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Can you feel it?
The autumn is on it's way. The crops are ripening in the fields (and in our garden) and the wind blows freely on the flatlands of Holland (I've had to strengthen my plants with sticks and ropes and stuff to stop them blowing over!) .There are so many positive and amazing reactions to "WOLF LOVE" flooding in to the PAGANSCUM headquarters here, and Chloé and Moniq have their hands full manning (or should that be womanning?) the Omnia webshop to get all the new orders for WOLFLOVE out. We're getting ready for our release-gig in Belgium on the Deerlycke folk festival (the 21st of August). It's great that we get to play there again because this festival has always had the policy to invite any band for one gig only. We played there 3 years ago already so we weren't planning on coming back. But now for the first time in 13 years Deerycke breaks their tradition by allowing OMNIA on their beautiful stage for a second time!. So thank you Deerlijcke for this great honour! We're gonna rock extra hard for you...PaganFolk style! I hope to see you there and we'll play some old and new songs for you all (I won't say which new ones ...but, bring your Cornwall flag if you have one) Greenthingz and a big cyber hug Steve Sic PS: don't get too depressed when the weather turns grey and the sky spits rain. It can seem daunting and oppressive I know, but it's all part of the cycle of life and although it may be annoying it is totally neccessary for the earth. So if you get down, just act like the rest of the (non monkey) planet and just slow down...have a cup of tea and a spliff, think of summerdays gone by and smile...what goes around, comes around...
So..that was fun! Thank you all soooo much!Castlefest has been and gone, another weekend of delicious, bohemian weirdness sheltered in the arms of the most beautiful festival I know. It marks the passing of the years for us each time when we come home to Castlefest and see and feel the changes that life has wrought upon us all. The band, me, you...
so you wanna know something about the new album?
this is a very detailed press-promotion text about the new album that I thought might be nice to share with you: Castlefest here we come!
We've been busy practicing with the band all weekend for the European "WOLF LOVE" release parties, starting with our old friend CASTLEFEST next weekend!We've got a whole load of new songs to play live and during the last two (holy) days we've been perfecting playing them, so we don't fuck up on stage (because as you know we are a 100% "unplugged" band so we have no electronic beats and pre recorded stuff to hide behind) You'll be hearing some very different new OMNIA songs on our new CD "WOLF LOVE" so we want to play a load of them on CF for you and I'm very very curious to see what you think about our new babies (some are quite shocking...). After a lovely weekend at dreamharps.nl we all feel well up to a weekend of fun and laughter on the great freakfestival main-stage of CASTLEFEST (sadly this year we couldn't help to organise it because we ran out of time due to a lot of OMNIA work...ah well.. but of course we're still playing there all three days!) Here you see the band hard at work this weekend in a different modus operandi (he he he!). We have decided that it was time for an instrument line-up change. Jenny was sick of playing harp, piano, dulcimer, bodhran etc. and said she would like to try playing just one instrument on stage just like Philip, Luka and Joe. Joe actually hates his guitar and loves bellydancing (as a hobby) and persian drumming so he ot the darabukka. Luka always wanted to be a drummer on a proper kit because he likes hitting things with sticks, Tom thought it was time to show his more feminine side and be more "refined" on a cultural instrument like the tall celtic harp in the hope that it wil get him laid (he's still single girls!). Philip always has a cigarette or a joint in his face so he decided that the didge is "just another tube" and is now focusing more on that and I've played so much "guitar hero" on games consoles that I thought it was time to play one for real like my great hero Angus Young... So guys, girls and other space aliens: We hope to see you all real soon somewhere somewhen (and we hope you're wearing something sexy when we do). Greenthingz Stenny photo by: Maralalalalaah
I feel...
I feel slightly older today (It was my birthday this weekend)I feel kinda mellow (we celebrated with lots of good organic plantlife) I feel slightly fuzzy (I had two beers but I've got the constitution of a 4 year old girl) I feel very rich ( I have love and I was spoiled with jummy presents) I feel very clean (one of my presents was a long day at a posh sauna) I feel very happy (because It's good to have such sweet friends) I feel very expectant (tomorrow Wolf Love get's delivered to our storage) I feel a little apprehensive (will the new cd be ok?, is it printed properly?) I feel Alive! because sometimes my life makes sense how about you? Greenthingz and a big cyberhug to you Steve Sic less than two weeks till our Castlefest release party!... photo by: mr.Harp-Goblin
what can you do with an OMNIA shirt on?
well , as you may or may not know, OMNIA shirts give you enhanced super powers if worn correctly.To prove this here you see our friend and fellow "extreme sports fanatic" Norbert Wallentin from Austria, demonstrating his amazing upside down spiderclimb capabilities without safety ropes in Mallorca! (yeah zoom in and look at this picture properly to spot Norbert) Greenz and fucking fit bodies! Steve Sic photo by: God? (I can actually fly when I wear my OMNIA shirt...or would that be all the drugs?...erm...so get into the OMNIA-webshop and buy the stuff of superheroes today!) the intrepid Norbert!
Merch items are available again!
- Longsleeves M + XL- Raven's XL - Regular shirts M + XL - Lacy tops S, M + L - Linen bags Take a look in our webshop! :-) Model: Thomas
Boar, Deer, Birdz, Bootz, Bicycles, Big Bugz, little horses and lotsa Treez...
Just a quick line to let you know we are still alive and very much enjoying a spot of rest in the calming soothing arms of nature...The walks are great, we cycle a lot as well, the weather is beautiful (ranging from sunny and hot to impressive thunder and lightning), the animals that live in this area are not so shy of happy treehugging pagans, so we get to see a lot of wild boar, deer, bunnies and other fauna, as well as the beautiful indiginous flora of Europe ... and... this is my view for most of the day ;-) So life is good. Love and greenz! Steve Sic and Jenny ps: I switched on my computer because there was another print-crisis for the new CD and I got an urgent message on my mobile to tell me so...sigh...there is just no getting away from OMNIA is there? anyway, crisis is dealt with, again (it always boils down to giving someone more money, doesn't it?) and now I've done something useful with my time as well by writing this.... wanna hear about life?
goshdarnit and such like..I'm sooo fecking empty of any kind of natural thought at the moment, my mind is buzzing with that modern disease "over-input"You will not believe how many thingz went wrong this week with uploading the files and stuff, all very drastic last-minute panic situation to which I react much like a lemming with a dicky heart on amphetamines...(ie: I explode in a cloud of despair) There are so many things to arrange and check and write and make for the upcoming release as well as arranging of gigs and haggling over money and hotels and such with organisers ...all of which Jenny and me had to get "out of the way" this week because , you see, we are gonna take a short break from work for a while. (we had originally planned to disappear for a month , but life has it's interesting little ways of nibbling off a day or two here and there untill you're suddenly left with just 10days...but still...10 days no computer...10 days no phone...sounds like paradise to us! just as we were thinking..."hey I think finally everything is on track and going well".... disaster struck! from the printing plant in germany (plant as in cd-factory, not large green leafy thing) came the voice of doom: "es gibt eines problem" the artfiles for the cover had some quite drastic format thingies of an "oh no! we're fucked!" nature. Our team of intrepid designers (Fieke and Miez) leapt into the fray and are solving the riddles and correcting the files right now actually.. so I've been assured by my good friend Miez (who can be quite the wise and friendly uncle when you need him) that all will be well and the print deadline (so we have the cd's on time for Castlefest) will still be good. then today, just mere hours before Jenny and me and a bunch of instruments set out for some nature and musical oblivion we get the message: "the DVD masterfile has not arrived yet" WHAT!? it hasn't arrived at the plant yet? (again, not green leafy thing but...) But I sent it by special delivery for a lot of money last week, the dutch postal system is owned by the fecking queen for feck's sake! surely she wouldn't take all my money and not render the prper service for it? (you hope) but where is it then? hours of phonecalls and internet browsing by Jenny of "userfriendly" (hahaha) postal sites later we find out that the DVD master is on its way to the factory, and very close indeed...probably...they think....erm...(obviously , panic ensued and we had lemming-steve bouncing all round the house of Evans van der Harten until finally at 1600 hours we received the manically prayed for e-mail from Angela (our contact who works for the "not a green thing" plant) that the DVD is also safe and sound and all is well... (getting a little paranoid here folks...) Not everything was a complete brain whomper today because I was also looking over and checking many new omnia-website thingies (yes folks it's finally gonna happen, he OMNIA website will soon be upgraded!...should I be writing this down here?, maybe I'm jinxing the project by doing this....or maybe I'm jinxing it by saying that I'm jinxing it!..or maybe...ah fer feck's sake...I'm tired, did I mention that?. Possibly I'm whining aswell, which I shouldn't do because I have a pretty sweet life and an amazing wife as well as mr.Fluffy our own personal live-in therapist and crisis manager who helps me a lot to overcome life's little bumps as well as the screaming pits of infernal internal hell...) but anyway... website upgrade, fecking amazing!, looks cool!...check it out ...soon! (I won't say when, because it has been statistically proven that a bit of excitement and a modicum of uncertainty is beneficial to the overall mental state of people who read too many long and pointless blogs written by humble treehugging pagan-musicians...really!) I would like to leave you now with this quote sent to me today by Richard (our new webguru) "grab life by the throat and force it into submission". that usually works, if not, try "throw a banana at the stupid apes and run for the hills". But then again, when you least expect it, life bludgeons you in the back of the head. Shouldn't have let go of its throat to throw the banana... Stupid apes..." so now I crash out gently and stenny takes a short break...talk to you all later... there was some point to this narrative, but it has momentarily slipped the chronicler's mind...(thanx mr. Adams) I know...I wrote this so I would feel better sharing it all with you...and you know? it works, thanx! Greenz and freedom! Stenny photo of Stenny and mr.Fluffy McMeris by: Quoth the Raven
Some People...
...have to sit behind a screen watching 22 men run behind a ball to be able to feel happy...Other People only need a little fire and a little harp to celebrate life... I'll go for the last option! Enjoy life Be free And eat lots of salad Greenthings xx Jenny
almost there...
we are sending and confirming all the files to the printing plant in Germany this week!! wehey!!That means we get these enormous gigantic trillibitywhatsits of datainfo of artwork photoshop magic, cd-audio master files and DVD video master files and we shove them into the wobbly lanes of inter-computer worldweb communicationlines and then with any luck all the 0's and 1's will magically re-assemble as a complete work of art in the mega computers in the factory halls of the printing plant... so with any luck this artclipping you see here will appear in all it's carefully designed glory within the pages of our new baby "WOLF LOVE" (one more month till D'day), so that you can feed your head some more with OMNIA weirdness... Have a good day...still tired, but hopefull...I long for a vacation (as well as a grapefruit) Greenthingz Sic drawing of cuddly bear by Yves photoshop by Miez photos by the Shaman of Aaaargh text by Urghl the very smelly though possibly enlightened... Jammin in da Park
we had a great time in a park this weekend with a whole bunch of friends, juggling clubs, poi, instruments and herbs... there was sun there was rain (hot like...wet like...)and there was a really nice guy from Congo whom we joined for some percussive international communication! photo by: knut the rock gnome
summerdays in the park
what are these humans on about?this is Greta, being wise and old...while Jenny Maral and Kaat play around and practice with Poi and firestaff photo by the park-fairy
breathe in...breathe out...
So Today was a day for PAIN!, yeah baby! ;-)I had the "touch-ups" done on my head-tattoo today, so it looks nice and sharp! and here you can see the amazing artist Renate fixing my skin with the evil little pen of needles... as they say in dutch: "wie mooi wil zijn moet pijn lijden" (" if ya wanna be pretty, it's gotta hurt"...yeah dutch are a bit weird in that respect...) so if you're looking to have your head done with swirlies or if you decide you really want to have that Stenny signature on your boobs permanent, go to Bianca's place in Hilversum where Renate the ever-cool works , check it out at: WWW.TATTOOSOLUTIONS.NL !!! and Jenny's skin-pics got some touch-ups too!
also by Renate of www.tattoosolution.com!
paganz in da water!
luka demonstrating Olympic class stick diving...
last day of practice (last chances for the pool)
here's the happy gang (minus Joe, plus merch-babe Chloé) doing some more funstuff ... greenz Steve Sic (I'm gonna lose some clothes and gain some pool) Frog in the swimming pool...
today we had a special guest at the OMNIA practice sessions at dreamharps...this frog. Seen here in the hands of Jenny (she kissed it and it turned into a handsome prince, whom we then had to kick out of the house , because we are obviously against royalty and besides...Jenny is already married.today Jenny , Philip and me are being joined for some jamming by our Omnia-powerhouse of rythm: Tommy! we swim, we jam,we smoke (too much) we relax...life is good Greenz and amphibians! Steve Sic
mighty Tom the whale rider
Philipp Cobain Rockmountain
Jammin' wid da drumz and gitarr
Flower of the desert
this is Maral , who is making all these photos of us practicing...(but she didn't actually make this one, which was made by Ab'd al Hazred...again...cthulu be praised...ahem....)
