Rockin' n' Rollin'

The last year (or two?) I’ve been, apart from classical music and some other pretty strange stuff played on the Swedish national radio channel P2, listening almost exclusively to two bands: Led Zeppelin and Aerosmith (the early stuff from the 70’s). Totally digging myself into it which has off course affected my writing, as always - My writing, and my playing to a certain point, is always very heavily affected by what I listen to at the moment. One thing lead to another and I ended up hooking up with this singer called Palle Esperanza and after a month or so we found ourselves having written a hand-full of really great rock songs in that vein. Turned out to be some pretty cool stuff and really strong material so we decided to give it a real go, to try to put a band together and bring it out! We're calling the project Dixie Highway and will be going for a classic four-piece line up and we'll start going through and auditioning potential drummers and bass players any day now. We’ll see what comes out of that, exiting indeed.

We’re out playing live with Straight 8 Diablo and we’ve done some great shows, feeling we’re really getting the S8D stuff together, and we’ve got some more gigs booked on this round. We've teamed up with our friends, the band Bear Bone Company and will be running some gigs together with them. Simply two kicking power trios delivering entertaining progressive guitar based heavy rock jam live on stage. We've already done the first one, which was at Pub Anchor, Stockholm (Sweden) some weeks ago and tonight it's time for the next one in line at Copperfields in Fridhemsplan (Sweden). Going to have some great time with this for sure, looking forward to that.

Check out those dates at my Reverbnation's "Shows-site" (you'll find all my live dates with all my bands and project there):
PM Saari Live Shows @ Reverbnation

I've been playing some gigs lately with bands with some really technically awesome guitarist, like for instance Mr. Björn Kromm in Bear Bone Company, but also others, and that has inspired me (which doesn't happen too often nowadays) and it have actually made me want to get my chops together a bit, bring my guitar performance up a level. Haven’t felt the urge to do that in some 20 years! I now come to the realization it’s actually fun to play guitar, and I mean just play the guitar, not only when writing, rehearsing, recording or performing live, but just play the guitar, striving to develop technically. Then again it remains to be seen if I'll have the time and the energy to keep it up long enough to really improve technically so it shows in my playing, but at least I'm having me a good time and enjoying myself on the road there.

The other day Vesa (Kallio, Drums) and I had a couple of glasses of red wine and finished up the editing of the drums of the solo album. So now it's all on me - to finish the retakes of and additional vocals and to compile and edit it and all the bass and guitars. Then it's off to be mixed. So we're even closer now...

Rock on.
/ PM

Crawling closer

The other week I managed to throw in three full days (days and nights that is) in a row in the studio getting some more work on my solo album done and after some awesome time off in the Finnish archipelago yet another two whole days. Really feels great when I get a chance to get this time-consuming machinery rolling. One might think, and wish!, that I’d be finished with the album by now but the editing, cutting and compiling of all the takes and tracks takes time, A LOT of time. I’m arranging it all as I go as well and that doesn’t quite make it take less time and as reality are now I only have a couple of days every month to squeeze in as studio time. But still, it’s rolling. 

All the bass (there'll be exclusively fretless bass on the album) and all the drums are recorded now - so it’s a fact they will be entirely performed respectively by Andy “Drake” Mallander and Vesa Kallio. I believe all the guitars are recorded now as well, I will however be rerecording some of the vocals, to push up my performance that little extra notch, to get them all feeling just right and to really assure that I squeeze out the very best out of my vocal abilities anno 2015. There are also some additional (background or sideground?) vocals I feel I’d like to try out and then some amount of work with the compiling and editing left, but were certainly getting closer to the finishing line, even if it feels like we’re crawling there.

It’s funny (sad?) to see how things turn out, or rather how things are being pulled back when you don’t have a deadline and don't have anyone whipping your butt, and add a very packed agenda - Shit is bound to procrastinate for sure! But for me giving this up has never been an option, it has always been like: I will finish and get this album out, no matter what - I mean, it’s after all my album that needed to be done, the album I needed to do.

