Alan has been recording for decades and has lots of old songs stored away in his rickety old barn. Lately he’s been digging around and found some old stuff from his previous bands, and recordings he want to share with the most hardcore fans out there (his mum!). All of the songs on this page are written by Alan.
It started in 1980
Alan was fourteen years old and were sleeping over at his grandparents house. That night he had a dream about a guitar – an electric guitar. And when he woke up the morning after he knew that he had to get one. At first he borrowed an old acoustic guitar from he’s mother and bought the AC/DC “Back in Black” guitar book and played those chords until he’s fingers bled. And at the same time he instantly started to write his own choruses and verses. The very first song he wrote was “Lucie” in 1982 at the age of 16. Recently Alan drew Lucie as the cover art for the song (above). He also remastered it, and added it to his songs online.
Blacksmith (1984)
This is the very first band Alan ever played in. Alan was writing a lot of songs at that time, and introduced some of them to the band. One of the songs was “Blacksmith” and became the name of this hardrock/punk band.
Blacksmith toured around a bit, a little unsteady in the beginning, but made som nice gigs after a while. Long hair, Marshall stacks and Tube screamers was the recipe. In the Picture above you can see from left to right: Yngve, Ketil, Knut and Rune (before he became Alan). The drummer Bård Espen is behind there somewhere…
Blacksmith went to a home recording studios in 1985. This was four tracks on a cassette tape, and this was probably what made Alan interested in multitrack recording. The original Blacksmith demo was found deep inside the barn, and one of the songs was “In the Gutter”.
Blacksmithe demo (1985)
1. Blacksmith
2. In the Gutter
3. Highway 69
4. Fuck the Fashion
5. Let Him Hang
A song “In the Gutter” (1985)
Backbeat Brothers (1989)
In the late eighties three of the Blacksmith members had some fun rehearsing under the name of Backbeat Brothers. The baseman played the drums, the rhythm guitarist played the bass and Alan played the guitar and did the vokals. Although they ha a lot of songs, it was never to be more than a local band at Lier Rockeverksted (an old school mad into a rehearsal studio). They performed at only small concerts there. You can listen to a song from one of the rehearsals made on a cassette tape recorder on the floor in the room.
“Won’t be there” (1989)
Alan Safewood – The Dr. Drunkenstuncle period (1990)
In the late eighties and early nineties Alan spent a lot of time with his close friend Øyvind. They travelled around in Europe and Asia (India), and this made a deep impact on the way Alan saw the world and the people around him.
Øyvind and Alanmade a living by selling jewelry and T-shirts (with their drawings) on the streets of Oslo a few summers. Although this was one of the best times in Alan’s life the music that he made at that time (on his reel to reel 8 track) was often with a blue mood, like for instance:
Hope She’ll Know (1990)
Low Budget Radio Band (1990)
Erik, a friend of Alan, used to play the electric guitar on old tube amplified radios. The sound on some old radios are great. The “Low Budget Radio Band” was formed in 1990, and all guitars, bass and vocals were amplified through old radios.
Per, Erik, Rune (before he became Alan) and Truls.
Alan Safewood (1991)
Alan played and recorded all instruments in an EP:
“Where Have I Been” in 1991.
- Where have I Been
- Telephobia
- The Captain
- Another Day of Rock´n Roll
SPIN (Nice Beaver Orchestra – Family Fresh) (1999)
Formed in 1998 with good friends: Karl, Øyvind S,Per and Paul. At first the band was some kind of an experimental Psyko-rock band with only instrumental songs. This band had at first the name. Nice Beaver Orchestra.
After a while they found Paul, who wanted to contribute with some blues-rock songs. They changed the name to Family Fresh, and started to play around in local bars, after ski, hotels and such.
In 1999 they started to write their own songs, and changed their name again to SPIN. They made an EP with five of their own songs, and this is one of them:
Painting Pictures (later Floating By)
Turbid Twins (2000)
Formed I 2002 and still going strong. A musical collaboration with mr. Eddy C. Backwater led to an enormous consumption of tea with a lot of sugar – and a couple of beers. Mix this with two acoustic guitars and Turbid Twins is the result. An EP was released and was played on the radio.
The EP was made in The Safewood Studio and Eddy’s living room right after the millennium. It was recorded on a Roland 8-track recorder. This is “Sister Mary” from the EP
Turbid Twins EP
1. Sister Mary
2. Man for a while
3. Where I’m going
4. Come a long way
“Has To Be You” is a recording from a rehearsal (written with mr. Backwater). I think you can hear someone has a sip of tea in the beginning of this song 🙂
Has to Be You – rehearsal
Between 2004 and 2016 Alan had a musical stop, and barely touched the guitar for 12 years. He spent most of his time with his family and the job as a film director.
In 2016 he had about 60 songs in the drawer, and felt an urge to strum the guitar again. He sold some old radios and stuff, and bought a drum set, a keyboard and all the recording gear you need to record, mix and publish music.
Then he invited some good friends to come and play in the Safewood Studio, and Alan was rocking again. The first song on Spotify was “Control”.
Alan Safewood (2016)