Mid-Summer days...
So what did we do the last days?We played a really fecking cool gig last saturday in what must be the most amazingly beautifull setting of Holland! We played on an open place with enormous rockformations and trees all around us! The audience was sitting in a kind of half-amphitheatre and it was so cosy and freaky and ..wow! Our own stage-sound was heavenly, the people of the open-air theatre were very friendly and the audience was full of our friends! Yep that was a good (extra) midsummernight festival for us, and a great way to end the last tour. We played some songs for the very last time (which was sad...) apart from Castlefest where we will have three whole sets to fill , so one or two will get a last chance to live there (which will be happy!) The PaganClan was cool, the delicious samosa's after the show saved my life , for I would certainly have starved to death without them (thanx again sweety!) and now we are jamming and practicing our new awesome material for the upcoming festival cd-release tour starting in august.(love in the forest! Today in the dreamharps sessionhall we had Joe, Philip, Luka and Maral (as mental support and trauma team) and let me tell you kids it sounds sweet! the sun is shining and hot (check the shorts dude),the smokes are sweet and the strings are in tune, what more can a pagan musician want? Sadly Joe had to go back to Brussels just now... tomorrow Tommy arrives for some drum mayhem... ...and now I'm still typing ...and the rest of the gang is outside smoking another recreational fatty while I'm still inside writing this blog.. It's taking so long because I just wrote one and then wiped it by accident because I'm an idiot...ahem...it was really good! probably the best blog I've ever written actually, but now it's gone...forever....ah well! such is life. Live it to he full and enjoy every moment and take every chance to LIVE that you are offered (because who knows when it will be gone again... Greenthingz and Love Steve Sic photo by: radiant flower of the desert The time of the wolf is nigh...
Stenny's back from the far east-end of germany (close to the polish border) Where we had the honour to receive a lot of really cool people of the german press for a pre-listening session of "WOLF LOVE" our new cd!As a location our german distibutor and friend Sir Jan and us had chosen this forest because it is one of the few in europe where the wolves are actually coming back! You see a few years ago some wolves crossed over from Poland and actually stayed..so now there are wild wolves living free in parts of germany! Isn't that cool (of course there are many prejudice and misinformed idiots around who would want them shot as a "dangerous animal") but with luck and cunning the wolves will stay alive and free! These wolves remind us of ourselves because many people view us in exactly the same way , because the wolf is probably the most misunderstood creature of the wild... That's why we named our new baby "Wolf Love" because if you can really love the wolf and all she stands for , then you begin to understand nature! We were very tired indeed when we were speaking to the ladies and gentlemen of the press, but they were so kind to us and treated us gently (they had heard of our little uniformed bullyboy trauma the day before) , so thanx guys!, old friends and new aquaintances alike! And what did they think of our album?...well...I know, but I'll let you find out by reading their magazine articles when they come out! (these are all german language area mags as far as I know though). So we checked the DVD files today and they are fantastic! the live material of castlefest 2009 is awe-inspiring (and funny to see so many good friends from all over europe in the gigantic CastleFest saturdaynight audience! (even Philip!) Next week this baby arrives in the printing factory and then we wait for the release parties! one in holland (Castlefest), one in belgium (Deerlycke), one in germany (Festival Mediaval) and one in france (Cidre et dragon) untill then, stay Free guys and don't let the fascists get you down* Greenthingz Steve Sic ps: for those paranoid people out there who like to misunderstand what I write and who were upset about my last one, "jew gassing fascists" is a metaphore for me , like "colonial slave-drivers" and "tree killing monkeys" they are actual extremes of humanity and 'humane' behaviour. I don't mean any particular nationality with this like Germans or English. Blind stupidity and sadism is a worldwide passtime not restricted to just one country... Like for instance during the last totalitarian fascist period of europe ('39 to '45) about 25% of the total population of occupied Europe was fine with being a "Nazi" and a lot more remained absolutely passive...(or did you think that germany could have held on to the whole of mainland europe and parts of Africa and asia for so long on it's own?), that's a little fact most european people would prefer to forget. It doesn't take much for the loss of your civil liberties to evolve into a totalitarian state control of your whole life so no worries kids! I hate every government and every uniformed army just as much! (except you of course! thanx for reading this message again , and thanx for all the support!) ...keep an open mind...think out of the box... photo by: lil' bad wolf
To protect and serve...
Jenny is a criminal...Yep, I don't know if you realise this but she's a lawbreaker and so am I...You see, we were trundeling along safely and merrily over the German motorway in our trusty old OMNIA-van amid speedfreaks in expensive sportscars and trucks from hell...when we were suddenly pulled over at a traffic control post by a veritable army of nasty looking German police for a "drug control"... Of course we were not worried about this, because Jenny is a really safe driver and would never get behind the wheel under the influence of anything except coffee. BUT according to German law it is illegal to drive a car up to three days AFTER you have smoked one cigarrete containing grass!!! (did you know this? We certainly didn't) Anyhow, as you know, we smoke legally at home, so our car contains micro traces of grass and that's enough reason for the cops to take the driver (my sweet Jenny) to be checked, body searched, urine-sampled and blood-checked at a fecking hospital (all under the surveillance of Germany's finest "criminal polizei") They actually wanted to take her on her own without me! But I soon put a stop to that idea..hah! Nobody takes my soulmate anywhere without me to guard her! And whadda ya know, they found micro traces of the happy-plant in her blood (yeah..duh..those traces stay for up to 6 weeks as anybody who has ever looked at internet can tell you). So now Jenny is a criminal and a danger to society because she's driving a van on the motorway and she smoked a happy cigarette yesterday... Now she's not allowed to drive anymore for at least another 24 hours, she lost her driver's licence for one month in Germany and the bundes-boys took €520,- from us to pay our debt to the people of Germany for being so insanely dangerous and evil. (The same fine you get for driving blind-drunk or under the influence of heroïn!!) And why? Because it's "THE LAW", not because it's reasonable or because it makes sense. NO it's because some overpaid idiot who has never smoked a joint in his life and who has no idea what he is talking about decided to write it down in a book... A law book...(which is kind of like a bible for capitalist rulers to keep the peasants in line and which has about the same amount of sense and colourfull bullshit in it). The weird thing is, the chief policeman who "processed" us seemed really OK as an individual, a little paranoïd maybe but certainly no sadist... but sadly warped in his mental capacity and totally indoctrinated by the concept of "LAW" (ie: if it is written down by his masters, it doesn't matter what he thinks or feels, in a uniform you just follow the rules, no more, no less. When the law tells them to gas Jews again, they'll gas 'em again baby, they'll gas 'em with a clear conscience because they will "just be doing their job"). So now we are stranded on a dirty truck-parking place in the middle of germany still 4.5 hours away from our press-meeting location and poor Jan (our good friend and German distributor of Banshee/Kom4medien) who drove 6 hours to Berlin this morning now has to take a train and a taxi (another 5.30 hours) to pick us and our stranded Omnia-van up. And then he has to drive our van 4.30 hours back again to the forest of Berlin (where he just came from). We should arrive there around 03.00 hours at night if we're lucky... Jan is going to be sooooooooo tired, I really hope we don't crash. BUT this is legal (it's better than letting the evil drug-fiend Jenny drive anymore today)! Long live the German and European Law!! We feel so safe and well protected now, I'm really glad we pay so much fucking tax to these nice people, so they can tell us what we can and cannot do...... don't you? So anyway, in writing this Blog I am now simply "doing my Job" (I'm a poët, an intellectual artist and a shaman) I hope I can get it online today, so my wish for you today would be: Stay Green!, Be Free!! and remember kids: The Law has been made to keep you enslaved and it serves only the rulers who make them... Love and peace Steve Sic and (a very traumatised) Jenny ps: hi "fellow criminal" and hip-hop fan Jens! (we hope you enjoy the Omnia-cd ) and to you mr.nice-policeman, did you like our music-cd? Can you see a small part of the world that WE are fighting to "protect and serve" now? So tell me, do you still feel proud of yourself and your uniform? PS from Jenny (time 9:45 PM): They have a TMobile Hotspot here at the gas station so for only 8 Euros I could put this blog online...(seems a small price now...). there you go!
A Midsummernight's Art-work
so...back to the artwork, with cuddly brother Miez and today we're also joined by sister Fieke (of Orchus.nl) because...We're finishing up the artwork of cd for "Wolf Love"! our new baby is almost ready to go to the printing plant! The mastering is now complete, the booklet and digipac almost done... The artwork is now finished! The dvd finishing is being done now by Angelique and Mirko of D'Images... just a few more things to arrange and we're done...( and not a bit to soon) Jenny and me are totally knackered...tomorrow morning we drive to a secret location in the forest somewhere near Berlin for a pressmeeting with the german press... weird days... Greeniez and enjoy the artclipping! Sic ,Jenny, Miez and Fieke photo by Miestenny the mad Feuertanz Festival, Abenberg
Hi all! It took me a while, but I'm back with some great shots :-) (Well,……..I hope you like them as well) of the last gig OMNIA had in Abenberg, Germany. The crowd (10000 eyes) loved it and enjoyed every minute of it.
can I go to sleep now?
dude! that was one fucking freaky gig! We're hanging out in the hotel now with Luka(just the three of us like old times, because sadly we were put in seperate hotels due to…something…so the rest of the omniagang is hanging out somewhere else…erm…I'm really tired actually this was one bloody long day…but a good one! rainy night…grey morning…early at the castle to bring our gear…still muddy but drying out…freaky day talking to cool people…lots of loud bands on the stage playing electric guitars…then a fat gig of omnia weirdness (saw many questionmarks floating in sky above the audience that hadn't seen us before…the view from the stage was amazing !…slow start for me…but then the sun started shining and I felt the surge of energy coming from the great Omnia crowd there (thanx PaganClan!) and I woke up…we played I talked too much german…we cleared the stage…spent over an hour doing the "signing session" (you guys were all real sweet thanx!)…did a couple of interviews …loaded up the van (dragging our equipment through the ancient castle grounds through the crowds of "black people" (great setting)…dragged our carcasses back to the hotel…and now I'm writing gibberish again on my laptop because…I don't know…I just wanted to tell you that I'm very tired but happy…today was a good day… tomorrow morning we hit the road back to cloggyland. and now I'll just relax and talk some more crap with Luka (says hi) and Jenny (says hi too) and we won't smoke any grass because it's obviously bad and very illegal in this part of germany… Good night! Sic photo by: Joe "King" Hennon from stage , during the show...(joe put some pictures on the omnia facebook)
Bavaria!
this is Jenny…she's kinda tired after guiding our van over 7 hourd of german motorway down to the south…(and half a bavarian beer)We've been trundeling along all day with Luka and Chantal (merchbabe/tourmanager/second driver/sweet psycho) to beautifull Bavaria where we arrived at the amazing Castle where the FeuerTanz festival is being held. I can hear the heavy soundz of In Extremo coming in through our open window . They're pleasing the crowd from the festival mainstage where we will be frying some souls tomorrow evening ..I'm looking forward to it! it's a great atmosphere here. but tonight we relax a bit first…last night we were still making cd-art with Miez in Holland and now we are in the impressive countryside of southern germany where the wild boar and even wilder goths roam free! I'm a little pooped myself (as you can tell by my random gibberish) so I will simply sign off by wishing you a very good night (or day depending on where on the planet you are as you're reading this) and I hope the fairies give you an extra smile on your face by providing you with some happy thoughts… tomorrow we rock Sweetdreams ! Steve Sic so…now I'm going to cuddle my sweet wife ;-) photo by: Hatter (Mad) So fecking Arty!
