Sunned

Hardy got the chance to catch my breath and it’s time again to unleash more new PM Saari music - clearly marking a new flow here, a new pace. If my last single “(Looking For) Sweetest Misery”, that was released a couple weeks ago and was the first music from me in three years, was a starter, this one is the main course and is more in the vein of what me and my live band do - Stoner grunge? Progressive grunge? It’s a one-song single featuring one of my absolutely favourite songs that I’ve ever written called “Sunned”.

A while ago I was driving down home from the north, alone, very early in the morning as I like it, and the
sunrise hit me through the windshield and I realised I should write a (yet another) song to honor the sun; this fantastic, divine fireball that gives us all so much, good and bad, but this time focus in the positive feelings it gives us when we are touched by it’s ever reaching tentacles, when we are “sunned”. And yeah, then there it was. Before recording it we played it live a couple of times and we always got some special reaction and feedback for it, so I figured it might be as special as I felt it to be - now we only needed to nail a recorded version of it to match, to deliver it in recorded format. No pressure, but nevertheless, here it is, the recorded version of Sunned. 

The drums are performed by Patrick Idman and the bass by Mats “Moey” Öström, so my current main live rhythm section, and the guitars and vocals by me. It´s written, arranged, recorded, engineered, mixed, mastered and produced at BeyondDimensionsStudio by me. Artwork by me and Persona Island through Saari Creations.

You'll find "Sunned" at your digital music provider of choice, below some direct links.

Here we roll. Enter summer.

/ PM

(Looking For) Sweetest Misery

So we’re finally here, my first release in three years. It’s been a rough road with mostly uphills, but I guess that’s how I like it - Art shouldn't be easy, you have to work it out of you and fight for it. I’ll be releasing multiple singles/EPs in 2026 but I decided to change the originally planned order when I accidentally wrote this song about my finger injury last year. It, including the surgery that followed, held me back from playing guitar, entirely, for almost a year and it still makes itself reminded and I wanted that song finished and out first, before anything else, as a kind of restart, being back mark.

It’s a less hard and heavy song (a rocky blues?) called “(Looking For) Sweetest Misery” and it’s about that sometimes it seems that we’re kind of looking for trouble and misery, especially when things are in place and flowing, just to shake it all up, put it all off the rails and sink ourselves to the depths again. Maybe you become careless or push things a little too far, more consciously and deliberately than by accident - and then it happens and brings you back down again. 

The coolest thing with this song is that the very first time I picked up a guitar a couple of months after surgery, to see how, or even if, the finger had healed some, I played the riffs that became this song. Those were the absolute first things I played and I felt that I just had to record and release it as soon as possible. It was the kids’ Ibanez ½-size nylon string classical guitar that I picked up, thought it would be the easiest on the fingers, so it’s all written on that little guitar.

I recruited Mr Jan Viberg to play the drums, which we recorded down at Bunker at a nice Saturday recording session; him, me and a couple of bottles of wine and probably more hanging that recording. The bass was supposed to be performed by Mr Andreas “Drake” Mallander but he managed to break a couple of ribs only days before we were going to record, so I decided, most due to lack of time, to do it myself, which was pure hell for two days, but I think it turned out pretty cool. At least I really put my everything into it.

So Viberg on drums and me on guitars, vocals and bass. The recording was engineered by me and I arranged, produced and mixed it and, for the first time ever, I also mastered it (which also was pure hell). The sleeve is designed by me and yes, it’s my left hand pictured there, featuring the very index finger which was the root of it all.

Below you'll find some direct links to the song at my official website: www.saari.net.

Enjoy.
/ PM

Music Streaming Services

(or call ‘em what you will)

Listening to music is super important to me and also my kids and my wife - so music-listening plays a huge part in our family and our all day life. We all listen to different styles of music so I guess together we pretty much cover every genre that there is, which is really cool since I like all kinds of different music and am this way introduced to stuff I wouldn’t normally get into.

I’m a vinyl and tape cassette person, probably since that’s how I discovered music and through what I began to incorporate it into my life. I didn't quite fancy the CD when it came but I accepted it and moved along with it, but when streaming came along I loved it. I was able to dive into all different kinds of music, stuff that I’d never would have explored otherwise, and it was all available for me to devour right there and add that my whole record collection was there easily accessible, everywhere I went, only a click or two away.

Yeah yeah, of course I’m aware of the unfair economic side of music streaming but isn’t that the general story of an artist all through history? If I remember it correctly there were the exact same discussions and protests when the CD came, the artists got an even smaller piece of the earnings than before. For me it’s politics and of course I think it’s all totally wrong and sad that the artist, the creators and the performers, don't get paid for their art and what they create but I mean it’s always been like that, it’s nothing new, there are millions examples long before music streaming and the CD, so nothing has really changed. I believe this has a lot to do with the fact that art really doesn’t ever go well along with business, they are very hard to combine, and I think artistic persons are very seldom business persons.

