Yea, sure has been a while, quite a while indeed, and it for sure feels it's about time to give you all an insight of what's going on in the Saari camp...
Well...
The last months I've, along taking care of my company, built myself a new studio/rehearsal/office space, I've moved and got a new home and I've also had some real nice time off during this winter. Apart from some gigs, there hasn't actually been that much music going on at all the last half-year, or almost even at all in 2011.
However now it feels safe to say that I'm back (working with music that is) - I've had rehearsals and jam sessions booked for almost ever night, some days two times a day to fit it all in into the schedule, and nailed loads of studio time the last two weeks - and the next future looks most certainly to be going in that same direction - So, yea, I'd say I'm on it.
Inagone got some gig-requests from some arrangers and we couldn't say but "hell yeah!" - so we did a couple of great and fun shows for the hell of it some weeks (months?) ago - great shows, great time. I've finally started recording guitars on the last tracks of the upcoming full-length album "Your brand new root". In matter of weeks I'll start to schedule studio time with the boys to nail the rest - and hopefully finally finish the album.
I've started the pre production work on the Straight 8 Diablo material which is planned to be recorded in spring/summer 2012. It hasn't quite been decided exactly what it'll be, a whole album or an EP or what - we're in the mid of working out a plan with management and producers there. We do however have material for a full-length album by now, and I'm writing new stuff constantly, so, but we'll se...
Aside the Inagone and S8D recordings I'll try to throw in sessions to finish the recording of my first solo album as well.
Lizard Eye will do some live shows in 2012 so check out the booked dates out at the Lizard Eye website. Check out the new Lizard Eye album "Flames of the sun" which is now out at iTunes and Spotify.
Talk to ya again, soon.
/ PM
Monday, April 30, 2012
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Time flies - business n live
We'll be playing the first ever gig with Straight 8 Diablo at Copperfields in Stockholm on saturday december 3rd. The fact is that we started rehearsing november 13th so we'll only get down about some 7 rehearsals in two week time in total for the gig - exiting indeed. Actually, I haven't quite even finished writing the lyrics for the songs that we'll play yet - So a bit stressing, but then we all work best under pressure. S8D is a three-piece band and Fred (Thörnblom, also Lizard Eye bass player) and I ended up splitting the lead vocals about 50-50 which is a pretty cool thing since we have somewhat different voices and it'll be a cool mix. The style of the music is very heavy and heavily inspired by bands like Black Sabbath, Corrosion of Conformity and Down, and there's some great and really, really heavy riffing going on there. The grand S8D-plan is to down some gigs now and sometimes into 2012 record a full-length album. But we'll see...
This wednesday we'll be hitting hometown Stockholm (Harry B James) with 13 Chaos St that right now is a really solid and tight live band. Mr Norkko has really settled and sunk in. We'll be having my pal Ace Chrome's band Chrome Tone opening for us and it'll be a total blast.
As for the studio work, it has been forced to, once again, step aside a bit in favor of the expansion of my business, Saari Creations - Takes time to build an empire. We've been recording some drums for my solo album but it looks like it most likely will be finished in the beginning of 2012 instead of now in the end of this year (which is basically through by now!)
Hopefully I'll have more time to put on the music in a week or two and the plan is that Drake (Andy Mallander) and I'll start jammin with all the various stuff we have going on around the corner then. We'll probably also start to write some new 13 material, either now in december or early next year.
Now I'm off to see if I can put the last touch on the lyrics of the S8D songs and maybe get them all finished before the gig.
Metal.
/ PM
This wednesday we'll be hitting hometown Stockholm (Harry B James) with 13 Chaos St that right now is a really solid and tight live band. Mr Norkko has really settled and sunk in. We'll be having my pal Ace Chrome's band Chrome Tone opening for us and it'll be a total blast.
As for the studio work, it has been forced to, once again, step aside a bit in favor of the expansion of my business, Saari Creations - Takes time to build an empire. We've been recording some drums for my solo album but it looks like it most likely will be finished in the beginning of 2012 instead of now in the end of this year (which is basically through by now!)
Hopefully I'll have more time to put on the music in a week or two and the plan is that Drake (Andy Mallander) and I'll start jammin with all the various stuff we have going on around the corner then. We'll probably also start to write some new 13 material, either now in december or early next year.
Now I'm off to see if I can put the last touch on the lyrics of the S8D songs and maybe get them all finished before the gig.
Metal.
/ PM
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Things in motion
Loads of things are going on right now in the Saari Camp but the most important thing would probably be that I'm back, even though a bit on and off, working to finish the recording of my solo album and it feels pretty good to be working in the studio again, even though the pace, due to various reasons, can't quite be as high as I would like it to. I'd say there's about a third of it left to be recorded as we speak.