We were listening to mastered versions of songs untill the small hours yesterdaynight and today we were up again bright and early (it's a beautifull sunny day here in the Neverlands, and I'm sitting naked in the backgarden writing this...) Today we are working on promo-material, the final mastering should be finished today aswell (keep your fingers crossed) and this evening I'll be working on more new CD-artwork with Miez...maybe later I'l sleep again aswell... hmmm?..... we still have to pack the instruments, fill our rechargable batteries (yes we are actually the only band I know who doesn't pollute the world more than we have to with evil-batteries for stage toys) and we'll make the playlists for the Feuertanz gig in Nürnberg, because we leave tomorrow morning early for the 6 hour drive ,not including the inevitable "peristaltic polonaise" (traffic jams). I love this weird chaotic life , but sometimes when I'm forced to tap these dinky little white keys I really wonder why... (although I always enjoy writing this stuff to you, because I know you can actually listen) anyway enjoy this art-cd-booklet-clipping of Jenny and Kaat which will ofcourse grace the pages of our new cd Greenerwarmersexierthingz Steve Sic photo: Eline Spek (lnde.nl)
Mid Summer in Fairytale setting....
Okay, guys, really, trust me.You don't want to miss this! Imagine us on this beautiful stage, with actual real plants and trees as our stage decoration, in an almost 100-year old Open Air Theatre in one of the most gorgeous parts of Holland: Valkenburg, not far from the German ánd Belgian border! We are playing there on the 26th of June, just after Mid Summer, and just before our summer break. The next concert will be Castlefest, and we'll be playing all kinds of new stuff there, which means kicking out golden oldies, so...that means, the 26th of June is your last chance to hear some of your favourite songs that we've been playing for years, and it will be in the most Omnia-esque setting you can possibly imagine. I really can't see any reason why all the cool people from our great fanbase from Belgium, Germany and Holland, wouldn't want to come and share this Magical Midsummer night with us...so go on, have a look in our agenda and check out the link. See you all there! Greenthings Lonely Jenny (Steve Sic is doing artwork with Master Miez tonight...)
so, what about the merchandise, is that a lot of work?
Let's see... this morning we went along with Omnia's "super merch-babe" Chloé to scout out some new merchandise stuff. Yeah, you might not realise this but band-shirts also don't fall out of the sky ready made, ya know...... We are now designing some new merchandise (how about a cool new shirt!) to go with the upcoming CD release and it all has to be checked and thought out before the printing work starts.And that is also one of the many things that has to be done by our hard working pagan babe! Yeah it's a lot of work providing you guys with enough goodies to keep you happy. Then there are also things like getting all the cd's, shirts,stickers ,dvd's and suchlike ready and packed before going to a gig . And because we have the excellent (sold-out) "Feuertanz festival" in Germany coming up you can now see dear Chloé here lugging the heavy boxes of OMNIA goodies around with her ever present beautifull smile in place. (I myself sadly could not help her with this arduous task, because I had to take this very important picture to share with you, so that you can appreciate her hard work even more!) this afternoon Stenny was back in the Stustustudio to listen in on the mastering-process... it's nearly done.......oooh! isn't this exiting!? and now Stenny is going to spark up a fatty boombatty and chill out with some really old episodes of Xena... ;-) Sic Moving Pictures!
This afternoon we spent working for the DVD that will come with the new CD. We were editing some really groovy 'behind the scenes' material and designing the DVD menu's with Angelique and Mirko of D'iMages...and it's starting to look like this will become a must-have (even I want it)! Among other things, imagine Valravn, Irfan, Kelvin and many other friends playing like children on the beach after CF 2009, Steve & Jenny playing Old Man Tree just after writing it in the Ardennes and a hilarious studio report... And that's just the Extras! Anyway, it's way past sitting-behind-your-laptop-working-time, so I'm gonna have a nice cup of tea and a sit down. Good night to all you faeries and freaks out there! Lots of love and happy thoughts, Jenny photo by: the grand procrastinator
Paganwalkabout...
We went on a groovy hike in one of the most beautifull open-nature reserves in holland with our lovable friendly guitarplayer Philip and his sweet lady Maral. It's so good to get out of the city and it's madness to have your mind soothed by the wonderous balm which is nature in it's free form... We walked, we smoked, we talked, we dreamed ,we smoked some more and at night we flew...what a good Life!...ans.....drumroll......today the last track that had to be end-mixed for the new CD was successfully finished! (Shamaniac) the story of sound draws to its end...tomorrow the mastering starts! My thoughts at the moment are: "Life is for living and each day is a present...(pun) Go out and enjoy what nature has to offer while you still have the heart and mind to enjoy the gift" Greenthingz! Stenny ps: I originally had a blog-thing about politics and dangerous monarchy here...but I wiped it, because we don't actually vote and we have stopped paying attention to that entity of commerce and slavery which is wrongly referred to as "government". (ha ha ha ) photo by: Mighty Maral
Heya Heya!
we just got out of bed an hour ago (around 19.00 pm.) Stenny is kinda tired but very very happy...To break the chain of work (so we can focus better on the last and most crucial parts of making the new CD/DVD) we did something completely different this weekend. We helped one of our dearest friends who was a little sad and hurt with a "healing" ritual which was very intense indeed... Gone were the daily thinking of recording and art, only to be replaced with the energy of the universe, love and freedom. Stenny loves being weird in a ritual sense and we really did our best for our sweet friend, who looked and felt a lot "brighter and lighter" after we had finished... And now stenny is still a little shagged-out with "shamanic after-ritual-energy dip" but we feel really fine... as a little surprise we got the final mix of "Love in the forest" today (which is absolutely fabulous) and I don't think we have ever written such a happy, funny and horny song as this... Greenthingz on dreamwingz Stenny picture: just a little tiny preview of CD booklet artwork for the pretty girl who asked us to put some on the web again (during the very cool and intimate "stenny-gig" at dreamharps) The last bits....
As the sun finally shines and warms up the body of mother nature, we are, as usual, stuck in the studio. But...the end is nearing! Today we are recording the last bits for the last songs, and as I write this, Steve is happily singing his heart out on our feel-good song "Love in the Forest". To get into the mood, he took off some clothing...it is for you to imagine how much of it!Sunny greenthings, happy cows and roses Jenny
I just wanted to share this picture with you...
So today we actually took a couple of hours off to go to town to score some pretty little things for our pretty little house(black marroccan and turkish earthenware eating-bowls with metal finishing if you're at all interested) and now we're working...which means that I'm practicing lead vocals for a last bit of re-recording tomorrow on a really laid back and groovy track called "love in the forest". And Jenny is sitting in our garden doing "office work in the sun" (which could also be considered a good song title, though happily not on our new cd...ahem...) Well anyway , I just wanted to share that with you... (doesn't Jenny look sweet there in the sun? she doesn't know that I'm writing this because all she can hear coming from the house is "love in the forest" blasting loud on the speakers and she thinks I'm hard at work instead of faffing around with this keyboard...) so i'll get back to the pretty singing now so you guys can get a good new song to listen to soon(it's about making love in nature) Greenthingz and freedom! Steve Sic
DVD editing
Today we were in the editing homebase of the D'images team (www.dimages.eu) to look at the work being done on the video material for our new album...(it's going to be a two disc "multimedia pack"...one CD and one DVD...cool huh?) There are some awesome videos we shot at Castlefest 2009, and they look great!...I got goosebumps when I saw the crowd shot of thousands of weirdlooking maniacs yelling "MORRIGAN!!!!!" (shudders) and the "making of the CD" documentary is really really.......well I'm not going to tell you everything now, am I? You'll see it all when it's released! anyway, back home , working the keyboard from hell so that OMNIA stays alive and functioning...the beat goes on, the works not done yet...just a few more weeks to go and the new cd will be finished for printing and then we can rest a while...(we're starting to get more and more edgy and confused and weirded out with all the information that goes through our heads each day...)we're not really born to be accountants and managers but sadly that's what you get if you wanna be a free independant working band... Steve get's one of those "what am I doing here?" moments and listens to the blackbird outside for a while... You know what? I'm gonna go outside and get some fresh air and possibly something to smoke aswell ;-) Greenthingz Stenny hmmm? could this be the new OMNIA stage look?
well, no actually...but it could be in the new cd artwork though!...you see, Stenny (and our friend Kaat) were in the wonderfull world of FASHIONMODELS!, yes kids it's true...we could've hopped straight onto the catwalk and booted those skinny-assed bimbos of Versace and Prada into oblivion! For today we have been pampered and make-upped and dressed and posed and photographed for the webshop gallery of our sweet friends Femke,Roos and Nienke of www.hatsndreads.com and we had a great time modelling their weird-art and freaky wool-dreadz ,what a cool way to spend a spring sunday. I'll let you know when the ladies of Hatsndreads will put these weird arty pics of us online on their website... Greeniez and laughter Steve and Jenny photo by: Thomas
run forest run!
we've been making new band-pictures in the forest with a really sweet photographer called Eline (www.lnde.nl), and I can assure you it was a hilariously funny and artistic day!(you'll see the results soon enough, in the meantime enjoy this picture of "serious art in progress" taken by the handsome yet irritating allround artsupport 1st-reflection screen-assistent, runner and cigarette roller (as well as photomodel on this site's webshop gallery) Thomas ;-)
Omnia Lottery
Is ClosedCongrats to all the winning numbers from our ‘World of Omnia’ lottery. We had some of you lucky people to hang out with us, and we had a great time. I'm sorry to say but now it’s time to close the curtain Love and stay green P.S. This, of course, does not count for the already known winners cooler than the blues brothers!
.."It's 30 miles to the studio,we got half a tank of gas, no cigarettes, it's morning and we're wearing sunglasses...let's go"... dumdum-dada-dada-daadaaah dumdum-dada-dada-daadaaah If you've never ever seen the classic movie "The blues brothers" then the very funny parody-statement with accompanying soundtrack which I just placed here will make no sense whatsoever to you... anyway, in the stustustudio again with Sanderman doing more end-mixing (just three more songs to go!) the next three weeks are the last weeks of the project we're starting to get tired now though,and Stenny is fraying around the edges...in the words of master Yoda "hard to keep-up, the energy is.." and tomorrow it's an intimate acoustic gig to play, the day after it's gonna be fotoshoots. dr.Sic's advice to the world today is :stay relaxed, enjoy it and get it done even when the work level get's above your head, but only if it's for the sake of Art or Nature! Greeniez Stenny
ACOUSTIC STENNY
What do you call a real concert where the musicians simply play instruments and sing without the use of microphones or amplification in these modern days of word mis-use and advertising bullshit? It seems like every band I know is doing "unplugged" gigs nowadays, but when I see them play they are all "plugged" and amplified anyway.(they just leave their electric guitar, drumkit and/or laptop at home) Anyway...Jenny and myself are playing a "real" UNPLUGGED GIG this coming saturday the 29th of may in Mijdrecht(NL), where we won't have any microphones or anything, just instruments, muscle, bone and breath...because it's just the two of us, we will be able to play new songs from the upcoming cd just as they were written... So come join us for another timeless bardic experience between the audience and the artists in the private harp-chamber of www.Dreamharps.nl (also on stage that same evening is the amazing American travelling Harp-player/therapist Christina Tourin) Greeniez Steve and Jenny photo: the last gig Stenny did at dreamharps by Marcel Bakker for more info check out www.dreamharps.nl
POLITICS
Sic's incomprehensible blog stardate 5473I suck at politics,I always make remarks that are politically "impolite" or "incorrect", because I always say what I mean... If some little dictator ,some security gorilla or some other ignorant dickhead is bugging me I say so, and that's wrong, because it isn't political... you see, in politics you never say what you mean, but only what can be interpreted in as much positive ways as possible. even if that means saying something which you know is not actually the "truth" (also known as "Lying") So I suck at politics because I suck at Lying...tja...that's no political leadership or commercial success for me. :-( But NO WORRIES kids! For it seems that there are more than enough people around with the neccessary qualifications so there will always be POLITICIANS and other ENTERTAINERS to amuse the masses! ;-) Have a nice day! I'm lovin' it! Yes we can! Dare to chose! especially now! because you deserve it! Be different! just do it! eat bullshit! Greenthingz Steve "healthy and polite" Evans van der Harten photo by: a socially-underdeveloped indigenous native boy OMNIA...Dare to think! Summertime ...time to get naked...