Anyway me and my family have been using Spotify for a long time but for political reasons, and a bit due to the sound quality rap going on everywhere around me, I decided it was time for us to move elsewhere. After extensive testing and trying out some of the bigger music streaming services I decided to go with Apple Music, a lot because we’re pretty deeply integrated in the Apple universe. But after a month with Apple Music we all found it very buggy, with lots of dysfunctions, poor synching when using and logged in on multiple Apple machines, unstable, not near as user friendly as you’d expect it to be, slow (when I push play I expect it to play instantly) and I really need it to function flawlessly through, not only my studio/work-space systems but our Sonos system, through our Sony entertainment system and in the car, which only Spotify seems to do satisfactorily. Then I discovered that several albums that are on Spotify were missing in Apple Music. I don’t listen to playlists or single songs, I listen to albums and not too rarely pretty unknown albums by 1980s heavy metal/hard rock bands not many have even heard of.

And the sound quality rap? Well, each their own but for me when I listen to what I listen to 75%, which is 1970s, 80s and some early 90s hard rock/heavy metal, the sound in so-called “lossless” (or even more lossless) in my ears doesn't sound good at all. Of course I’ve tried various streaming services through many different systems and no I don’t like it, to me it sounds artificial, cramped and cold. Ok, classical music, jazzy stuff, modern pop/dance music and electronic music, like industrial music for instance, sounds ok in “lossless” but rock with soul pre 2000s? Not in my ears. And no I do not agree that Tidal, Qobuz and Apple Music etc sounds better than Spotify. (I believe it might just be merchandise.) But are they politically more correct, more fair? Well so they say, but since listening to music is so important for me, and my family and also the usability, I need it to work - Back to Spotify for us. 

What sounds good or not is very individual so whatever sounds good to you is good for you. For me I can say, after way too much time spent and a way too deep dive into this, right now it’s primarily vinyl and secondary, in everyday life for me the most applicable, Spotify.

And here's me on Spotify for ya:

Of course I'm on all other music streaming services as well, you'll find direct links to some of them on my official web portal at: www.saari.net

Rock.

/ PM

I guess we’re back

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

Back but not back

So summer is through and it sure was a great one, not a very productive one though, but then they rarely are, are they? Now I'm trying to land and get used to its sudden end and throw myself into the depths of work with my music, which pace has been way too slow lately. 

Then there is this..

Four months ago I managed to get something into the flesh of the fingertip of my left hand index finger - yeah, the very worst fkin finger and place to hurt yourself in being a right-handed guitarist. After various visits to the doctors and x-raying a hand surgeon opened it up two months later and picked out something unidentified encapsulated, probably a tiny wood splinter or two. 

So I haven't been able to play guitar, at all, for four months now, and now the finger is in recovery and healing after the surgery and I’m still not able to play, at all. 

We had to put all the PM Saari Band and Järntrean (Fe3) live plans on hold then in April and I still don’t know when I will be back in action again, so though eager to book some live dates, we’ll just have to wait and see.

The motivation to work with music vanished into darkness somewhat in the beginning of all this but now I have been at it again daily for a week or two, just not playing guitar. I already had quite some guitars down on disk before this, even all the guitars on a song or two, and I'm actually mixing one of them as we speak. I will continue to record vocals now and also go through, compile all the so far recorded drums to get those songs ready for some bass recording - all with the aim that I’m able to pick up the guitar and dive in again in a month or three. Or if not, maybe have some guest guitar players to play some lead guitars on some of the tunes?

I must admit I was a bit worried that the lack of being able to play guitar might hit me worse than it did, I mean four fkin months! And fkin counting! but so far I’m pretty OK with it (or maybe rather: I am accepting the fact). The thing is I am able to do basically everything else, just not play the guitar.

Well here we go again, but hey, I love working against the wind (storm?), basically always done that in a way or another - So bring it on!

I'll be back before you fkin know it.

Peace.

/ PM

Sing me a song, you’re a singer

I've always been a great fan of singers, probably more than of guitar players, and on the top of my list you’ll find David Coverdale, Ronnie James Dio, Robert Plant, Geoff Tate, John Bush (Armored Saint, Anthrax), Brent Smith (Shinedown), Ray Gillen, Oni Logan, Mats Levén and of course Bruce Dickinson and Paul Di’Anno of Iron Maiden.

Live on stage.
Photo by Åsa Urberg.

