In January 2012 we were sending lists of music that we liked to each other and making comments about each others’ lists.

The idea was to present music that inspired us, but Yo got that wrong the first time and sent a list of ”hits I wish I had made”, which is kind of different.

Anyway, this mail conversation made us synchronize our writing and find a room in

which our ideas could bounce around until they came out as songs.

Three songs received made Yo eager to contribute with another three songs. These songs then inspired the other Yo to write one more.

We borrowed ideas from one another and made changes or came with suggestions that would make us put more effort into taking it as far as possible.

Sometimes this could mean adding something, but just as often it would mean taking something away.

Apart from having fun, we tried to keep it simple. A voice and a guitar is enough if it’s a good song; when we add anything else it must contribute something and if it doesn’t —it will have to go.

This continued throughout January in our spare time, but soon we would meet.

where great songs were to be made.

We sat down in the kitchen with a guitar each and recorded ideas on a smartphone. I think we wrote three songs that afternoon, and recorded ideas for a couple more.

The next morning one Yo had to rest and you might

February came and we would finally get to spend a couple of days writing songs together.

As we had not met in a year or two it was a great feeling to be seeing each other again. We had lunch at a nearby restaurant and then continued to the apartment

think that it was rock ’n’ roll but it was actually winter vomiting disease. Another Yo wrote a song anyway and by the evening we were both sitting up writing again.

These days passed as all days do—and we had great fun. We now had a pile of 18 great songs.

style it could be hard to make an album out of them.

These thoughts lingered on as we continued to write more songs. Eventually we thought it would be fun to create an album—and you know our keyword by now.

About this time we came to think of the story we’ve heard about how the record company Decca had turned

down The Beatles with the comment: ”Fourgroups are out” and that expression really has a ring to it.

In fact, we don’t think that producer should be blamed for making a mistake—he was just ahead of his time.

Now, there are only two of us and ”fourgroups are out” felt like a statement that would express ”this ain’t all bad”.

 

Towards the end of January we had made more than twelve songs together and we started to wonder what to do with all this.

Are we performing artists or maybe just songwriters? Should we try to put an album together, or sell the songs separately to anyone interested?

Since the songs differ a bit in

Getting creative

Working together IRL

Page 2

Album or not?

”We don’t think that producer  should be blamed…

...he was just ahead of his time. ”

Getting Creative