For some reason there has been more productivity in the slow pace, but less results to show in our new environment this year.
All our socials have been rather quiet all year around. Looking at this review of 2022 it is very cool to see that something very neat has happened.
Moving across the globe
Obviously, the core team of ColourCollide: Taavi, Jordan and Eli had a big move from NZ to Finland at the beginning of 2022. Taavi and his family have lived in Rovaniemi some 20 years back.
Coming back to your own culture, after seeing your kids grow up in a foreign country – is just screaming for a reverse culture shock to happen. Their living situation changed a couple times during this time of arrival, which is never helpful.
Then we have Eli who left Germany to be in NZ. One year turned into more than four yers and all of a sudden the decision to go to Finland was on the table. The reverse culture shock happened as she was visiting Germany first, to then stumble into a whole new culture and language up here in Lapland.
Jordan moved away from NZ for the first time in his life. He never learned another language and even thou all this is exciting, he still needs time to adjust and arrive properly.
And Jordan and Eli’s living situation was quite unclear the first months. Third time (of moving) is a charm and they finally got to settle, conveniently close to the practice room.
So a lot of things trying to mess around with your head right there.
October/November sidekicks
Taavi and Jordan were part of a Musical-project at the main Church of Rovaniemi, Taavi being on drums and Jordan on bass. It was mainly volunteer based and had four shows in November, rehearsals through October. Being volunteer based they ended up rearranging a lot of the songs and actually running the whole band in the production, but it was all a good kind of a challenge and the show reached a lot of people and the feedback was good.
Jordan has also been working on a passion project composing themes for video game characters to showcase his ideas and to slowly put together a portfolio. Give it a listen: https://www.youtube.com/@slowbrohero
Highlights of the year
One of the most fruitful things that happened to our band dynamics was consistency. We established our own practice room with our own gear. Jordan got himself a new keyboard and programmed his settings. Eli got herself a new amp and new pedalboard and programmed all her settings too. Taavi set up two drumkits for some drum lessons and we put up his PA-system with microphones and all the works. We also have a couch for the occasional hangout and little studio setup for recording simple demos in the corner.
Eli wrote around 40 song lyrics since arriving in Finland. That has not been as smooth in the last years, since especially last year she was struggling with writer’s block. Juhani came to play his Guitar with us in June and in August Eero joined us with his sweet basslines. We’ve been practising our song repertoire on a weekly basis honing in the new musicians and arrangements.
The coolest thing is that the band has became more like a family as we also introduced some cheeky band-dinner -times, movie-nights and such just to get to know each other beyond the music.
Slowing the pace
It feels like in the past we tried to achieve everything at once, whereas this year has been teaching me (Eli) a lot about the patience of allowing things to grow and develop. I think I always get too excited and want to share too soon and this year we really allowed room for us to arrive, establish, write, practice, and grow as a family.
Wintertime in Christmas City
Rovaniemi is THE Christmas capital of the world and we are still at the high season for tourists now. Taavi is back on the slopes teaching skiing and snowboarding and Jordan and Eli are busy cleaning guest rooms in this one hotel. The days are getting shorter by the minute and we are already deep towards the arctic nights, basically meaning no more sunlight for us for another month or so.
In all the busyness and tiredness Jordan and Eli are now composing and arranging the new lyrics into demos for the band. Exciting times!
On that note, we wish you all Happy New Year and All The Best!
No matter if this season is summer or winter for you, have some breathers in the mids of these hectic times!
ColourCollide 