I’ve been blessed to have worked with great singers through the years, and I have enjoyed performing and writing with or for them so much. We have Lars Gudmundsson, Jari Valentino, Per Linzander, Paul Zanichelli, Jimi Roxx, Mats Brodd and, probably the most well known, Dan Dark - all different but all very competent vocalists and frontmen.

So why the hell do I sing when I don't have even nearly the same ability doing that as when I play the guitar? And when my physics and my life obviously aren’t designed for me to sing (referring to me more or less constantly having trouble with my voice and the for singing required body parts), and when I know so many great singers?

I’ve also always had a special thing for the ones of my favourite singers who also are great guitar players, like John Sykes, Dave Meniketti, John Norum, Jerry Cantrell and Pepper Keenan, and great guitar players that maybe aren’t my absolute favourite singers like Gary Moore and Zakk Wylde and great songwriters that are also guitar players/singers like Kai Hansen and Nicke Andersson. Always been drawn to the simplicity, minimalism and the straight deliverance of thoughts and feelings when you perform what you write yourself. And mainly, I like, or rather need, the challenge, I need to push myself, I need to be striving to keep me at it, to go on - and I can assure you I’m working my ass off with my vocals of my solo stuff.

Finally back recording vocals
again after a long absence.

Well, that’s my excuse for singing and now for some news: During Christmas and New Years holidays  some sht hit me, again, I was having a nice time off skiing in the north of Sweden and I got something in my breathing system, again, it knocked me down, got fever for days,  it hit my throat, hoarse voice and so on. So that pulled me back, again, but now it seems like I’ve beaten it, I’ve been able to do my workout the last month and was up skiing again last week with no problems and this week I started to record vocals and it seems to be working. So after months of being off it seems I’m on. 

RnR.
/ PM

There's always something

After being off a roll for a year I was really back on a roll after my last post here three months ago and the studio work was all finally flowing and moving forward again, and what does life throw at me? Well, fkin sht. I got something that hit me hard, some sort of a cold or a flu, or whatever it is these days. I had a fever, low but still, for a fkin month, it hit my throat and my voice was totally blown for over two months and I couldn’t start recording the vocals that I was just about to start working with. I’m not saying that all my planned releases would’ve happened anyway, but now they definitely did not.

The thing is that I’m not a person who’s sick or who rests, I can’t do that, so it always takes its time for me to recover, to heal. I have however played a lot of guitar, just jamming away, which I really normally don’t have time to do nowadays and when the hardest hit had laid off after a month or so I started working in the studio again, even though recording vocals was now off the schedule there’s always plenty to do. This might have saved my sanity for sure. 

For over two months I wasn’t able to rehearse or work out, which are two really essential requirements for me to function, but now I’ve started to work out a bit which is so important for me (my dopamine flow needs that push) and I’ve also started the work to get my voice back into full force action again. We’ve started rehearsing the acoustic stuff I’ve got going on with Mr Mallander and we’ve also thrown in some rehearsals jamming some exciting stuff with the PM Saari Band so I guess it's going forward.

Thinking about it, of course life did throw me back, there’s always something isn’t there? That's what it does, breaks the flow, pulls you back, balance it up, that’s what makes it such a good fight, right? Well it won't stop me, nothin will and I hope I’ll be able to start recording some vocals in early 2025, so I can finish some new stuff and put it out.

Y'all have the greatest holidays, I most certainly will, and take care. See you in 2025, in one way or another, in one condition or another

Peace.
/ PM

Time flies

Me at my work desk at Beyond Dimensions Central Station.

So pretty long between posts here, simply because not that much to report. I’m working with music pretty
much every day, more or less, but am not really finishing anything to the point of putting it out. We’ve been rehearsing frequently with my solo band and also doing a few live dates every now and then, and the recording is a constant ongoing thing.

I’ve come to realize how much I love to launch a new project, how easy it is for me. I have no problem writing songs and arranging them, and I simply can’t stop it, it just pours out of me. I do put the brakes on every now and then, when it’s overflowing, but I can only hold it back for so long and out it pours again. Then it all needs to be recorded, and in some cases rehearsed, then all the recordings and takes need to be compiled and arranged, then mixed, mastered and released - and by this I’ve already started and thrown myself into a new, or probably a couple of new projects. So that is my biggest daily fight, aside from the constant war against time. But it really feels like it’s really time to finish some stuff and put it out.

Me and the boys rehearsing at the
Beyond Dimensions Bunker.

Well another summer is through and we finished ours with a really great PM Saari Band gig where we were asked to play a bit longer set and we threw in some interpretations of some really cool covers, a really great and fun night indeed. Now I feel it’s really time to try to gear up and try to work focused and implement the plan and I believe there's a fair chance that there might be a single out in what’s left of 2024.