Andy has left 13 Chaos St due to family reasons, but as things are now he will continue playing with my solo band, Inagone and the other projects of mine that he's involved in. The new bass player in 13 Chaos St is Jesper Norkko who's a long-time friend of the band and he will fill the spot just perfectly. 13 Chaos St will be hitting the road doing a couple of gigs starting in matter of weeks. Check out the dates at the 13-myspace site: http://www.myspace.com/13chaosst. It sure will be great to get out and play live again, we're all really exited about it.
Fred and I have kicked life into our 3-piece thing Straight 8 Diablo again and we're moving on with the new drummer Patrik Idman, who's a long-time friend of mine and whom I've been in various bands with back in the days - an awesome drummer, songwriter and musician over all. We're rehearsing the band together as we speak and I'm about to put the last touches on the writing of the first hand-full of songs and it's all coming together real natually and turning out pretty cool. The plan is to rehearse it into shape very quickly, just a month or two, and then take it all out live on stage. Exiting indeed.
Some live gigs with 13 Chaos St and hopefully with Straight 8 Diablo and also with Lizard Eye is waiting around the corner to be announced - See you all there!
Peace
/ PM
Andy has left 13 Chaos St due to family reasons, but as things are now he will continue playing with my solo band, Inagone and the other projects of mine that he's involved in. The new bass player in 13 Chaos St is Jesper Norkko who's a long-time friend of the band and he will fill the spot just perfectly. 13 Chaos St will be hitting the road doing a couple of gigs starting in matter of weeks. Check out the dates at the 13-myspace site: http://www.myspace.com/13chaosst. It sure will be great to get out and play live again, we're all really exited about it.
Fred and I have kicked life into our 3-piece thing Straight 8 Diablo again and we're moving on with the new drummer Patrik Idman, who's a long-time friend of mine and whom I've been in various bands with back in the days - an awesome drummer, songwriter and musician over all. We're rehearsing the band together as we speak and I'm about to put the last touches on the writing of the first hand-full of songs and it's all coming together real natually and turning out pretty cool. The plan is to rehearse it into shape very quickly, just a month or two, and then take it all out live on stage. Exiting indeed.
Some live gigs with 13 Chaos St and hopefully with Straight 8 Diablo and also with Lizard Eye is waiting around the corner to be announced - See you all there!
Peace
/ PM
Thursday, September 01, 2011
The new Lizard Eye album
Lizard Eye
"Flames of the Sun"
My second record in line to be released is the Lizard Eye album "Flames of the Sun" which will be released tomorrow (September 1st), and done so with a release party at Sweden's premier rock club Pub Anchor in Stockholm that very night.
This album has taken it's time to make, not in the actual making though, but to get to the point when it was ready to be made. It has also taken some time for the band to rotate into the right position, to get in the right band members, where it most certainly is now - Lizard Eye has never been tighter, stronger and better, both musically and personally. According to me right now this is definitely as good as this band can ever get.
"Flames of the Sun" is a good mix of smoking brand new material mixed with some older songs that have been waiting quite a while to be recorded the way they deserve. I'd say the material it pretty varying and dynamic and it's definitely a bunch of really strong songs. I've written about half of the album's music and more than half of the lyrics and I perform most of the guitars, even though Lasse Gudmundsson plays most of his rhythm guitars himself. I play all the lead/additional/layer/add on guitars, except the first and third round of the lead guitar duel in the solo in "Pride" which are played Lasse. Besides that I've been hugely involved in the arrangement of the songs, I sing some backing vocals on the album and I've also done the sleeve design and artwork for it. Even though I engineered (me and Fred Thörnblom) the guitars when recorded, I wasn't at all involved in recording the rest of it nor in the mixing and the final production process, which is pretty unusual but actually feels really good. A relief to let the decisions that comes with that to someone else for a change.
The album was mixed and co-produced by Dino Medanhodzic at Radionica and he's also responsible for my guitar sound (well, all guitar sounds) on the album and you won't quite find the usual and pretty much personal mid-eq lo-gain naked guitar sound of mine on this one. I thought it'd be cool to let someone else handle that for a change as well, even though it feels a bit strange, uncomfortable and awkward - and yea, scary. Even though it's a really different guitar sound gear wise, I still believe that the major part of a guitarist's sound is in the hands and the fingers, and even in the spirit and attitude of the player, but off course not entirely.
