I’ve been working on my record label – Roll Tape Records – as well as a new project, my booking company called Open Eye Booking. Instead of fighting with the big companies to even be heard, I decided to put my energy into creating my own little companies where I can do what I want. So, as you can see to my right – I’m beginning to get a few gigs, and there are more on the way.

Because everything is new at my record label as well as my booking company, things take a little longer – but that will change as soon as I get the hang of things.

Oh – and I really want to go abroad as well, so send me an email if you know of someplace I might be able to play outside Denmark – ok? It’s davidpepke@gmail.com so feel free to write…

Here’s a song I’m working on (yeah, I still write songs too):

She Owns The Rest

The seat next to mine is not taken
but that doesn’t mean that there’s room
And don’t think that I am mistaken
I’m not one you’ll be able to swoon

The hand on my lap’s looking lonely
but it’s not a hand you can hold
And don’t think that you are the only
the only woman I’ve told;

I know I’m alive, but no beat’s in my chest
The Poet has taken control
This six-string is mine, but she owns the rest
I’m hers with body and soul

I’m searching the streets for answers
a sign telling me where to go
There’s plenty of models and dancers
I feel nothing, ’cause she made it so

I’m sitting alone, but I’m not sad
I like my own company
The life on the road is not too bad
but I’d prefer it with her next to me

I know I’m alive, but no beat’s in my chest
The Poet has taken control
This six-string is mine, but she owns the rest
I’m hers with body and soul

It took a bit longer than I expected, but only because of technical clumsiness on my part. The album itself was recorded in one day – a Tuesday – in my apartment in Copenhagen.

My trusty friend Peter is accompanying me on percussion and vocals. We’ve been playing music together since the beginning of our teens, so playing with him is an absolute joy. Because we know each other so well, musically and personally, I can go anywhere with a song – and Peter will follow without any difficulties or mistakes. If you’ve played music with other people, you’ll recognize the feeling of freedom it gives me.

The songs on Tuesday Session are all pretty new. I tend to discard my older songs, whenever I write something new. I do this because I think that I’m always improving – but I know I shouldn’t, because some of my older songs have their right too. Now, with my new concept of recording albums in a short period of time, I’ll be able to make my songs available to everyone – before I feel like discarding them.

I plan on doing another album soon – and as you can tell, Tuesday Session is a small album. Some might even call it an EP. It plays for 25 minutes – 7 songs – and it’s not as expensive as most albums. This is due to the nature of the album – it hasn’t cost much to record, so it shouldn’t cost much to purchase.

Also, you might notice the logo in the top left corner of the album cover; “A Roll Tape Recording”. This is my record label – Roll Tape Records – and Tuesday Session is the first album released on the label. So it’s a new birth for my recording-dogma and a new birth for Roll Tape Records – visit their site here!

Finally, we also did a music video for one of the songs off Tuesday Session. My good friend Line Buttenschön and I created this using footage from my journey across The States last year. More videos will follow…

The steps to City Hall
is a heavy place to sit
It’s been heavy since this fall
when her decision really hit

Now I’m sitting here in springtime
with my coffee and my pen
and I know I should find somewhere else to go
But I’m warmed up by the sunshine
and the pictures of back then
so I think I’ll stay an hour more or so

I wonder if she comes here
and leaves a secret sigh
I fight the urge to stay near
and catch her walking by

Now I’m sitting here in springtime
with my coffee and my pen
and I know I should find somewhere else to go
But I’m warmed up by the sunshine
and the pictures of back then
so I think I’ll stay an hour more or so

I come here pretty often
it keeps my heart in check
I hope someday she’ll soften
and start to love me back

Now I’m sitting here in springtime
with my coffee and my pen
and I know I should find somewhere else to go
But I’m warmed up by the sunshine
and the pictures of back then
so I think I’ll stay an hour more or so…

Drinking tea, but longing for red wine – she’s writing about red wine – I long for her more than the wine.