I’m also trying to intensify my social media presence, trying to keep up the frequency of posting and trying to get out some videos (marketing á la 2024), but this ain’t easy for an old school (or just old?) fogey like myself. For instance, as much as I love playing in front of an audience I’ve come to realise I really hate playing in front of a camera, but I do love challenges, so bring it on! Feel free to join my online endeavors at my official social sites below.

Peace.
/ PM

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pmsaari

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pmsaari/

Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@pmsaari

X (Twitter): https://twitter.com/pmsaari

Threads: https://www.threads.net/@pmsaari

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/pmburner

PM Saari Band live at the Stubborn MC autumn party 2024.

Rollin’ on

For me it was just a few days’ switch from summer to winter, so no fall here, and the good thing would be that I won’t work on the house anymore and can now put more time into the studio work. Need to get myself to do it though.

Me and Mr Idman have been down in the Red Room a couple of rounds working with drums and we’ve recorded a handful of songs that I’m going to start working on any day now. As always I have a lot of songs that I’m working with, just how I like it it and it suits my restless mind, but the downside is that I at some point I have to finish some of it too. Of all the material I’m working on in the studio I probably should’ve released some a long time ago, but I simply haven’t got myself to the point of finishing anything yet.

Though I’m constantly working on a full length album, or actually more than one, it's taking, and I'm letting it, take its time to get finished but.there will be a couple singles/EPs out next year, just as planned yet a bit delayed.

We’ve been rehearsing quite frequently with my live powertrio the last months and we’ve had a couple of totally awesome gigs, loads of fun and the live band feels pretty much together by now, and yeah, we’re having a great time so hopefully we’ll manage to schedule some more live dates soon. Special thanks to Magnus Hultman and Thomas Henkel and all you showing up at the shows and giving us such amazing feedback. 

My long time sidekick Mr Andreas Mallander and I are experimenting on a new branch of PM Saari music that hopefully sees the light somewhere in 2024, and hopefully so will some other collaborations I have going on.

Until the release of new music here’s a Spotify playlist of some of what I’ve done so far, an all PM Saari playlist.

Enjoy.
/ PM 

 

Same old news

Me and the boys rehearsing at
our Beyond Dimensions Bunker.

Feels somewhat like I’m on repeat here, like it’s the same old news again, but it is what it is. Summer is behind us, (almost at least, I’m still hanging on to it a bit) and I’ve been swamped with work on my house the whole summer and haven’t practically been working with music at all. Aside from writing a couple of new tunes and hanging in the Bunker rehearsing with the boys there hasn’t been that much action in that area. Summer doesn’t just seem to be a very productive period for me, music wise.

It’s not uncommon that my plans fail due to lack of time, so I guess we’re all getting used to that by now, but anyway, now I’m about to start up the system again and slowly get myself down into the cold waters of studio work again.

Me wrestling with my house.

We have two really cool gigs booked with the solo band, one at Maze in the band’s second hometown Ludvika October 21st and the other on my very home turf at the Pow Wow Rock Fest at O’Learys in Vällingby (Stockholm) November 4th. Apart from some live shows the new plan (I don’t even remember the old plan) now is to finish the recording of a couple of singles/EP’s of songs that we actually are playing live, that are in the PM Saari Band live set. The goal is to have the studio versions of the songs we’re doing live out, pretty logical but we’ve been pretty unsynced when it comes to that. 

You’ll always find the PM Saari Band live dates at bandsintown and Songkick.

I’m also trying to get into the 2020’s so I’ll be doing my best to try to keep up and somewhat frequently be putting out videos of me jamming through some of my riffs on my Facebook and Instagram pages and in this playlist on my YouTube channel. I call it “'Ere's a Riff For Ya!” (a little reference to the great Mr Coverdale there for ya). 

Peace.

/ PM

Live again (and again)

Our first gig in four years, our revival, the first one featuring Mr Mats “Moey” Öström on bass, is now behind us and it all went down beyond expectations.The place was packed, we received the best imaginable feedback and we had a total blast and it sure felt like a rebirth in many ways.

PM Saari Band Live 2023 (Photo by Åsa Urberg)

I have to admit I was a bit worried about my vocals, I mean I didn't know what was causing my voice problems the past five months, still don’t, only that my voice didn’t work as it used to do, so I didn't really know what to expect, but it worked way better than I expected. The thing is that the problem I had the first months of this year gradually disappeared and it’s pretty much ok now, but then something of a normal flu hit me and my voice was torn down again for over a month. But yeah, I believe I’m very close to where I was before all this. We did change one or two songs in the set to be on the safe side, replacing the most vocal demanding songs - I do NOT want to risk pushing it too far now.