I used some different Gibson's on the album, but most of it is my '98 Limited Edition Saari Custom Flying V '58 Reissue armed with DiMarzio humbuckers, a Norton in the bridge position and a PAF at the neck. The amp Dino chose for my sound was a Peavey 5150. Haven't used one of those for many, many years, and I have to say that they really have their own distinct sound and warmth, a great sounding amp, can't argue with that even though those aren't my number one choice these days. I also put on quite a lot of different acoustic guitars to create and add colors and mood, both steel and nylon stringed.
I'd say this is easily the most amount of different guitar tracks that I've ever laid down on a recording ever and I was a bit afraid that it would feel uneasy and overkill, but it really turned out pretty naturally and great - Dino really did an excellent job mixing them all in really naturally and into the right places. There are however no doubled guitars though, only time we get close to that is when Lasse and I are playing the same riff on each side in the stereo field, but no doubled guitars like to get a fatter sound or something - I mean hey, this is 70s and 80s influenced classic heavy metal!
...anyway, the conclusion is that there are loads of guitars on this album and it's most certainly a "guitar album" and it feels really, really good to finally have finished and putt this one out. Hope you'll enjoy it and hoping to see many of you tomorrow at the release party where we'll be playing the whole album live for the first time ever.
/ PM
The track list:
1. Garden of Hope
(Music and lyrics: Saari) 4:32
2. Alive
(Music and lyrics: Saari/Gudmundsson) 5:23
3. Rise
(Music: Gudmundsson, Lyrics: Saari/Gudmundsson) 4:35
4. Through the Flames of the Sun
(Music: Saari/Gudmundsson, Lyrics: Saari) 4:18
5. Saviour
(Music and lyrics: Gudmundsson/Saari) 4:44
6. In the middle of what?
(Music and lyrics: Saari/Gudmundsson) 3:32
7. Into Nowhere
(Music and lyrics: Saari/Gudmundsson) 4:16
8. Pride
(Music and lyrics: Gudmundsson) 5:08
9. My Darkness
(Music: Gudmundsson, Lyrics: Saari/Gudmundsson) 7:22
10. Your truth (and Nothing but a Lie)
(Music: Saari/Gudmundsson, Lyrics: Saari) 4:52
11. My truth (Instrumental outro)
(Music: Saari) 1:34
"Flames of the Sun"
My second record in line to be released is the Lizard Eye album "Flames of the Sun" which will be released tomorrow (September 1st), and done so with a release party at Sweden's premier rock club Pub Anchor in Stockholm that very night.
This album has taken it's time to make, not in the actual making though, but to get to the point when it was ready to be made. It has also taken some time for the band to rotate into the right position, to get in the right band members, where it most certainly is now - Lizard Eye has never been tighter, stronger and better, both musically and personally. According to me right now this is definitely as good as this band can ever get.
"Flames of the Sun" is a good mix of smoking brand new material mixed with some older songs that have been waiting quite a while to be recorded the way they deserve. I'd say the material it pretty varying and dynamic and it's definitely a bunch of really strong songs. I've written about half of the album's music and more than half of the lyrics and I perform most of the guitars, even though Lasse Gudmundsson plays most of his rhythm guitars himself. I play all the lead/additional/layer/add on guitars, except the first and third round of the lead guitar duel in the solo in "Pride" which are played Lasse. Besides that I've been hugely involved in the arrangement of the songs, I sing some backing vocals on the album and I've also done the sleeve design and artwork for it. Even though I engineered (me and Fred Thörnblom) the guitars when recorded, I wasn't at all involved in recording the rest of it nor in the mixing and the final production process, which is pretty unusual but actually feels really good. A relief to let the decisions that comes with that to someone else for a change.
The album was mixed and co-produced by Dino Medanhodzic at Radionica and he's also responsible for my guitar sound (well, all guitar sounds) on the album and you won't quite find the usual and pretty much personal mid-eq lo-gain naked guitar sound of mine on this one. I thought it'd be cool to let someone else handle that for a change as well, even though it feels a bit strange, uncomfortable and awkward - and yea, scary. Even though it's a really different guitar sound gear wise, I still believe that the major part of a guitarist's sound is in the hands and the fingers, and even in the spirit and attitude of the player, but off course not entirely.
I used some different Gibson's on the album, but most of it is my '98 Limited Edition Saari Custom Flying V '58 Reissue armed with DiMarzio humbuckers, a Norton in the bridge position and a PAF at the neck. The amp Dino chose for my sound was a Peavey 5150. Haven't used one of those for many, many years, and I have to say that they really have their own distinct sound and warmth, a great sounding amp, can't argue with that even though those aren't my number one choice these days. I also put on quite a lot of different acoustic guitars to create and add colors and mood, both steel and nylon stringed.