“I can’t really stay in my skin
Won’t you just come let me in
Into the being that’s you

I can’t really stay in these words
Wish you could feel how this hurts
Wish you would tell the truth too”

Melodrama, nostalgia, melancholia. Big words – big feelings. I feel smaller than that – I feel like I could hide and no one would notice… I think the word is aloof.

I’ve moved into position
above a busy street
I have a clear ambition
to sweep you off your feet

Some would call it pointless
for me to write this song
But one day you will read this
and I hope you’ll prove them wrong

You want to move in closer, so you hit me with your tricks
but you will need a dozer to break through all these bricks
If you don’t read the warning that’s written on my face
you’ll wake up in the morning and find you’ve lost the race
If you want to move closer you need more than teenage tricks
but we both know they’re all you’ve got

If you want to impress me, shut me up and take a stand
Weigh me and assess me, before you take my hand
Strong and independent, ambitious and her own
that’s the kind of woman, that I can’t leave alone
If you want to impress me you need more than make me stand
but we both know that’s all you’ve got

It feels like my mind is being moved between servers as well. I can’t really focus on any one thing. I’m all over the place… Despite this, I’ve just written two new songs – maybe even because of this?

One of my friends once told me that he felt like his mind was split into 10 small versions of him – all pulling him in different directions. I wrote a song about that back then – not very good, but the picture is a good one. And that’s how I feel right now.

Another one of my friends – a woman – told me that she was waiting for a ship to come take her away. I think she said pirate ship, but I might have imagined that, because I instantly saw aboard the ship – sails set for adventure – sails set for anywhere but here. I wanted to go with her – I saw myself next to her on the deck… Sadly she never left the harbor. Or maybe she did? Maybe she just didn’t want me there. No, I think she stayed home, safe – a bit bored maybe, but safe and sensible. Safe and sensible is good – but brave, unsafe and passionate teaches you so much more.

So, I’m here still – waiting for that ship to come take me away. And in all my waiting I’m slowly realizing that maybe I shouldn’t wait for someone else’s ship – maybe I should start building my own? And maybe that’s what I’m doing?

I think I am – and I think this picture shows me building my ship – getting ready to leave the harbor.

The pictures is of me recording an album in my apartment – the album will be out shortly on iTunes and I’ve given it the title “Tuesday Session.

Today, I am happy to announce – Spring has come to Copenhagen.

No point in staying indoors – I’m out!

D.

I got me thinking about freedom of speech, and how I never really thought of it as a gift – although it is. I mean, everything I write here is a result of freedom of speech, really. So, I’ll try to appreciate it more from now on – as to prove Joni Mitchell wrong. I do know what I’ve got…

It made me think of “The Draft Beer Syndrome”.
There’s a strange tendency in concert-going. People buy tickets to concerts – they are more often than not expensive – especially in Denmark. I heard that the average ticket price in Denmark is the highest in Europe. And still concert goers get drunk on expensive, crappy, draft beer and stand in the crowd, talking among themselves as loud as they can – while the band on the stage feel they have to crank up their amps and PA to be heard by the crowd that payed a lot of money to get in.

It doesn’t make sense to me – so I try to go to as few big venues as possible – and stick to the smaller, more intimate ones – because there it is easier for the band to maintain the audience’s focus.

Now is the time to say that I’m slightly drunk – and I don’t bother spell-checking right now.

But isn’t it weird that people go to concerts to not pay attention?

So – Peter and I played unplugged tonight – and we did that at a small concert last Saturday too. That took place in an apartment, and everybody was really paying attention – and suddenly it made sense to perform my innermost thoughts and feelings.

David Hearts Unpluggedness.

Thanks guys – you did a fantastic job!

Videos will be up in the morning – I pwomise!

D.

“Why not record an album, do a photo session for promo-pictures, and shoot a music video and some promotional pictures – all in one day?”

