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

Status S - No rest for the wicked

I’m happy to announce that my work on my upcoming solo album is finally, finally done and done (the work with the music and audio that is). The tracks are now sent off for mixing but since we don’t particularly have any deadline I don’t have any dates when it will be completely finished or released yet. More on that in the next future though. Now the plan is simply to start writing for and working on my second solo album which will be done guitar a bit differently, and hopefully way more painless and smoother. As said, more on this very soon.


Straight Eight Diablo are out doing some live shows, delivering our goods that way - the way it should be delivered - and having a great time doing it. Some new killer tunes have been added to the setlist and are tried out live on stage and I can safely say that we have material to easily cover a full-length album of great quality by now and discussions about entering the studio are in the air in the S8D-camp.

Elements Of Crime were only supposed to do the shows we did earlier this year but due to some very interesting interest from interesting directions for the band we've booked some more live shows. Might even end up doing some new music, but we’ll just have to wait and see.

When it comes to Lizard Eye there will be some important meetings the next months and we'll see the outcome of that and where that will be taking us. Things will most certainly happen.

Unfortunately the Dixie Highway thing didn’t work out, so that one is off and out.

Got some plans for one or two other pretty cool projects that seems to be happening and really soon, more on that then and when. All the other bands and project are still in their respective deep dormancy and we’ll just have to wait and see...

The other week I finally got my hands on this guitar I’ve been hunting for since I saw Queensrÿche live at Klubben in Stockholm in 2004 (such a great show, by the way) and Michael Wilton played this awesome ‪Silver Sparkle‬ ‪‎ESP. I searched for years and off course it was custom shop and I couldn't get my hands on one. But now I got one Ltd version of it delivered to me and she sure is lovely!


Talk to you soon.

/ PM

Rockin' n' Rollin'

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

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

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

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

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

Rock on.
/ PM