Sic's incomprehensible blog no. -33What a lovely day! I got up at 7.00 and went to the dentist. (not the best start of a day, when you stop working as late as Jenny and me) BUT the sun was shining, the birds were singing... (meister-singer Blackbird wakes us every day now with new and exiting concertos of such skill ....pityfully inept human composers can merely dream about this level of musical accomplishment) ... lots of monkeypeople were actually looking a little cheerfull, so some of them almost looked good. I was in and out of the mouth-butchery-chamber within 5 minutes without any serious damage or pain! And on the way back I cycled for 15 whole minutes without seeing anybody cutting down a tree, maiming a bush or destroying flowers with mowers (which is very rare in the land of the treekillers!) I was just now in the garden soaking up a few sunbeams into my very pale skin. (Stenny really needs to get some all over body sun, because we're starting to look like Elric of Melnibone and his Sister with all this lack of solar radiation due to being inside too much!) and now we are trundeling along on the concrete Colon, doing the peristaltic polonaise amid legions of monkeys experiencing the holy prayer to commerce also known as the "traffic jam" . Yep, off to the stustustudio again in the OMNIA-van for some extra recording and the end-mixing of Cornwall. Maybe later in the afternoon a bit of ray-catching aswell, while Sol Superbus is still handing them out... I wish you Sun and happy thoughts, My happy thought for today is the knowledge that one day this ugly tarmac and concrete desert of officeblocks and garbage will be a beautifull octopusses garden under the sea... ;-) Greeniez and less grumpy people! Stenny ps: we're doing a short intimate unplugged "Stenny" concert together with Christina Tourin from the USA next week...at Dreamharps, Mijdrecht...info:see agenda and www.dreamharps.nl photo by: Leni Riefenstahl
Taranis Iupiter has landed!
Just finished listening to the Taranis endmix and it was definately worth all the work...wow! (Sander is a kick ass studio dude!) It sounds absolutely awesome. it rocks!and it's sort of different as well...It's not like Bran at all, if you get my drift. Now Jenny and me are sitting outside in the garden of Stennyhome with a campfire, getting our heartbeats back to normal (and trying not to think about playing "Brütal Legend") relax, lay back and contemplate the weirdness of being... Green and Flamey thingz! Steve Sic and Jenny
working on Taranis Iupiter...
the tension mounts as the end-mixing of Taranis goes into it's second day...it's apparently hard to play with thunder on a sunny day... artwork...
and another evening of building artwork with my "mad-genius" friend and fellow chaos-monk Miez get's on to it's somethingst' hour we delve into the deeper layers of lovecraftian* horror with the designs for a song about insanity... (cue Miez on cackling mad laughter)Greenthingz (the tentacles... the tentacles...) Steve sic "High Inquisitor of the Temple of Chaos" * Lovecraftian is an archaic form of eldritch in an unspeakably cyclopean manner This picture which we will here entitle :"detail of Jenny's naked foot" is taken from a fantastic charcoal and pencil drawing by Yves. This is a tiny piece of a "work in progress" page destined to end up within the covers ofthe new cd-booklet... (I don't want to give away too much , now do I? ;-)
perception...
Things are not always as they seem... What looks like one thing, may actually be the opposite. You never know, because the last judgement to any reality always lies in your own mind.It has come to my attention that the state of my hair is a "hot topic" amongst some fans. A lot find it a shame to see my freaky tattood head instead of...instead of..what!? What are you actually missing? is my countenance really so different now?,does my music sound differently? am I so different to let's say..januari?, februari?, march?.. Did I look weird to you then?, did you lament my "lovely long curls" then? You see, Jenny actually shaved my head like this on the eve of the last midwinter in 2009. No one could see this because I always wear a bandana aswell, but this weird looking head was "lurking there" beneath a thin layer of cloth al this time. Did you find me scary then?, did you miss my "lovely long curls? No you didn't did you!, because you simply did not know, and ALL humans tend to project their own fantasies and (mis) conceptions on others as a rule. So now , look at me again, what do you miss?, what has changed? Is it me , am I any different to what I have always been? or is it you? Are you starting to understand yet? nothing is as it seems... Time to wake up Neo... Greeniez Sic
the very LAST theatre gig...
Yep dudes and dudettes...the last theatre gig of this season will be on 14th of may in Stadsschouwburg de Maagd, Bergen op Zoom, NL, start concert: 20:00.We will play some of our old favourite songs for the VERY LAST TIME there,as our new setlists for NEXT season's tour will change again (so we can use more of our new material from the upcoming CD.) And because of recent developments we'll have an extra-long cd/poster/booby signing session to mark the occasion. So guys and girls, please be there to celebrate the end of the theatre season in style! Greenthingz! Stenny photo: Maxime Lenglet what the fuck did you do to your head!?
Sic's incomprehensible blog no: 595I get to see a lot of shocked faces during the course of my regular day. "Normal" civilians...obese unhealthy feckers...Mouths hanging open, glazed bovine look of incomprehension and fear etched upon their stupid ugly faces...hihihi, "created in the image of God" indeed! mr. Allah ,Jehova ,Almighty must be one ignorant and hideous motherfucker to have created such children! (I don't like basic square humans as you may have guessed) Don't forget I've grown up in many different countries on 2 different continents, so by the time I left home when I was 15 I already knew more about life and human-behaviour than most people do when they're 65...(and it stinks) I was sleeping in the streets and dodging and diving for survival when I was 16, by the time I was 17 I had probably ignored and broken more laws than a politician (on second thoughts...no, no-one can break more laws than a politician except the members of the royal family ofcourse) I have never really cared much for what society in general thinks of me...And I'm used to being stared at by "conformist society".From the day I cut my first mohawk and dyed my eyebrows green and purple till the day that I die, I'm proud of being able to express myself physically aswel as intellectually. And I enjoy the feel of all those looks of total incomprehension I get where-ever I go. Now I gathered that some of you have questions about my latest hairstyle and tattoos, so I'll try to explain for the ones among you who have a functioning brain: Q:"why did you cut your hair like that?" A: this hairstyle is based upon a few different religious and native hairstyles put together. I wear it as a part of my shamanic path and my further initiation into the only religion which means anything to me...our own. (you can compare this with the wearing of a christian monks tonsure, or an orthadox Jews' cute ear curls or the various different religious ritual hairstyles around the world) It is to highten my own religious experience and so to further distance myself from mundane society (this lost human beaurocracy of hypocracy and its' downward spiral) Q:"What do your tattoos mean?" A: the tattoos on my head are similar to the other body-tattoos that my Love Jenny and Myself already have. the meanings in the symbolism are very varied and diverse , but just think of them as antennae which connect us to living nature and each other. The tattoos on my head just make my connection much stronger, making it easier for me to connect with the (for instance) the mind of a tree or the spirit of a bird or the soul of a river etc. Q;" did the tattooing hurt?" A: Fuck yeah! I can honestly say that 8 hours of "needlestab" on your skull is the most painfull experience I've had up untill now (and as an ex-swordfighter I can assure you i know what pain is...) But the torture experience was very mentally-cleansing and held a great spiritual message for me , which fit in well with the other rituals we did on that fatefull full moon. Q: "will you let your hair grow back over the tattoos?" A: No,this is a permanent form, it will stay... so if you only liked me because of the pretty dreadz and curls on the top of my head, then you are now sadly disappointed (as well as fecking shallow!) Because I'm not just a "pretty boy"...I'm a native european "crazy man"! Greenthingz and individuality! Steve Sic ps: in the picture you see Jenny and me looking at a beautifull charcoal drawing of Jenny as a wonderfull Fairy .Given to us here by our friend ,the Belgian artist Yves. the other girl in the picture is our sweet french-translator Celie from the south of France .. photo : marcel Bakker (backstage Anthinoises festival)
Happy Jenny on the Harmonium
So, there was still some recording left to be done on this track! (wake up)And Jenny is now using the nifty little Indian harmonium which our great friend Jasen (of the most excellent and amazing Bulgarian band Irfan) has "arranged" for her. ("washappenin'pitsch?) ;-) and in the meantime she is also making a beautifull present for her Mum whose birthday is on this coming Mothersday. (but I'm not saying what Ans, because it will spoil the surprise!) anyway as the work progresses on the album we'll keep you updated... ...because you are apparently still reading this, should I maybe write something shocking or humorous aswell now? you know , to make it more worth your while to read all this drivvel written by a stoned crazyperson who still has to type using only his index-fingers (although sometimes I write using only my middlefingers, but those are different messages...) anyway: Have a good temporal segment (whichever you may be in as you read this) Greenz, cyberhug and good luck with your civilisation! Stenny photo by: Zosimos of Panopolis Stenny
and another one down...
The mixing is progressing into it's somethingst week (time is getting a little blurry for me) We just finished another song and have started up the next bunch of recordings, so we can bash them into shape for the cd...This is Sander in front of the wholly holy mixing screen where all the tracks are lined up one above the other like a gigantic musical spongecake. anyway...I'm gonna get back to concentrating and then you can go and do something more usefull with your time than reading my pointless blogs ;-) Greenthingz and ....wake up... Sic we remember...
sic's incomprehensible blog no. 594today (may 4th) in Holland we remember the war-dead,all those brave men and women who died at the hands of those cruel and vicious roman invaders who massacred and raped the Celts who lived here...or...no..that doesn't matter anymore...it's too long ago, and romans are worshipped as "bringers of civilisation" here now...so.. we remember the evil-medieval Papal thugs and other frustrated Christians who raped and slaughtered the pagans by the million..oh no that's not it either,no one gives a fuck about them... we remember those fecking spanish bastards who abused and killed those brave dutch freedom fighters and...no that's not right...oh yes! that motherfucking frenchman Napoleon came here and killed lots of peasants..we remember that!...don't we?..no?...erm ah yes! the first worldwar where millions got slaughtered because of that german piece of Royal shit Wilhelm, what do you say? Holland was on his side and declared themselves neutral while their neighbours burned? really!? they gave Kaiser Wilhelm amnesty and a place to live after that war because he's part of the dutch royal family?..really!?..oh...so we only remember the deaths during WW2 caused by the evil nazi party?, like the bombing of 1000's of civilians in Nijmegen..oh? that was done by the allies?...really!?. But surely we all fought the evil nazis together?...well,yes... except for all the nazis married into the dutch royal family ofcourse who are perfectly OK ..ahem..so we remember the war dead of WW2 whoever they were... Or do we remember all those Indonesian people that got killed, enslaved, raped etc by the dutch army (right after WW2)...Or do we remember the native-population of Tasmania who are now extinct, do we remember the Native americans last stand? I mean does anyone of those stupid fecking human monkeys out there actually remember anything at all? Or does everybody just swallow what the state and the media want you to see? I think we remember and honour the dead,every day of our lives and not for a couple of bloody minutes during some mass media charade. We honour the ones that simply fought and died anonymously for their families and for their freedom to be who they are...and not for some bloody parade ground generals ..because I believe this world is still being run by the same greedy, peasant slaughtering so called "Noble" bastards that have run the place for the last 10 centuries...isn't it about time we wake up and stop being sheep? Sorry for being so hard today on this day of peace, but I can't stand the smell of Hypocrisy. Sic
mixing mixing mixing
in da studio, just finished another one! Yeah!Oh teachers is my mixing done?, I cannot do another one! but we will! ;-) Greenz with lambs in the field outside Stenny photo by: Abramelin the obscure
New Dates Theater Tour 2010-2011
Check our agenda.....Greens from the studio xx Jenny Thank you...