Recording an album in a real studio is great. I love to be able to spend hours and hours on vocals, arrangements and so on – but sometimes you just need to get a move on. Sometimes you can’t recreate that magical first-take – or the way you played a song, when everybody was just sensing what to play, instead of reading carefully written sheet music. Sometimes it can be extremely liberating to just press record – play a song – press stop – and then move on. That way the song gets it’s own life – that way you can listen to it the next day or a year later, and still hear new things that you didn’t know were on there.

I’m not trying to compare the two – they are two different things. And I’m not saying I prefer one over the other – but that being said – I see no reason why the two can’t co-exist.

So – I’m going to try this.

I have a bunch of fantastic friends – and I have shanghaied a few of them to help me. This tuesday we’re going to attempt to record a small album – I’m thinking 6-7 songs – do a photo shoot – shoot a video for a song or two – and do some additional footage. While we do this, I’m going to videoblog – as I usually do – to document what we are doing.

When we’re done, I’m going to release the album for sale online, with little or no post-production, meaning no fiddling around on the computer, pressing numerous buttons etc. – I’m gonna put it straight out there. The video will be edited together quickly – or should I say “by intuition” rather. Same goes for the pictures.

With a lot of luck, some skill and pots and pots of coffee – we’ll get there.

D.

Or rather, I’m trying to get a meeting with a record company to discuss the possibilities for releasing my songs. What I really wanna do is to be able to write songs and perform them live. That’s it.

So, what do you do? I have tried to contact record labels in Copenhagen – labels that I feel have the right musical profile. In my mind, record labels like those make a living from listening to demoes artist send them, and from going out a night, to the clubs where we, the musicians play – and there they scout for talent – like a soccer talent scout goes to the soccer field.

This is a mere figment of my imagination.

I can’t even get a response to my emails and my phone calls. I cannot even get a no. The so called talent scouts are sitting in their offices, praising themselves – patting each others backs because they got a job in the recording industry, and because they have backstage passes to some fashion show tonight. They couldn’t spot good lyrics if the words came out of their noses.

My very close friend – also a musician – told me something very upsetting yesterday. Major labels in The UK and The US will not sign an artist unless they have a complete organization behind them – a manager, an accountant, a booking agency etc. – and furthermore, an insurance company has to be willing to insure the whole album release, with everything it involves… Maybe this is old news to some, but it is definitely the first I have heard of it.

I am petrified.

This means that a singer/songwriter like me, has to establish a full business – with 5-10 employees – just to get a record label to consider signing him/her.

Just thinking the process through, my soul, my creativity has died a thousand times over. I cannot and I wont let men in suits decide whether my songs are good songs. I am proud of my songs and of my skill – and I think that there is an audience for my music.

I write music for me and for you – I write songs because I can’t help it – I have to write. I did not become a musician to be a number on a chart – to be a digit on a budget. I do this because it makes me happy – a guitar, a piano – just humming a melody – can make me smile. All the money in the world will never, ever, be that powerful.

Now, where’s my pen and paper – where’s my coffee and my guitar – I have an album to finish, to release and to perform.

Out of my way, bureaucrat!

Should I Tell You?

Suddenly I’m not so tough
I have no words to say
Suddenly I’m not so skilled
at keeping my feelings at bay

Suddenly I can’t hide that smile
I have an urge to sing
And I find myself wondering
when my phone’s gonna ring

And I don’t know
if I should tell you
Should I show
what I really feel?

Suddenly I’m not the one
who chooses not to call
Suddenly I am the one
who has to feel his heart fall

Suddenly I am the one
who used to play it cool
Suddenly I am the one
who writes lovesongs like a fool

And I don’t know
if I should tell you
Should I show
what I really feel?

Anymore

You can’t be the one I want
anymore
you’re taken
You can’t be what I look for
to adore
You’re taken
- and I feel broken

You say that you hold me dear
and when you’re near
I’m not broken
You seem like it is all clear
and that you hear
words not spoken
- and you’re still taken

So can I say that I miss you
when you’re not mine to miss?
Can I say I’d like to kiss you
and write a song like this?
Can I say that when I see you
the sun shines from above
Can I say that I love you
when you’re not mine to love?

