Back from Japan!

Returned back from a totally outstanding trip to Japan just a few days ago. Takes time to digest all the impressions!


Some things I will surely miss are:


1. The way the Japanese people show respect for their fellow man. No prejudice, no sneering, no looking down at others. Just a very, very friendly and helpful people!

2. The clean streets. Hardly no waste baskets, despite this people don't throw crap on the street!

3. No graffitti! You can actually see the colour the walls were intended to be painted in. No f**cking badly painted signatures, dirty words or amateur paintings. Nice, clean walls!


We met some wonderful new and old friends! Thanks to Naoko Furuhashi, Mitsuhiro Nishida, Hiroko Hayashi, Yasu Fuji, Mikitoshi at Rock Stakk, Yushi at Soundholic, Tomo Ando etc. You really made our stay a memorable time!

The interviews with Burrn! and Captain Wada went great thanks to Yushi and their great interpreter. I did some rockin' out at Club Crush where I played live to "Swords & Axes" (some of the stuff I hadn't played since 1984!). See below :-)

Bought almost 100 CDs and some vinyls! Had to ship some stuff by mail to avoid expensive overweight!

Air France and especially Charles De Gaulle airport SUCKS! Rude staff, totally unorganized and no sense of logistics and efficiency whatsoever!


The bottom line, though - Japan rocked and we will be baaaak!!


Current list of goodies:
1. FIREBIRD - "Grand Union" - Outstanding new album by this retro-trio
2. VINNIE MOORE - "To The Core" - About time! Good instrumental!
3. SAGA - "The Human Condition" - Strange to hear the band w a new singer, but it works!

Japan - here we come!

Around this time next week, I and my fiancée are on a plane to Narita, Japan. After having been to the US (San Fransisco and New York) three years in a row we figured it was time for something different. I've always been interested and fascinated by Japan, ever since I ordered my first Lazy, Bow Wow and Flied Egg albums from Heavy Sound Records. Then when we (Locomotive Breath) finally got a deal with Avex Records in 1997 we figured there may be a chance to get our asses over there. Didn't happen. So, when planning our vacation my fiancée suggested Japan. Great idea! The trip was quite affordable and so are the hotels (about same, even a bit cheaper, than New York). Fortunately we have some friends to help guide us in this mysterious country (Thanks in advance to Naoko Furuhashi, Mitsuhiro Nishida and Yasu Fuji).

Our (Overdrive's) Japanese label Soundholic has set up some interviews while I'm there (Burrn!!, Captain Wada) which will be great. My friends Mitsuhiro and Yasu have promised to find us some nice record stores in Yokohama and Osaka. The only concern may be overweight, but there's always the option of posting some of the purchases back home.

Last weekend I spent in Stockholm with Micke "Nord" Andersson and his lovely wife and author Karin Alvtegen. Mikael and I are writing songs for his forthcoming solo album. We managed to get five songs roughly demoed and stylewise we ended up somewhere between early Aerosmith, AC/DC and Robin Trower with a twist. Writing with Mikael is highly rewarding!

The Constancia album is now mastered and ready, we're just waiting for some input from the label on which song to use as bonus track, plus we still have some band pics to finish up.

New recommendable stuff I'm listening to:
ELECTRIC MARY - "Down To The Bone" - Thanks to Joe "The Groovayard Dawg" Romagnola for puttint me onto this gem!!
ROGOSONIC - "Leave The World Alone" - Great riffing Americans!
TY TABOR - "Balance" - What can I say? Ty rules as always!!
COLDSPELL - "Infinite Stargaze" - One of the best releases so far this year!