sic's incomprehensible blog no. 593.3sunday 2nd of may 13.00 hours What can I say?...I'm lying in bed now, with a laptop on my.. er.. well, lap actually. I'm soooooo tired and I my body feels kind of broken. But my spirit is at peace, I'm happy, we're alive ,the blackbird is singing outside my window, eventhough the rain tumbles endlessly from the sky. Jenny is in the bathroom fixing a hot bath for us both and I had this urge to write a little bit of what I'm thinking down on this page. I can't speak because I've lost my voice in a pretty bad way, which is kind of frustrating (as I'm sure you can understand), but what the fuck, we don't have a gig for more than a week and as Philip pointed out in the van when we were driving back from our last gig: "hey it's really peacefull now that Steve can't talk, isn't it?)...which I suppose is true. I kinda got a serious cold after the Anthinoises festival (breaking down a stage and packing a van at -1celcius while being extremely wet with sweat and halfnaked is apparently an unwise thing to do) and so I had to rest my voice and mind as much as possible before doing the next show. this went well all through the studio work etc. last week, untill we wen't on our "road trip to HELL"/"weekend of DOOM"/"mittelalter markt of HORROR" (and assorted other B-movie-titles that would fit the occasion) Sadly on our last gig got a little "upset" with the organisers of a Mittlealter fair being held in some sort of desert of gravel and dust somewhere hidden within the Olympic park of München and so I fucked my voicebox completely while trying to explain to them that their stage and electricity set-up were dangerous for us and our instruments and that in the event of rain or storm somebody could get seriously hurt, or our instruments could get badly damaged. and...oh!...Jenny just called to say that my bath is ready so I'll finish this story later... ...pause.... Stenny goes splishy splashy in hot tub... drip drip drip...Stenny run outside naked and laughing in the rain , smiling up at the grey clouds...brrrrrr! drip drip drip ...Splash!...back in the hot tub...aaaah! 14.15 hours There! I'm back again, that was great...I feel all mellow and my sore muscles feel much better now!, so where was I? Oh yes now I remember, we almost died (really) on stage because some very ignorant people were to pigheaded and stupid to listen to our advice... You see , we should have cancelled this show, the minute we saw what kind of amateurs we were dealing with here, but we just couldn't...because of you!, yes you! our fans... we knew that many of you would try to find this impossible location buried deep in anonimity to see us, because it was the only gig we had in this area of germany. We said yes to this bad gig for you guys... We had already had so much shit to get our van there (11 hour drive), our crew-van got stopped and stripped for drugs Twice! but the nice bavarian policemen and their drug-puppy didn't find anything because the lads had already sold all the heroin to some german primary school kids at a gas-station . We couldn't walk away from the brave fans that would find this awfull location... we just couldn't live with ourselves then! And oh boy did you guys find it! When it was finally showtime for us the crowd that welcomed us was huge! I really hadn't expected that many in such a badly-advertised and out of the way place. Some of you even came all the way from Austria and Switzerland to meet us in Bavaria! (yo Asl and friends ! yo Vera and gang !) there were members of 4 german tribes aswell as a whole load of the alternative scene (even though the mighty and excellent "Subway to Sally" were playing in Munich on the same night) the silly little soundsystem looked like it was going to hold out and we started playing and we were just warming up to the gig when disaster struck. As we predicted the rain came turning the dustbowl to mud...and it started to rain on leaky half open stage where our whole livelyhood consisting of our beloved handcrafted custom-built instruments and sound equiptment started to get wet, Tom was already covered in a mist of rain drops on the second song...but we played on for you. Then the wind hit the back of the stage causing the crappy "wall" to bend inward knocking over a stand, which fell on Jenny's priceless Triplett harp, which crashed down off it's high riser onto the stage. I could just about break its fall by holding my bouzouki out in my right hand and half-catching it with my left-hand and letting myself fall backwards on the stage... the harp is now badly damaged and will need repairs , but thank the gods it did not break in two (due to a combination of my finely honed lightning reflexes and the fact that Triplett just build the sturdiest , strongest most beautifull motherfuckers in the entire Harp world). BUT we played on for you, jenny didn't even stop singing (though I could see the shock on her face) as her harp crashed down behind her...Then the rain intensified and the lightning came and suddenly it became apparent why we have safety regulations, and why we should never ever play on this kind of amateur sset-up ever again. The electrics got wet in a big way, and the stupid dickwads that built the stage had not earthed it properly, this means that in a bad weather situation like this the entire stage can get electrified. So during the 5th song in increasing rain our chief engineer Wim, got a shock off've the system , saw that the situation was too dangerous to continue, he got another shock and made "the decision". He killed the sound, stopping the show and ordered us off stage. All the crew and band and backup raced to get the soaking remains of our instruments of' this stage of death and into the cruel storm. Then Wim got a huge blast of electricity off the stage itself!! (while some of us were still on it!!!...including me!!!!) I wasn't going to leave any of my babies on there so people were screaming at me to get the fuck away from there while I was only thinking "sorry Luna-Isis, sorry Flutes, sorry Darbuky" for my poor instruments) Then all the lights blew out , leaving us in total darkness apart from occasional blast of lightning.and well the rest of the story is all about mud, about the front-of-house sound desk getting fried to death, about explaining to our loyal fans that "no we really can't play anymore today", it's about seeing Wim being taken away by the ambulance drivers because he could still die of system-shock ,it's about seeing the pain on Jenny's face as she is examining her broken harp, it's about sitting in an empty freight container (which in the minds of some people can serve as an artist-backstage) and smoking homegrown and drinking beer and laughing , laughing , laughing about the stupidity of self-rightious people and about life and all it's funny ways. This story is about a lot of those things....but mainly this story is about surviving every fucking thing the world can throw at us because we are strong...It's about the honour and deepest respect Jenny and I feel by being surrounded by such an amazing group of people who can pull together and and keep the spirit alive! It's about the ever energetic and optimistic Tom, it's about the cool-dude Philip and the very sharp "part-time-roady" Maral, it's about Luka, steady as a rock, It's about elegant Chloé who is one of the most "together" women I know, It's about caring Moniq and strong Marcel who are like our "Mother and father on the road" it's about Chantal who is turning out to be an amazing tour-manager, It's about our crazy new crew the three psychotic musketeers of sound and light : Wim (f.o.h), Sasha (monitors) and Rik (Lights) who have proved to us beyond a doubt that they are now a fixed part of the growing "OMNIA-family". It's about our friends like our personal health-wytch Maja (far too intelligent for this world), our therapist and personal confident Kaat (with her pinball smile), our dear Kelvin Kalvus who was there but couldn't get on stage with us because , well , the stage was fucked...and his manager our friend Zetha who tried to help with these organisers but sadly couldn't... And it's about you!... if you were there, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts, you are why we play, you give us a reason to exist for without your ears, your eyes your minds and your love we would not exist... you made us happy that day, when I shouted from stage "who is here on this crummy market just to see us?!" and I heard the roar of your voices I knew that whatever would happen that night (I had NO idea) would be for the best... After this night of horror we all went back to the impersonal concrete hotel (built above a McDonalds and a gas station, next to a factory somewhere in the armpit of the city) and drank and talke and smoked and drank some more... Jenny and me crept into our skinny little bed , we held each other tight and cried for a while... Thank you all, thank the Gods for keeping us alive, thank our band and crew for being the best there is, thank our fans for being there, wherever we go. Thankyou... Steve sic ps: I don't want to dis the organiser here because they already are (spot the pun)... but feel free to spam their email and phone-lines with insults and general chaos and misrule...the feckers... photo by; Sogh-Yoggoth
back in da stustustudio!
Well, that was an interesting weekend! We played a theatre in Holland on friday then drove down into Belgium at night to arrive at a beautifull old farmhouse in the woods for the night...wow, holy-smokes under the starlit ardennes sky.(very chill and groovy) Next day OMNIA played a fecking 'hard n'heavy' (and very very hot) gig at the most excellent Anthinoises festival. I've had a ritual tattoo put all over my head as part of the shamanic path I'm following, and I've shaved quite a lot of my dreads and hair off to make room for them so I look kinda different to what people might expect of me now... some people were shocked it seems...but then you should always expect the unexpected from OMNIA, we're like the spanish inquisition with less christians (don't you just love monty python?)Jenny got given a beautifull, giant framed drawing of a Jenny fairy..NAKED! made by the amazing Yves. (so I was very happy...I just love art...sigh..) ...anyway to finish off this great weekend filled with Frenzy, friends and fans from all over the place we raced back to Utrecht with part of the band on sunday in time to see our other dear friends of Irfan ,who had finished playing at the €lf-fair in Lisse that day,So Jenny ,Philip and me got to play a great jam session with our favourite Bulgarian virtuoso's in our home that evening!... And now, we're working on end-mixing the album with Sander in the studio again. we've finished "Dance untill we die" this morning (AWESOME!!!) everytime I hear it I feel like dancing and killing something/someone at the same time! it's a really fecking gnarly piece of Rap-Folk with a bodaciousness factor out in the upper cowabunga-spheres... Now, Jenny and me are "hitting the office work" while Sander is doing nitty-gritty cleaning on the seperate recorded tracks of "Wheel of Time", later today we will end-mix it together. On this pic, you see Jenny doing her best to fight through the ever growing piles of sh.., erm I mean mails , while I write total drivvel on this page, which you are reading now. enjoy your day and ignore a stupid law or two for freedom! Greenthingz! Pope Steve Sic (the 1st and last) photo by: sir Francis Bacon ps: check out Sanders' gold records and cd's hanging behind Jenny on the wall!...cool eh?
keep on rocking in the un-free world ;-)
this week we started the end-mix of songs for the new album. On Kandor's holy day we finished the "Wolfsong", which is fecking pagan and spot-on as far as we can see (what? you don't know who "Kandor" the wolfgod of bloodlust, egocentricity and hunting is? ah well...never mind...)Anyway, we've been so busy this week with studio, crew changes, instrument checks and artwork that I couldn't really write much,hence the quick update... Today we are gonna go to play a theatre in Oosterhout (and some more prizewinners of the "OMNIA lottery" will come to meet us in the backstage for a chat and a drink, which is fun) Oh Yeah, if you're not a winner you didn't know that the prize for the OMNIA lottery is: Meeting us and the Band for a drink and a chat as our guests in the backstage before a concert, a bag of OMNIA goodies, the new upcoming (signed)CD and ofcourse sex and drugs with the whole band after the show...ahem... Sadly we won't be able to do our normal "signing session" after the gig today because straight after the show we must pack and drive down to Belgium at night, because tomorrow we will play at "Anthinoises" one of our favourite Belgian festivals! The organisers there are so sweet and well prepared they even give us a big holidayhome in the forest for the band and crew to sleep in, instead of the usual boring impersonal hotelrooms . They understand our pagan spirit. And the audience at this festival is CRAZY! (like us) with the really extreme PaganClan tribes like "Chaos seeds" run by my "soulbrother" Seb (they will also be providing our bodyguards there, so don't fuck around during the signing session there or you'll end up with an axe in your head!...hehehe!) I'll also have a little surprise there because I'll play without my bandana so you can see what happened to my head during the last "full moon" ritual. All dutch people will have to wait untill the last Theatre gig of this season in Bergen op Zoom for that shocking experience...we will also play some of our old favourite songs for the very last time there(because we will have to change our live-set when the new Album is out) anyway be green, fuck the queen! :-) be free, just like me! ;-) Stevil Sic foto by: Zaphod Beeblebrox the 9th today is a "dreadfull" day! ;-)
Yep, today is dreadfull...ie: the day is filled with many dreadlocks (dreadz) because our friend and "personal hair -therapist" Femke is here at the Stennyhouse to fix and clean my skanky old dreads, and now she is making a whole bunch of fresh new dreadiez for my sweet love Jenny.(you may recognise her as the sexy fotomodel in the OMNIA webshop aswell) It's a groovy day, relaxed, not much work, some pampering and vanity, some sun...mmmm!...not bad at all. We're just doing a little bit of "light" office work today, to keep the OMNIA engine ticking over, in between dread sessions...and now I'm off to do some shopping, tomorrow it's back to the studio! Greenz by Steve Sic Dreadz by Femke (www.hatsndreads.com) photo by Alistair Crowley jr.
