Solo album finally out

The day is finally here, the time has finally come - The album that needed to be done, the album that I needed to do - my first solo album, “The Opening”, is finally totally finished and out. 

The Opening consists of 11 tracks, five with vocals and six instrumental, of which two are more classical pieces. The album is produced, recorded and arranged and totally written by me. It’s mixed, mastered and co-produced by Michael Bohlin, who had pretty free hands to take the recorded material wherever he wanted to and therefore pretty huge impact on how the final production turned out. This made the album an interesting mixture of Bohlins ideas and approach to the material with mine and made it pretty exciting and nothing that I’d ever expected it to be - This gave the material new life, made it breathe. 

I was aiming for a (original, at the border of impossible) mix of strong material and melodies with wild improvisations and jam, kick-ass attitude with progressive arrangements and performance - Melodic Jam, Progressive Attitude - and if you ask me, I’d say we pretty much nailed it, but I’ll let you be the judge of that.

I play all guitars on the album and do all the vocals, all drums are played by Vesa Kallio and all the bass, almost exclusively fretless bass, by Andreas “Drake” Mallader. So it’s the same three-piece live band as my solo band, Wonderfuel, was at the time. All artwork and design is made by me and every single detail of the sleeve and packaging is exactly as I wanted it to be, no compromises.

The track-list:

[Side A: (Where applicable.)]

1. The Opening, 2. Soul-Slip, 3. Tree Angel, 4. Lifeblind, 5. Lemuria, 6. Shine,Shine,Shine

[Side B:]

7. Lost (And Out Of Reach), 8. Searching,  9. Growing Shadows, 10. Gone Now ...And Forever, 11. Finding

(I’ll get back to you in another post later on going through the tracks more in-deep, track by track.)

You’ll find the digital version of The Opening at you digital music provider of choice, like: iTunes, Tidal, Amazon, Microsoft, Napster, Spotify and E-music etc. The physical version (CD that is, a vinyl LP-version won’t at least be out before mid 2017) might be found your local record store (are there any of those left even?) or be bought directly through me and the Saari Camp. Send an e-mail to cutomers@saari.net if you want to buy a CD and you can’t find it.



The plan is to have one, or a couple of, “release gigs” in the beginning of next year, but this might be postponed even a bit further towards spring due to a lot of things that are in planning in the Saari music sphere in the beginning of 2017. I’ll get back to you on all this soon.

Hope you’ll enjoy The Opening.

/ PM

Third single out

Artwork and design created by PM Saari.

The third single from my upcoming solo album “The Opening” is out and this time it’s the song “Tree Angel” that is featured. It’s a pretty melodic piece but at the same time a very deep and dark one and I’d say it’s probably one of the best songs I’ve ever written. As some producers, and the likes, have listened to some of the stuff of the album by now, there were some digging it so much they wanted me to pull it out off the album and let them have it, which I of course couldn’t agree to do because it belongs there in “The Opening”. It is, as pretty much all the songs on the album, a very personal and a pretty dramatic song, sort of reflecting the dark parts of my life the past 20 years or so, rinsing through loads of anguish. Another thing is that I didn’t originally write it for me to sing on it, so it was really way beyond my vocal abilities, way out of my range, but when it all was pointing towards me to be performing all the vocals on the album I had no other choice than throw myself right into it and make it work, and now I think I might even pretty much pull those vocals off live. I also wrote the song at the same time as, in parallel, with the first of my drawings of the “Tree Angel”, a figure entirely created by me from scratch, so there are a lot of visual Tree Angel-art lying around and waiting to see the light out there as well, and in time they will. Hope you like the song and the way it finally turned out in recorded mode.

“Tree Angel” is once again accompanied by an instrumental song and this time it’s “Lemuria” that takes you through a mood-full journey through magic landscapes.



This will be the last pre-album-release-single and I’m happy to finally announce that Friday December 16th 2016 is slated for the release of the “The Opening” album.

Until then you’ll find Tree Angel, as the other two singles, at various digital music providers for streaming and download like iTunes, Google Play, Tidal, Amazon, Microsoft, Napster, Spotify and E-music etc.

Peace.

/ PM

Second single out

Artwork/sleeve design by PM Saari

The second single from “The Opening” is now out. It features the song “Lifeblind”, which is a reflective, atmospheric, a more lyrical and opaque piece. It’s accompanied by the instrumental song “Growing Shadows”, a heavier, darker composition with an almost disco groove to it. So a more soulful and darker release this time. Both songs, as the whole upcoming album, are written, arranged, produced and recorded by me and co-produced, mixed and mastered by Michael Bohlin. Guitars and vocals performed by me, the fretless bass by Andy Mallander and the drums by Vesa Kallio. You'll find it at: Spotify, iTunes, Google Play, Tidal, Amazon, Microsoft, Napster and Emusic etc etc.



