xmas

Hope you all had a very merry christmas!!

Our boys singing

Check out or boys singing in the concert hall in Örebro.
A pretty nice bunch of men, uh? =)

Click here to see the video!

Buisy week

This week is really buisy for us Praise Unit singers. As you may know we´re doing the Classical Gospel concerts with the Swedish Chamber Orchestra this weekend. We rehearsed monday and tuesday and today we´ve had the first two concerts for school kids. I´t feels quite good actually. It´s very different for us singers to be backed up by a big orchestra and no drums....a few problems with the timing but we worked it out quite well.

The orchestra is so awesome and it really feels like such a privilege to do this with them. I hope you all have got your tickets ´cause I know there´s not many left, so hurry..... Tomorrow we´re having two more school concerts before the real deal on friday. Exciting!

God bless you all!

Classical gospel

Next week it´s time for our "Classical Gospel" concerts in Örebro together with the Swedish Chamber Orchestra. Joakim has been working day and night to get the arrangements done in time, and he has done a great job. We got the sheet music last sunday and now it´s up to us to learn the stuff. There will be both Praise Unit songs and other new and traditional gospel songs, all with a classical flavor. I´m excited. If you still havn´t bought your ticket, you can find it at www.ticnet.se, search for classical gospel.

If you don´t know what to get for your friends and loved ones for christmas I have a tip. Get the new Praise Unit album, The Mission Field, on www.joakimarenius.com.

Have a nice december night, and I hope to see you next week in Örebro Concert Hall.

Tack Norge!

Takk Norge - thank you Norway!
We had a good trip to Oslo yesterday, though very long. For us living in Stockholm it took about 7 hours each way, for the ppl in Örebro a few hours less and for Johannes driving alone from Jönköping you have to add another hour to the 7 hours from Stockholm... But it was worth it, although we're pretty nacked today after a long night in the cars...!
It was great fun to do our thing and also see what the other choirs/artists (safari, isaac carree, oslo soul teens) did and we were really impressed by them all! We also got to sing a song together with Swedish gospel legend Per-Erik Hallin which we all really enjoyed! But most of all, it felt like a truly blessed night, which we are so happy to have been a part of.

Joakim and Ragnhild Hiis-Ånestad, leader of Oslo soul children/teens.

Some of the Praise Unit singers weren't able to come along due to other assignments, but we were fortunate to bring some other friends to join us on stage... Emma was one of them.

Magdalena was another one who we brought along!


Hanging out backstage.

Simon, yet another friend who contributed on the Oslo show (But this one behind the drums!), and Jacob in the backseat of the car.

Time to go to Oslo

In a few hours we´re leaving for Oslo, Norway. We´re playing at a big concert with some other artists/groups, Safari, Oslo Soul Teens, Per-Erik Hallin and Isaac Carree (Kirk Franklins backup singer). It´s gonna be great hearing all of them.

We´re all looking forward to it....it´s been a while since we played together....

Don´t forget to get the Mission Field CD for all your friends and loved ones for christmas....you can buy it at www.joakimarenius.com.

See you

...and a couple more =)

Good evening!

Here's some more photos from the releaseconcert, taken by our dear friend Susanne from Husby in Germany! Thank you, Susanne!
Next week we will perform in Oslo together with Oslo Soul Teens, Per-Erik Hallin and Isaac Carree! It looks like it's gonna be a great night! If you're in Oslo on the 25th of November, come and join the party!

A good review

Another good review of The Mission Field... Yey!
For those of you who read Swedish: http://www.crossnet.se/portal/article.do?oid=275188

Please continue to keep us in your prayers!

Missing out on the gig

Tonight's gig night! I'm in London though so I'm missing out! This is the first show I miss since my Praise Unit debut in the spring of 2007 and it feels a bit sad. But I know the guys are gonna do an amazing job spreading the gospel tonight!

I hope you're enojying the new album and for those of you who still haven't got it - go to www.joakimarenius.com and get your copy!

Long time, no....

Hi everyone. It´s been a while since last time I wrote something here. But now I feel like it´s time to post something, and share a few pictures from our release concert that my wife, Anna, took. So enjoy.

This saturday we will play in Örebro concert hall, you´re all very welcome to be there.

God Bless!

/ Jakob

Hi!