As now, pretty close to the finishing line, I sure live on the future hope that the making of my next solo album, which there will most certainly be one for sure, won’t be stretched over as long period of time, ‘cause it sure makes it so much harder to finish, but I need to finish this first one first.

Real cool that there was such interest in my little “Saari History (Part I)”-post some months ago. I’ve always thought one’s past is important, I mean that’s what has formed us to what we are today, so it felt important and a good time to put something like it out. Thanks for all the support here! For those of you who might've missed it, check it out here: http://pmsaari.blogspot.se/2015/03/saari-history-part-i.html 

Until next time I’ll leave you with a little classical piece I recorded between the solo album sessions, another “odd-song-that-doesn’t-fit-in-anywhere” of sorts. I see it a bit as a tribute and a salute to one of my #1 influential songwriters, or more correct, composers - THE #1 master composer Johann Sebastian Bach. I have written and perform the piece, finger picking (!) - one guitar, no effects, just my Segovia classic guitar through a Röde NT4 into a Apogee Duet and with some minor compression at the end to bring it up in volume a bit - That's it. I really had to work my ass off to nail it. I know the guitar makes its noises, it’s not performed on the best classic guitar, it had old strings and was quite out of shape and not perfectly intonated and the performance is certainly not flawless. It is what it is, it’s me and I can assure you it pulls the very best out of my classic guitar playing today. I named it “Passion” hope you’ll enjoy it.

See you soon.

/ PM

Saari History (Part I)

Thought this might be a good time to bring you through my past a little bit, to share my growth and development along with my music and playing, me becoming what I am and my music becoming what it is today. I believe every single step and part of the past is of essence to what became of me as a musician, had one thing been different, I would most definitely have been a different musician, for better or for worse, that I do not know.

Without having playing any instrument at all in my very early years I pretty late picked up my sister’s old classical guitar and started to try to figure it out after discovering the early 1980’s heavy metal when I was about 10 or so.

But I'd say it all started when I got my first electric guitar in, I believe some three years later in 1984, a black Ibanez Roadstar II Series, which I through the years (heavily inspired by Mr Edward Van Halen) customized in every possible way. I remember running it through a Boss Heavy Metal HM-2 pedal into the smallest possible Roland Amp - nevertheless getting some real loud sound out of it (ask my parents and neighbors). I actually still have that guitar and the Boss HM-2.

I’ve never been that much into learning things from others, preferring the harder self-trial-and-error way of learning things, but I had a hand-full of guitar lessons from a real cool guy named George Varney, who was both into classical guitar and the blues/rock thing, and I it taught me some important things that I wouldn’t found out myself. It also colored me and brought light on the probably most important part of my writing and playing - my will to mix different ingredients like virtuosity, improvisation, perfection, attitude and feeling; and blending different styles of music.

I was into amp modeling/simulation at a very early stage. Always been like: the less equipment, the better, both in numbers, weight and bulk, and still am. I played lots and lots of rehearsals and gigs (and I believe even recorded?) with the very first version of Sans Amp which I got around 1990 (still have it). I mean it wasn't all 100% perfect, but it was a very interesting and revolutionary piece of equipment and I loved it - I made it work and pulled out the sounds I wanted our of it. I off course have had loads of amplifiers through the years, back then some Marshall 800 and 900's, heads and combos, a Roland, a Peavey and a Crate, all tube, but I was always drawn to the simpler, easier, way more convenient solutions that I could carry in a backpack and with as few cables as possible, as I am today.

My second guitar was another Ibanez Roadstar, I believe a bit unusual guitar, a white (a bit sparkling/metallic) one with black pick guard (both Adrian Smith and Jake E Lee played guitars in those colors back then, so off course). It had Floyd Rose tremolo, which I had floating, a locking nut and the then new Ibanez head and the only customizing I had done on it was changing the humbucker to a DiMarzio and removing the middle single coil (I had the middle position of the pick-up switch so it would silence both pick-ups so I could do the Randy Roads pick-up-on/off-switching-thing without a Les Paul. Had that on the first Roadstar as well.) It was a much better instrument, more pro all the way through, and I really loved that guitar and still have that one as well. I went with those two axes for a long time. I was really into whammy-bar playing back then and I were a high consumer of bars since I managed to break them in two pretty often.