Roses are red...Like the blood in my heart...this man is Miez...making "Wolfsong"ART
it's a lovely sunny day, Stenny had a very relaxed breakfast in the sun this morning as guests in the house of our parents (@Dreamharps). Now, fully rested we're back at work with our great friend and fellow Artist Miez. Here you see him hard at work behind his "evil box" working on the Artwork of the new OMNIA album.Jenny is doing very boring and uninspiring "officework" right now. And I'm in the middle of writing texts and drawing arty stuff. The sun is shining,spring is happening,the birds and the bugs are doing the dance of life, the plants reach out to kiss the sky...so...ignore the destructive ignorant monkeys around you and just revel in the glory of it all! Greenthingz! Steve Sic and Jenny
artwork and photos in da sun
today we're working together with miez on Artwork for new CD.(yesterday was another long but fruitfull day in the studio where we started on the mixing/arranging part of the title track) But that was then, and this is now...today we spend our time partly behind computers like now: -Miez is cleaning up a selection of foto's in photoshop for a new promotion picture of Jenny and me which we just shot.He is seated behind a huge black evil-looking computer with two screens surrounded lots of little doodahs ,papers, artsyfartsy stuff and a rather small though tastefully rendered statuette of Tackx the pagan-God of technology... -Jenny is hard at work on her laptop arranging all sorts of business and technical matters with veritable legions of nice people as well as gaggles of complete idiots . Sadly this is a large part of her "normal" day.,(if you're mailing with Jenny yourself at the moment I leave it to yourself to decide into which catagory you fall.... - and I'm sitting here with my trusty little laptop writing complete nonsense on this news page for reasons quite unknown even to myself... erm.. here's a picture taken during a break in our fotoshoot today enjoy your weekend, enjoy your life, and enjoy the plants! (speaking of which...where did I leave my tobacco pouch?...) Greenz Steve Sic I love the spring...
Sic's incomprehensible blog no. 563AWhat a lovely day!,I'm sitting and relaxing a bit in the backyard of "Dreamharps", enjoying the sun. We just had a very good meeting about the coming theatre tour with our Theatre booking-agents (Mojo and Proacts) and things are looking good for the coming year! (we're planning the next theatre and also the german tour around our new Album. It'll be great ;-) And about the studio...wow! what a long day! Yesterday we did sooooo much work! (but I finally got to do a lot of silly stuff and violence on "Dance untill we Die" which was...FUN!) and we finished the day at night in a half dark studio with me being hardly able to stand anymore because of the hard work and the many, many recreational plant cigarettes (to get into the right vibe), Because yesterday we recorded "Shamaniac", a completely tribal, intuitive shamanic-ritual piece which sounds exactly like a really good mushroom trip looks like...if you follow my meaning, which you undoubtedly do...or don't...I don't know actually...but you're reading this so I presume your at least interested...or do you work for the tax-service and are you only checking this blog out to see how I spend my time , so you can figure out how much money I have to give to the government and the royal family to fuck up the country with?...ahem...as always, I digress. But all of that shit don't mean a fecking thing, cause I'm just relaxing in the sun , in a beautifull garden with the sound of water tinkling in the background...I just heard that some organic tosties are ready for me to consume, I have nice joint for desert and everything's cool and I feel fine...enjoy the picture of a flower that Jenny took. Greenthingz and peace! Stevil Sic
Pictures of The Gathering of the Tribes
Yet another beautiful picture album made by a Belgium photographer Lindsay Vanhove. She made a great pictures of Omnia's VK*, Brussels gig. Enjoy. Thanks for sharing ;-) © Lindsay Vanhove
And yet another amazing performance...
You know how much we love handmade instruments, especially reconstructions of ancient ones. Here you can see Steve playing a reconstruction of a 1st Century Celtic Sword (handmade by Steve) and a 9th Century Viking sword (handmade by Paul Binns). You may guess yourselves what song you will be able to hear this on...Little lambs & daffodils Jenny hey mrs. Tambourine girl play a song for me...
Jenny in da house doing percussive thingz with a tambourine...the temple bells, fingerbells, india bells etc. will be next...what song are we working on do you think?Greenz and tinkerbellz Stenny
Let's get percussive!
OK, so today we are back in the studio, so I can play around some more with some of my louder babies...I love my Drums!!Stenny had a nice long break between gigs and recordings for various rituals last week. The fires were lit, the recreational plants were taken, I got tortured for 8 hours involving a lot of blood, needles and ink. (But that will become apparent soon enough) and we are now on the next stage of our spiritual/psychotic development and ready for more music, religion and life stuff. Spring is in the air, the heat is on and change is all around! We love it!!! Jenny and me are trying to arrange a lot of freaky stuff for this year (how about a small tour in Germany for our German fans? And such like). So that was enough small talk from me on this box, now I'm gonna go into the sound booth and hit the fuck out of a bunch of innocent goatskins... Lined up here you can see: "Megatymp" "Darabuka" "Hammer and anvil" "Dombak" and "Davul". You can figure out yourself which songs they are for...ok ? Greeniez Stenny photo: Sic
New!! OMNIA logo sticker
And other items are back in stock:- Zipped Hoody, sizes: M, L, XXL - Longsleeve, sizes: M, L XL Check it out in the shop! burn that virus!!!
So after sweating a lot on stage at our really fun gig last saturday we feel a lot better. (the fantastic food given to us by our sweet "northern" PaganClan tribe was amazing by the way , I was stuffing myself with veggie-samosas and whatnots on the way home in the van at night! and also Thanx for the Art!The same can be said to our german friends because after the groovy relaxed Faun "unplugged" gig yesterday here in our hometown, Steve is less sick (though always "Sic") and Jenny feels a lot better. Sadly she has lost her voice though...so we are currently looking under furniture and in the garden etc. to see if we can find it, but no luck so far. Greenthingz! Stenny ps: tomorrow on the full moon something drastic will change forever...time to let go, don't try to hold on... photo by: Steve Sic
Sic is Sick...urgh...and Jenny too...so OMNIA grinds to a halt untill we are well again...
the warm voice of Luka soothes our haggard minds
the working days are starting to get to us a bit...Jenny and me are "fraying around the edges" a little, we're working too much , too fast and without enough rest I think. We had a great though exhausting gig in Brussels last weekend ,although judging from the surrounding area it seemed more like a ghetto in North Africa... (I sincerely hope that none of our fans were hassled outside the venue after the gig...I was really worried about you guys out there, you know) But anyway...the studio... I have a feeling Jenny and me are going to collapse soon, so Luka is doing the honours now, singing some more backing vocals into the magic recording machine, and when he's finished and we've selected and cleaned his tracks We are going to go home and crash out for a couple o' days (so we're cancelling the rest of the studio days for this week...) The spring is underway, the Green is sprouting,Our minds are hopefull but I'm fucked and Jenny's wrecked...Luka is finished and we iz going home now... hasda la proxima Esteban Sic I love the sound of uilleann pipes in the evening...
It smells like victory...yum!Tonight Jenny and me have been joined by Joe who has brought us a member of his "old" band Shantalla to record the Uillean pipes for us on our new cd! Yippee!! none other than Michael Horgan is in the studio with us as I write, on the picture here you can see Jenny going through some of the finer parts of the arrangement with Michael... (...He's playing on "Cornwall" by the way....) signing off now to focus on the recordingz, I hope it doesn't get too late , because we have a gig in Brussels tomorrow! Greeniez Steve Sic
are my lessons done?
working hard still on vocals...I've just had a couple of hours of fun singing my guts out to the mic.And now Jenny is letting her vocal chords work their magic... what a day!. I'm getting kinda tired now, but Jenny still has energy to finish this really cool song we're working on at the moment,it's our first ever real "cover" of a classic song which I won't tell you anything more about...hehehe! we've just finished it and we're making a "rough mix" to take home with us , so we can listen to it in detail to see how we wann do the real mix for this song... So I'm gonna log out again now to finish up here with Sander and Jenny and we'll be able to go home for some rest again in about an hour or so... Good-Green-night and don't let the musical bed bugs bite Steve and Jenny
this is Kristoffer
he has done a fantastic job and we're very happy indeed...as you can see by his face he's also very happy because he's finished with recording now and he can go home...so he has now received "salvation from his pain" (spot the bad pun ;-) you'll get to hear what he did for us when the CD is released Green springthingz Steve and jenny d'images cameras in da house!
this is Bianca of the D'images video-crew filming Kristoffer doing his bass"thing" in front of the trusty "Neumann" here in the stustustudio.Oh yeah, maybe I hadn't mentioned this before but we have asked D'Images (who did our last DVD and who have also filmed live material of OMNIA at Castlefest 2009) to film parts of the studio process, and they have been joining us in our studio recordings off and on over the last weeks...So... we can "do" a kind of "making of the CD" video/DVD thing as well as a new CD!! yeah! anyway..I have to get back to concentrating on the recording so I will sign off again now...but I shall return today to post a picture of Kristoffer so that you can actually see his face aswell ok? but seriously boyz and girlz...this guy really knows his way around a Bass instrument...absolutely beautifull! Grnz Sic
This is a Double Bass...
...and it sounds like bowed Heaven blended with dark chocolate poured into a heavy wooden bowl...jum!Today we have been joined by the very cool and relaxed Kristoffer Gildenlöw (all you prog-metal fans out there should know this virtuose Swedish bassplaying guy) He will be adding his deep sonic darkness to our new album... maybe I'll put another picture on later where you can see his face aswell ;-) Greenz and Blackz Stenny
another day, another instrument...
Hmmm? a rather handsome Swedish gentleman has come into the studio today with one enormous and one gigantic violin and some bags containing various guitar shaped tools.(see picture) We'll let you know later on who he is and what he's doing here with Stenny and Sander in the studio today. Greenz of Spring Stenny ps: yesterday was a bitching long day, but wow! we did a recording of "dance untill we die" that can kill politicians and aristocracy at 50 yards by sound alone! rock on! meet the audience!
I'm a Neumann M149 tube-microphone, I'll be your translator for the coming OMNIA experience. You see OMNIA talks, sings and plays to me, and I help the recording machines to remember what they did, so that later it can be burned onto a mass of cds which you can listen to...it looks like another long day of listening for me again....I do hope Steve doesn't shout to loud at me...again... nice to meet you! Neumannii
And now for some artwork.....
At this moment we are having our first artwork meeting for the new album, with Miez & Fieke. We are going to make this a very pretty booklet indeed....Greenthings from our living room Steve & Jenny
and another take finished...
here you see Sander and Jenny evaluating what's just been recorded and looking serious... and now for some extra keyboards
I love the sound of keyboards in the evening...'sounds like victory...it's dark outside now and the first joints have been consumed to mellow the atmosphere.. Jenny is playing and recording right, now 2 metres in front of me so I have to type really softly not to distract her... ah ...she's finished...back to work ... Greeneveningz Sic
Guess what song this is!
cool eveningz in the studio
this is Jenny singing on "Toys in the attic", with Sander working the recording-controls .We're still going strong , although I must say I'm getting tired. Oh well... when you're a rockstar your working day tends to be slightly longer than with most other professions...but it's fecking great though! Greenthingz in the eveningz Sic Steve Sic in da house!
Look, this is my sweet husband. He's really good at making great pictures of other people, and also at making them look all antique and tasty and then writing something witty and intelligent on this newspage... I'm not good at that kind of stuff, but still I try. It seems unfair to not include a picture of Omnia's drive and creative mastermind in our studio report, don't you think?So here, for your pleasure, a picture of Steve Sic on his guitarbouzouki "MonsterMash" (he's recording Taranis at the moment I write this). Love and Greenthingz! Jenny xxx
Oli sang
Kaat sang...
the NyckelHarpa is done! ;-)
Jabberwocky get's some seriously frumious nyckely!
On this frosty though sunny spring morning Stenny has been joined in the studio by our dear friend Kaat,who is now playing the NyckelHarpa for the recording of Jabberwocky as I write this...As you can see in this picture we can expect the finest quality in sound on this difficult instrument because NyckelHarpa-expert Oliver S. Tyr of "Faun" is here aswell to help with the fine tuning! this day with our soulsister Kaat and our musical soulbrother Oli is turning out great already, Yeah! Maybe we can convince them to do a bit more before the day is through !! Greenz and Pagan's in the sunny studio! Love Stenny
this is a picture by a Cornishman of a Dutchman taking a picture of an Irishman
time for some neccessary foto-work done by a professional this time! Joe's playing some sweet stuff in the booth.photographer Marcel, tribe-mum Moniq and Merch-babe Chloé are in the studio with us aswell now ,keeping us company. Who knows, they might even end up on the cd recordingz aswell today! ;-) greenz ,sundrops and I believe it's now time for some happy plants! Stenny this is an Irishman tuning his custom-dadgad guitar...
