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

Lullabies.

Hello everyone.

Since my last blog entry I have moved into a new house ( well it is actually a very old house, but it is new to me and it is pink. ), recorded an album of Icelandic lullabies, and I am expecting a baby next month. So lots of exciting things going on. The lullaby album was released in Iceland this week and the Icelandic title is Vögguvísur. My foreign friends will be able to order a copy from my website, it should be set up in the next few days. Until then here is a little video from the recording session for one of the songs. This is recorded in our home studio in the new-old house.

In England writing for the new album.

Hello everyone.

I have been in England now for a couple of weeks writing for my new album and I am excited about how the new songs are sounding. I also went to a screening of the new Borrowers film last night, it was nice to hear my version of Merry little christmas over the opening credits of the film. I was hoping to meet Stephen Fry but he wasn´t there. ( I was going to ask him to take me with him next time he goes to have tea with the queen, he seems like someone who would get invited.)

Doing some writing tomorrow for pop stars I don´t know, I also did that in Norway the other week. It is fun to sometimes write for other singer.

Hope you have started to feel a bit christmasy like I have.

xxxxxx

Hafdis

London gig canceled.

Hello everyone.

Due to things beyond my control I have had to postpone my trip to England until November. So my two London gigs this week have had to be canceled.

Loking forward to playing you some new songs next time I come over.

xxxxxx

Hafdis

First song from my third album.

The first song you get to hear from my third album is called Pop Song. I wrote it with Nik Kershaw who has red squirrels in his garden. Now I want squirrels in my garden ( don´t think it is possible here in Iceland so I will settle for some chickens).

I am very happy with the video for the song and hope you like it too.

xxxxxxxxxx

A quick video blog from Germany.

My new songs.

I have been busy writing new songs lately. Very excited about the new album now, and look forward to start adding some of the brand new songs to the live show. The one I recorded yesterday is very sad, but somehow sad in a nice way Then when I need to give my brain a rest from music stuff I go and work in the garden. I am growing potatoes, cauliflower, broccoli and beetroot this year. Also planted some pretty summer flowers outside of my house. Yes believe it or not it has stopped snowing , finally, ( and there are no volcanos going off at the moment ). And I celebrated this by planting pink flowers !

Pancakes, skyscrapers and dogs in red shoes !

Here is a video blog from my trip to America.

First day of summer !

Two days ago we celebrated the first day of summer here in Iceland. Yesterday it snowed again. Maybe we should rethink having that celebration in april. Most Icelandic people have memories of being snowed on in a first of summer parade at least once or twice.

I am going over to America next week to play some gigs and my first stop is Los Angeles, I am guessing the weather there is a bit nicer than here at this time of year. Maybe I will just have my own little first day of summer parade when I get there. And If you feel like joining me I should be easy to spot ( I will be the one boiling to death in my woolly jumper ). Yes I should probably find some summery clothes before I leave. Spring has started for the rest of the world.

But before I leave I am going to eat a mountain of chocolate and then play a online gig in from my house on easter monday. Hope you will join me, I promise to play music that goes well with easter egg leftovers.

My second kitchen concert.

I am planning another online gig from my pink kitchen on easter monday at 8 pm Icelandic time.

Last online gig worked really well and people tuned in from all over the world.

Here is a little video message I just recorded about it.

Darth Wader and chicken envy.

And the laziest blogger of 2011 award goes to...... me. So many exciting things have happened and I should have blogged about it all. But when I am not working on the music I tend to be in my wellies somewhere in the garden trying to put down some vegetable seeds, but then it keeps snowing again so if any of the ones I put down this weekend end up on the dinner table it will be a miracle.

But the plan was to tell you about exciting music related things, not geeky farm stuff, ( I somehow always end up talking about that instead. ) I went to Sweden last month where I met up with brilliant songwriters from many different countries, we wrote some very good songs for different artists and it was fun writing for other people and to write in different musical styles than what I normally do. When I came back from Sweden I had some horrible swedish flu and sounded like Darth Wader (with an Icelandic accent )for about 2 weeks. But I am better now and back working on the new album.

At the end of april I am going to America, I haven´t played there for a few years so it is about time I go and eat some of their pancakes. I will be playing shows in L.A. , New York, and Boston and I hope to see some of my online friends and followers at the US shows.

My neighbors who live two farms away from us got a chicken house today. They are going to paint it and fill it with chickens in the summer. I think I may have chicken envy.

Suitable shoes for this weather.

This was waiting for me when I came outside. The good news is that Mosi has brilliant taste in shoes. The bad news is that I will have to buy a new pair of red shoes because there are now lots of teeth marks in these.

Snowball fight.

We have had a lot of snow over the last few days. I love it, this is what winter should look like. My cat Moli isn´t so sure about all this white stuff. These pictures will show you why ......

Really ? You people expect me to go out in that weather ??????

But she kept screaming at the door so I opened it to let her check out the snow.

She explored it for a few minutes but then came in and could hardly walk because of all the snowballs that were stuck to her fur.

I tried to dry her off with a towel but the snow was stuck, so I ended up leaving her by the radiator so the snow could melt off.

We keep finding tiny puddles on the floor where Moli´s snow balls are melting.

Live online christmas gig !

Hello my friends.

Tonight I will be playing a christmas gig from my pink kitchen in Iceland. I have invited some neighbors round for hot chocolate and ginger bread cookies and some festive music.

The whole thing will be streaming live on the internet so if you want to join us please go to my website www.hafdishuld.com and you will be directed to the right place.

Later

xxxxxxx

Hafdis

Christmas trees, cats, music and crochet.

I am back home now from my European tour. Here is a little video blog I recorded from my pink kitchen a moment ago.

xxxx

Hafdis

Cauliflower ear and very tall men.

I have found out that rugby players in general are a bit bigger than me. Last week I played a set before a match between Harlequins and Bath. It was a totally new experience as I have never even seen a rugby game before.

Everyone was really friendly, I had lovely food and they even gave me a Harlequins shirt , they were kind enough to look for the smallest one possible and I still wore it as a dress. Nothing like chillin´with rugby players to make you feel tall.

Oh and I learned a new term. Cauliflower ear = is when you have hurt your ear many times badly and it starts to look a bit plus/minus.

Last but not least I want to say a big thank you to Julian from Harlequins that looked after us while we were there. We had a great day.

New single out now!

My new single, 'Synchronised Swimmers' is out now. Even if you have the album, I would love it if you could buy the single on download as they tell me cool things happen if lots of people buy my single. You can get it from all good download stores, and here's a link to the single on Amazon: Synchronised Swimmers