Everytime I see your face
I’m in that place
where I first met you
Even when I give you space
most days
I can’t forget you
- and I can’t get you

But can I say that I miss you
when you’re not mine to miss?
Can I say I’d like to kiss you
and write a song like this?
Can I say that when I see you
the sun shines from above
Can I say that I love you
when you’re not mine to love?

A singer/songwriter desperately wants the attention from the man in a suit sitting behind the big desk. The songwriter longs for the suit to pad him on the head, give him a record deal and steal all of the earnings.

What does suits know about good songs? What do they know about creativity and the highs and lows it brings? Why should they be put in the deciding chair?

They couldn’t identify talent or good poetry for their life – so I’ll stop asking them to from now on…

D.

I waste my time in public
’cause I want someone to see me
point his hand in one direction
and show me where to go
See I’m proudly independent
and I’m hardly ever needy
but there are days where I’m a loss
and my confidence is low

Now I hang out at a venue
where hopeless artists sing
And here I learn the virtue
of keeping stuff within

- “mock, my words”, December 2009

My Cabin

At sunrise I start making coffee
There’s always enough for two
My cabin is solid and cosy
I built it while thinking of you

I bring out my axe from my toolshed
and I spend the day chopping wood
My husky keeps watch ’till the sun’s red
I’m sure that he’d help if he could

I’m gonna build me a nice wooden cabin
with a big fireplace and a view
On the deck there’s a chair that I’ll sit in
and the chair next to mine is for you

At the end of the day I make dinner
Instead of one plate, I make two
The dog bows his head like a sinner
He knows that his feast was for you

I watch the sun set with the husky
I play him a short quiet song
My cabin is simple and dusty
but I hope that you’ll feel you belong

I’m gonna build me a nice wooden cabin
with a big fireplace and a view
On the deck there’s a chair that I’ll sit in
and the chair next to mine is for you

- dreaming and plotting, winter 2009

So when I detect
that it’s touching my heart
I try to dissect
and take it apart

I let my mind enter
my heart becomes sore
I go to the centre
and look at the core

Then I start writing
pretend and conjure
When my heart is writhing
then this is my cure

The slightest emotion
can turn into song
So don’t get the notion
it’s you, ’cause you’re wrong

The loss of a job
is just a fresh start
There’s no need to sob
when you take it apart

The love of your life
may trample your heart
But you are the knife
that takes it apart

- in progress, January 2010

I’m at some cool reception
I’m sitting by myself
No bullshit, no deception
No Oscars on my shelf

And if you do approach me
and try to start a chat
Then you will meet the real me
not some red carpet cat

Red Carpet Cats are slick
Red Carpet Cats are cool
They win you over quick
They make the women drool

Their inventory sells
’cause their loyalty’s for hire
And they will save themselves
when their castle is on fire

Do you need lines to pick-up?
Do you need names to drop?
Do you need me to lick up
the champagne that you pop?

You’re looking for “pretend”
and I don’t go for that
But let me recommend
a cool red carpet cat

Red Carpet Cats are slick
Red Carpet Cats are cool
They win you over quick
They make the women drool

Their inventory sells
’cause their loyalty’s for hire
And they will save themselves
when their castle is on fire

- bitter, December 2009

My Cunnning Plan

She did! She did!
She looked back at me!
She looked back when she walked away!

Will she? Will she?
Will she come back to me
and bring her stuff and stay?

‘Cause little remains of my cunning plan
the plan to make the girl mine
I’ve straightened the road that leads to my door
It’s flooded with lights and with signs
And I would give this girl all that I own
but she must walk the road alone

She did! She did!
She came back to me!
With nothing in her hands?