Just wanted to say thanks to everyone who came to our releaseconcert! We had so much fun and I hope you did too! A special thanks to 3 devoted ladies from Germany, so nice to see friends from abroad in the crowd! I hope you had a lovely stay in Stockholm and thanks for dropping by my work for a quick chat =)
Hopefully I will be able to put up a short video from the concert here soon, unfortunately with bad sound, but anyway.

Take care friends and foes!
God bless

Setlist talk

Here's a video shot just a few minutes before we got on stage at the relaeaseconcert.
Joakim is going through the setlist but everyone seems to be a bit in their own world (including me shooting the vid...?)

Thanks...

To all of you who came to the releaseconcert last week:
THANK YOU!
We had a great time and we hope you all enjoyed the new songs and the show! And thanks to all of you who couldn't make it to Stockholm, but whom we know supported us through your prayers and thoughts!

Make sure you get your own copy of the album at http://www.joakimarenius.com/

Rookie

Hi!
The release concert tomorrow will be my second concert with Praise Unit. I joined the group in december and since we've almost exclusively worked with the CD we've only done one show so far. So I am sooo happy that this concert is finally this close! To be a member of Praise Unit is just great. I'm the latest member and I'm also the youngest. I'm born in 1989 and Joakim who is the oldest is born.. well some years before me. But this is lovely. Different ages and different personalities brings so much variety to the group. And since all of us has the same goal, to praise God, we can help eachother in doing so. And I really do think that when we come together to worship we can inspire many to go their own way in life and praise He who's worthy!
God Bless! and see you tomorrow!

Debaser Medborgarplatsen, Stockholm Sweden.
Doors open at 7 pm and we enter the stage at 8.30 pm

Thank You!

I got inspired by some of the previous posts to look through my photos from different places we've been with Praise Unit and once again I realize how much lovely people we've met everywhere!
Here is some more photos of friends from all over that we've been soooo blessed to meet!
A big Thank You to you all for your hospitality , your support and love! I pray that you will be blessed in abundance in every area in your lifes!
Lots of love from us

...and some more

Preparations

Lately we've been working hard; to promote the releaseconcert, put a lot of energy into the coreographies, rehearsing the music, looking for clothes, shoes and accessories to wear, and it does feel important that we nail everything on Thursday. But it's so easy to lose yourself in all these preparations, and right now I think it's important for all of us to just remember the main cause for why we're doing it this in the first place. We'll be singing and playing our hearts out to proclaim the glory of God, and in the midst of all things one can worry about going wrong during a concert, we just have to rely on that God can work through anything. Even disasters. At least to me that is a big comfort. It won't make me try or work less hard to reach perfection, but it helps me realize that after all it's not all up to me if people will meet Jesus or not. It's up to God and he can even use my mistakes and turn them into something beautiful. Maybe my flaws will show somebody else, who feels unworthy of God's forgivness and grace, that it's not about being a christian and being perfect. It's about being human and loving God in all your imperfection.

To all of our friends, please pray for the release of the album and the concert. Pray that message will reach people's hears and God's will be done.

ps. Just to make things clear, I don't think it's gonna be a disaster... I think we're gonna rock Stockholm!

Dance around

Tonight the singers will meet for a dance rehearsal in Stockholm. Since I live in Örebro I can´t make it to rehearsal tonight. So I will work on my moves alone at home. I hope I can remember everything I need to remember. I really don´t know how I´m gonna do it without disturbing my wife to much though. She´s supposed to study but I guess it will be hard for her to concentrate with me jumping around to the Praise Unit songs.

Well, I´m gonna give it a try and it will definitely be interesting. Why don´t you join me whereever you are, at home, in school or at the office....even though you have to dance to the Whole CD for a few more days. But soon you can get a copy of the Mission Field to dance to.

Good luck and God bless

Praise Unit videos on Youtube!

Hi everyone!

It was quite a while since I last wrote something here. I've been busy working with the cd and everything. But now when everything is finished, I felt like giving you some new videos from the recording sessions.

I decided not to post the videos here, but I put some of them on Youtube instead. More videos are coming soon. Some of them have been posted here before, but most of them are new...

Check out www.youtube.com and search for "Praise Unit". You will find at least 20 videos from our recording sessions and some other cool things as well. Then write your own comments and tell us what you think..

