Thanks everybody who voted for us last night! We are extremely happy that we made it all the way to the super final, and that we got the third place. We owe you big time!

We have had a fantastic time in Turku and the feeling has been great among all the Eurovision people. Congratulations to Paradise Oskar to the victory, and good luck in Germany!

Now Emil and me are still in Turku waiting for the ferry back to Sweden that leaves tonight. Tobias left already in the early morning, since he is going to Los Angeles to record and write some music.

We are now looking forward to hopefully release a whole album in the near future. There is just so much music that needs to be heard

Watch the final here: http://arenan.yle.fi/video/1297544936051

// Jochum

So we actually made it to the finals! It feels fantastic, and it’s all thanks to everybody out there who voted for us. Thank you so much!!! We had a great time in Tampere with many hours of preparations before the show, but in the end I think it went really well. It was just too much fun to even start being nervous about anything

The outcome of our semi-final was quite unexpected, as we had predicted. We have learned that it’s better not to start guessing about how the finals will be – we will just go out there and have fun and do the best performance we can, just as we did in the semi-finals.

This week we have been in the press quite alot, which is fun. Also the Swedish press is starting to pick up the news that we are a part Finnish part Swedish band. You can check out the links to some of the articles on our Facebook group.

Some good news is also that ”Good Enough” is now number 1 at the radio station Steel FM’s list called Kofftoppen. We’re happy about that!

We have now also started the rehersals for the gig next wednedsday (February 2) in Helsinki when we will perform as support for Salem Al Fakir. This is going to be a great night, and we have a couple of brand new songs for you. This gig is also going out live on radio and web-TV which you can watch on the link below. Later on YLE will also show the concert on TV.

Okay, I think that’s about it for now. See you soon!

// Jochum

Link to YLE’s live stream: http://arenan.yle.fi/live

I don´t know if I´m too stupid to realize that I should be worried or if it´s the beta blockers I´m taking for my high pulse , but  I´m not at all nervous about the contest on friday. I don´t think of it as a competition right now. We are just gonna go out there to have fun and try to make a really great performance. Besides, I´ve come to realize that the eurovision song contest is completely unpredictable. The first part of the qualification was held last friday and the three artists who got a starting position in the national finals were a heavy-metal band, a lady singing a religious gospel-ballad and the Finnish tango – king Quite unexpected mix, right? There´s no way of knowing if we even have a chance at proceeding to the finals.

What we do know, however, is that the good news keeps rolling in. Today it was confirmed to me that there is a good chance we will get to travel to Los Angeles to record a couple of new songs. Dreams keep coming true and on monday this week our first single ever was released on spotify, iTunes and amazon. Here you can listen to it:

Good Enough on spotify—–> Father McKenzie – Good Enough

Good Enough on iTunes—–> itunes.apple.com/se/album/good-enough-single/id412594538

Good Enough on Amazon—–> http://www.amazon.co.uk/Good-Enough/dp/B004HAED52/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1295403866&sr=8-2

See you on friday! Don´t forget to vote for us!! You can either call 0700-717-05 or send ”5″ in a textmessage to nr 17132. The voting starts at 21.00 Finnish time.

Hello dear readers! The last few weeks have been amazing. Incredibly much has happened, we have made several interviews with fairly large newspapers and sites on the internet and we have gotten some real mind-blowing news. For instance one of Finlands largest record companies, EMI,  has agreed to release our song Good Enough as a digital single. If everything goes according to plans it will be out on iTunes, Spotify and Amazon among others. It will also be sent to all major radio-stations all over Finland and hopefully they will agree to put our song on their playlists. We have already heard that it´s frequently being played on radio-stations in Åland.

Yesterday I got an e-mail from Svenska Talande Klubben in Helsinki and they asked us to be the supporting act for Salem Al Fakir (!!!!!!!). This is amazing news for us since Salem Al Fakir has always been one of our greatest Idols and role-models. The event will take place on the 2nd of February in Helsinki. Don´t miss it!!!!!

I also got some bad news today. A fews days ago I went to the doctor because of the high pulse that I have had for the last few weeks. Today he called me and told me that I have something called Graves decease. It´s not that serious, it´s just that it can take a year or two to get rid of it. However we will not let this ruin our performance in the Eurovision song contest next week. We are going to give it our best shot and hopefully you will like it and vote for us. Until then, have a good time. Talk to you later

/T

Hello folks! As I said we boarded Viking Line on wednesday to go on a promotion-mission to Helsinki. To our suprise we found some old friends were on the boat as well, doing a radioshow. We had a very nice time with them and listened to an awesome troubarour called Alexandra Jardvall and I think we managed to impress her as well with some nice backingvocals while she sang.

The photo-shoot went very well and I think we looked quite decent despite a short nights sleep on the boat. The interview also went well and luckily Yle edited out my worst free-styling finnish and the take where our dear guitarist forgot how to say his own name.