So today it's Joe's turn in the studio! we're listening to him doing a fecking power version of Saltatio on his trusty "lightning Takamine" at this very moment...Rock on!!greenz in the snow! Steve, Jenny and Joe ;-)
Pictures Fairyball III Bibelot, Dordrecht
Go see the Picture Page for some fecking nice pictures taken by our expanding group of Omnia Photographers. This time the pictures are taken by (and check there websites for even more beautiful Fairyball III pictures):Diana Bloemendal (http://www.imadia.nl/) Rosanne de Lange (http://s808.photobucket.com/albums/zz3/Rosanne86/Omnia%20FairyBall%20III%20-%2014-02-10%20Dordrecht/) Martijn van Dijk (http://www.xs4all.nl/~vdijk1/Site_van_martijn/Evenementen/Evenementen.html) Thanks for sharing this with us, I love your work
this is my love...
look... this is the woman I love....She's singing...Isn't she sweet?, she's talented too you know! and I love her sooo much...sigh!...I'm such a lucky guy! Ah!...did you notice that spring is starting by the way? the Robins and the Blackbirds are gracing us with their songs again and the sun is getting brighter day by day. It fills me with hope for the re-awakening year. anyway the studio recordings are still going very very well, Jenny is singing like an angel and I'm very happy indeed. Greenthingz and Happyfacez! Steve Sic I also got a giant lolly !
yep Jenny and me are also doing some vocals today...so Luka doesn't get lonely in the studio.greenthingz and pop filters! Stenny
and the beat goes on...here we go again!
So we iz back in the stu stu studio,Luka is in front of the mics doing the didge-thing in the studioroom on "Love in the Forest" and many other groovy trackz...It's all sounding great sitting here in the control Booth...I think with a bit of Luck we'll have Luka starting to put in his unique Bass vocals aswell today! The sun is shining, spring is in the air and we're recording a song about having sex in nature... I love this life! Greenthingz! Steve and Jenny (en de groetjes van Sander)
Didge from the deep...
Yeah baby! we're rocking out with Luka on didge, on this beautifull dark and dreary night...but here in the studio the atmosphere is hot and groovy..Luka is giving his all playing a slideridoo from Hell, this is gonna rock!!! Yeah and Greenthingz! Stenny he he he!
and now...electric guitar?!
This picture seems similar to the last shot of philip...but look closely.....Do you see the Marshall stack with the peavey amp on top?... it's evil little glaring eye blinking red like a balefull sun descending upon a dying world...Kill-meister Phil is holding his trusty axe of metal-death to fill our new cd with the "songs of Angels and screams of Demons" so we can turn the new CD into a real brütal legend!....ahem...well OK maybe the heavy effect is dampened a little by the fact that Philip is wearing his slippers and sitting comfortably on a chair... (he's still tuning on this picture)....but we can hear what it sounds like here...and seriously folks, I think my earwax just melted... Oh my gods! He just stood up and put his boots on...argh now it's getting serious! We must get back to what's happenin'.. love Stenny
and now...guitar!
So...Stenny is in the studio with one of our guitar players now, for the next installments on our new CD production.Today it is Philip's turn to make some noise and pick those strings in front of the high-tech mics of Sander van der Herk's studio... so on we go, with stringz and thingz Greenthingz Steve New item in webshop!
Check the webshop for the new limited edition sleeveless hoody!
Record untill we die!!
and he we are in the studio again, today jenny and me have been joined by Tommy! Here he is doing the violent stuff with his black custom-sticks of Doom on the recording of "Dance untill we Die"...The snow still lies thick on the ground, our hangovers from the fairyball have reached less epic proportions. Tom is doing all the hard work today, so Stenny is fine...all we have to do is double check the arrangements, make "producer like" artistic comments and look as if we know what we are doing....ahem..........and the beat goes on......... oh...he's starting on "Love in the Forest" now, so I have to concentrate and look intelligent...I'd better put this laptop away now.. Greenthingz! Steve and Jenny
Fecking Fantastic FairyBall III !!!
Wow, we had the most amazing time in Dordrecht in a completely fully-packed Bibelot. (check out the picture taken by Diana when she was standing in line to get in)I always soooo enjoy the gigs we've arranged ourselves There were fans and freaks who came from all over Europe to this gathering of the PaganClan and the "free peoples of Fairyland". There were Italian, French, Belgian, German, Dutch Austrian,Swiss and even Greek fans massed in front of the stage which we shared with our sweet friends Kelvin Kalvus, Kaat, Aisha, "Kelten XL" and "Las Fuegas". The signing session (75min.!!!) was slightly longer than we expected...soo many fans, so many questions, so many cd's, posters and boobs to sign! So sadly we had no time to do a foto session at the end (sorry) But no worries! we'll just have to catch up on photo taking at the next FairyBall we'll do! Thanx to all who were there and who contributed to this wonderfull night of magic! Greenthingz and Love Stevil the Horny and OMNIA foto copyright : dear Diana Bloemendal www.Imadia.nl wolfsong in the snowwe started recording "wolfsong" today and it started snowing again! (check the view from our studio window)This is good for atmospherics in a song about blood and death in a winterforest blanketed in freezing snow!... happyface so I just wanted to show you, now I get back to the studiowork because this laptop is distracting me terribly... greeniez! Stevil
recording the grand piano in the stustustudio ;-)
so...back to work on our Opus Magnus...Today Jenny and me have moved to a different studio to record the grand piano for the new OMNIA cd. Jenny is doing "her thing" on the keys of this beautifull, more than 100year old Pleyel grand piano. This ancient babe has a very distinctive deep and wide sound with a kind of un-nerving "horror" quality to it. everything is going fine, Jenny plays like a goddess and Sander the studio technician is very relaxed to work with. (he's is a great musician himself as he used to be the guitar player in one of my favourite dutch bands!) and the work goes on... Greenthingz! Stenny
RECORDING the NEW CD of OMNIA started TODAY
Merry Imbolc everyone, the snow lies all around and the sun is shining, and we are in the new studio we chose for "day 1" of the recording process of our new cd! (the CD-Title is as yet still top secret). We have a really sweet recording technician helping us, called Silvia (her name means "from the forest" for all you non-etymologists out there)Jenny will start everything today with her Harp... Love , Hope and Greenthingz! (covered in white) Steve and Jenny Pictures Old School concert PJT, Maarssen
I know, I know, It took me some time. To busy with my Holiday :-). But here they are; the Pictures of the Old School concert @ Pim Jacobs Theater. This time by: Alex van der Werf, Martijn van Dijk and me.
GLASS WALLS
Sic's incomprehensible blog no.18Do you still like the Beatles? I've always loved the Beatles because their music was so non-conventional,non-genre, diverse and refreshing.(like the music that OMNIA makes nowadays actually). Well Sir Paul McCartney (the most famous still living "Beatle") has just proved to me that he is still a prime-mover in non-conventional thought by helping to make the documentary "Glass Walls" about the absolutely shocking and vicious evils of the MeatIndustry. I hope that by watching this movie more people will realise how downright disgusting and sickening this violent genocide of our fellow living creatures is. go to this webpage: http://meat.org/ to see the movie that I'm talking about. if you are already a vegetarian or a "Eco-meat" eater: don't watch this! it's just so shocking and sick it will make you upset for a long time to see how far "Homo sapiens sapiens" can go to make a few dollars and your frustration about this cruelty will get so bad you will really wanna start a war to stop it... (like me) BUT If you are a (non Eco) meat eater: WATCH THIS FILM!!,from start to finish...watch it twice or more. Earn the right to eat cheap meat if you dare... Realise that all this is happening for YOU! yes YOU! If you feel you can't handle what you see, or if you feel like crying or vomiting because of it THEN don't stop watching this movie but STOP EATING THIS FECKING INDUSTRIALISED MEAT!!! just stop it and never ever do it again! If you really want to eat meat, don't eat it everyday and buy it from a certified "Green" butchershop. (this will actually improve your own health aswell!) Or better still if you feel you can get rid of the "habit" of eating meat become a vegetarian! there that was my "verbal" two cents about the senseless torture of animals... the physical two cents would involve either a recording studio or a "molotov coctail-party" somewhere ,I'm not really sure yet...hmmmm? Greenthingz and a Love of ALL LIVING THINGZ! Steve Sic
Real Celtic Old School gig in Maarssen was amazing!
Wahaa! we had so much fun at our "Old School" OMNIA gig in Maarssen last Sunday. It was stunning (and a little scary for us) to play so many of our really really old compositions including the kind of mucking around and making a complete arse out of performing...just like we always used to do! We had the sweetest audience imaginable in the completely sold out Pim Jacobs theatre where more than half the audience had brought their own pillows and sheepskins etc to sit on (we thought it would be nice to have the floorsitting thing like we used to in our old "Pagan Attic" for sentimental reasons) We wore our old Celtic tribal-costumes, we had our original banner,one of our chopped off head's "onna stick" and loads of Celtic and Gladiatorial weaponry lying around on stage. Luka was cracking jokes like a stand up comedian and being really silly, Jenny was lost in fits of giggles and I was lost for words half the time (really!) Apart from the music we were also able to give our fans there some "behind the scenes" stories about the past of OMNIA (including the truth behind the song "Priapus"!) Which was an education not only for our fans but also to our newer bandmembers Tom and Philip who were actually still in primary school when we started the band back in '96!! But that didn't stop them (and Kaat) joining us on the stage during the second act. A fecking great evening all round, so many friends, so many memories, sooooo many gifts! (thanx again all of you that give us so much, especially mega-artist Yves! merci!) Let's do this again some time! but first we're gonnan focus on some "new School"projects , cause there's a new album waiting to be recorded and there's a very special Fairyball on feb. 14th Valentines day coming up! (read all about it in the new RavenTimes coming in januari!) Stay Green, Stay free! Yulethingz! Steve Sic Photo's Theatre Tour, Emmeloord
I have done a lot in B&W this time. Because I like it so much!Check them out in the gallery! Pictures by: Me
the Master of MythagoWood has gone
We’re lost for words and deeply moved and saddened by our friend Robert Holdstock’s sudden departure from this world…we’ve just received the bad tidings that the great writer passed away on Sunday and ...I was re-reading his last mail which he sent to Jenny and me and it’s just so hard to comprehend that this is merely an echo of him still living inside our computer.This funny charming creative poëtic man has departed these realms forever...Those who are left behind have the hardest part to play,we wish Sarah, his wife and family and friends the strength and courage to survive the cold of the coming winter. As for us..so much remains unsaid…so much remains unanswered… His world has become a part of our lives and we have become a part of his world… May his soul forever dwell in the primal forest he described so well… we’ll carve runes of remembrance in the sacred place for you, Rob,and we'll honour you in song... journey on. Jenny and me grieve for you…Omnia grieves for you
Photo's Theatre Tour, Bodegraven
I received, out of the blue, photos.Admire, with me, these beautiful pictures taken by Rosanne de Lange, during the Omnia gig at CC Evertshuis, Bodegraven November 21, 2009. Follow her example and surprise me :-) P.S. The picture Steve used (see below) is also by Rosanne de Lange. we survived the mexican/pig flu!
Wow, what a tough weekend! Jenny and myself both had a heavy dose of influenza in our system which totally destroyed our health and voice BUT we still had to do a whole bunch of theatre gigs in a row (...I wanted to phone the boss to tell him we were sick and wouldn't come to work...but I realised that it was me...and I'm always sic...so, no help there)Sometimes it's kinda hard if you wanna live from "Rock'nRoll" but hey! we did it! and we still got our kicks out of it as did the audience! Though I must say we had a lot of help from our friends to see us through it all! Major kudos to our new crew (Bart,Justin and Ard!) Tribe-mother Maja made usgood healthy organic food for every gig and the lovely dancer Aisha joined us on stage in bodegraven to compensate for my extra snotty face and to give us more energy (Jenny actually fell asleep on the stage during that soundcheck because she was soooo wasted!) Philip and trainee-roadie Tim made our sunday gig more bearable and ofcourse our fans the "PaganClan tribes" helped us get the energy to "Feel alive!" (a special thanx goes to the Fangorn Tribe from Germany for giving us a basket full of eco-food for on the road, it was lovely!) I must say we feel a lot better now and we're looking forward to the gig coming weekend in Emmeloord (NL) Greenthingz! Steve Sic (a little less sick) and Jenny (still coughing but hopefull!)
who's that guy!?