I'd say this is easily the most amount of different guitar tracks that I've ever laid down on a recording ever and I was a bit afraid that it would feel uneasy and overkill, but it really turned out pretty naturally and great - Dino really did an excellent job mixing them all in really naturally and into the right places. There are however no doubled guitars though, only time we get close to that is when Lasse and I are playing the same riff on each side in the stereo field, but no doubled guitars like to get a fatter sound or something - I mean hey, this is 70s and 80s influenced classic heavy metal!
...anyway, the conclusion is that there are loads of guitars on this album and it's most certainly a "guitar album" and it feels really, really good to finally have finished and putt this one out. Hope you'll enjoy it and hoping to see many of you tomorrow at the release party where we'll be playing the whole album live for the first time ever.
/ PM
The track list:
1. Garden of Hope
(Music and lyrics: Saari) 4:32
2. Alive
(Music and lyrics: Saari/Gudmundsson) 5:23
3. Rise
(Music: Gudmundsson, Lyrics: Saari/Gudmundsson) 4:35
4. Through the Flames of the Sun
(Music: Saari/Gudmundsson, Lyrics: Saari) 4:18
5. Saviour
(Music and lyrics: Gudmundsson/Saari) 4:44
6. In the middle of what?
(Music and lyrics: Saari/Gudmundsson) 3:32
7. Into Nowhere
(Music and lyrics: Saari/Gudmundsson) 4:16
8. Pride
(Music and lyrics: Gudmundsson) 5:08
9. My Darkness
(Music: Gudmundsson, Lyrics: Saari/Gudmundsson) 7:22
10. Your truth (and Nothing but a Lie)
(Music: Saari/Gudmundsson, Lyrics: Saari) 4:52
11. My truth (Instrumental outro)
(Music: Saari) 1:34
Sunday, July 31, 2011
The new 13 Chaos St album
13 Chaos St
"The only address you'll ever need"
I have a couple of albums coming out in 2011-2012 (and probably continuing from there) with various bands and projects and I thought I throw in a couple of lines about them, from my side of the board, as they are being released. First out is the 13 Chaos St album "The only address you'll ever need" that is out now.
It's produced, mixed, recorded and arranged by me. Yes, I ended up doing the lot on this first one.
When it was all mixed we couldn't see (or hear) what a mastering could add to it - except make it more 2011 and clearer, fatter and louder - and: plastic and fake ...and so wrong - so we decided not to master it. Around that time I also heard that Iron Maiden and their producer Kevin Shirley decided (or rather: Steve Harris decided) not to master the "Final frontier" album, so that put enough fuel to the fire to go: if they're not doing it, we certainly don't have to.
I perform all the guitars and background vocals and have written about half of it. Jari, the vocalist, have written all the lyrics. Andy "Drake" Mallander performs all bass, all fretless bass actually, and Vesa Kallio the drums - All band members doing what they do in the band. As it should be.
When it comes to my gear I used my two ESP Ltd Saari Custom Viper-400 with Seymour Duncan humbuckers through various 80s Marshall heads and tube preamps and 4x12" cabinets. Also some Line 6 stuff. All effects on the guitars was put on afterwards when mixed except for the wah wah which was controlled by me through a Line 6 expression pedal when the guitar was recorded. For the acoustic parts I used my Washburn guitars through Röde NT1 and/or NT3 mikes.
It's written and recorded in a very different way, the material is more jammed into songs and jammed into tape (well, hard drive) and it's all very few takes, many parts actually first takes. This resulting in it being a very raw, relaxed and live sounding album. It's not 100% tight and there sure are some misses here and there, but getting it 100% tight and perfect was never the point. My goal as a producer was to go for the 70-80s vibe, thinking and feel. I wanted to catch old Van Halen kind of vibes, but off course with the 13 Chaos St material, which obviously is more a mix of grunge and metal, or something. As I hear the finished album, I totally achieved my goal, for me it's my version, of any of the first four Van Halen albums written and performed 13 Chaos St style.
It's not the longest of albums but we didn't want a 15-song album, but more the 70-80s thinking here as well, not having any fillers, but only the best songs, the real deal. Simply: The crap has been left out and I'd sure say that the material is very strong, really content and proud of my part of the writing and also my guitar performance, which is not that common when it comes to me, and both the writing and the guitar recording was really easy, totally natural and unforced which sure leaves a good feeling there. One thing is also that every single part of the songs was written for this band and this album just months before it was recorded, so the material is really fresh.
Generally I'm really proud and content of this album. It really turned out exactly as I wanted it to, in every aspect of it. It is all it was meant to be. Hope you'll enjoy it.
