New album and tour early next year.

I was planning to release my new album and go on tour this year. But it has taken me a bit longer then planned to finish the new album. Why... because when you have a baby, life tends to get in the way. So  new album is now being released in feb/mars worldwide, and a tour is being organised around the same time.
But I am playing one gig in London next month and it would be lovely to see you there if you are in the neighbourhood.

Writing with Boo.

My friend and brilliant songwriter Boo Hewerdine came over to Iceland last week to write some songs with me here in the Pink house. Now it is going to be even harder choosing the final songs for the new album. The weather did me a favour and was bad until the last day so no time was spent sightseeing and more time was spent songwriting. I told Boo to come back in proper winter to see some northern lights or in the middle of summer to see endless daylight. Autumn here is a bit pointless with lots of rain, and english people see enough of rain at home.

7 days of summer.

My neighbour came over the other day and announced that we have had 7 days of sunshine all summer. Apparently he has been counting. The next day he flew to Greece and now post sunburnt pictures of himself from the beach.
I can´t go on a mission to find the sun right now so I did the next best thing, I wrote a song on ukulele about how much I love the rain ( I thought I could make myself believe it : ) No, still would like some sunshine, but the song is good so I think I will add it to the album. Maybe I will post a video of me playing it in muddy wellies whilst drenched in rain.

Where have I been ?

Yes I have been on maternity leave from my career for almost a year. A lot of clever business people  told me that it is not a brilliant idea to disappear from the music for that long, and they were probably right. But sometimes live just takes over and you don´t really have a choice.
While I was pregnant I had planned to start touring a few months after the baby was born and I had my mum on standby to come with us to babysit while I played my gigs. But then baby Arabella arrived early and pretty much cried constantly for the first 7 months of her life and often stayed awake for 20 hours straight.

Needless to say, that´s when my plans changed. In the past I thought being jet lagged and touring with my band was rock´n roll. Now I realize I had never actually felt truly tired until I had Arabella.

We have had many very stressful nights where we rushed Arabella to the emergency room because she cried so much for so long, we saw lots of pediatricians and specialists but still the baby cried. We tried alternative therapies, and as  I am breast feeding I changed my diet so many times just to make sure it wasn´t something I was eating that was upsetting her. Everyone we met had a good advise for us and thought they knew what was wrong. Thankfully all the checks and tests came back saying Arabella is a strong healthy girl, so all we could do was put her in the baby carrier and keep walking. I am glad we live in the country side because we have spent so many nights walking around with her outside, the bright Icelandic summer nights were a big bonus in that situation. I can´t quite imagine walking around in my pyjamas holding a new born in the middle of London at 3 am.

Now my daughter is 10 months old, she is very happy and healthy but still not a big fan of sleeping. I have managed to finish my new album thanks to a very supportive family that took it in turns to walk around with her whilst I recorded vocals, for everything else Arabella was with us in the studio.

I am going to play one little gig in London at the end of May and then I am doing some proper touring in the autumn. Until then I promise to share with you some live videos of my new songs and possibly invite you to an online gig in from the pink house.

Just wanted to give you all a quick update and I will post news about my music, baby, chickens and other important things here on the blog.....

Hope to see you all later this year.

XXXXX

Hafdis