News Page September 2002: News from the St. Thomas world, and updates to this page in September 2002. This page is not an official source of information, if in doubt of accuracy of info please get in touch with webmaster of this page or the info source.

September 26th 2002 - I am currently on vacation in Berlin, and two days ago I met up with Thomas at his Berlin apartment for a game of football on the Playstation 2, and to see Howe Gelb perform at Loft in the evening. Thomas was very good in his football game, "This is Football," beating me 8-0, 3-1 and 6-0, claiming I was the worst opponent he had ever met. He seemed to be having a good time. Then we put on my game, "Pro Evolution Soccer," and Thomas lost 8-0 and 2-0. He was nowhere near scoring a goal, and had five players sent off in the two matches. He seemed to have lost his confidence, I think my comment about my fifteen year old sister being better than him at the game hurt him a lot, and for that I am truly sorry. We both agreed that our own game was the best, and that the others' sucked.

We had a nice time eating Norwegian wiener hot dogs and talking, my Franziska and his Ilse also seemed to get along very well, even in the midst of their two spouses losing their mind over a Playstation 2 football game. The four of us chatted and listened to music, time went too fast and I forgot to ask Thomas everything I had planned. He did tell me he is going to start playing football again in November, for Høybråten-Stovner (HSIL) who play in the Norwegian fourth division. There are plans to go into studio with Robert Jønnum to re-record "Invitation" as a football song, with Norwegian lyrics by harald Ødegård. It will be released as a single to raise money for HSIL. But that is pretty much all the proper St. Thomas news I have from having spent half a day with Thomas...

We took the train to Metropol and Loft where we wanted to see Howe Gelb perform at a Thrill Jockey festival. But tickets were very expensive, and the schedule had been changed so that I had missed out on Bobby Conn, who I had also wanted to see. So me and Franziska chose to go home instead of paying that much for just one good concert, and we agreed to meet Thomas and Ilse again the next day.

So yesterday I called Thomas and asked when we should meet. Right before hanging up he said "So maybe we should do that interview today, then?" I hoped he had forgotten about the interview thing we had talked about. The thought of doing a proper interview had scared me so much I had not even managed to think about it, so I had absolutely nothing prepared, and I would meet him in two hours. So I ended up writing all my questions for him on the train. It was bound to be a catastrophe.

We went to a café called Titanic, close to where he lives, where he and Ilse had been a couple of times before. They had nice food, and it was not too noisy, even though there was constant music on in the background. The interview was not really an interview per se, it ended up as a Thomas Hansen monologue with me giving him directions on what to talk about. There are ninety minutes of talking on my MiniDisc, and Thomas went through his entire life and his plans for the future. It is a very honest interview, and he seemed happy. He even managed a nice finishing line. I will type it up and make it available on this page, but it will take some time since it is so incredibly long. Thomas said it was his longest interview ever, and he wants to call it "The Main Interview."

While we talked, Ilse had fun plaing around with my camera. She is a good photographer, so there should be some very nice pictures on the film roll, these will also be made available as soon as they are developed. After the interview we said goodbye, Thomas and Ilse were going to an Italian restaurant to have a nice dinner before Thomas leaves for Nashville in the afternoon today.

Thomas will take the train to Frankfurt, then take the plane to Detroit, and train or bus from Detroit to Nashville. This is due to him not liking flying very much. Erik Hannemann, who is making a St. Thomas documentary, has made arrangements for a guy to film Thomas on the train to Frankfurt and entering the plane there, and it will most likely end up as the end of the film, with the working title "The Cool Song."

Unfortunately, "The Cool Song" is far from finished. Erik was editing it on his computer, and just before he went to Berlin last month to show Thomas an early version of the film, his hard disk crashed and all the edited work got lost and he had to start all over again. It seems to be an interesting film.

Most likely a new section for messages from St. Thomas will be made available on this page tomorrow. The focus will be on the recordings in Nashville and the following American tour, and should give fans a very interesting insight into the recording of the album through messages from Thomas and the others people concerned with the recordings.

September 19th 2002 - The concert chronology has been updated. Not all of the tour dates in America have been confirmed yet, but this is information I have gotten directly from Thomas so it has been put up and will be edited in case there are changes. Also there will be a concert in London, England, headlining a club festival called Beyond Nashville featuring bands such as Calexico, Will Oldham and Lambchop, and in the end of January next year St. Thomas will be playing at a festival at Vega in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Norwegian concert dates as promotion to go along with the planned release of the "A Long, Long Time EP" in the beginning of February next year are currently being booked. Cities that are likely to get a St. Thomas visit are Oslo (at So What, most likely), Bergen, Stavanger, Trondheim and Tromsø.

Thomas will leave for America next Thursday, after finishing the recording of "Hey, Harmony" and a small American tour, he is planning on moving back home to Norway after living in Berlin, Germany for almost a year. You can read more about this decision in Thomas' own messages section. A video for "A Long, Long Time" will be made, and there will be the short Norwegian tour to promote the EP. Then all efforts will be put into the promotion of "Hey, Harmony," which Thomas has high hopes for: "I have walked around for half a year now and told people that this record is going to be number one on the charts in Norway, and I will be hugely disappointed if that does not happen."

