids can't move into their new house the first month, so Amy and the kids Jonas (2,5 year old today) and Adam (1 month today) are living at my parents house, where I'm staying as well.

It's very cool being close to my nephews and today Jonas and I went on a two hour gummy bear adventure :-D 

Intense Extreme iPod Radio

We (Sanctuary International) just started a new thing called iPod Radio. Like before you can download all of the great PodCasts and teachings by Pastor Bob, but the new thing is that Intense Extreme Radio and the rock and melodic metal Intense Radio is doing PodCasts as well!

Every two weeks I'll fit together 45 minutes of extreme and awesome metal music for you to download for free! Commercial free as well! 

Vol.1 contains music by Antestor, Extol, Crimson Moonlight, Frost Like Ashes, Underneath The Gun, Becoming The Archetype, A.W.A.S., Arvinger and Vardøger, where several of the songs start out with a song description and introduction by the artist.

Besides that, every PodCast has got a short devotion by Pastor Bob + lots of pictures, album covers and band info that will show up on your iPod while you play it.

To download and subscribe to the iPod Radio PodCast for free:

1) Download iTunes music player for free (if you don't have it)

2) Go to "iTunes Store" and search for "Intense Extreme Radio"

3) Hit "Subscribe" and it will download to Intense Extreme iPod Radio

...all the future coming episodes will now automatic download to your iTunes library!

HOW GREAT IS THAT!!  :O)  ... I like it.

Sommer Oase

The main reason that I only spend 3 weeks in the States this time, was because of this Bible Music Summer Camp in Denmark called SommerOase. During the week long camp more than 4100 people participated.

And what a great week! It was definitely the right decision to be back in Denmark for this camp. Great seeing so many friends again and reestablish connections with other ministries and Danish leaders that I'm working with.

During the camp I did a seminar on "Integrity as a musician", where I showed pictures of my friends around the world. One of them was of 3 of my black metal friends:

Daniel (old growler in Barricades), Ravn (Frosthardr) and Ronni (Antestor), right after the Antestor concert at BobFest'04 in Sweden.

This picture was a bit shocking to many of the people who heard my seminar  B-)

At the camp I also did some punk rock worship for the 10-14 year old kids, and maaan that was fun!! The more wild the songs were, the happier and more excited the kids became :-P

One night it all ended up in a massive celebration where the kids were jumping around all over and we were jumping around on stage trying to keep up with 'em  :O)

Adam Mattias Larsen!!!

YEAH BABY!!!

One of my new very best friends just got born on the 14th of July!

He's the coolest little none year old dude I know!!!

Here's my parents with Adam on his birthday. They are also very cool!
I just made it back to Denmark to catch the birthday, which means a lot to me! 

Nephews are a blast! 

Here's 2,5 year old Jonas showing his little brother one of his favorite cars: The Mustang. He is half American, you know B-) 

...I did it again!!! Uncle times two!

SeeYouLater my McCavanaghs

It felt weird to leave the States already after only being here 3 weeks this time. But 3 GREAT great weeks! Loved it all, and one of the best things was to hang out with my McCavanagh family again. These friends has been hosting me every time I've been living in Nashville.

Sad to say "SeeYouLater". I love you guys!

(And BTW sorry for posting this old picture of you :O) 

GLDFestival tattoo

It has been a year since my last tattoo and it has been itching for more ink :O)

The night before I left for Denmark I got this one. Of course I only want tattoos that means a lot to me, and at the same time I like using my body as a blog about great things happening in my life. 

Work in progress. A re-design of the Green Light District logo that my friend Magnus made for the GLDF'08 T-shirt.  

Old school with a lot of colors and symbolic. 

- A life-breathing heart with

- A candle light in the main vain, aorta, life meeting life, (don't fight the dark => shine your light!)

- A crown of thorns rapped around the heart (because of Christ, I live)

- Skulls with the everlasting sign of the cross marked in their forehead (when we die as Christians, God will look at us - see Christ - and embrace us as His children, that we are! Christ died so that we can have life! Everlasting! Dead is the death for those who proclaim His name!)

