Diving backwards and respecting my heroes

I do my best to get time to keep myself updated and check out the new releases of my old heroes, as well as the newer bands and artist, but there hasn’t really been that much coming out the last 10-15 (or even 20?) years that touches, or even interests me. However every now and then there pops up some really positive surprises which is always exciting, like for instance Queensryche’s, Alice In Chains’ and Lynch Mob’s last couple of albums, Ratt’s “Infestation” and Scorpions’ “Sting in the tail”. But those pretty much covers it, simply not that much music for me coming out these days. This however has naturally drawn me backwards in time and made me want to discover everything that I missed back in the day, that came out before I really started getting into music, adding new top favorites like the old 1970’s albums with Aerosmith, David Bowie and the Dio years of Rainbow that has all become really important for me. Also got into the first, the 1970’s, albums with Thin Lizzy, Judas Priest, Scorpions and even AC/DC, bands that I grew up with but who also did so much awesome stuff prior to when I started to listening to them, stuff that I never really have gotten the chance to dive deep into until now.

Anyway one thing occurred to me a while ago when one of my biggest influences and heroes, Mr Yngwie Malmsteen, released his new album “World On Fire” on which he performs the vocals himself (and the bass and some of the keyboards and also the production). I had the same reaction when I heard about this as so many others, and when I listened to it the reaction remained the same, I was like, what the f*** is he doing?! (Yes, I know I 'm kind of doing the same thing, but we’re talking about Yngwie f***ing Malmsteen here.) He could easily bring in some killer, top musicians into his band, why doesn’t he do that? Why doesn’t he let a producer (or/and an engineer, I don’t know) in so it all would sound better? And why doesn’t he bring in a killer vocalist to do the vocals, as he has always done?! and I saw so many similar reactions out there on social medias at the time. Then some weeks later I felt maybe I should listen to the album a second time, give it a real fair shot, and I did and I thought, well it doesn’t really sound that bad, and he has done everything himself, the work of one highly talented musician, if you ask me. And why shouldn’t he get to do that if he wants to? He’s done it the other way enough of times already and hasn’t he earned the right to do exactly what he wants? I mean he has made a handful of records (the first 5-6 if you ask me) that are up there at the very all-time top, done so much for hard rock/heavy metal music and not to mention the guitar playing, changed the whole thing and influenced everyone in a way or another, whether they admit it or not. He is the only real rockstar coming out of Sweden, so hasn’t he earned to do whatever he wants with his art? I mean if nothing else, this keeps him and what he does pure and real, which obviously is very rare these days.

The same thing with another huge influence of mine, the (al-)mighty Iron Maiden, and their last two records. I mean, haven’t they earned to do whatever they want after all they have achieved? If they want to do more progressive and unpolished stuff, why shouldn’t they?

And no, “The World On Fire” and “The Book Of Souls” isn’t “Marching Out” and “The Number Of The Beast”, the material nor the performance don’t even come close, but bear in mind we’re comparing them with real top masterpieces here. This is now and they’re still doing it and what is wrong if they are happy doing it and even having fun doing it? I mean, if you don’t like it, don’t listen to it. You can go and see them live, because they still entertain the socks out of most newer bands, that goes for both examples above, and if you don’t want to see them live either, don’t. Just remember that what they’ve done doesn’t disappear or change by them doing what they do now. This off course goes for many other bands and artists who’s still enjoying making new music (and maybe aren’t doing it entirely for the money).

Peace.
/ PM

Enter 2017

2017?! What happened to 2016? Where did it go? And what did it do, taking away so many of my friends and heroes?! (Or am I just getting old and should get used to this?) Well, it sure was a strange and unreal year that passed by, and fast, like a bolt of lightning. At least I managed to finally squeeze out my first solo album!


First out 2017 I’m very happy to announce that I will be back playing live on stage in 2017. Finally! As we speak we’re rehearsing (jamming?) the solo band, Wonderfuel, into live-shape and it will be Andy “Drake” Mallander on fretless bass, Patrik Idman on drums and yours truly on guitars and vocals. We're really excited to be taking it live on stage.

I'm also proud to finally officially announce a new, pretty crazy and oh-so-much fun project that has been in the planning for many, many years called “Järntrean” (“Iron Three” in Swedish, and no, none of us plays golf), also going under the acronym “Fe3” (to be more scientific, or chemical, if you like). It's a power trio consisting of me on vocals and guitars, Andreas Mallander on fretless (!) bass and my long time pal Jan Viberg on drums (with only två toms!) doing our energetic jam interpretations of songs from the two first Iron Maiden albums, the DiAnno-era. Real fun and exciting, a real challenge and probably too totally insane to even try doing (impossible?), but we love every second of it and we’re all beyond stoked about this.

It will all start off with a couple of “release-gigs” for The Opening with the three-piece soloband in Stockholm, Sweden, in the beginning of the year.

I will be finishing the writing of the songs for my second solo album and finish up the pre-production work the first months of 2017 and am going through drummers and other guests that will be participating on it. So the work on PM Saari episode II, “The Awakening”, (hearing in my head it sounding very much Star Wars) has already begun.

And off course loads of other exciting things are in the planning for 2017 as well, but as always, more on those when, and if, they get executed.


More on all this shortly but until then, enjoy “The album that needed to be done, the album that I needed to do”, The Opening, which you'll find at your digital music provider of choice, like: iTunes, Tidal, Amazon, Microsoft, Napster, Spotify and E-music etc. Send an e-mail to shop@saari.net if you wish to buy a physical CD and you can’t find it anywhere.


 Peace.
/ PM

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