Have fun! I hope to see you on Thursday...

/Tobias

Singing in New York City

I was looking through my computer the other day, searching for something I have now forgotten, and came across this video. It's shot last summer in New York City after we we'd had a great dinner at "The View Lounge". Right outside the building of the resuaturant we found this place with a great acoustic so we started singing, everything from Swedish christmas charols to ABBA and our own song "Thy will be done". We even got ourselves a little audience!


/Felicia

Ps. For those of you who have missed that we're doing a couple of concerts together with the Swedish chamber orchestra in December, go to http://www.ticnet.se/, search for "Classical Gospel" and purchase your tickets there! Maybe this video gives a hint of what it will sound like...?

7 days left!!!

It strucked me that it's only 7 days left now.. :)

I'm really excited about this concert, we have been

working so long on this album and it will be so much fun

to finally do a live performance! I have been singing with

praise unit for a year now, but I have only done 5 concerts

with the choir so for me this is really exciting.

Finally, the album is finished, praise the Lord!!

More friends

Most of our friends have not helped us with their voices on "The Mission Field", but hopefully you will be able to hear that all the people we have met in different parts of the world have inspired us and influenced us in the process of making our new CD. When we made "Whole" we were a compeletly new group and we used only our own life stories and personalities as inspiration. But now we have made so many new friends who have prayed with us, and for us, and who have given us more reasons to continue with what we believe in. We hope that we are able to show how much we are inspired from spending time with people who support the Praise Unit ministry.

Excited

I actually got really excited to see the post below with all the guests. That might seem strange since I´m part of Praise Unit and I should be aware of these guests already. And I am...aware I mean. It´s just that it struck me how many people are involved in the Mission Field CD. And I can guarantee that all of them can sing, I mean they REALLY CAN SING. They are all sooooo awsome and it feels like such a blessing to have all of them helping us out. You won´t be disappointed. I promise.

I just got inside after a walk downtown Örebro. I went out to pick up some concert tickets. The tickets are for a Kirk Franklin concert in Stockholm, Sweden. And not only with Mr Franklin, both Praise Unit friends Samuel Ljungbladh and Ole Börud will play before him. I belive it will be a unforgetable evening. The concert is held November 8th in the Ericsson Globe, the biggest indoor arena in Sweden. It´s really cool that a christian event will take place there and I hope the tickets will sell out. If you´re interested check out www.ticnet.se and get your tickets there.

But before that it´s time for another concert......one week left to the release. Hope too see you there.......

/ Jakob

Friends

We are proud to present some great singers and wonderful friends who add their gifts to "The Mission Field":


Sammy Planes from Hosanna Otro Lugar in Spain, who just released a new CD. Check it out!

Oslo Soul Children from Norway who are always busy doing great music! New CD coming soon!

David Thomas from Jamaica, who is familiar to the lovers of soul and gospel in Germany, and did a song with Praise Unit before Kirk Franklin in Hannover last year.

Miriam Gardner from Denmark, who can do basically everything with her voice, and sings with Opstand Gospel Choir, among other things.

Ole Börud from Norway who has a history in many styles of music, and is right now "Shakin' the ground" with his new CD!

Samuel Ljungblahd from our own country, who is known to the swedish people for his soulful voice! New CD coming out soon!

Naked or not naked?

Hi!
I'm, sitting in school and wondering what to do with my day. It feels like nothing is happening. I don't really have any must-dos at the moment, it's nice but in some way also frustrating. But I know one thing that I must fix before the release. I need clothes for the concert. At the last rehearsal we decided what colors we should wear at the concert and I realized I have to upgrade my wardrobe a little. The NinaQi jeans is great, and I have them but it's the upper half of me that's the problem... maybe I'll only wear the jeans

Midi Maxi Efti

Here's a video clip from our latest rehearsal. Things went well when suddenly three rappers entered the house...

A clip from the rehearsal

Here's a clip from our rehearsal last Saturday. We had a lot of fun and we're really looking forward to the new CD!

