About life

Almost everyday, during the past month, I have had conversations about the big things in life, related to music and faith in most cases. The students at the college are preparing themselves for their place in life after school. America's place in world politics affects everybody in different ways. European and american worship music is building bridges between cultures, but for some reason sometimes building walls instead. So many topics have been discussed the past weeks and I have met so many wise people who make me grow as a person.

The 55 swedes who visited from Stockholm Gospelchoir festival turned out to be a very mixed group and I found myself discussing everything from holy spirit quickstep to communion-to-go. Very refreshing. New York is always full of surprises and it is both fun and educating to experience them with friends.

The students at the college have showed me that the young american generation have a lot more interest in what's going on in the rest of the world, than I thought before coming here. I will blog separately about that.

Find music

I have noticed in the last weeks emails that there are some who have been reading my blog, but not knowing so much about the music I do. It is encouraging for me, of course, to communicate with so many different kinds of people! But I am sorry that I don't take time to describe everything about Praise Unit and other things I do in every email response.

So today I just want to inform (for new listeners) that Praise Units music, and some music I have done with other artists, is available in all your usual places -Spotify, iTunes, Amazon and so on. Sheets can be ordered from my website, and some other places.

We are also on Youtube and here is a little sample:

Home nr 1

I think home is where my family is. Before we had children Thorine and I lived in New York, and that became our second home. Then I have have spent so much time with people in Germany, made many close friends and now my wife and daughters have many friends there too. So Germany is also a second home. Then we lived in Spain two years ago, and that became our second home. What will be the next second home? Norway? Russia? Pennsylvania? Somewhere in Asia?

Maybe from now on we will just stay in Örebro forever? I don't know what will happen. For me traveling or not traveling is not the most important. The important thing is go where God wants me, and to be convinced that Thorine agrees. I hope that we all will go back to Lancaster, PA, as a family. So that I can introduce my girls to all my new friends over there. We will have so much fun together, and I am so inspired to be more involved in the college. I want my daughters to see a place like LBC, and how they can grow there. And I want to be part of making the current LBC students grow as musicians and leaders.

But right now I am going to give in to jet lag and just enjoy being in home nr 1. Here!

More

I have so many little stories that I started writing for this blog, but never finished. So I will continue blogging about my month in the US, even though I write from Sweden.

Praise Unit music

I was of course curious about if and how the Praise Unit music would be received amongst the people I have met the past month in America. When I do my choir workshops in Europe I usually do a simpler style of gospel. The more different(?) style that Praise Unit performs is maybe more difficult to understand.

But the Praise Unit songs have actually given me many new friends. Jon from Washington D.C. drove up to have a chat with me, which I loved of course, and I know I will see him again. Artists from the conference weekend in Philly stay in touch with me and I am inspired to learn about new possibilities through working with people who are already in this music industry. Some of the students at the college seemed into the PU groove too, and that lead to some interesting conversations.

So I hope the next Praise Unit US tour is not far away. :) 

Kyle's corner

Soon I am heading for the airport and the plane that takes me back to my family! I can't wait to see them!!!

One of my last missions here was a radio interview I did in Philadelphia yesterday. The radio station found Praise Unit's music and want to spread it on the US east coast.

If the interview becomes available online I will try to remember to post it on my Facebook page and my website. It is part of a series of interviews called Kyle's corner.

Go west

Today I was reunited with Mia, who took over the choir in Salem after I left New York in 2001. She moved with her husband to western Pennsylvania and is now doing a great job with the music in her church. Last time we met Stella was ten months old, which means it's been eleven years. But we were catching up fast.

I did a workshop in her church, where I taught some of my songs and shared my european way of doing things. The room was full of singers and we had a lot of fun. Of course I work in different ways with things in the US, compared to the european countries. For example, I don't have to teach them how to annunciate the english words.

Today grandmothers were singing with their granddaughters and every generation in between. The variety of age groups also added to the nice atmosphere in the choir.