I have always been a band-guy, into having and being in a band and I remember us starting bands before even any of us had started to play instruments. But it wasn't until some years later that I joined my first real bands, that rehearsed and performed live, of even actually played at all. One of the first real ones was Elements Of Crime, or Underground Hitsquad as was the band name in the beginning. In 1991 I was filling in for the original lead guitarist for a gig and had to learn some 15 punk songs in two weeks. I played mostly Yngwie Malmsteen stuff at that time and thought it would be a piece of cake - it most certainly was not. Truly hard for a guitar player grown up on riff-based songs to learn all those different changes of basically the same chords in different orders. I had a real hard time to distinguish the songs from each other since I was focusing on the riffing and was forced to listen to and learn the songs. That's when I learned about songs, and their importance as such. I played that gig, I made it through, kicked ass and it taught me some important lessons, and after that gig I remained in the band.

Yeah, it's me there in the back, some 24 years ago.

...and this brings us to the fact that we've actually kicked life into Element Of Crime again after 20
years and are in the mid of rehearsing for a live gig in Stockholm at Snövit on friday march 20th. It's the original line up except for the bass player Kulle who sadly passed away some time ago - truly sad, really one of the nicest guys I've ever met - may he Rest In Peace. So we have my side-kick Mr Andy "Drake" Mallander filling his very important boots. I was never involved in the writing in Elements but the thing that stuck me now when relearning the tunes was the strength of the material, really great tunes with great lyrics. I believe however what I did in this band was pulling it from punk to hard rock/heavy metal with my playing, which gave the music a pretty unique character and style - kind of intelligent punk? ...or "Sleaze Punk" as someone said.

There are two albums out with what I believe basically all that we got down on tape from those days. The recordings are not top quality and not the best performed, but I believe we might get away with it - Hey, it's punk rock! Anyway the songs are there and I believe you'll find some pretty cool lead guitars in there from a very early version of PM Saari, enjoy.





You'll find the continuing saga, the second part of the PM Saari History, here.

Exit 2014 - Constant Race Against Time

As always I haven't had the time I'd wished for to put into studio work the last months, but I've managed to squeeze in some days here and there and am yet another step closer to finishing my solo album. The main vocal tracks are down - and I consider myself the winner in the war with my vocals! I've also been fighting with some real tricky classical guitar parts which I came up with and absolutely wanted to have on this album. Real tricky parts for me that is, way beyond my capability as my fingerpicking-shape of today. But they are now down in the best performance I could get out of me today. Pretty cool and progressive stuff indeed and it all taking it's time for sure. 

Close to finishing it all it has now come to my realization what a complex piece of music this album really is. It's complex and progressive in many ways, and by that I don't mean that it's all flawlessly performed, super tight or in perfect pitch all the way through. It has soul and depth to it, you can approach it from different angles experiencing different things. I'd say it covers lot of ground and is a pretty colorful piece of music. It consists of these pretty complex songs that you can listen to uncomplicated if you want to. If you don't want to get into the depth of them and analyze it, you don't have to. Yet if you do, you'll find some really interesting things down in there for sure. I'd say it'll be pretty close to fulfilling what I'm always aiming for: mixing the complexity and virtuosity of classical music, the in your face attitude, attack and whippiness of punk and the ingenuity, the melodies of pop and maybe the most important thing for me: the improvisation from jazz and then off course, last but not least: the power and feeling of classic heavy metal/hardrock (which obviously is inherited from rock and blues).

At an early stage of this recording I decided to perform all guitars and vocals myself on this one (in contrary to the next solo album which is planned to feature loads and loads of guests...) - Otherwise I would've taken in some friends to do all these tricky vocal and classic guitar parts long time ago! I've surely struggled and pushed myself way beyond where I thought my abilities could reach, which is really exiting and stimulating. Only wish I'd had more time to push it even further and reached total perfection, unfortunately a luxury I don't have as things are today. But then again, for me, it's all about here and now (in the future: then and there) and this surely reflects my here and now.