Sitter uppe trots att timmen är sen för jag har lovat mig själv att inte somna för ens jag har skrivit i denna blogg. Kära nån, det är bara två veckor kvar till vår releasekonsert och jag känner på mig att det kommer bli fina grejer. Den 24 sept har sedan länge varit planerat och nu är det alltså endast 2 veckor kvar. Så, kära vänner, bekanta, släkt, grannar, musiker, hyresvärdar, pianoelever och kassörskor på Willys; hoppas du/ni känner dig sugen/sugna på att komma å lyssna på oss den 24 sept på Debaser i Stockholm. Skivan är rykande färsk, ja, jag skulle vilja påstå att den är med säkerhet är färskare än ditt mjölkpaket där hemma. Otroligt varmt välkomna! Nu är det snart helg och jag ska baka praliner. Gud är god!

Hälsningar Emilia

Teaser

It's getting closer and closer to our release and we are all excited to hear and see the result of all the work during this year! And FINALLY we're having a concert!!!! Praise God!!!! It's been way too few gigs with Praise Unit over the last period of time and we're really looking forward to this one, hope to see many friends and strangers there on the release!


The video clip below is a teaser of what our CD's gonna sound like.... I hope you enjoy it =)

God bless!

Two weeks left=)

Hi everyone! Right now I'm sitting at my parents house in Örebro and I'm listening to our new songs, it sounds really great! And I am so excited for our releaseconcert! I hope that YOU will be there=)
By the way, I'm getting married in two days! I'm a little nervous but I think everything's gonna be great=) Maybe I will put some pictures from the big day on the blogg!

Take care! /Maria

Come and celebrate September 24th!

At Debaser, Medis, Stockholm, we will have a party and a concert to celebrate the release of "The Mission Field". We hope to see you there, and if you are not able to make you will hopefully celebrate with your own copy of the CD. It's available from September 24th!
/Joakim

Our Top 3's

hello, hello, hello.
The realease is drawing nearer, and it's sooo exciting! The tracks are pretty much finished and to hear the result of all of our work is awesome! Everything turned out so much better than I ever hoped it could. God is great! Maybe I'm making your expectiations hit the roof with all this talking, but I'm just so greatful that we're able to release this CD!

Sometime around new years (this past new years) all of us in Praise Unit decided to put together some sort of presentation of all of us who are in the group. We all got the assignment to write three Top3's each. Now, almost 9 months later, they are ready to be published! (there have been alot of other things going on you know...)

Click here to get to the lists!

Have a blessed Wednesday!

This weekend we practised the moves for our releaseconsert. Sara and Felicia came up with good ideas, and we danced, danced, danced.... =)We also recorded a song, talked,  and had a lot of FIKA

The releaseconcert is gonna be GREAT, so don´t you dare miss it. 24´th of September at Debaser, Medborgarplatsen, Stockholm!!!

.....

Why is it soooo hard to write a good headline to the blog post. It feel that it has to say everything about what is written below. Well this time Ijust gave up.....

As you probibly noticed there´s not much going on here on the blog. I guess it´s because everyone is soo buisy doing everything else....a lot to do. Schools starting, back to work after the summer and of course getting the Mission Field CD ready before release date.

I´m excited about meeting the other singers on saturday to rehears, and see if I can keep up with all of them even though I missed out on our last concert. I will let you know how it worked out.

Please help us out in prayer....the CD needs to be done and we want to make the release party a memorable evening where God is present and touches peoples hearts.

Thank you all and God bless!

/ JAkob

I´m back!

I´m finally back in Sweden after six weeks in the US. I´ve had a great time but it feels awsome to be home. As I wrote before I missed the first gig with our new songs at the Frizon festival so now I´m trying to catch up....

And I´m sooooo excited about the release concert in Stockholm 24 of september, it´s gonna be so much fun to be back on stage with my friends in PU. And to show everyone the Mission Field CD we´ve been working so hard with. Hope to see all of u there.....

Blessings

/ Jakob

Myspace

Friends,
make sure to visit our myspace and listen to our new song

"No better than you".

And leave us a comment letting us know what you think about it!

Close to the finish line

Right now Johannes is working hard with the mixing, and me and Tobias is trying to finish everything else, so that there is something for Johannes to mix. The song "No better than you" is already available to all of you on www.frizon.nu, and a few more songs are ready for burning. I am very excited about what it will be like when all the songs are together on one CD!!!