- The Green Light District Festival banner (this festival exists because of Gods grace, the love of Christ, the guidance of the Holy Spirit and all the exited metal-kids in Denmark who stand together as family! => Church)

- Two big roses in bloom (life, life, life) and

- Cartoonish "KA-POW!" at the bottom (chew on that one, mister :O)

Cornerstone Festival concerts

The Cornerstone concerts are running from Monday to Sunday morning, where about 300 bands are playing. Here's my friends from Scotland playing in the punk band Rodent Emporium. I met them in England/Wales half a year ago.
There's probably more than 50 stages at Cornerstone, and it's crazy with all that noise all day none stop. ...And I love it!  
Above: Flatfoot 56 playing at the Underground stage. 

Below: A couple of my friends from Nashville playing in the band Mankind at one of the MANY MANY "Generator Stages". A small piece of grass area and a generator. Then the bands just bring there own gear. The Sanctuary Stage was one of the bigger ones and in a crowded location. 

One of the very cool things about Cornerstone is that there isn't a whole lot of back stage areas. Practically none, so the bands are forced to walk around, and that way I got to talk to all the folks I wanted to. 

Just to name a few of my favorite concerts during the week:

Living Sacrifice, Frost Like Ashes (picture above), Flatfoot 56, Neocrecy, Impending Doom, Becoming The Archetype (again), The Chariot (again again), The Famine, Drottnar (as always), Sotahuuto (Finish friends), Bestir (my good friends), Alethian, Common Yet Forbidden, A Plea For Purging, The Burial, Showbread (again), A Hill To Die Upon, Voice Of The Mysterons, Sexual Confused, Demon Hunter and As I Lay Dying.

Cornerstone Festival fellowship

Finally!! 

I've been longing to go to Cornerstone Illinois since the first time I heard about it, yeeeears ago. Awesome being here and meeting a lot of cool people, getting new friends and meeting many, whom I've met in Europe at several Christian metal festivals. 

Above: Phil and I. Brothers in metal-arms: True love!

The cool thing about Christian metal festivals is that people are so passionate about both the music AND the fellowship, that WE travel world wide to meet each other => the Family. 
Above: Larry and Karen Schertz has had a Sanctuary camp at Cornerstone for 16 years now! Wow dude! And a sanctuary it truly is! A restful place, loving people and amazing food :-P
A few of all the great folks I hung out with. On the picture there's friends from Finland, England, Denmark and the US.

The picture above is taken inside the Sanctuary Stage Tent, and man it looked awesome! The ceiling was covered with thick BLACK plastic and fake burning torches hanging down several places. SO MANY people did amazing job working at the Sanctuary all week.
Jeremy made this cool info stand to put outside of the Sanctuary Stage. Pastor Bobs Pod Casts, different projects and the Intense Extreme Radio that I'm doing.

I played the heavy-guitar 3 times with Jim LaVerde and the Sanctuary Worship Band. It was an honor to play 3 times at this festival, that I've been longing to experience for so long. The worship went well and Pastor Bob shared his heart after the worship all 3 nights. Good times! 

Ravn + Annie (and the Schertz)

It was a great honor to stay at the Schertz family the days before Cornerstone + be at Ravn and Annies wedding!!

Above: Ravn, Annie, some girl and Mika (Annies great boy).
Ravns dad from Norway => and => Karen & Larry Schertz.

It really felt like family staying with them, and I can't wait to visit them again..! They know what it is to love on people! Thank you my Friends!
Annie and Amanda Schertz......My friend Jeremy (from heavy metal band Strangeland) did the photos. 

A quick update from Tennessee / Illinois

It's awesome being back in the States seeing friends and hanging out with the McCavanaghs + driving around Nashville with Pastor Bob again.

Birthday
The 25th was my birthday and Pastor Bob put up a surprise party for me at Abbie's house. About 30 people came and it was great seeing so many people again. I really appresiated it!

Wedding
PB and I had a 8-9 hour drive to Illinois yesterday. My friend Ravn (lead screamer of Norwegian black metal band Frosthardr) and Annie Schertz are being married by Pastor Bob this weekend. My Danish friend Stefan "Ghashul" Bruhn is here as well.