Me, Andy Mallander and Patrik Idman (drums) are in the mid of rehearsing and working on the three-piece live versions of the solo stuff, putting together a killer live-set from hell and it’s going pretty well and I do believe that we’re ready to finally take it all live on stage towards the end of 2016. Exiting to say the least.

We’re also about half-ways through the rehearsals of this new little project where me and two good old friends, Andy Mallander (bass) and Jan Viberg (drums) will be playing our interpretations of songs from the two first Iron Maiden albums, the Paul Di’Anno era that is, as a trio - A huge challenge and loads of fun. We are calling it “Järntrean” (Three Iron in Swedish) or “Fe3” (and no, none of us either plays golf or are chemists). The plan is to be taking this out live later this year or early 2017.

Lizard Eye has reunited with drummer Ralph Rydén and is more on fire than ever. We’re rehearsing the new material and it’s all starts sounding pretty awesome - Pure premium classic heavy metal Lizard Eye style with loads of new found energy. Hopefully we’ll get ourselves into the studio in early 2017 to record the next Lizard Eye full-length album. Hoping for some Lizard Eye live dates soon as well, can’t wait to get this on stage again, it has been way too long.

There’s also plans for a new live-project which will be featuring material from various bands and projects. I'm putting on the finishing touches on the writing of some of the featured songs that we’re supposed to be doing and am in discussion with involved personnel. If all works well we’ll start rehearsing in a month or so and we’ll probably be hitting the stage in the end of 2016 or the beginning 2017.

So as a conclusion one can see that it sure looks like there’ll be a lot of Saari live on stage with various bands and projects in 2017 and I am really, really looking forward to that - I miss playing live so very much.


Enjoy the new release.
‘Til next time.
Peace.

/ PM

First single out

Artwork/sleeve design by PM Saari

So the album, my upcoming solo album that is, which will be called “The Opening” has been all finished for some months now and we’ve been working hard dealing and going through all the different alternatives to put it out. It looks like the album will be released in fall 2016, but we’re still in discussions and negotiations with various parties so that might still be changing. However we decided to release a single, or two (or maybe even three), featuring one song with vocals and one instrumental song as B-side before the full-length lands and the first one is out now. It’s the song “Lost (And Out Of Reach)” that will be first out to represent the album, a full-force-on energetic kicking in-your-face rocker, and it’s accompanied by the instrumental song “Soul-Slip”, which is in many ways is the soundtrack of my life, as B-side. So a perfect way to introduce it all and a real kicker of a single to kick it all off. It's out in, I believe, practically every digital store and music provider that there is. The songs are, as all the songs on the album, written, arranged, recorded and produced by me and mixed, mastered and co-produced by Michael Bohlin. The guitars and vocals are performed by me, the drums by Vesa Kallio and the fretless bass by Andy Mallander.

Also like for instance at iTunes, Google Play, Tidal, Amazon, Microsoft etc etc. (Just get into your store of choice and look it up, you'll find it anywhere.)

Please do feel free to listen, buy, like, follow, share and spread the songs and the release as much as you possibly can and want to support me and what I do - Would be much appreciated! And don't forget the Saari Store at Zazzle: https://www.zazzle.com/pmsaari where you can buy official merchandise of my bands and projects.

Beside this, well, the summer has arrived, again, and I’ve actually already managed to throw in some vacation but am now back in the saddle again and will be doing my very best to throw in studio hours as well as rehearsals with current bands and projects through summer. Things are moving. More news coming up shortly.

Enjoy.

/ PM

Saari History (Part II)

Thought this would be the perfect time to take a second dive into the history of PM Saari, so...

After Elements Of Crime had called its quits sometimes in mid 1990’s I got a call from a certain Patrik Idman, yes the very same who’s today handling the drums in Straight 8 Diablo and some other various PM Saari involved projects, who asked if I would be interested in auditioning for his new band Risky Riot in which he was the drummer. After one rehearsal it was a done deal done.

Everything clicked on every level and Risky Riot became a very tight four piece unit and lived the Rock’N’Roll life, with all that comes along - full on, all in - the following couple of years. This is when I started to write songs for real and really developed my writing, writing both alone and with the vocalist or/and Idman, sometimes writing riffs and sometimes vocals.

Equipment-wise I still went with the Sans-Amp and the two Saari Customized Ibanez Roadstars. But just a bit later I started use various Marshall tube heads and also got my trusty Crate Blue Voodoo 60 head, all brought out through my custom, really old and worn (it really looked like trash) bass speaker cabinet which I totally rebuilt the inside of and loaded with two Celestion 12” elements. A very simple and straight rigg, I didn’t even switch sounds for solos (I was the only guitar player). So Risky Riot went on very intense for a couple of years and when it had ran it’s cause (or we subconsciously for self-preservation ended it to save our lives?!) I started my first own projects Burnitude (called Burner in the beginning) and Under, starting to build my studio skills and taking my writing, both music and lyrics, even further.

