long time, no sea!!

Somehow this blog-pages has been down for a long while. Someone seam´d to like it to much and the pages was hacked! But now I´m back in buisness again.

So far lot´s have been happening during this period. One of the more important beeing the annual FUZZ guitar show in Gothenburg. Where Bjarne Spens and Spens Guitars was a newcomber for the first time in ages as a main importer dealer of the Burns London guitars.

On my behalf I was invited in hope to help Per Gjörde selling his latest book about Burns  and Jim Burns. Sale´s went well as I can understand. To the show I brought several old Burns guitar, some of em in hope to sell. Unfortinutly I didnt sell a singel guitar.

At one of the many stands, a guy selling old archtops I found an Alden Western Star up for sale at a bargain price. But at the moment I couldnt raise the money so the guy took the guitar back home. A couple of days later I called him and arranged a meeting. So there he was getting of one of the boats transporting people to various islands outside Gothenburg and finally I was the owner of this nice guitar. It was in mint condition-as new and It had the nice Burns Rez-o-Matic Mk 8 tremolo. A perfect match to me other Burns guitars.

ALDEN a mixture coming from Alan Entwhistle, man of many ideas and also main producer of Burns and Revelation guitars. He is really a pickup wizard not to forget.

why write a song or two

Stepping back to the early 60´s when I started me first band "The Leemoons" rehearsing and playing the songs that was popular at the time we  found ourselfs into proplem´s! Making av good cover of The Beatles - She love´s you, wasnt that easy at all. To many chord´s, to quick became an impossible mountain to climb. We did realise that we wasnt a good coverband, and started to write our own songs.

With our own songs noone could say that we didnt play it the right way. So in 1964 we had our own hit-song! "Åhh Carina" with lyrics in Swedish, well it could have been a great sucess but it was´nt.

Even if my biggest idols was Chet Atkins and George Harrison, I never became a leadguitar player, instead i alway´s play´d the rhytmguitar partly because I also was singing me heart out!

Ever since then I have been writing me own songs, now always in English. Suddenly some words pop up in me mind, words that in less then a minute become´s the chorus or the verse to a new song. Often this happens when I´m driving my car, or in the middel of the night when I cant sleep. It´s then a race to find pen and paper to write it all down.

Using what I already have written on me paper I struggle a bit to find the rest of the song, the story that I try to tell with me lyrics. Next step is to pick up me guitar and try to make those words into a song.

Normaly to write the first 8 to 12 bars Is done in a minute or two, but that part is used as a tinplate for the rest of the song. Finally the song including its melody and chords is ready. 

What is a good tune, melody song or what ever? For many of you it´s all about the beat, the leadriffs but to me it´s alway´s about the story, the lyric´s. Lyric´s that I do hope the listener will understand and save in his or her mind. 

Next step is always to make some kind of simple demo-recording, using the gear that i have. Back in the 60´s it was a simple Reel-to-reel taperecorder. Today it is a computer with a studiorecording program installed. By now my computer been upgraded with no less the 5 huge hardrive´s, filled with more then 500 recorded song´s!

So there I am, drumsection of the tune coming at the first step from some kind of drumbox. The first simple rhytmguitar on the next track followed by the bass. Up until the basstrack we are talking about simple basic´s. The bass is a different thing as it should give the song some kind of caracter. 

Next cue will be the first attemt to record the vocaltrack. I´ve already spent at least 2-3 hours recording those first tracks. Now it´s hard work, in singing, to get things right and to sing in the right key. 

How many hour´s have I spent trying to play the rhythmtrack in the right way? How many hours on bass and vocal. I dont know! One thing is clear to me. at the same moment as the song is ready on paper and play´d for the first time on an acustic guitar, in my head I know exactly how I want it to be as a ready comple tune.

How to construct a lead tune for the song? Well I dont know, in my case I try to include as much of the vocal melody as possible, playing in some kind of harmony with the vocal´s. Somehow I dont think that the leadguitar break is the song, it is rather a sort of upgrade of the song.