During the last OMNIA gig the audience was witness to a strange occurrence.Before entering the stage Joe morphed his appearance into a different looking longhaired person and he played the whole gig as such.(well it's either that or Joe was exercising his busy pan-european schedule by being in Spain to see a bunch of Germans at the time of the OMNIA gig and somebody else was playing instead of him!) A member of the audience has captured the mystery-guitar-dude on camera, so here is the proof! (although the picture is rather fuzzy it's definately not Joe is it?) Who is he? His name is Philip will he join OMNIA? you'll find out soon enough... can he play? ah! that's an easy one to answer... YES! He can play brilliantly and he is a pleasure to jam with!! keep an eye out for Philip on our coming gigs, he might just come on stage again some time in the near future... Greenthingz! Steve Sic photo by Cervidaexx
Pictures Gothic & Fantasy fair
Finally the pictures of the Gothic & Fantasy fair are online. 3 fantastic pages of Omnia fun. Thanks for your help on this one. Special thanks goes to: Mrs. Jolanda, Harold Doppenburg, Jacques Näring and Marcel van Beek. Photo by: Jacques Näring OMNIA MerchBabes on Tour...SOLO!
Our dear sweet Merchandise-Babes Chantal and Chloë are so enthousiastic and charged up with energy, that they couldn't wait for an actual OMNIA gig to get the shop set up and running. So they've decided to go out and represent OMNIA even before the Band actually shows up to play!This means that their happy smiles will be gracing the OMNIA merchandise stand at the Gothic and Fantasy Beurs in Rijswijk (NL) all weekend , so you can already buy a nice warm hoody or one of the VERY lAST "limited edition" CD's on SATURDAY! even though OMNIA is only playing a show there on the Sunday! photo: "babes packing the merch" by Sic
Sacred Samhain!
Today is a holy day, the old life has passed, the time of rest in nature approaches. Tonight the living and the dead stand on the same plane of existence. Meditate on what you have achieved and done these past seasons ,remember and respect those that have gone before and sacrifice something in honour of the dead... then we will do this together in spirit! and now to quote "the Kurgan" (one of our favourite movie characters)... "Happy Halloween Ladies!" (and gentleman aswell ofcourse) Goldenred and and Brown mixed with greenthingz to you all! Stenny and OMNIA
PAGANCLAN,so do we need a flag now?
Greenthingz to you all on this lovely autumn day in 2009!This is a quick update from me to let you know how things are going in the PaganClan and in OMNIA. First of all I'd like to say thankyou to all the people who have pledged their support up to now, it is heartwarming to realise that we are not alone in our way of thinking... "the Tribes are gathering!" Because there are now already PaganClan Tribes popping up all over the place,although most don't even have names yet , I thought it might be wise to let you all know where they are and who the Tribe-messenger are that we have up to now. Ofcourse any one from the PaganClan can still form other tribes so we can get as many people as possible involved in the "active" PaganClan to do weird quests and stuff (as we suggested in the last RavenTimes Magazine). here is the list so far as it stands on Samhain 2009: the three coordinating tribe mothers are: Maja for the English and German language Tribes - maja@worldofomnia.com Ju for the french language Tribes - ju@worldofomnia.com Moniq for the Dutch language Tribes - moniq@worldofomnia.com they can be contacted directly via email if you want to start your own Tribe or if you have other questions regarding OMNIA or the PaganClan. if you wish to join one of the already existing tribes here is a list of the tribes and the cities they are based in ,the Tribe mothers have the e-mail adresses of the tribe messengers so simply ask Maja, Ju or Moniq to connect you up! Belgium (francophone): - Tournai : "Chaos Seeds tribe" messenger is Seb - Liège : ------------ messenger is Elodie - Namur : "Cernunnos' Child" messenger is Bacchus - Mons : ------------ messenger is Greg - Bruxelles: ----------- messenger is Corentin Belgium (Vlaams): - Gent e.o. " Galadhrim" messenger: Dallan France : - Paris and Angers: ----------messenger is Mariel - Bouches-du-Rhône : -----------messenger is Célie - North of France:---------- messenger is Sebastien - Alsace et Vosges:--------- messenger is Hélène - Amiens: --------- messenger is Philippe - Brittany : "Breizh tribu" messenger is Mathilde And there is also a french language site run by Tribal web messenger Cédric for the PaganClan ! http://paganclan.be United Kingdom: - under construction: messenger is Kerry Germany: - Geldern/Wermelskirchen : "Fangorn" messenger is Alex - München : --------- messenger is Heike If you’d like to get in touch with other German fans in your region in order to found a new Tribe with them please write a short mail including your name and postal code to Maja@worldofomnia.com Switzerland: - under construction: messenger is Andreas - under construction : messenger is Asl Denmark - under construction: messenger is Christian Brazil: - Sao Paulo: "Hednir Clan": messenger is Stephany Netherlands : -Zuid-Holland: "Yggdrasil" messenger: Faldor -Flevoland/Noordholland: "Lifthrasir" messenger: Maeveen -Utrecht: "Clan Mc Kentrall" messenger: Jali -West-Brabant: "Danann" messenger: Laura -Overijssel: ------------ messenger: Vivian -Nijmegen: ------------ messenger: Mairin -Drechtsteden:(dordrecht e.o) ---------- messenger: Flierefluiter -Tilburg: --------- messenger Cyane Moon -Bollenstreek ---------- messenger: Wus -Het Noorden --------- messenger Drakinnetje -Zuid-Holland --------- messenger Charlotte So if you fancy joining the Active side of Paganfolk philosophy then contact us and join up with people who think just like you! Greenthingz on Autumnwingz! Steve Sic and OMNIA ps: all material relating to the RavenTimes (ie: tattoo pictures, "omnia shirt on tour", "questions for the band" etc. can now be mailed directly to our own RT-editor Femke at: femke@worldofomnia.com pps: the winners of the OMNIA lottery will be publicised in the next Raventimes due in the first week of januari 2010! photo: Steve with cornish flag by Marcel Bakker New live pics!
Check them out in the gallery! If you have pictures of this gig send them to: photos@worldofomnia.com. Cheers, Marcel (on behalf of Stenny)
OMNIA and Human POLITICS!?
Sic's incomprehensible blog.no.17Well.. as you all know OMNIA is not a "normal" band in the accepted sense of the word.We have a very rare ingredient in our basic build up called "principles",(something which was quite common in the alternative scene of the 80's but which is sadly in decline nowaday).This means we don't merely play in a band to make money,to get our ego's aired on stage and to abuse groupies...ahem... (although we do enjoy a good time and the sound of a happy audience as much as the next artist of course) It's just that we are not a bunch of brainless "entertainment prostitutes" like most bands that you'll find cluttering up the airwaves on your compo, tv or radio, spewing endless boy/girl songs ,covers and other drivvel.while promoting the sales of alcohol and useless consumer garbage. Because of our handicap (and believe me guys, in this business having principles is definately a handicap!) we say NO to "bad" employers and suchlike plus we feel the need to spread a bit of awareness around in our audience. This is one of those awareness moments: Joe who doesn't just play guitar with OMNIA but also works (very high-up) in the EC in Brussels wants to bring your attention to the fact that the new European president will be a rightwing dickhead who will be CHOSEN (not elected) for us...unless we try to do something about it by signing a petition (and getting others to do the same) You see there is a much better alternative for the post of president in the person of Mary Robinson (this is Joe's personal recommendation guys!and he knows his stuff!) So I want to invite you to check out the whole story on our facebook: http://www.facebook.com/notes.php?id=38210428857 and exercise your rights as a citizen of Europe to DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!! there that was just my two cents and don't forget to enjoy this wonderfull autumn day aswell! Love (for Nature) Respect (for Creativity) Greenthingz (for Everyone) Sic XXX
the Tribes are Gathering!!
So this is what a "PaganClan-Tribe" looks like!Meet the Hednir Clan from Sao Paulo!(our first official Brazilian PaganClan Tribe). Since we asked our fans to gather in PaganClan tribes the response has been (and is) astonishing. Altough I must say I haven't seen a European group (yet) that looks so fucking fierce and Nordic/Celtic as our brothers and sisters from across the ocean! "Etrezomp ni Kelted" the Celtic tribes are Gathering! Green and Brown Autumn thingz! Steve Sic GUESS WHO'S BACK!?
YEAH!!, The Raven Times is back online!!After long months of absence our PaganClan fanzine has hit the web again,and now with 10.000 readers worldwide! Jenny and me could never have got this issue out without a lot of help, so major thanx should go to the amazing hard work of our sweet friends: Marius (all the computer lay-out and building work) Kaat and Femke (pre-editing) Maja and Célie (translations) Miez and uncle Alan (extra artwork) so go and download your copy of RAVENTIMES 7 right now! "SMILE!" at the pictures of Luka as a small child! "GASP!" at how new songs are born! "SHUDDER!" at the good news and the bad news! "CHEER!" at the new special gigs! and above all...enjoy! Greenthingz! Steve Sic and Jenny what?! you're not a member of the PaganClan Yet and you don't know how to get hold of our free magazine?! just click the button marked fanclub on the side of this screen and you will find out ;-)
work in progress on website
there is some serious repair-work going on in our website.Marius (our new cyber-doctor) is doing some serious shit behind the scenes in the "bones" of our site. So it could be possible that strange things happen during the next week. (the website could go offline suddenly, the forum could change into chinese language, little demons could come crawling out of your screen...this is the 3rd millenium, anything is possible...) so don't worry, be happy and if the site acts funny, be patient ,cause the doctor is working. (oh! what a great pun, I'm so proud!) Greenthingz] Steve Sic
Let's keep it all in the family!
New photos by Marcel Bakker in the gallery!!OK people, it's official now! After years of drooling over his fantastic live photos and hoping that he will make more of his art at every gig we do, we have finally had the courage to ask Marcel Bakker to be our "official" photographer...and...he said "yes"! He is now an integral part of the OMNIA-family and runs and edits the photo pages of our photo gallery (click on "pictures" on the left hand side of this page to see them). And our wonderful Merch-babe Chloë (who also happens to be Marcel's daughter) writes the accompanying texts you see below the pictures. And Monique (who happens to be married to Marcel) will get a very special place indeed in the OMNIA family, but you will read more about that in the upcoming RavenTimes...Coming soon...! In the meantime, enjoy the wonderful photographic Art as captured on the OMNIA gigs on Festival Mediaval in Selb, Germany (the best new festival of the last years) and the Pim Jacobs theatre (our own little "home from home") taken by our dear sweet friend Marcel Bakker (cheers mate!). Greenthingz! Steve Sic First gig "World of OMNIA-theatre tour" sold out succes!
Well the sold-out Pim Jacobs theatre gig was again such an amazing experience for us! We have truly never experienced such an enthousiastic crowd at a theatre-gig before! (and we've seen many crazy ones up to now!) It was like a full blown festival crowd!It felt really good to be surrounded by all you great people who had flocked to listen to our humble offerings on the stage. The new songs went well, and I'm happy to say that everybody accepts all our songs as being 100% OMNIA no matter what style we choose to play in (be it Rap, Murder Ballad, Metal or Cornish modern-folklore) The wonderfull cook at the theatre even made us a delicious completely Ecological meal (which nobody except a small festival in Austria has ever done for us before!)... This was a great start to the season for us and we look forward to putting on the rest of the gigs and introducing even more new songs as we go along. Check out this picture (by Marcel Bakker ofcourse) where Jenny plays her Hammered Dulcimer on one of our new compositions called "Moon"... Greenthingz Steve Sic ps: My one regret of the evening was not talking to the young kid with the all the heavy spikey wristbands after the show.I don't know his name but he asked me for an autograph during the interval-break (when I had no pen and no time) and I never got to see him later...shame..he reminded me of me when I was that age...
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10-09-2010
German CD Release Party!!! Location: "Festival Mediaval", Se... |