Cornerstone Festival
will be this upcoming week from Monday to Saturday. I will be playing 3 times with Jim LaVerde and the Sanctuary Worship Band on the Sanctuary Stage. Besides that I've scheduled 30 band interviews that I hope we'll get done. Usually there's about 30.000 people at this festival. Christian bands where most of them are playing hard core metal.

Nashville it is

Goood being back, in spite of country music and bad traveling..!  

... Actually the traveling wasn't as bad as it used to be  :O)  This time I only got my travel schedule changed twice, missed one flight and had an extra 12 hour layover in Chicago. But it felt like luxury this time! Because of all the mess at the airports I got a room at a nice hotel + a business class seat from Washington to Chicago. AND a food voucher, YEAH, hehe:

I usually post my food voucher food at this blog, so here you go B-)

The good thing about traveling by my self is that I don't have to worry. I've got no traveling partners to take care of, and I don't mind sleeping in the dirt. But it would have been funny to share the travel and the funny episodes with someone, like when I entered business class, sat down, and all the pretty business folk was convinced that I was in the wrong section of the plane, hehe :-P

But after a few seconds I started talking with the very wealthy business lady beside me, and we had a great chat for at least an hour. 

Back to The States

So, tomorrow early early early I'm heading back to Nashville, TN!

Looking VERY much forward to see everybody again, especially my little American family; The McCavanaghs!

I will only be here for 3 weeks though, due to a huge SummerCamp that I'm involved with in Denmark.

While being in the US I will go to Cornerstone Illinois to help at the Sanctuary Stage, do some band interviews and play there as well with Jim LaVerde and the Sanctuary Worship team.

Road trip to Sweden

JUST got back after a very impulsive road trip from Friday to Monday. My old nanny and friend "Tante Gerd" has got a little cabin out in the woods in Sweden. No electricity, no running water and the toilet is a bucket out door: Awesome!

It's probably the 5th time I'm here => sweet place for vacations out in the wilderness! ...But this time we went to clean up after someone broke the door down. Fortunately nothing was stolen, but a dude had had at least one good nights sleep there.It turned out to be an GREAT time of quietness, retreat and fellowship. Tante Gerd, my friend Jered (from Nashville) and I went for it. Appreciated some quiet time in-between a whole lot of world-wide-traveling. God knows how to turn bad things into great things => what a blessing!

Hard Rock Halleluja, Germany

Last weekend was a GREAT one as well!
We rented a van and went on a road trip down south to our German friends. Pastor Bob did seminars and Solace The Day brought the axes. Here's the line up for the metal event:

My friends from Arcane Legion, who are working with their church on putting these events up. This sweet stage is actually the church room:
Solace The Day in back stage warming up. With a little help from Martin from Corpse Under Construction:

It's always great to meet the Pantokrator guys, and it has been lots of fun sharing stage with 'em two weekends in a row. ...Here Panto-Jonas and I are having a serious talk down under in the catacombs of Eckernförde:

...or something like that.

After the show Arcane, Panto, Solace and more friends went to grab a beer sausage. Sweet time of fellowship and hang out (though a couple of these guys look a bit spent):

From left; my Nashville-friend Jered, I, Solace-drummer-Jonas, Solace-guitar-Levi.

A great time i Germany meeting friends and getting new ones! The Hard Rock Halleluja events happen once in a while. Please go check it out at myspace.com/hardrockhallelujah1 ! They are great people with a good ministry and a cool show!

Green Light District Festival 2008

WOW!! WHAT AN AWESOME WEEKEND!!!
400 excited people making fellowship, connecting and encouraging each other! EVERYBODY was extremely positive and loving on each other. JUST what I was dreaming of. ...And much more! B-)
14 bands from 5 different countries entered the stage during the weekend. We had all the brutal metal genres represented; Gore Grind and Chaotic Tech Black Metal included. Blindside (picture below) was the headliners and the softer band at the fest., but delivered an awesome show!!
Barricades (picture below) did a one-time reunion gig at the festival, which was lots of fun. I've been to festivals all over the world, but I must say; we REALLY have the best crowd at this festival! If you haven't been here, come be a part of it and see for yourself!
...And then Solace The Day (picture below) entered the GLDFestival stage as well. This festival is the birth place for many great bands! Keep an eye out for this band ;-P

We will play Hard Rock Halleluja in Germany tomorrow. Pastor Bob Beeman did seminars at the GLDFestival and will be speaking at HRH as well. It's gonna be good seeing my German friends down there and getting new ones!
It has been an extremely blessed festival with GREAT bands and AWESOME seminars, but the best thing about it all: IT HAS BEEN FAMILY! Come join the family next year! myspace.com/greenlightdistrictfestival

The reason why this festival is alive is because of all the excited people working away with me!! THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!