PM Saari recording guitars at 
BeyondDimensions Central Station

The next booked live date is in Ludvika at the Open Stage Marathon 2023 on Saturday June 10th, so we’ll be back where we left off four years ago. We will hit the main outdoor stage at 14:30, so an afternoon show for us old, stressed, tired men. 

Since we had to wait and see what happened to my voice we were a bit late booking gigs for this spring/summer and kind of missed that train, but hopefully we’ll manage to get in at least some more dates, and if not there will be more after summer for sure.

As always I’m behind schedule (my utopic plan?) with the releases but I’m currently recording guitars and vocals for the next two releases, and I’m also working on the pre-production of the full length album I really, really  want to make after this. But we’ll see what life’s got in store for us. And, as always, every now and then I’ll be poking here and there in the various recording projects that are laying around, and one of these days some of these might just see the light of day.

See ya.
/ PM

Dried

All artwork and design by PM Saari

The next release out is called “Dried” and will be released under the Inagone banner. It'll be out on Friday, April 21st and it’s a single featuring the two Inagone songs “Stronger” and “Dried” that were recorded back in 2008 and that I’ve now compiled, edited and mixed. 

The music and lyrics are written by me and it’s performed by Inagone which means Per Linzander on vocals, Vesa Kallio on drums, Andreas Mallander on fretless bass and me on guitars and backing vocals. I really like the performance of this recording, there’s some pretty cool things happening there, pretty good jams and chops.

These two songs are among my all time favorites and I find them way too good to be left unreleased. I think the song “Dried” in particular is one of the best songs I’ve ever written and the funny thing is that it’s about running dry on ideas as a writer, creator or an artist and the fact is that I’ve never actually experienced that myself, never faced that problem, rather the opposite, always coming up with way too many ideas. So it’s imaginarily how I believe it would feel, how the dryness drains your energy. It’s pretty ironic that thinking and writing about this lead me to writing one of the best songs I’ve ever written. I think we might even try to put it into the PM Saari Band live set now when we'll get out in 2023.

Below you'll find some direct links to the first Inagone EP "Where It Begins" but you'll find it at all the digital music providers.

Enjoy.
/ PM

Out of voice… and motivation

In the beginning of this year something happened to my voice, when we were supposed to start rehearsing with the PM Saari Band after Christmas/new years break I discovered that about half an octave of my voice didn’t work, like at all. Just couldn't get this group of tones from my higher register out and of course it was the tones that I use the most. I tried various solutions to get it into action but realised after a month that this ain’t going to get solved anyway soon. We had some gig proposals but had to turn them down and we were also supposed to start rehearsing with Järntrean as well but we had to call that off.

PM Saari Band (me, Moey and Pata) at rehearsals
at our Beyond Dimensions Bunker.

Now it seems to be slowly getting back to normal, slowly. I’m definitely not able to do the Paul DiAnno stuff that Järntrean demands yet so that’s put on hold for a while, but when it comes to my own stuff it’s starting to work little by little, and with my own material I feel I can move a few vocal lines into another register in case some of the problem remains for longer. So it feels pretty safe that we finally have some live dates with the new PM Saari Band live line-up booked in May. More on that later.

I've been doing some voice exercises
with a phonation tube/straw. I don't
know if that's working or not but my
voice is getting better... I think.

Not only did this put a halt to all the live plans but all of my plans were thoroughly shaken, I mean I didn’t know what had happened or even if it would ever be ok again, actually still don’t. Such a heavy halt sure affects ones motivation as well, at least it did for me, and due to this I haven’t been too productive until recently when I've somewhat got back in track working on all the studio stuff I’ve got going on again.

The next release should’ve been out a while ago, it has been mastered and ready just waiting for quite some while, but even that was affected by this halt, but it’s now on its way. It’ll be out in three weeks, April 21st, it’s called “Dried” and is two songs that will be released under the Inagone banner, because they are Inagone songs, even though they probably are as much mine as all the PM Saari songs. More on that closer.

See you soon.

/ PM

The Lockdown Sessions

So finally (seems I’m using that word quite a lot, but can’t help feeling like that quite a lot) the release of new music is around the corner and it’s the single “The Lockdown Sessions” that will be out on Friday January 20th. It’s two songs that were recorded more or less live at Studio A6sound in Stockholm during the pandemic lockdowns, with additional tracking at my Beyond Dimensions Studio. It’s the first release featuring a new heavier direction in which we’ll be going live with the PM Saari Band.