For those wondering where Thomas got the title "Hey, Harmony," here is his own version of it: "I fell for that title two months ago. I was watching a movie called 'Julien Donkey Boy,' and the young man behind this movie is called Harmony Korine, he wrote the script for 'KIDS,' too. I recognized many of the feelings he tried to describe in the movie, and felt him for a second as a friend, and I wondered how I would call on him, and then hey, Harmony appeared. Since the songs on the record are highly harmonic and melodic, especially vocally (three harmonies on most of the songs), I thought this would be a cool title."

September 15th 2002 - Short note to the moron who was screwing around with the messages section: We know who you are. Do the same thing once more and everyone else will get to know who you are, and your service provider will receive a complaint on you. Hopefully everyone else will appreciate this new section for what it is, a great chance to get a proper insight into an artists musical vision, and try not to mess it up for the others.

September 14th 2002 - This took a lot less time than I had expected: There is now a new section available on this page, messages. Thomas will use that section to post whatever he pleases, whenever he pleases, and has already started off with a very interesting look into what we might expect to see on the three forthcoming St. Thomas releases. Feel free to use the guestbook to comment on Thomas' posts, or for requests for what he should write about.

Five American tour dates have been added to the concert chronology, going from October 19th to the 25th. Check out the page for further information and for who St. Thomas will be playing with. If you are in America and think you will go to one of these concerts, please feel free to send me an e-mail, as it would be very interesting to have some tour reports from the American concerts. St. Thomas' American record label, Misra Records, have set up a webboard where you can talk about Misra artists.

September 12th 2002 - It has been some time since the last update, hopefully everything of importance that has happened since late July will be covered in this update. The biggest change to this page is that the concert chronology is now as complete as can be, huge thanks to Thomas Hansen for his help. Also, a guestbook has been added to the page, feel free to write in messages to Thomas, the webmaster of this page or to other visitors of this page.

St. Thomas will travel to Nashville in America on September 29th. They are scheduled to spend three weeks in Mark Nevers' studio, starting on September 30th and finishing October 23rd, then spend one week playing concerts in America until they go back to Europe on November 3rd. Thomas will record with Espen Mellingsen on guitar and vocals, Bosse Litzheim on various instruments, Tony Crow (Lambchop) on piano and synth, Jeremy Barnes (Neutral Milk Hotel, Olivia Tremor Control and Bablicon) on drums, Matt Swanson (Lambchop) on bass, Howe Gelb (Giant Sand and solo) on acoustic guitar and maybe vocals, and Mark Nevers (Lambchop) producing.

Thomas has said they are hoping to record a catchy pop record with a clear and detailed sound-landscape. Demos were recorded in Berlin and Oslo in late July, and sound very promising for a more mainstream pop record with a remarkeable St. Thomas signature all over it.

Here is a newsletter from St. Thomas American record label, Misra Records, sent out on September 12th:

"Our favorite Norwegian cowboy, St. Thomas, is coming to America this fall to record a new album with Lambchop's Mark Nevers. He'll be touring after the recording is completed, including a stop at the CMJ festival in New York City. Joining St. Thomas main man Thomas Hansen on these recording will be fellow Norwegians Espen and Bosse, plus several members of Lambchop and Jeremy Barnes from Bablicon and Neutral Milk Hotel. Since we're so excited about St. Thomas coming to America, we've also decided to offer "I'm Coming Home" at a nice discount online ($10). Check the website for the full scoop."

Scheduled release date for the new album has been pushed back to April next year, as City Slang thought an earlier release date would give them too little time to work properly with the release of the album. An EP with four tracks is expected in January, and there will most likely be another EP released before the album hits stores. The album, still untitled, is expected to contain twelve songs, and there are plans to make videos for two songs.

Erik Hannemann, who is making a St. Thomas documentary, visited Thomas in Berlin last weekend for the final interview recordings for the film. Thomas thinks the film will have a good story, Hannemann was planning on making a thirty-minute film but so much happened on the Norwegian tour last Spring that it will end up being at least an hour long. Hannemann was travelling with the band on that tour, and has gotten most of the incidents on tape, and Thomas is looking forward to the film getting public airings so that people will get a proper look into what was happening. The film, still going under the working title "The Cool Song," will most likely be shown in selected cinemas in Norway, but it is unknown what kind of distribution it will get.

Those who like visiting this website will have much to look forward to, as I am currently working with Thomas on creating a section of this page that will be entirely his. He has shown great interest in this page, and will use the new section to post updates on what is going on, stories from the past, movie recommendations and whatever else he pleases. Hopefully this will be appreciated by visitors, and give people a better impression of Thomas' musical visions.

Interesting tidbit from Thomas' past: "The first thing I said when I debuted on stage in Germany, in Hamburg last year, was 'Ich bin eine Berlinerbolle und ich habe angst. Ich habe Derrick an fernsehen gesehen.' This was followed by 'I'm Coming Home' or a similar song." Thomas says he will continue with his talking at concerts, and play the nice songs in-between.

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