Most songs I write start of as a sweet ballad, that later is tranformed to something completly different. Using an acustic guitar as a tool when writing the song it´s very much singer-songwriter concept to start with. Later at recording stage, the acustic is back on the wall and electric guitars is used.

er

Soon to being 68 I´m happy that we do have a band. "The Görans Garage Band" with its musicians. Göran on guitar and vocal, Elisabeth on vocal, Kjell on keyboard and BeatBuddy drumbox, Björn on bass and me on guitar and vocal. With this setting we rehearse and find the proper arrangement for the song. Kjell on his sparetime make´s a backtrack with the drumbox and some simple keyboard. A backtrack that I bring home and use in me own small studio. Making it sound like a proper demo for the band at next rehearsal. With a bit of luck we can play it in the same way, making it sound good.


What is a good tune, a good song, melody or what ever? To me it´s all about the lyrics, music is something to make the lyrics reach out to listeners.

So here is some of the songs that has been recorded, either by my self or with both bands.

"If I cant remember"
heres a song that I wrote to my old Swedish idol, Kent Anderzon from the band Swede Singers. By now he sufferes from Alzheimers deciese

https://soundcloud.com/mj-pbp/20180222-if-i-cant-remember

"drive-my-car" 
In hope to write a catchy tune, this was the result. Beeing a Jaguar freak natuarly the sound from a Jaguar F-type Supercharged V8 is included.

https://soundcloud.com/mj-pbp/20180119-drive-my-car

"Dont make him loose"
an oldie written to a freind of mine.

https://soundcloud.com/mj-pbp/20180204-dont-make-him-loose

"Is this Rock´n Roll"
Kjell wrote this 60´s style Rock tune

https://soundcloud.com/mj-pbp/20180222-is-this-rnr

"What is reality"
well what is reality, if you do look at people around you?
https://soundcloud.com/mj-pbp/20180208-what-is-reality-vocal-dem

"Joke of a man"
some difficulties in being a man falling in love with a much younger woman.
https://soundcloud.com/mj-pbp/20180222-joke-of-a-man

"Company sale"
my way of telling the story about Jim Burns and his guitarcompany.
https://soundcloud.com/mj-pbp/20180301-company-sale

"I know"
written a few day´s ago, to the love of my life.
https://soundcloud.com/mj-pbp/20180301-i-know

"You are on my mind"
yet another love ballad.
https://soundcloud.com/mj-pbp/20171130-you-are-on-my-mind

Well theres a couple of those songs that is performed by Görans Garage Band. Some of em recorded with all members, some that has been recorded by me in studio.

Happenings at dare studio´s

A while ago since I wrote anything on me blog-site, but here at last. Winter and cold weather give me opportunites to spend time with music. So what has happened in my musicworld. 

Realising that I written lots of songs during the last 20 year´s, so many that I´m not sure that I remember them all. But then again when I see them listed on my computerscreen. 

When did I write that song? A question that pop´s up from nowhere every now and then. Not beeing smart enough to date them all already from me writing them. I started to  work on this time consuming matter. Opening each file with written music, well on most of em I´ve written the date it was written. So  after spending hours and hours, finally the job was done!

Me 50 watt Burns Orbital PA-amplifier

Yet another problem that has been with me for years by now is to get a proper sound when I record.  

As an ole man with a bit of know how regarding the use of different taperecorder´s. Some year´s back I started to use Audacity. Well there is for certain much better musicprograms on the net, but for one thing I found it, and it was free. Not to fotget it actually work´s similar to a reel to reel recorder.

Main 8-channel mixer unit

So I started organising every bloody amp in the studio, making sure they worked properly. The mixer used seam´s perfect but with an extra mixer I hade the perfect tool to use with a load of microphones in front of each amp. Testing it for the first time it was like a brand new sound. Earlier I didnt get the sound from aech speaker, using line-out on em. The sound was now much more alive.

Mixer unit for Amp microphone´s

The DB app in my phone, used as a tool to set up volume for each amp was a perfect tool much better then trying to listen in hope to get the same output from the amp´s.

Microphone´s set upå in front of 2 cabinet´s

Most microphonés used for the job is cheap one bought for less then 25 pounds, but so far they seam to work fine. Only problem so far has been the proper microphone for the Basscabinet, where I picked a mor exclusive microphone for the job.

Time spent with all song´s I´ve written made me realise that I have written ap 400 songs the last 15 years. Songs that only a few of them will ever be heard even if I recorded them all.

have a great day...you all.