Photos

Check out some photos from the Frizon show here

A new look

For those who have an interest in both Praise Unit and hair fashion, there's a new video clip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAk6Mn4XoF8

First Mission Field concert

At Frizon we had the first concert with the songs from our new CD. This is what the news wrote (if you don't know swedish use Google's translator):

http://meny.nu/nyheter/1.527976

A good Praise Unit week

Hi!

This week has been a great Praise Unit week! The choir, and some of the musicians, have gotten together three times and rehearsed, set some dancemoves, and many of the solos have been recorded in Tobias studio.

Here are a couple of photos from one of the rehearsals in Stockholm.

Jacob and Johannes chillin' before we get started

Lina and Julia

Download the first song from the upcoming album!

For a limited period of time, the new Praise Unit song "No Better Than You" from the forthcoming album "The Mission Field" is available at www.frizon.nu. Frizon is a Swedish festival where Praise Unit will be performing their new songs for the first time on the 6th of August 02:00.

Here you can download the song for free. On the right side of the page, where it says ANMÄL DIG HÄR!, type your name under Namn:, your email under E-post:, click Ja if you will attend the Frizon festival, Nej if you won't, and last, answer in a few words why or why not you're attending. Click OKIDOKI and you will be forwarded to the download page.

Did I mention that it's free?

So, what are you waiting for? Go there NOW!

Rehearsals

Tonight we have the first of three rehearsals with the choir this week.
It'll be fun to meet each other again after people being scattered over the country and the world during some summer weeks! Our main focus will now be on our gig at Frizon the night between the 5th and 6th of August. We have a whole new show to put together!
Hopefully we'll be able to post some pics from tonight's session!
Hope you're all good!

Nashville, TN

Right now I'm in Nashville....I'm on a roadtrip with my wife and her sister. Everything is so great and we're having a great time. And at home the work with the album seem to proceed real good. Even though I'm not home and even though I won't be able to join PU on the first gig with the new songs I get the emails about it....it's so exciting to see the progress.
And I almost regret I'm here instead of there.....almost. It would be so nice to be there but....what to do. I have my sheet music with me and I'm trying to take a minute here and there to rehears.

I'm so excited to hear the album and I hope you are too....

Please keep these following weeks of work with the CD and the release in your prayer.

Bless you all!

/ Jakob

Some friends of ours in Germany sent this link to us
http://www.trutv.de/tru-video/tru-videos/tru-praise-unit

It is a recording of our show as opening act for Mr.Kirk Franklin in Hannover, September 08. Check it out! And don't forget to send us your best dancemoves!

Mixing The Mission Field

The mixing sessions for the upcoming Praise Unit album has begun. My job is now to make every voice and instrument sound as good as they possibly can. This weekend I've been working on the first song "No better than you", not your typical Praise Unit song. Can't wait to hear your reaction!


This is what the song looks like in my program Pro Tools. Looks great, doesn't it?

Post your best dancing moves!

Hi everybody!
Have any of you who read this blog seen Praise Unit live? If you have, or maybe you've watched the live DVD, you know that a live show with us is not really what you might expect from a gospelchoir. We don't stand in an ordinary choir line-up and we NEVER stand still! We love to move to the music, dance and hopefully get you guys in the audience going! But all this also means alot of work to get the show together.
Me, Felicia, and Sara are in charge of the coreographies for the new live show, and we're really excited about it! But one can always need some help... right? So...
If you have any good moves you think would be suitable for our show, please film them, post them on youtube (or equivalent) and give us the link!

Hope you're having a blessed summer!
Felicia

I´m back...but tomorrow I´ll leave again

I´m back in Sweden after a tour in Spain with Joybells gospel choir. We´ve had the best time and it´s been such a blessing to see what God does today....and what God does through music. We pray that God blesses Praise Unit and our new CD and that he will show in the music, the lyrics and in our lives.

I have just heard the first song that´s entirely finished (or very close) and it really sounds great if I may say so. I can´t wait to hear the rest of the songs.

After a few days in Sweden I´m actually leaving again tomorrow. I´m going for a six weeks trip in the United States with my wife and her sister. I´m soooo excited! I will try to give some reports from our trip on this blog when I can.

blessings

Survivor

I don't know if you are aware of this, but the american TV-show "Survivor" actually originates from Sweden, and now basically every country in the world have their own version. Today I was so happy that we found a cool drum sound for one of our new Praise Unit songs, but just as we were about to make the drums a definite decision Tobias says that it sounds like the intro to "Robinson" (which is the original name of this TV-show). The drums were still cool, but I don't want people who listen to the song to feel like it's time vote somebody off the island. So back to the drawing board. In the end we actually came up with something even better!!!

