Alright guys, this is gonna be a long one. Just sayin’!

I started out, about 10 years old. I do not remember if I’d already started playing the piano or not by then, but I’ve listened to music since before I can remember.

At 10 (about) I had a neighbour who had an Atari, with a sampler, so he could record a drumloop, and then add voice over it. (I say voice, because I cannot really call it rap…)

My first stagename was born – DJ Joe. But that career was short lived. Only two “songs”, recorded on tape. I still have it somewhere. (No, I do not plan to release it.)

Skip forward a a year or two, I got my own Amiga 500. I started in an old tracker software, perhaps Protracker. Had four channels available to play samples.

Next big step was upgrading the Amiga 500 to a PC (486 processor, 120 MHz, 16 (or 32?) MB Ram and 850 MB harddrive) with Windows 3.11, but perhaps more importand: Dos 6.22. Here I could run FastTracker 2. This tracker expanded the simultanious channel to infinite! (No, not really, but it felt like it, being stuck with 4 on the Amiga!)

Of course, a sampler that allowed me to record my own samples.

At about 15 I had great fun with my computer and explored the world of sounds through the computer and also attended a choire, still played the piano and had learned to play a little guitarr. But my focus was definitly not performing music, nor perfecting my performans skills, I wanted to get to know the fabric of music. How did it all work? What made some things harmonize and others not so much?

At about 16-17, my next big jump came with a choice. A choice I am both grateful for and have regreted since I made it. I worked in a “radio shop” at weekends and after school, and as a (most likely not totally legit) way of payment, I could choose a synth. Either I chose a Casio that included the Windows midi-software Cubase. That was the choice if I wanted to entered the world of midi, with crappy sounds (compared to the other choice) and stiff workflows. The other choice was a Yamaha CS1X which had awesome sounds. It was a unicorn in my world, a limitless playground. But it also meant that I’d be stuck with the tracker software and not jump on the midi-train just yet. I went with the Casio.

Both my musical exploration (both as listener and as creator/explorer) and technical exploration continued, probably very influenced by my bigger brother who actually bought a mixer and two vinyl-players, which (lucky me) was replaced, so I could (buy? – don’t remember) get my hands on the old ones.

At 20, I landed my first “real” job as a technician at one of the larger radio networks in Sweden. It meant steady income. It meant working with tech, it meant gear. Lot’s of gear. I lived in a 19 square metre appartment with my cat Max, and more than half the appartment was filled with gear.

With gear and aspiering dreams to be a great musicproducer, I chased the current sounds, tried to mimic what was popular. And my spark faded. I wasn’t any good at it. All the expensive gear did not make my productions sound any good. So, the only logical conclution in a 20-something boy’s mind? More gear! Preferably more expensice gear! The latest gear, to be in technical fronteer. Result? Debts. Instead of better music. The more gear I aquired, the more preassure I felt from myself to deliver, and the less fun it was, thus, the less was made. I believed that I had the potential to be great, but the matter of fact was that it wasn’t any fun. I did not enjoy it as I used to.

Between perhaps 25-35, I wrote some pieces of music, and each time I felt like it was luck rather than “me” writing it. And I was sure each time that I could not repeat it ever again for the rest of my life.

Skipping forward to about 35. Now a family-man, wife, a kid, two cats. Still in debt from my trigger-happy buying fingers in my early 20’s. Almost no gear. I got to test FLStudio, some beginner license that came with something I bought. I tested it. It was not easy, but I made a track. I liked it. But I had the feeling that is was just pure luck.

For some Reason (I do not remember), I got to test Reason. And from the first moment I was hooked. This was a tool (DAW) that was thinking like me, that supported the way I wanted to work. It was far from the tracker software or the midi-controlling software, and a great deal different from FLStudio (which is a great piece of software – I mean, look at what Avicii did with it!), and this piece of software sparked my joy again. I found my Reason to make music! (Pun intended!)

I started playing around, most often at night after the familly had gone to bed, and I got to relive the joy I felt as a teen when I explored both music, sound and what not.

It was a way to find back to myself, something I much needed after loosing myself a bit in the relationship and as a father. I felt like the entire me was growing to a better person, a better partner, a better father, a better worker. A better version of me. While I grew more confident in myself, I also grew apart from my (now x-) wife, ending in a divorce.

Adjusting to a new life as a full time father (still her father even when she is not with me) with my daughter with me every other week, music was life-saving. (And to be honest, probably a way to escape the reality in the end of the marrige and in the beginning of my new life.)

Well, and now I am here, soon to be 45. With six (and perhaps hinting of more?) artist fronts and enjoy making music more than ever before. Now, I have found my own path. I do not longer care to follow or sound like mainstream music. I do not even know what kind of music I am making – I cannot put a lable on it! (Electronic music is the closest I come!)

My creation is guided by curiousity and exploration. I get an idea, test it out. Throw it away if it does not work out, keep it if it surprises me in an unexpected and positive way, or if it turned out the way I was hoping and keep following it to where ever it leads me!

I have no particular goal but to continue making music. The 24123 project with Muddhedd was crazy. I do not wish to repeat it, 123 tracks released in one year, one every third day. And as I write this (2:nd January 2025) I’ve already scheduled 80 tracks to release in 2025, back on the Muddhedd fullmoon release schedule. Only thing is. I am only at the May release, currently working on the June release. As it is completed there will be 98 tracks to be released in the first six month’s of 2025. So in a way, perhaps I am doing it again, even if I am not trying to do it. And who knows, perhaps 2025 will be filled with more Muddhedd tracks than 2024?

Without making any promises, I’ll leave this entry here. And let’s explore what 2025 have to offer together? Yeah? Agreed! Let’s do that!

As always, stay curious!

//Nalle