Last week we had our first rehearsals in seven months (!) with the PM Saari Band and it all went surprisingly well. We ran through some 20 songs, in the only way we can: All in, like our lives depended on it, a bit rusty but felt fantastic. I mean we’re old men with aching, semi broken, rusty body parts and brains, so yeah we’re putting in quite some pain and sacrifice into this art, but we keep going on.
And yeah, in case you’ve missed it, the absence of rehearsals has been solely due to my left hand fingertip injury that resulted in me not being able to play guitar at all for over half a year. I am not 100% healed after the surgery, the surgeon said it will take about a year for the connective tissue to heal completely, but I’d say the chops are there and my playing is as before, add some hunger for not playing for this long.
We’ll be throwing in some rehearsals up to X-mas break and in the beginning of 2026 we’ll continue where we left off in April - get out and play live and along with that release new music. And speaking of that...
When I some weeks ago started to finally pick up the guitar in small portions, I thought it was best to start with a finger-friendly guitar so I chose the kids’ 3/4 nylon string classical and the thing is that once I picked it up I played two riffs out of the blue and accidentally wrote a little song out of them. The first thing. So I thought, well I’ll finish that one and release it first of all to come, as a mark of the end of this forced break.
It’s a more bluesy tune called “(Looking For) Sweetest Misery” and is about that sometimes it seems like we’re out looking for trouble and problems, sometimes really big ones, things that some of us, sometimes, are really trying to avoid but unconsciously chase and bring on to bring us down. I don’t know, but it's certainly a direct reflection of me injuring my most important body part by being imprudent, close to the border of destructive. The drums, rhythm guitars and vocals are recorded by now and I’ll be finishing the rest before the holidays for a very early 2026 release.
Happy holidays, days off or whatever to y’all and may y’all have a safe and great transition to the new year. Hope it'll be a great one. See y'all there.
Peace.
/ PM