It features two not that new songs, one of them is called “Where’s My Bones?” and has lived through many reincarnations through the years, in a number of bands like Inagone and B.L.O.W (I believe I wrote it originally for B.L.O.W). It’s all written by me and the cool thing is that through the 3-4 bands that’s been playing it live the arrangement and the structure of the song has remained pretty much, if not exactly the same, even though each band has arranged it from scratch at rehearsals - so I guess this must be the perfect arrangement for it. The other song is also written by me and has its history in the band Straight Eight Diablo (S8D).

On this one I have Mr Patric Idman on the drums (who was with me in Straight Eight Diablo) and Andreas Mallander on fretless bass (who was with me in Inagone), so tying it all together here. The guitars and vocals are performed by me and it’s produced and mixed by me. The recording was engineered by Arvid and Felix at A6sound and additional recording by me and it was mastered through Abbey Road Red/CloudBounce. 

It sure was loads of fun in the studio doing it all the old (real?) way, but of course I’ve been running the new way for so long by now that it was inevitable to finish it up in that manner. Original cover photo by Robin Idman and the cover design and photo treatment by me.

Enjoy.

/ PM

Back in the saddle again

PM at rehearsals at the
Beyond Dimensions Bunker.

Along with all the studio work that I’m pretty deep into right now we’re spending all the time we can get down rehearsing in the bunker, testing and rearranging songs for a new liveset featuring the heavier material. When it comes to playing live I want to stick with the format of the three-piece band, or powertrio if you will, I want to keep the lineup uncomplicated, keep plenty of room for improvisation. Beside getting the chops and the grooves together, and me playing guitar and singing at the same time, there’s also some amount of work involved in rearranging the recorded material to work in a three-piece situation. Then put into the equation that time is a very exclusive thing in all of our lives, which is also one of the reasons I prefer going for as few personnel involved in the live band as is possibly possible (or very close to impossible).

PM and Moey back in
the Burnitude days.

Then some news, some personnel changes, Andreas “Drake” Mallander has stepped away from the PM Saari Band (my live band), so he’s out and in is my way back bass compadre Mats “Moey” Öström adding new dimensions to the low end in our new heavier sound. We’ve rehearsed some and it all fits in very well and we’re all very excited and looking forward to bringing it all out live on stage in 2023. Mr Mallander and I will however continue to work together in other parts of my music projects and endeavours, as for instance Järntrean, with whom we’ll be out gigging again in 2023 after a two year hiatus.

So there’s been some pushbacks in the Saari Camp, but it feels like we’re back in the saddle again after a little restart. We also missed the christmas train and the early release deadlines now before the holidays but the next release, the single “The Lockdown Sessions”, will be out in mid january 2023. It will be shortly followed by a single featuring two old Inagone songs that I’ve finished up and mixed, it will however be released as Inagone. Then later in the spring there will be an EP, a “Slight Return”-release, a sort of part two of the “Club For Internal Admiration”-release, but heavier.

See ya.

/ PM

The pipes full of new stuff

As oh so often plans have changed and there’s been some changes in the Saari camp. The main one would be that we’re steering the live setlist into a heavier direction, it's been discussed and jammed and this is what we, my live band, feel feels right. I write different styles of music and my ambition is to record it all at some point but as things are now our ambition is to make the released material to go along, to be synchronised, with the material we play live, which obviously is the common way to go. So you can expect some heavier releases from me in the near future.

I’ve also been thinking whether it would be better to release singles and EPs instead of full length albums in the future, just to get things finished and out, but I was born an album-person so the album format is deep rooted in me. Nevertheless things have to get finished and the work of making an album feels way, way heavier than dividing it into a couple of smaller releases, which would also be much more suited for the music scene 2022. Then I did a reality check and realised I’ve got 17 (!) songs, that will be divided into six singles and EPs, that I’m working on right now, simultaneously. Now taking that into the equation it shouldn't really be a problem for me to do a full length album after this. So that’s probably what we’ll start working on next after I've finished up some of these singles and EPs, regardless of what the market or anyone says, I mean I never cared to follow trends and markets anyway.

Apart from these 17 songs I’m working on right now I have two full length albums in the pipes with all the drums recorded just waiting to get finished, all very strong and cool stuff but doesn’t fit the direction we’re heading for right now so they just have to be put on hold in favour of the material that we’ll be playing live. 

There are two two-song singles waiting to be mastered as we speak, one will be called “The Lockdown Sessions” which was recorded more or less live in the studio some while ago and the other is two songs from an old Inagone recording that I’ve brought back to life and mixed, that will be called “Dried” and will be release under the Inagone banner, so a new release shouldn’t be too far away in time. Then it might be that I'll manage to finish yet one more single at the end of 2022, or otherwise early next year and we are planning to start recording the new PM Saari full length album in the first half of 2023.

Peace.