Next on our agenda is planning our stageshow. It´s going to be a little tricky since we are all quite tied up to our instruments, but I´m shure we´re going to come up with something. On thursday we play at Kolingsborg on the final of Klubb Dislocateds band-competition. We need all the support we can get so please come an vote for us in Stockholm. Tickets cost 80kr and if you are interested you can contact Tobias Granbacka, Jochum Juslin, Simon Larsson or Emil Johansson for further information.

Here you can see some of the promotion-material from thursdays session:

The interview at Yle

Hello there! Tomorrow Father Mckenzie is boarding a ship to Finland. We are going to Helsinki for some photoshooting and interviews and it´s going to be awesome! We will arrive in Helsinki on thursday morning and we are leaving back home for sweden the same day so it will be quite a short trip, but luckily we will see more of Helsinki in January (and hopefully february as well if we reach the final). Next week on thursday we are playing at Kolingsborg in Stockholm togheter with some other really great bands. It´s the final of a competition for bands that we joined a few months ago. There will be a jury there consisting of three highly ranked persons in the music industry and they will, togheter with the audience, choose a winner. First price is for example some time in a professional studio or recording a video. We need all the support we can get so please come and see us at Kolingsborg on the 28th of October. You can contact us on facebook if you want to buy tickets for the show. 80kr per ticket. See you here —–> Kolingsborg.se

/T

So now it´s official, Father Mckenzie is one of three bands from the open contest that are going to participate in the semi-finals. A huge THANK YOU to everybody who voted for us. The real competition starts in January and until then we have to figure out what the stage is gonna look like when we perform, what clothes to wear etc.

On wednesday evening we are traveling to Finland for interviews and photo-shooting and we are planning on spending a day in stockholm shopping for clothes before we go. If you have any suggestions about what to wear on stage, you are more than welcome to share it with us

We are a bit worried about the interviews in Helsinki on thursday since half the band doesn´t understand a word i Finnish. Hopefully the press can speak some english as well. More on this later. Until then  - have a great time.

/T

Greetings folks! A few days ago all the members of Father Mckenzie reunited  in Örebro for a day of rehearsals and productivity – we told ourselves. Party and meet up with old friends – we did. This might not sound so special or even worth mentioning but in the past few months we have been spread all over Scandinavia and haven´t really had time to hang out. As always, it was a very nice evening together with one of the best groups of people I know.

Today it´s five days until the open competition of the finnish ESC comes to an end and info about the three bands/artists who are allowed to participate in the semi-finals is released. We, of course, hope that Father Mckenzie is one of them. As I have mentioned in previous updates, if you want to see us on on-screen this autumn please write viisu 14 in a textmessage and send it to 17113. You can also check us out at Yle:s homepage that you can see as a link below. Unfortunately the voting only works with finnish mobile phone connections so those of you who live in Sweden or elsewhere will have to wait until we join a competition in swedish TV. Maybe band-idol is invented soon? Maybe we´ll simply join Robinson .

Also, don´t forget to listen to some of our other songs to the left of this text. We have three songs there at the moment but be patient, there will be more. Have a nice evening people.

http://satumaa.yle.fi/euroviisut/euroviisut-2011-suomen-karsinta-nettikarsinta

Hello! This is a big day. At 12.00 finnish time the voting started for the open contest in the finnish Eurovision. For us, that means spamming and annoying friends and relatives in order to get some votes. I listened to the other candidates in the competition and I can tell you – it´s going to be a tough battle. That´s why we need all the help we can get. You can go to the website that is linked below this text and listen to all the contestants or, if you don´t have the time, you can just  write viisu 14 in a textmessage and send it to 17113. You should also listen to the new song we have put up on this page, called Slowmotion. It´s one of the two songs we sent to the finnish ESC. It´s a nice up-tempo song with some influences from the eighties. The synth-sounds make me wanna take a ride on Falcor in ”The neverending story” and the pianoline in the second verse makes me wanna go disco-dancing in Paris. Check it out and decide what you wanna do Have a great weekend people!!

/Tobias

http://satumaa.yle.fi/euroviisut/euroviisut-2011-suomen-karsinta-nettikarsinta <—Klicka här för att höra på låtarna.

Good Evening Astronauts! As you might have figured out from the headline one of our songs has been admitted to the open contest of the finnish eurovision. Since that might generate visitors for our homepage from both Finland and Sweden we have decided to write in English from now on. The open contest in the finnish eurovision means that from tomorrow at 12.00 you can vote for a song among 15 others on Yle:s homepage. Three of the bands/artists with the most votes on October 15th will be elected to participate in the TV-broadcasted semi-finals (and hopefully) the finals as well. We hope that our song, Good Enough, will be one of them. It´s up to you folks. I´ll get back to you tomorrow with info on how to wote.

Here we are at a cosy basement-gig in Stockholm. Yes, we think an aircondition-system is a nice backdrop.