December 2021
The tail end of 2021 is upon us and we are pleased to give you a little check-in!
First, 2021 is a big year for us because we are celebrating 10 years of being married in November! Crazy to think it’s been that long already and also to think about all we have done in those years- it’s been quite a journey, full of marvelous little journeys all their own.
With gratitude and open hearts, we have been settling into our new home here in Denmark (on Jutland, near the town of Skanderborg). As things began to open up during the summer, we finally have been able to connect with our community here. We were invited to be part of a mini-festival in August held in the local town of Hylke featuring local musicians, which was a great way to begin meeting folks.
Of course, our single Summer (She Can Do What She Wants) was released in June, and is now out “in the ethers.” We are both working away on individual recording projects, which always involve some co-collaboration. Both a Mark Davis and a Karoline Hausted solo release can be expected to arrive sometime in 2022. Some of these sessions continue our collaboration with Damon Castillo in San Luis Obispo -the internet is amazing in this way!- our connection to California, and many of you, is always there.
June 2021
You are in a long Scandinavian winter wondering where Summer could be.
Then you’re in the blistering California heat wondering when Summer might give you a break.
Our pleadings to Summer fill a lifetime and span the spectrum.
Sooner or later, each of us is bowing down in deference to that which is beyond us.
Summer - like the whole of nature - can do what she wants.
The new single “Summer (She Can Do What She Wants)” from To Wake You is a catchy, hummable tune about all of this, with a steady beat to tap your feet to, and a delicious sonic landscape of harp and guitars to lose yourself in.
“Summer (She Can Do What She Wants)” is the latest chapter in the musical marriage between Denmark’s Karoline Hausted and California’s Mark Davis (Hausted, a Danish Music Award nominee for her song Alarm and Davis, receiver of an Album of the Decade award for You Came Screaming from The Los Angeles Times). It was recorded in San Luis Obispo, California before the couple managed to hop over the Atlantic to spend the pandemic year working on a new home in Denmark. Final touches and mixing were then completed remotely with engineer Damon Castillo of Laurel Lane Studios.
And so, as an expression of the coming together of California and Scandinavia, and as a celebration of nature’s beauty and mystery, To Wake You brings you “Summer (She Can Do What She Wants)”.
This is a stand-alone single release, coming between 2017’s 6-song EP “Beauty In The Smallest Things” and the live-in-studio album “Winter and the Sacred Tree,” scheduled for digital release November 2021.
June 2020
We are sending you all inner peace and health through this unimaginable circumstances we all find ourselves in: staying physically away from each other in order to take care of one another. As with everyone, plans and habits of living have been upended, and we’re breathing day by day through the ongoing feelings of shock, fear, gratitude for loved ones, seeking that place of calm in the storm. May this calm be yours. Yes, all of our March through June concerts are now postponed, along with our travel plans. Several concerts are already rescheduled either for later this year or for next year. The next ones on the calendar right now are in August in California. Our calendar will be updated as changes are made. In the meantime, some new creativity is creeping in (what else to do with the time?!). Read on...
Mark’s New Song and video “Room By Room” is now out!
Says Mark: “One morning in the summer of 2019, I had woken up caught in a wave of panic at the state of world affairs - in particular, my own country, the US, and the terrifying path it appeared to be taking. I felt both responsible and powerless. I knew I was not alone in the feeling. Writing the song was a reminder to myself that I cannot in fact take on the whole world myself- or better said, that the primary way to affect my world is to keep my own center, my own ‘inner fire,’ alive and well.
“I felt it was important to get the song out there in early 2020 and had already planned on a spring release- I also already had the idea of creating a video collage of various people with candles to go with it. When the Covid-19 crisis hit, a new dimension was added to the song that I had never intended, and my invitation for folks to share clips of themselves took on new meaning. We each have found ourselves self-isolating in our own ‘rooms,’ hopefully tending well to our well-being and aliveness, in anticipation of the light of day returning.”
Go to Mark’s page here to watch the video or purchase the song.