/ PM

New EP “The Club Of Internal Admiration (A Slight Return)”

I’m proud to officially announce that my new release called “The Club For Internal Admiration (A Slight Return)” will be out on Friday April 29th. It’s a four song EP with three originals that are more or less revisited material with origins in the past, hence the “(A Sight Return)” and the fourth song being my first ever recorded cover. The music style this time around is hard rock very heavily influenced by 1980's heavy metal, into which the cover song also fits in nicely.

The first two songs “1982” and “The Club For Internal Admiration” (yes I like to abbreviate it as “CIA”) are kicking, early 1980’s heavy metal rockers with some splashes of punk and plenty of attitude. Song three called “A U” is a melodic and maybe a bit more progressive little beautiful thing.

As you might have understood I never make it easy for myself and this time I might have gone way over the top, but I chose to record a cover, my own version of a song from my absolute favourite band and from my absolute favourite and my all time most influential and important album - so no pressure here - the song I’m talking about is “Total Eclipse” (a B-side to Run To The Hills, but was supposed to be on, and should have and later also was added to, the album “The Number Of The Beast”). Above all I didn’t want to make a version similar to the original but make my own version of the song, change some of its character. I mean, what would be the point of trying to make a copy of the original, which would be destined to totally fail anyway? Certainly the hardest thing I’ve ever done, on many levels but mainly reproducing/rearranging a, according to me, perfect song and also performing it. Anyway, I hope you’ll enjoy my humble celebration and tribute to the best band and album in the world.

All the songs are recorded, arranged, produced and mixed by me. I perform all the guitars and vocals, Andreas Mallander performs the fretless bass and Patrik Idman the drums. All songs except “Total Eclipse” are written by me, “Total Eclipse” is written by Steve Harris, Dave Murray and Clive Burr. All artwork and visual design is made by me and as you might have noticed this whole EP is somewhat paying homage to the legacy of my former band Burnitude.

I put loads of time and energy into trying to get everything as I wanted on this release, even more than before, trying to get that 1970-80’s feeling with digital in the box recording and mixing and I believe I pushed my abilities and my chops in all areas even further with this one.

You'll find it everywhere on Friday 29th, some direct links are found at my new official portal at: https://www.saari.net .

Enjoy.
/ PM

Finishing new stuff, starting new stuff

Me twisting and turning some drums.

So quite a gap between posts here, even to be me, but though I’ve been working with my music quite a bit I haven’t really finished anything, so not that much to report here. I‘m kind of one who is always striving, pushing forward and also constantly coming up with new stuff, which results in me starting new projects rather than finishing the ongoing ones (and by “projects” I nowadays mean solely recordings, or releases, in my own name - so no new “bands”). So I have quite a few things I’m working on in parallel and they are all pulling stylewise into a different directions of rock, perfect for my restless soul.

The first thing that will be out is an EP that will be called “The Club For Internal Admiration (A Slight Return)” - a bit of homage-pay to the legacy of my classic now retired band Burnitude, and its core will be in the vein of classic 1980’s hard rock/heavy metal. We’ve finished the recording and I’m about to start mixing it any day now, so if it goes according to plan its release shouldn’t be many months away.

Me and Andreas Mallander at Studio A6Sound.

Following that there will be a single, two songs taken from our, more or less, live recording at Studio A6Sound earlier in 2021. It will be called “The Lockdown Sessions” and will show a bit more heavier side of my music. We’ve also been rehearsing new songs for an upcoming full length album of this heavier direction and we will start recording that one in the first half of 2022. We're all feeling it's the right way to go and are all really excited about to be going there.

Patrik Idman banging the drums.

Additionally I have a whole bunch of various singles, EPs and maybe even albums in the works, some will feature guests that I’ll be working it into shape with and I'm just going to let it all flow in parallel as we move on.

Due to the situation in the world there’s still no live dates in sight, we’re not booking anything until it’s all clear. We still rehearse quite frequently though and I wouldn’t be surprised if we end up putting out some rehearsal videos of some sort in the next future.

Until then. Peace.

/ PM

Vocal recording in The Red Room at our
Beyond Dimensions Bunker where we rehearse
and record most of the stuff.

Something a bit different out

 

The next release in line, which is out by now, is the to be me a bit different two-song single called “Down Another Chapter”. It features the songs “Down” and “Closing Another Chapter” which are more classic rock; me stepping away from the traditional hard rock/heavy metal that I usually deliver. Arrangement- and production-wise the songs were supposed to be super clean and straightforward, thought I’d for once go for less is more, but since I’m more of a “more is more” kind of guy and after all the time I spent with the songs in the studio it was destined to fail and they ended up with quite a bit going on in them. Nevertheless I’m very content with the outcome.

