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| Oh I bought some bootleg shirts too LOL - and I became sort of my own comic character ;) |
So here's my personal highlight list of the last year and for those who know me a bit it's probably no surprise that most of it is actually old music LOL - So 2021 brought a kind of transition again, back from being the big synthesizer nerd to playing much more guitar again. In fact in the last year I played almost every day which is sth I couldn't say for most of the years before. But being without the (often self-induced) stress of touring or putting myself in a kind of comparison with other bands all the time, which is sth odd that I did and wanted to really get rid off ... here I am like an old teenager, sitting in my man cave, blasting some stoner songs and accompany them on my Les Paul, really like I did back in the 90s.
So for the most part of the last year I also kind of rediscovered songs from the past: Five Horse Johnson, Paul Butterfield, Robin Trower may be some eternal faves. I also rediscovered stuff that I didn't pay too much attention to in the past like Mainhorse while blues guitarists like Buddy Guy or Gary Moore may as well be among the all-time favorite. On my quest for finding the "perfect guitar tone" I also began watching a bunch of youtubers like Rick Beato who made me look back into Peter Frampton stuff, ... tbh at some point I finally realized that I am really not that great guitar player at all, I mean just playing fast really is not everything at all. There is just so much more to learn and to pay attention to!!
Again this may be sth that in a band context may be hard to realize, when everyone is just so loud that often I didn't even hear very well what I was playing. I also tried to overcome some grudges that may keep lingering somewhere on my mind for a while longer. But to stay on a positive path I have learned a lot about recording, mixing and mastering my music. I have really recorded a lot of stuff and the Fuzz Sagrado-debut album is almost finished too. It's still such a weird time, every time I step out of the house and can't believe how the world changed from halfway normal to such an odd place, but then I am full of gratitude that I had such an amazing life while touring with the band. Not sure if I'll ever do any of that again. But you can be sure that music is still an important part of my time.
So just a few more words about the other music in this list, as you can see synthesizers still play an important role. That group Magic Sword has become one of my most played bands, and there's others in that vein like Donbor and I also am still discovering the Depeche Mode-back catalogue which some few years ago would have been rather odd to admit but it's great music... for us old farts, right. I also finally listened to Kingston Wall after some people used to mention them in comments under SBE-videos. What an amazing band, Kingston Wall I mean!! No comparison I'd have to say, I mean you can't seriously compare that to some simple stonerrock that we played LOL ...
That song by ELP came as quite a surprise too, I never really listend a lot to them either. While Jorge Ben Jor belongs to the many things that I discover here in my new home country Brasil, and the song has a very special meaning for my wife too. Kula Shaker is another all time favorite, I wish I could write such cool positive songs. With Fuzz Sagrado's "Two Face" I added an own composition, because yes it was an important moment too: finding back to rock music and finding out that I can do this all by myself without having to discuss anything all the time.
The Villagers Of Ioannina City and the Elder-guitarists solo record as Delving came as big surprises. While Villagers actually remind me a lot of SBE somehow, the latter was one of the big big surprises. I am not a fan of Elder, can't get warm with the vocals and everything, it's a bit too heady, but Delving - man, nothing but respect. This is a soloproject recorded in a few days in Richard's Big Snuff Studio and probably the most interesting thing I heard coming from Berlin in a long, long time. This also made me realize that I have to put more effort in my own stuff again LOL. Then Jean-Luc Ponty is just that proggy 70s Rock stuff that no one can really reproduce nowadays, although everyone's trying oh-so-hard ;) and lastly a track by Tangerine Dream, of which I am not a big fan at all but I watched a lot of old West German TV-series (Tatort w/Schimanski) and that song really reflects that vibe very well.
