Climbing the Mountain!

Now I've finally started working on the second Mountain Of Power CD. The plan is for it to be released this fall, and as I'm also working on a new Overdrive and two books at the same time, I'd better get started. Said and done. I have picked out a list of songs I'd like to cover this time around. But, wanting and succeeding are two different things... Like last time I demoed probably 20 tracks, of which 13 were recorded. The ones left out were so because I wasn't happy with my arrangement and felt I couldn't do it the justice I wanted to.

The songs I've demoed so far are:
MAHOGANY RUSH - "Talkin' 'bout a Feeling"
TRIGGER - "Deadly Weapon"
UFO - "This Kids/Rasons Love" - a two-in-one combo
RORY GALLAGHER - Keychain"
TRAPEZE - "Monkey" (this one's for Mel Galley, who even picked it for me)

Next up are:
MAX WEBSTER - Here I'm not sure... I'm trying out both "Oh War" and "Here Among The Cats"
RESURRECTION BAND - "Waves"
ZZ TOP - "Bedroom Thang"
SAMMY HAGAR - "Urban Guerilla"
DIAMOND REO - "It's A Jungle Out There" or "Power"
and some more contestants:
PAT TRAVERS - "Makin' Magic"
THUNDERMUG - "Hard Luck"
SCORPIONS - "Drifting Sun"
We'll see what happens.

If all goes as planned I will have some really cool guests on this one!! Some have already agreed, but before everything is settled and finished I don't want to say anything.

Currently listening to:
SUFFRAJETT - "Black Glitter" - Great female fronted Danko Jones rock 'n roll!
BLACK SABBATH - "We Sold Our Soul For Rock N Roll" - Great comp!
IMPELLITTERI - "Wicked Maiden"
FIREBIRD - "Grand Union" - Outstanding 70s style hard rock!!

OVERDRIVE and Explorer!

Bought a Gibson Explorer 76 Re-issue of Micke "Nord" Andersson a few months ago. Lately I've only been using my two True Temperament neck guitars, the Gibson Les Paul and the Epiphone Strat. These I still use for the Constancia recordings, but man, that Explorer felt so 100 % right for the OVERDRIVE gig! It's so much wood, so much power and even though it's still got the original pick-ups, man they sound GREAT! Micke had put on s standard 0.11 set and I'm sticking to it! As phat as it gets (to quite Leslie "tone master" West).

I've also got my signal chain together pretty well now. For the OVERDRIVE shows I'm using the Boss Delay and a booster in the loop, only for the leads, and in the chain I've got the Sonic Research strobe tuner (AWESOME!!), Ibanez Tube Screamer, Cry Baby Wah and the Boss Super Octaver. Still using my Highes & Kettner Trilogy amp + 4x12 cab.

I've seriously started looking into the next MOUNTAIN OF POWER album, too now. I know some of the stuff I will do at least like Trapeze, Max Webster, Rory Gallagher, Pat Travers, Diamond REO, but there are sooo many more I'd love to get into! We'll see. I've also got some great offers from musicians that are into lending a helping hand, like Steve Williams (Budgie), Kim Mitchell (Max Webster), Mark Boals (Uli Roth, Royal Hunt), Ed Collins (Pod), Frank Zuri (Diamond REO). This will be fun!!

Listening to:
FOGHAT - Energized
STRAY DOG - Stray Dog
BLACK ROSE - Boys Will Be Boys
Mountain - Flowers Of Evil

Mixed and ready!

The last couple of days we've been putting the final mixing touch on the new BALLS album. We also had a photo session in Falun (Fotograf Heléne) and funnily enough this was the first time the entire band were together. It's interesting that in this day and age you can write, record and mix an album without the band members even meeting. Anyway, it was quite a drive for me from Mörrum, 680 km to Björn's studio in Rättvik. I only took 6,5 hours (incl lunch, gas refill and peeing) and with a nice pile of CDs in the car it went smooth. The car I find being one of the best places to listen to music. On this trip I brought some good old Jethro Tull, Judas Priest, Kansas and Rory Gallagher mixed with some new stuff by Volbeat, Kursk and Grand Magus.

Right now I'm waiting for the download of the final mix of the album to finish. It sounded great in the studio :-)

Roger, over and out!

Listening to: "Nightcap" by Jethro Tull