GLORY TO GOD! ! !

...all photos by Stefan Bruhn - www.Ghashul.dk

Kinder Garden Story #3

Okay, time for another one. Not because of the kids (but because of "the grown ups") I'm wearing a long sleeve to cover my tattoos:

"
Accidentally my spider web tat on the right albow was showing. "You've got a TAAATTOOOOOO", one of the girls yelled at me with a pointed finger. No one of the other grown ups were in the room so I gladly showed 'em my just-like-Spiderman-tattoo. After taking a good look at my albow the little girl said, with a girly-deep rusty voice; "I call that a blooood tattoo". "A blood tattoo", I asked; "why's that, you say?". "You don't know that?", the girl said, "it's because it's made with needles and there's blood and everything!".
...And at that time it got clear to me that my tattoos are fake! The real ones are the ones you get in chewing gum packages and you can use water to put them on.
"

Staying busy

Life is pretty busy these days..!

Spending the week day-hours working at the kindergarden,
the evenings on GLDFestival and
the weekends on practicing with Solace The Day and Barricades and working on GLDF.

A whole lot of work, but at the same time a blessing!

We in Barricades are doing a one-time reunion gig at the Green Light District Festival this year, which will be in less than two weeks..!

Solace The Day is going great. We've found a bass player and we're looking very much forward to play at GLDF and Hard Rock Halleluja in Germany the week after.

It's such an awesome thing working with this metal music ministry and putting together this festival. ...And hard. There's no doubt about it; God isn't lieing when He tells us that by Him we find rest and peace! I really need Him! Everyday..! HE's good and faithfull!

Pastor Bob joins the family

In 20minutes I'll drive to the airport to pick up my very good friend, Pastor Bob!
He will be staying here for something like 6 weeks. We've got a lot of projects, festivals and catching up to do! And maybe find the time to chill out as well :)

It's such a blessing knowing PB!
Please, if you haven't be listening to some of his 4 podcasts/radioprograms for a while, do it now; http://sanctuaryinternational.com/

IT WILL ENRICH YOU!

(This picture was taken here at my home in Fjellerup last time PB payed us a visit, August'07)

Elements Of Rock

Awesome finally being at this metal festival in Switzerland! It's the 5th year they're doing this and the fellowship was great! Lot's of cool metal concerts, teachings by Pastor Bob and worship by Jim LaVerde..!

Picture above: Drottnar (phycotic black metal from Norway) who'll also be playing at the Green Light District Festival in a month!

There's was a very good crowd of black-clothed folks from all over the world! MANY people I've met before at other festivals and MANY new heads I got to know! Some of the most friendly people who'd meet (though a lot of people had a hard time understanding English here, and my German isn't too good..!).It would be hard to find a better fellowship than at these Christian Metal Festivals!

I totally enjoyed meeting so many new fellow metalheads/-Christians + getting to know a whole bunch of people from the bands.
The picture above is two new friends whom I hung out with at the festival; Manu and Miika from Deuteronomium (death metal from Finland).

It was an honor when they from the stage dedicated one of their songs "To Die And Gain" to me.


THANKS for an awesome weekend at Elements Of Rock!!

Kinder Garden Story #2

"
"Are you a wizard?", a 4 year old boy asked. And all I was doing was walking into the childrens restroom to wipe a few butts. "Hmm..." I answered, and grabbed thoughtfull around my 10 cm long beard. "But ARE you a wizard?", one of the 5 year old boys asked. "You think I am?", I asked. "ARE you!!?" 4 boys yelled at me, and now they really wanted an answer!
"

How I love that crazy imagination!