White wine at an Irish pub

During the past week I have been alone in Toe-B's studio, working on the last details of a new song that we will make an Internet release of pretty soon. The studio is underground and it's the kind of place that has walls that help you survive a nuclear attack, but it also inspires you to go insane Jack Nicholson-style unless you get out of there every now and then.
So last night I needed to eat, and I went to the Irish pub, which is on top of the studio. The moment I went into the pub I realized that I entered a room full of big city minglers, dressed for a night out, and I was the freak from the basement who had forgotten what day I had my last shower, if I wore a shirt that matched whatever I had on the rest of me, and if my hair looked like my teeth or if it was the other way around. I decided to not care about it, so I sat down and ordered my meal.

Because it was so crowded there were soon two ladies that joined me at the table. Their initial reaction to this pub was that it was so great because a glass of wine was actually eight kronors cheaper (about one US dollar), than any other place they had been to. So they ordered one glass each. But one of the ladies (let's call her the brunette) talk one zip from the glass and immediately showed that she did not like the wine. She made a we-should-have-paid-eight-kronors-more face before the other lady (let's call her the blonde) even got a chance to have her own opinion about the wine. I noticed that the blonde actually liked it, but it was not big city mingling appropriate to like a wine that cost eight kronors less, so she went along with her friend. After a long time of conversation around the wine, which involved lots of quotes from "Sex and the city" and "Desperate housewives", they decided to ask for new wine. But once they got the new wine the blonde recalled that the waiter did not ask if they wanted a new wine, but he asked if they wanted a new bottle. Hmmm, there's a little difference in there (new wine or new bottle?), which meant that they could have gotten the same wine, but from a different bottle, but also meant that if the last wine was actually good, but from a bad bottle, they might have been drinking good wine, while it was actually... well, by the the time they had stopped talking about this I had finished my meal and they still had not tasted the new wine that came in. I waited around to see their reaction when they tasted the new wine. The blonde immediatley said "mmm, this was better", but the brunette said "no, it's the same crap", and so the blonde changed her mind and agreed that it was crap. By now I had also finished my cup of coffee and paid my bill, but I wanted to see how real life "Sex and the city"-ladies handle a situation like this. Their conversation still never left the wine, but they had obvious problems with combining their will to be upper class wine connoisseurs, with just wanting a nice glass of wine. But of course they came up with a brilliant solution. Just when everything looked as hopeless as it could be they left the wine conversation and ordered tapas. I waited around to see if the tapas were satisfying, which they were. Thank goodness!

After this intriguing experience I left the blonde and the brunette with their tapas and moved on to my own missions in the studio -should the bridge before the third chorus of "No better than you" be six or four measures and should I add more strings to the background? Hmmm, am I focusing on the right thing or should I spend more time defining the quality of wine at irish pubs in Stockholm?

Why we call it "the Mission Field"

I realize that most people who are new to this blog on read a few of the posts, because it's a lot to read everything. But it seems like the very first thing I posted on this blog could be put back here one more time, because I get a lot of emails from people who want to know why we call the new CD "the Mission Field". So here's a repeat of the very first blog:

As long as I can remember I have been thrilled by looking at maps. My grandparents were missionaries in Africa and I always looked at the globe on my grandfather’s desk wondering what countries I would ever get the chance to explore. Being in their house, which was decorated with tribal items from the depth of ..Africa..’s jungles, added to the excitement. I have carried that feeling of excitement with me ever since.

When I started Praise Unit in 2004 I looked at the musical map of the world and I saw areas yet to be discovered. I also looked at the geographical map and I knew that Prasie Unit would have to consist of people who like to travel. When I looked at the spiritual map I was a little less enthusiastic. Because I knew that going on a mission in the spiritual world would mean facing a lot of battles that can not be predicted, and would I be the right person to go on that mission?