She said – she said
that she wasn’t free
Which I’ll never understand…

‘Cause little remains of my cunning plan!?
The plan to make the girl mine!
I’ve straightened the road that leads to mine door
it’s flooded with lights and with signs!!
And I would give this girl all that I own
if she would walk the road alone

Yeah, she has molded at heart from a stone
but she must walk the road alone…

Smile And Make Ready

With good intentions I give her
a handful of flowers in bloom
She thanks me, and I see them wither
and I smile – smile and make ready for doom

The cherries I gave her are bitter
The puppy will find its death soon
The poor girl won’t know what hit her
and I smile – smile and make ready for doom

There’s beauty in self destruction
There’s pleasure in tearing things down
Admitting I can’t fight corruption
Accepting that one day I’ll drown

The bricks I have layn this morning
will shatter before we reach noon
The young girls are widows in mourning
and I smile – smile and make ready for doom

The lives that we lead are pointless
but most are immune to gloom
and they are the ones who are mindless
and they smile – smile and make ready for doom

There’s beauty in self destruction
There’s pleasure in tearing things down
Admitting I can’t fight corruption
Accepting that one day we’ll drown

My Heart Says So

I wrote a song for a girl I once knew
I have known more than one
I put my words where I once were
Will she know they are of her?

I took my clothes, took the stairs, took the road
I felt my senses return
I knew that I still had miles left to walk
Bridges to cross and to burn

And though I have to leave you here
there’s nothing wrong with you, my dear
I need to find the things I fear
I need to leave and disappear
I will leave you tears to cry
but my eyes will stay clear and dry
There will be no “you and I”
’cause I just love the word goodbye

I, there’s so much I don’t know
I, I’m not yes – I am no
I, I’ve got to go
I, ’cause my heart says so

I met a girl on the road I took
When will I ever learn?
I let her claim what she thought would be hers
I felt the numbness return

I lie awake while she sleeps by my side
Oh, how I suffer and yearn
I need to move, need my clothes, need the road
Set it ablaze and let it burn

And though I have to leave you here
there’s nothing wrong with you, my dear
I need to find the things I fear
I need to leave and disappear
I will leave you tears to cry
but my eyes will stay clear and dry
There will be no “you and I”
’cause I just love the word goodbye

I, there’s so much I don’t know
I, I’m not yes – I am no
I, I’ve got to go
I, ’cause my heart says so

Baby

First time that I looked
I was bought and sold and hooked
I was laying out a scheme to make you want me

First time you saw me
you were beautiful and free
you were confident and wise and independent

And baby
you keep saying maybe
but I still know that you will we
in bed with me
tonight
And baby
I know that you secretly
fantasize how it would be
on top of me
tonight

Second time I looked
I was boiled and peeled and cooked
but I did not show the signs of my weakness

It all worked perfectly
suddenly you were not free
and your eyes belonged to me, oh so hungry

And baby
you keep saying maybe
but I still know that you will be
in bed with me
tonight
And baby
I know that you secretly
fantasize how it would be
to sit on me
tonight

Third time that I looked
I was sold out, fully booked
I was terrified to see that you were taken

He was on the top
until all came to a stop
when I stole your soul away and left him shaken

‘Cause maybe
you are someone’s baby
but I still know that you will be
in bed with me
tonight
And baby
I know that you secretly
fantasize how it would be
to cheat with me
tonight

Hide It in a Song

Maybe she’s ambitious
She wants to be my muse
Maybe it’s her mission
to dazzle and confuse

Is she really conscious?
There’s havoc in her trail
Is she without conscience
with hidden horns and tail?

She might be the one
She treats me wrong
She might be the one
and she’s always gone
I know I can’t find her and tell her
so I’ll hide what I feel in this song

Maybe I should spell it
how much she means to me
Sing it, say it, yell it
or should I just let be?

Can she take the pressure
or will she run away?
Will she find the treasure
in all the words I say?

She might be the one
She treats me wrong
She might be the one
and she’s always gone
I know I can’t find her and tell her
so I’ll hide what I feel in this song