Oldies but goodies

18 years ago when I was 7 at age something pretty cool happened..!

In the early days my lovely parents dragged us kids around to all kinds of Christian rock concerts like Jerusalem, Newsboys, PFR and this well-aged Norwegian dude:

Hans Inge Fagervik is his name, and he's a pretty cool guy and a reason for many good things. When I was 7 years old I pointed at the man on the stage and told my mom that I wanted to be him. That was Mr.Fagervik. After the concert we walked up to him. He toke my little hand and walked me through the crowds to get a free poster for me, oh YEAH, that was the beginning..!

Next Christmas my parents bought me a little guitar, and today I'm playing a Kirk Hammett Signature with skull and bones printed in the guitar neck. Thank you Hans Inge. And GOD!

So yesterday it was my turn to take my parents hands and bring them to a concert. It was an in memory of LARRY NORMAN tour with something like 10 bands performing. Andraé Crouch did a great gig, and then H.I.Fagervik played as well. After the show my mom and I (like 18 years ago) went over to have a chat with him.

As a musician I can only respect passionated musicians, and wheather I like or dislike the genres and tunes I'm thankfull for what the oldies/goodies created with mind, heart and soul. A big respect to people like Larry Norman, Keith Green, Glenn Kaiser and Andraé Crouch!

Kinder Garden Story #1

I'm now working 4 days a week in an idyllically little kinder garden with 30-40 kids in age 0-6.

For the next few month I'll be living here at my parents house, which is 3 minutes walk from the kinder garden.

Story of the day:

Kids are sometimes so weird and funny which always cheers me up. Sometimes they're also insainly loud, and that's what this tory is about.

"Once upon a time in a little country in Scandinavia a dread head got himself some work in a little kinder garden in a very little village. Let's call him "Dude". Dude liked hanging out with the little people, but he also liked insects and reptiles very much. Unfortunately there were no reptiles to be found in the garden of the kinder garden. But insects is something you can find in every garden; Dude knew that! Therefor he and some of his little people friends decided to go on an adventure, finding insects. They found a lot of obscure insects and they all enjoyed them very much. There were happiness and laughter all around. But then one of the 5 year old little people found another funny one:

Dude told him that it would role itself together like a hard ball, if it got scared. Everyone were very excited, which became the end of that idyllic day. ...And the beginning of little people screaming and making scary faces for hours, all for the sake of seeing the new insect becoming a hard ball."

...to be continued.

GLDFestival ticket sale and HEAVY METAL bus

The ticket sale has now started, and maaan it's gonna be a GREAT festival!!
myspace.com/greenlightdistrictfestival
I'm REALLY excited about doing this 3 days festival again this year!
It's a whole lot of work, but it serves an amazing purpose which is ALL effort worth!
Because it's all about the metal fellowship and the fellowship we have in Christ, we've booked two HEAVY METAL BUSSES that's runs from Aarhus to GLDF Friday and back again on Sunday. It's a 65 minutes drive through small Danish villages, forest areas and open fields!

Keep it metal :-p

In His grip;

Andreas

Solace the Day

My new band is now official! "Solace the Day"..."Solace The Day is a new energic band blasting out of the dark woods of Denmark and into the wide open fields of Southern Metal ready to chop your wood!
Former member of Barricades, Andreas Larsen, sat in country capital Nashville, Tennessee, with a vision and an urge to be a part of creating a positive and brutal southern metal band with a bunch of anti rockstars...
Only a few months later the band met in Denmark and wrote their first material!
Solace The Day holds members of Magtesløs, Amorém, Corps Under Construction, Annihilation Of The Fragiles, Day Of Disaster and Barricades."...
These 3 guys are also on the core team for organizing the Green Light Disrtict Festival with me which is a blessing!
http://www.myspace.com/solacetheday

"Solace the Day" is a tool for us to reach especially young people with the love of Christ. At the same time we're having a lot of fun writing music and dancing away! :)

One of the visions is to go touring with a main reason to encourage and inspire young folks with the love that God has shown us, and IS pouring down on us every day! Everywhere we go, we wanna give people a killer show, but also be humble to the crowd and be the last people to leave the clubs, just talking with whoever may need it.