At this point I had put my two dear old really worn out Roadstar’s on the shelf and moved over to Gibson and my The Paul’s and my dear Flying V’s became my main axes and I still use the V’s in some bands like in Lizard Eye. Around this time, when the very first version of Line 6 POD was released I was totally hooked. I ran it into the loop-return of my 1980s Marshall JCM 800 Lead Series and it sounded so great. I remember being told that after every live performance by various people and they always asked how I got that awesome sound and when answered went like “What? Pod?! No way!”. But, yes way. No one could believe it.
Unfortunately that version of the POD was too slow for me when switching sounds so I had to upgrade to a newer version, and then it by then was totally worn-out from all the gigging so instead of getting a new one I went on with the development and moved to POD XT (with which I did A LOT of gigs and most of them straight into the PA) and later POD HD and the Line 6 Spider Valve MkII HD100 head, but I never really quite got that incredible sound again, not to this day.

In the summer 2001 I teamed up with Lasse Gudmundsson and joined his band Lizard Eye, replacing among others JJ Marsh who had left to join Glenn Hughes’ solo band. Lasse and I soon discovered how we completed each other as songwriters and arrangers, him pulling towards the more simpler, straight on and cleaner while me pulling to the more complexed and progressive with lots of things happening, combined a proven winning recipe for strong songs and exciting and interesting arrangements, probably the greatest strength of Lizard Eye. We have written most Lizard Eye songs together, a few on our own though, but what we have written of the songs varies a lot, like in many Lizard Eye songs Lasse has written the riffs and I the lyrics, even if one would think it to be the other way around, like for instance the song “Afterlife” which is very Iron Maiden, which all of you know is my house-gods, but Lasse has written the riffs and me the lyrics. Another significant strength of Lizard Eye would be our kick-ass live presence which probably is a pure reflection of the fact that we all love playing live on stage.

Lizard Eye quickly turned from more of a project into a band and has, through various releases and some rhythm session switches, kept rolling in it’s own pace ever since. Now the band has reassembled after a two year break and are as we speak rehearsing and arranging new material for an upcoming full-length album which is planned to be recorded towards the end of the year. Some live-shows are planned for 2016 as well, but until then enjoy the latest Lizard Eye release "Flames Of The Sun" where you’ll find some of my best songwriting and guitar playing to date.

You'll find the first part of PM Saari History here, in case you've missed it, and part 3 is found here.

Excited, relieved and scared to death

So the planets and stars seem to be lining up in the chaotic world of PM Saari - there is a plan for 2016. Then how it’ll be humanly possible to live up to remains to be seen. (Since it turned out I am not the inhuman super-being (God? A mix between Superman and a Terminator?) I once thought I was.)

My solo album is now being mixed, or rather very close to “is now mixed”, and I’m proud and happy to officially announce that it will be mixed by my very first choice, Mr Michael Bohlin, who is also getting into it so deep that he’ll be co-producing it. I’ve heard some outtakes and it all sound killer. Nothing that I would have ever done with it however, or nowhere where I would have gone with it, but this was the whole point of taking Mr Bohlin aboard. He’s bringing in some totally new colors and giving new life to the material. I feel it breathing again. This after I gave it life and then killed it by performance anxiety, anguish and fear. It’s really cool how Michael’s and my collaboration here turned out, there hasn’t been that much communication at all but it turned out in the beginning that we both got the exact same vibes and references of the raw, unmixed tracks. I invited him along after I had recorded everything and then he put his almost opposite thinking and ideas into it, turned it upside-down and it all ended up totally different. And unique. And really, really great. Exiting to say the least.

Photo by Michael Bohlin

It felt pretty good when I had finished my work on the album and finally got to let it go out of my hands, out of my control. But pretty scary. Not the fear of how the final production would turn out, I had full confidence in the material, the performance and what Michael would do with it, but rather the fear of totally opening up and letting everyone in when presenting and releasing this pretty personal and deep work of art that I’ve been working for so long and struggling so hard to get where I wanted it. Almost like I want to keep it all for myself. Some strange mix of emotions running through me for sure. But I'm really looking forward for everybody to hear it and to a complete closure, so I’ll be able to move on with the next thing - and I’ve said it before and I say it again, next time I will go in and just do it, just wing it, quick and painless.



So lately I’ve been figuring and trying to plan 2016 and I’ve come to some decisions when it comes to all the other bands and projects and one of the things is to start working on a Straight 8 Diablo full length album - Realizing that we’ve just need to get this stuff down, it’s way too good not to be recorded. The plan is that I’ll be recording and producing it and I’ve already started the pre-production and am doing some studio-version rearrangements and rewriting of the songs and hopefully we’ll get it all down and done during 2016.

I’ll get back to you soon on the other bands/project that will be happening and, off course, more on the solo album.


RnR.
/ PM