The drums are performed by Ralph Rydén and the fretless bass by Andreas Mallander, and I handled the rest - the guitars, vocals, percussion, the producing, engineering, mixing and the artwork, the mastering was done through Abbey Road Red/CloudBounce. The music and lyrics are written by me and despite the songs leaning towards a melower spectrum the lyrics, where I’m ventilating reflections and thoughts of darker states and times in life, turned out pretty dark. First I felt that the lyrics turned out too open, naked, but realised that I probably felt that because of the arrangement and production and not really what the songs were about, that it wasn’t like usually covered in and dug down by massive overdrive guitar madness, the production was more naked than I am used to.

This is the first time that I feel that I’m really beginning to get the mixing a bit where I want it, hitting a bit more where I’m aiming; I believe I’m slowly starting to learn the art of mixing a little bit. I really enjoyed doing this a bit different thing and both performance- and mixing-wise stepping away from the hard rock/heavy metal world which floats through my veins and it was all fun and easy to record and mix. I had no expectations so there was no pressure at all, and now I’m talking about the worst kind of pressure: the one from yourself. There were no boundaries and no rules, not that I really have that with my ordinary hard rock/heavy metal stuff either but that sits so deep in my influence, it's in my DNA, so I’m unconsciously following some unwritten holy rules. This made me realise that this is one thing that normally makes the process of recording and mixing pretty hard and tough, but here I wrote a song and recorded it and it could go literally anywhere, and it’s allowed to do that, it made me feel totally free, liberating. 

And yes, I do believe these songs differ quite a bit from what I’ve been doing so far, in more than one way, but still the fact and the bottom line is that it’s all music to me, I just write what comes out and record it, to me it’s all Rock'n'Roll. My next release which I’m working on as we speak, will be in the traditional vein of my hard rock/heavy metal heritage, though this time maybe not as progressive as the earlier stuff, but my future releases will be taking different turns and directions, it will evolve.

“Down Another Chapter” is out now and you'll find it digitally at all the 21st century music providers, here follows some with direct links:

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/08BMZCtpTRj6S1VZA8qpBf?si=O-EYkLc8RhW2VDFD6Mn_lg

Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/se/album/down-another-chapter-single/1556125490

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Closing-Another-Chapter/dp/B08XT8LYLY

Tidal: https://store.tidal.com/se/album/175523372

Napster: https://gb.napster.com/artist/pm-saari/album/down-another-chapter

Enjoy.
/ PM

Inagone music finally properly out

As Ingone music has been put out at various occasions, in various forms, it’s not until now that there is a proper, official Inagone release out. I’ve been thinking about it for years now but never really had the opportunity or the time to dig into it and finish it. I’ve always thought that the recordings that we did between 2007-2012 were too good not to be released properly, that they didn’t get the attention and treatment they deserved. But now was the perfect timing for me to dive into it and finish the editing, compiling and mix the songs for a first release. I decided to go with the first songs I ever wrote for Inagone, aslo being the first songs that we recorded, “Where It Begins” and “Look and You’ll Find” and I also added the stripped down song called “Unclose” featuring only vocals and acoustic guitars and yeah, they are out now as a three-song single called “Where It Begins”. 

It was recorded 13 years ago by me and I mixed it now in October 2020, all music and lyrics are written by me, I produced it and perform all the guitars and also some backing vocals, Per Linzander performs all the lead vocals and some backing vocals, Andreas Mallander the bass (on this recording actually fretted bass) and Vesa Kallio the drums - So the Inagone line-up, the only one there ever was. It was truly exciting to mix what we recorded 12-13 years ago and come to realisation that what we did was even better than I remembered it to be and I really really love our performances on these songs, we had such great chemistry and balance going on and I think it really shines through in this recording. “Where It Begins” is out now and you’ll find it at all the digital music providers. Enjoy!

Aside from that I’m right now working in the studio mixing my next PM Saari release, which will be a bit different two-song single, and slate to be out in the beginning of 2021. I'm also preparing to start recording bass and guitars for the release after that. Due to the total absence of live dates we’ve also taken the opportunity to have some fun down in the Bunker (out rehearsal studio that is, also called the “Red Room”), jamming through some interesting covers, some of them pretty tricky to nail (at least for me), some more or less impossible (at least for me). Mainly for the fun, but also to challenge ourselves and we’ll see, we might just run through some of them in front of a video camera later on and throw them out just for the hell of it. We’re not that comfortable in front of a camera, I mean we belong live on stage, but we’ll see if we can pull ourselves together.

Anyway, it feels great to be moving through all the obstacles at an acceptable pace forward, just hoping it will last. Taking a deep breath and a hopeful step over to 2021.

Have a good one.

Peace.

/ PM