/ PM
You'll find the album at (among other places):
Spotify
iTunes
Amazon
Lastfm
Napster
The track list:
1. I, Lucifer
(Written by Saari/Mallander/Salonen) 4:54
2. Jack Of Trades
(Written by Saari/Salonen) 3:47
3. Morphine Mon Amour
(Written by Saari/Mallander/Salonen) 3:36
4. Onto Chaos Born
(Written by Saari/Mallander/Salonen) 3:48
5. Wreck
(Written by Saari/Salonen) 3:42
6. Let The Piper Lead The Way
(Written by Saari/Salonen) 4:10
7. Life, Death, Legend
(Written by Saari/Mallander/Salonen) 3:48
8. Vicious
(Written by Saari/Mallander/Salonen) 4:05
9. The Year We Were Blessed
(Written by Saari/Mallander/Salonen) 4:54
10. Jack Of Trades (Radio Edit)
(Written by Saari/Salonen) 3:09
"The only address you'll ever need"
I have a couple of albums coming out in 2011-2012 (and probably continuing from there) with various bands and projects and I thought I throw in a couple of lines about them, from my side of the board, as they are being released. First out is the 13 Chaos St album "The only address you'll ever need" that is out now.
It's produced, mixed, recorded and arranged by me. Yes, I ended up doing the lot on this first one.
When it was all mixed we couldn't see (or hear) what a mastering could add to it - except make it more 2011 and clearer, fatter and louder - and: plastic and fake ...and so wrong - so we decided not to master it. Around that time I also heard that Iron Maiden and their producer Kevin Shirley decided (or rather: Steve Harris decided) not to master the "Final frontier" album, so that put enough fuel to the fire to go: if they're not doing it, we certainly don't have to.
I perform all the guitars and background vocals and have written about half of it. Jari, the vocalist, have written all the lyrics. Andy "Drake" Mallander performs all bass, all fretless bass actually, and Vesa Kallio the drums - All band members doing what they do in the band. As it should be.
When it comes to my gear I used my two ESP Ltd Saari Custom Viper-400 with Seymour Duncan humbuckers through various 80s Marshall heads and tube preamps and 4x12" cabinets. Also some Line 6 stuff. All effects on the guitars was put on afterwards when mixed except for the wah wah which was controlled by me through a Line 6 expression pedal when the guitar was recorded. For the acoustic parts I used my Washburn guitars through Röde NT1 and/or NT3 mikes.
It's written and recorded in a very different way, the material is more jammed into songs and jammed into tape (well, hard drive) and it's all very few takes, many parts actually first takes. This resulting in it being a very raw, relaxed and live sounding album. It's not 100% tight and there sure are some misses here and there, but getting it 100% tight and perfect was never the point. My goal as a producer was to go for the 70-80s vibe, thinking and feel. I wanted to catch old Van Halen kind of vibes, but off course with the 13 Chaos St material, which obviously is more a mix of grunge and metal, or something. As I hear the finished album, I totally achieved my goal, for me it's my version, of any of the first four Van Halen albums written and performed 13 Chaos St style.
It's not the longest of albums but we didn't want a 15-song album, but more the 70-80s thinking here as well, not having any fillers, but only the best songs, the real deal. Simply: The crap has been left out and I'd sure say that the material is very strong, really content and proud of my part of the writing and also my guitar performance, which is not that common when it comes to me, and both the writing and the guitar recording was really easy, totally natural and unforced which sure leaves a good feeling there. One thing is also that every single part of the songs was written for this band and this album just months before it was recorded, so the material is really fresh.
Generally I'm really proud and content of this album. It really turned out exactly as I wanted it to, in every aspect of it. It is all it was meant to be. Hope you'll enjoy it.
/ PM
You'll find the album at (among other places):
Spotify
iTunes
Amazon
Lastfm
Napster
The track list:
1. I, Lucifer
(Written by Saari/Mallander/Salonen) 4:54
2. Jack Of Trades
(Written by Saari/Salonen) 3:47
3. Morphine Mon Amour
(Written by Saari/Mallander/Salonen) 3:36
4. Onto Chaos Born
(Written by Saari/Mallander/Salonen) 3:48
5. Wreck
(Written by Saari/Salonen) 3:42
6. Let The Piper Lead The Way
(Written by Saari/Salonen) 4:10
7. Life, Death, Legend
(Written by Saari/Mallander/Salonen) 3:48
8. Vicious
(Written by Saari/Mallander/Salonen) 4:05
9. The Year We Were Blessed
(Written by Saari/Mallander/Salonen) 4:54
10. Jack Of Trades (Radio Edit)
(Written by Saari/Salonen) 3:09
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