As we are working on the next Praise Unit CD, ”the Mission Field”, we have two theme verses from the bible to guide us through our work.
The first verse is Matthew 28:19
“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”....
This is a verse from the bible that I have been criticized for taking seriously by people who don’t share my faith. They say it’s ok that I’m a Christian, but I should keep it to myself like everybody else does. But why? How come you would listen to me and find me interesting if I talk about my love life, my weight problems, my dark secrets or other tabloid stuff, but if I share about my faith you want me to shut up? No, this is not right. The minute I try to manipulate you into believing what I believe, that’s when it’s fair to ask me to shut up. But there is something wrong when it’s more taboo to talk about faith, than anything else. I ask you, whatever you believe in, to join me on a mission to change that!

The second bible verse is Matthew 16:26....
“What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul?”
The way I see it the first verse does not work if I don’t repeatedly remind me of the second verse. I believe that when a Christian forgets Matthew 16:26 is when the Christian starts doing evil things in Jesus name. Like killing people that don’t fit in our frame of Christian moral, manipulating people to make way for our own egos, shutting out people to avoid uncomfortable issues. The list could unfortunately be longer. Again, I am not ashamed to speak about my faith, but I am ashamed of all the things that Christians have done, and do, in the name of Jesus. I can not be the judge of whether I am also using my faith to hurt you in any way. The only one who can tell me is you. So I ask you, whatever you believe in, to help me see that the mission field is not only a geographically distant place full of non-believers, but it’s also my very own soul.

So in the year 2009 Praise Unit enters the mission field again. We continue exploring the musical map like we did in 2006 on ”Whole”, we continue exploring the geographical map as we travel to new places to make new friends, and most of all -on our new CD ”the Mission Field” we invite you to eperience what happens in our lives as we explore the spiritual map of our own souls!

If you want know more, or communicate with us, please subscribe to this blog, check our Myspace, www.myspace.com/praiseunit, join our Mission Field facebook group, check out our youtube clips or visithttp://www.msplinks.com/MDFodHRwOi8vd3d3LmpvYWtpbWFyZW5pdXMuY29t.

Sweden = weird

What´s the matter with this country I´m living in??? How can it be close to 30 degrees centigrade and sunshine from a clear blue sky one day and 8 degrees centigrade and rain the day after? Sweden is a weird place in some ways.... I wonder what God was thinking when he gave us weather like this. Well, maybe it´s a good thing that it´s changing so often. I think I get more greatful the sunny days now than I would have been if it was warm and sunny every day all year around.

Oslo again

Tomorrow I leave for Oslo where I will meet the Soul Children again. This time it's a festival of 1500 kids and I am really excited about the kind of party it will be. I really look forward to hearing the kids, and also the other artists and instructors that will be there. It will be a weekend with friends from different parts of my life. Anki and Magnus Spångberg from my home town will be there, and they taught me my first gospel moves. Walt Whitman from Chicago will be there and he has inspired me a lot over the years with his friendship and his personality. Hans-Christian from Denmark will be there, and he is my first friend in the music industry from the only country in the world that has no mountain higher than a moose. There will also be a lot of new friends there. Another friend, Ragnhild, is the boss of the whole festival and she could write the book on how to inspire kids to sing. To meet all these people in one weekend is almost like a fairytale. Hmmm, somebody said something about Norway and fairytales. They like fairytales or fall in love with them or something like that.

Rolls

Last week I wrote in this blog about the percussion recording. I had been up late the night before the recording, and was hoping for a quick recording session with kristoffer on Saturday. But I was very wrong. We started 10.00 in the morning and we were finished 4.00 the next morning. But we worked very hard and efficient. Well, Kristoffer did most of the work of course. The reason it took so long was because once we started all kinds of great ideas came up. You will hear the traditional gospel tambourine on the CD, but also some weird instruments from the jungle of Borneo, a led pipe that used to be a part of truck, bells that somebody stole from an austrian goat and of course there are some nice rolls on the timpani. It all adds up to a really nice groove on the Praise Unit songs.

The surprise guest artist

The beautiful voice of the hard rocking finnish guest you can listen to in the previous video clip will unfortunately not be heard on the Praise Unit CD. When we realized that we have a singer who is already from Finland and has a very similar voice we decided to stick with what we have. Our finnish hard rocking friend will instead audition for Lordi, which is a group of orchs from the Mumin valley. We wish him luck!

Another guest appearance on the Praise Unit CD?

