Change of plans...

For various reasons the plans for mix of Mountain of Power has been slightly changed. The album will now be mixed by my old friend and partner in crime Pelle Saether of Studio Undeground (he's also the lead singer of Zello, Grand Design etc). Pelle mixed the previous MoP album and did a tremendous job, so I have the greatest of faith in him (well, he's also mixed all our Locomotive Breath albums). Mixing starts Tuesday, tomorrow, and I'm really excited to hear what he can come up with!

On another note I can also announce I have parted ways with Sweden Rock, both as a writer for the magazine and as a part of the festival and I will have nothing whatsoever to do with them in the future as I see it now. Money does strange things to people...

New recommendable discs:
Plankton - Ocean Tales
House of Heavy - s/t
Freak Kitchen - Land Of Freaks

Interesting behaviour...

I'm finally in the last stage of the Mountain Of Power saga - the mix! However in the last minutes we decided to add a couple more solos to "I Stand Alone", my rendition of the old Blackfoot track (a tribute to Jackson Spires). The track ends with a guitar solo armada. It started out with inly myself and Rusty Burns (Point Blank), but we figured we would add two more. One was Craig Erickson, oustanding bluesy player with a bunch of solo albums under his belt. The other guitarist shall remain anonymous, but he's a great guitarist that has released a number of albums with a great band! However when receiving his solos for the track, the sound was really really awful (sounded like a beeswarm in a tin can), but even worse - his playing was totally off!! At first I thought it was just me not synchinh the track, but no matter how I tried when it was in synching in one place he was off in another. He simply didn't seem to put any effort into playing the solo right. When my label contacted him he said we "should be grateful as he did it for free". Duuuh! HE has to live with it! It's him they will listen to, check his name and go - "fuck, he can't play". Now, I don't want a crappy solo on the album no matter who plays it, I don't use guests for their names but for what they produce. People like Rusty Burns, Thomas Larsson, John Norum, Thomas Juneor Andersson, Martin J Andersen etc have busted their asses and delivered solos that blows me away.
The ordeal with the "unnamed" guitarist was fortunately solved by the saving angel Tommy Denander who offered to step in and lay down two awesome solos in the last minute, just before going on tour with Dan Reed. ... and he did it for free for friendship's sake.
Another hero is drummer Ed Collins (ex Pod) who recorded the drums for three of the tracks. I was quite nervous when dropping his drum tracks into the already finished songs... and they all lined up and sounded 100 % tight, plus he plays like a God!!

I can't enough thank the people that have helped make this album what it will be when mixed and ready!

I also must thank label owner Joe Romagnola for arranging, fixing and sending the Univibe pedal made by "The Toad". It arrived in the last minute but made it into my Rory Gallagher homage.

Now I'm just waiting for Johan Blomström at Studio Sound Palace to do his sound magic!

Playlist of the week:
Plankton - "Ocean Tales" - Outstanding instrumental retro magig - again!!
Point Blank - "Fight On!" - They're back and they're bad!
The Psychics - s/t - Killer retro feel hard rock
House Of Heavy - s/t - New Swedish heavy yet melodic duo
Rufus Huff - s/t - Southern rawk the way it's supposed to be played!

Recording and mixing

FINALLY - the new Mountain of Power album is slowly but safely coming together. Last week I recorded my final guitars and bass. Did it a bit differently this time. The bass was recorded with my old Peavey T40. Looks like shit but sounds awesome!! Recorded it to two channels, one line and one through a Pod. The Pod track sounds great, but the line gives you some more options. The guitars I've recorded basically with two rigs:

1. My Hughes & Kettner Trilogy head, through a THD Hotplate, through a H&K 4x12 (V30). On most occasions I also used a Xotic Effects BB PreAmp.
2. My Orange Tiny Terror head, through the same Hotplate and cab as above. usually no BB PreAmp here.

The guitars have been My Gibson Les Paul True Temperament, my Gibson Explorer 76 Re-issue and my Highway 1 Fender Strat. On the solos I've altered between/sometimes in combination, the BB PreAmp, the Toad Fuzz/Dist, Dunlop Cry Baby, Keeley Compressor and the Boss Noise Supressor NS2.
I miked the cab up with just a Sure SM57, except for a couple of tracks where I also used a big membrane mike placed in the room for ambience.

I've now received most of the guests' vocals, drums, guitars. All of them outstandingly great!! I take care of the rhythm guitars, one more solos in each song and bass.
Mixing will start in the next couple of days and will be done by Johan Blomström at Studio Sound Palace.

Here's a rundown of the guests:

Guitarists:
John Norum (Europe)

Ty Tabor (King's X)

Rusty Burns (Point Blank)

Sven Cirnski (Truth, Bad Habit)

Jay Jesse Johnson (solo)

Clas Yngström (Sky High)

Greg Martin (Rufus Huff, Kentucky HeadHunters)

Conny Bloom (Electric Boys)

Mikael Nord Andersson (Balls, Roxette)

Martin J Andersen (Blindstone)

Thomas Larsson (Glenn Hughes, Baltimoore)

JJ Marsh (Glenn Hughes)

Thomas Juneor Andersson (Kamchatka)
Kjell Sjöström (Thalamus)
Joe Romagnola (Character)

Singers:
Paul Shortino (Ruff Cutt)
Christian Rivel (Audiovision, Divinefire)
Maria Rådström (One More Time)
Jarrod England (Rufus Huff)
Cindy Weichman (Nail, Helix)
Mattias Osbäck (Locomotive Breath)
David Fremberg (Andromeda)
Conny Bloom (Electric Boys)
Clas Yngström (Sky High)
Mikael Nord Andersson (Balls, Roxette)
Pontus Snibb (Bonafide)

Drums:
Peter Svensson (Constancia, Faith)
Ed Collins (Pod)