So, some drum editing, a few additional guitar parts and additional vocals, maybe some retakes, are left recording-wise, then I need to compile and cut all the tracks, a lot of it done already though, and then see who will be mixing it and I believe, depending on when the mixing will be able to be done, it will actually, for real, finally be finished in the first half of 2015.

Besides beginning with solo album #2, some other exiting music stuff is in the planning for 2015, but nothing confirmed so more on all that closer when, and if, they are executed. 2014 may not have been a that productive year for me, but I've surely experienced the more. You'll find my 2014 pretty much documented in my earlier posts in this News & Thoughts Blog (here below?), so check those out if you feel you might have missed something. 

Don't forget that you are always welcome to take a landing at my YouTube site: https://www.youtube.com/user/pmburner/videos for videos and my Reverbnation site: http://www.reverbnation.com/pmsaari or Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/pmsaari for audio. Check 'em out, and maybe hit "like" and maybe even leave a comment, to support me and my music.

Now I'm off to beautiful Hälsingland for some skiing and holiday family-hanging - and actually try to have some actual time off!

Wishing ya'll a super merry X-mas and really happy holidays!

Peace 'n out.

/ PM

Mr. Scary

A while ago I was presented an opportunity to do a little George Lynch/ESP Guitars thing which for my part meant that I was to perform (or as I do things, rather jam or improvise) my version of George Lynch's instrumental anthem from the Dokken days, "Mr. Scary", live in front of a video camera to a backing track actually provided by Mr George Lynch himself. My immediate natural reaction was of course to decline. Because: 

1. It's impossible. I mean, for me to do a new version of the perfect song with the perfect performance and above that blend in my style in it, yet keep some Lynch elements, melt it all together into a great piece of flamboyant action entertaining guitar work worth tributing one of the greatest musicians ever. I mean, Mr George Lynch is after all one my Top 2 (!?) favorite guitarists and influences. So totally impossible for me to nail.

2. I hadn't really played guitar that much at all the last year (years?) so my chops weren't really what this would take. Not even close. I mean improvising this hard fierce piece of music in this tempo in real time isn't easy.

3. Getting into the mode, that mood, that feeling, that is absolutely necessary to improvise through such highly technical intense fast riffing, nailing it all in one take, well it's really easy for me to get into that mode live on stage, but in my work-room in front of video camera? Not so much easy at all.

But then I like challenges, so I decided to do it. 

So with not as much time as I'd have wanted for preparation of my technique, to get it into the shape that this would demand, I sure hell played guitar! More than in a long, long time - and it was such fun! Loved it. If nothing else I sure ended up a better guitar player technically today than in years. I just wish I'd have had some more hours to put into my playing before I had to nail it, I was so close of getting my chops into a really, really good condition. But what can you do? My constant dilemma, lack of time. It is what it is.

Then, to be honest, I was afraid to run the song through too many times as well, it's a risk when you're improvising something and you do it many, many times in a row you start finding patterns, melodies, phrasing etc that you really like and feel comfortable with and you automatically, unconsciously, start performing more and more parts the same way every round, loosing the improvisation, turning it into writing instead. That was definitely something I did not want.

So I was going for a version of this song with my style all through the thing, yet trying not to loose Lynch completely, which probably is impossible since he's such a huge influence. I was going to improvise it all (except then some of the main theme riffs and some of my licks that might have managed to get stuck when jamming it though all those rounds), as I almost always do,  it had to be there and then.

I ended up with a couple of pretty different, since I'm improvising it all, takes of me doing it and I decided to put out two takes. These might not be the tightest and most perfectly performed ones but they have the flow, the feeling, the wild improvisation and my licks and fills, my style (coming along with the wrong tones, wrong timings and unwanted noises).

Rather wild than flawless. Rather soulful than clean. Rather groove and intensity than timing. Rather punk than progg.

Loads of fun, loads of love, loads of improvisation, loads of guitar playing.

Peace.

/ PM