After many phone calls and correspondence, we finally had the pleasure of having a celebrity from Finland visiting our studio. He sang a wonderful tune that we know will fit perfectly on the new Praise Unit CD. It's great to get people from many different cultures involved in "The Mission Field". The Finnish guest star will most definitely be one of the highlights on the CD. Or what do you think?

Recording Vocals

Here are some pictures of us recording vocals for the upcoming Praise Unit CD. Time for us to do our share of the choir recording, in our studio in Örebro. It's nice to hear things starting to come together, we cannot wait to hear the final result!

Lina singing her heart out.


Johannes hitting those low notes.

Lina posing.

Johannes wondering what on earth he was singing.

Springtime

In Sweden we are enjoying a lovely spring right now. The lilac, the bird cherry and the apple trees are in full bloom and it smells so wonderful outdoors! Living here you can sometimes wonder why you put up with the cold during winter, but when spring comes around it's all worth it. Seeing God's creation coming to life again is astonishing, year after year!
Felicia

Midnight creativity

Yep... Jakob is right... me and Toe-B are marinading our brains in different kinds of Praise Unit arrangements these days. I know that they recorded Grand piano and Hammond organ a few days ago, and they seemed pleased with the sound. I could not be there so it will be a surprise for me what it sounds like. We don't use the piano on many songs, but there are one or two ballads where we use it, and also Kristian is playing some latin piano licks on one of the songs. That's going to add some nice flavor to the Praise Unit sound.

Tomorrow we will record percussion with Kristoffer. I should be asleep right now so that my ears are in good shape when we start recording, but there are too many things that need to be done. I guess if I am grumpy during the percussion recording I can take out on the cymbals or the congas or whatever. If I am too grumpy I might figure out something impossible for Kristoffer to play and then I can laugh while he is sweating over the complicated rhythm patterns... he he he... unfortunately Kristoffer is able to play almost anything so I don't think I have the energy to come up with something that impossible.

More reports from the percussion session will follow.

Just a hi....

Hi!

It´s been a while since I wrote something here....time flies this spring. One of the reasons I havn´t been writing for a while is that I havn´t been doing anything with the CD these past weeks. All choir tracks has been recorded and now it´s other things on the schedule and I´m sure Toe-B and Joakim is working just as hard as before. About the photos we took a few weeks ago I can let you know that Mattias, who is making the CD cover and booklet, was happy about them so we don´t need to have another photo session. That feels good!

Now I`m gonna go out and shoot some hoops in the swedish spring sun.

Bless you all
/ Jakob

Why a 3-year old kid would make a better president than Barack Obama!

There's a song called "My father" on the new Praise Unit CD. The lyrics for that song has been inside of me since I got a revelation from the bible verse where Jesus points to a child in the crowd and says that whoever humbles himself like that child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. The funny thing (or sad thing) is that in church we usually read that bible verse only when we have kids present, and we forget that Jesus was actually teaching the adults. When we want to nominate heroes we look for doctors, artists, politicians, authors and other great men and women who achieved a lot in their lives. But when Jesus was asked to answer who is the greatest among people he chose a child, even though Peter, John, James and the other apostles were present. Jesus said that we will never enter the kingdom of heaven unless we change and become like little children (I think it's important to make a note that he did not say "unless we change and ACT like little children", because we already act childish in many ways, but that's a different thing).

I am the father of two girls, Stella and Aina, and I have begun to realize the greatness in the relationship between a parent and the child. My children might cause me all sorts of troubles, but at the end of the day we always come back to the love we have for each other. And that in itself makes life so much easier for them, compared to if they would suddenly decide to turn to somebody else, or leave me, or pretend I don't exist, or subsitute my love for them with other emotions or material things. Nothing can substitute the love I have for my daughters and nothing can substitute the love God has for us.

The reason I say that a 3-year old kid is a better president than Barack Obama is not because I think that the brain of a little child can manage the complexity of governing a country. But I do know that when things go bad in our world we have a tendency to look at leaders, such as presidents, to take us out of the difficult situation. The result of such actions is the same as if my 3-year old daughter Aina would turn to that older kid in the playground to solve a problem instead of turning to me. But if instead we act like my daughter actually does when things go bad, which means turn to God, our father, with nothing but the intention of receiving his uncondintional love for us, then that would without a doubt make life so much easier.