Interview - A Man and His Music

An interview by Magnus Olsson 2001

I know that you have been playing piano since you were very young, but when did you really start to play?

That is so hard to say, I have tapes of me hammering away on the keys when I was four years old and I actually remember that I tried to add melodies in the high register when my father played the piano.The music has always been there, but I didn’t really begin to practise seriously until I was much older. When I was about 12 I started to play the drums and I remember that I practised more on the drums than I ever did on the piano so…
I think that I started to play the piano more seriously when I was about 13 years old. Before that I had never really practised on the instrument, I was just noodling and having fun. My playing has just developed over a long period of time. Even though I have played the piano for as long as I can remember I still feel as if I have just started.

Both your parents were musicians and in the entertainment business when you grew up. How do you think that has affected you?

It must have affected me in a lot of ways I think. There was always a lot of music in our house. My Father was a big fan of Frank Sinatra and big-band music and he was an amateur pianist himself. My Mother is a singer and she used to sing a lot of Mozart and Bach at home. I remember that she use to sing canon with me, she also taught me how to sing harmonies when I was very little.
It was an inspiring environment to grow up in, not only musically but also socially. Since both my parents worked in the theatre business we always had actors and other weird people visiting our house. My parents always worked odd times so I never got the feeling that they went to work like normal people do. I think that had a big influence in my life, I always knew that I wouldn’t want to have a regular 9-5 job anyway. At that time I didn’t know if I wanted to be an actor or a musician, most of all I wanted to be a secret agent like James Bond. :-)

Who were your early influences around this time? Were you listening to other keyboard players or just music in general?

Just music in general. When I was very young I use to listen to my mother’s classical records and I picked out some simple Mozart pieces by ear since I didn’t know how to read music. That’s how I began to make music. My first real idol was actually Frank Sinatra! Yes, I had a cassette with his “greatest hits” which I literally played to death. When I was about ten all my friends listened to Heavy Metal so then all of a sudden Sinatra wasn`t tough enough (I still think that Frankie is tougher than Biff Byford). I started to listen to some Kiss ballads which weren’t that different from Frank Sinatra (well…).
I listened a lot to Motley Crue and later I discovered bands like Dio, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, then I was hooked, a true metal-kid!! ha, ha, ha! Around that time I started to play the drums and I studied with a teacher for three years. I wanted to be the next Tommy Lee. I even joined the “Drum Corps”at that time. You had to wear a snare-drum, a costume and a silly hat, and believe me that was not what I wanted! The drummer in Motley Crue didn’t have a silly hat!! Now afterwards I can see that I learned a lot from all those snare-drum rudiments, paradiddles, flams etc.

When did you make the decision to take your playing more seriously and to get your chops down?

I think it was after hearing Yngwie Malmsteen actually. Here was this guy mixing the music that I grew up with, Bach, Albinoni and Johann Krieger with Heavy Metal. So I started to pick out all his music and I tried to play his guitar solos on the piano. That influence helped my technique a lot because I had to clean up my playing when I played his fast lines.

I started to know you when you were about 14 years old and you played in a band called Lorraine; did you have any other bands before that?

Yes, but not as a keyboardplayer. I started my first band in 86 I think. We called ourselves Ryper. I wrote all the songs, played drums and sang lead vocals together with the guitar player. We did two demos and a couple of schoolgigs. We sounded awful but we had a lot of fun. My first gig as a keyboard player was in a band called Charity (yes, we never got paid) which later became Lorraine. They were more of a pop band and I was more into metal at the time so we had a bit of a musical conflict.

You were heavily influenced by Yngwie Malmsteen then and that is not standard territory for a young keyboard player. What was it in his music/ playing that grabbed you so much?

Yes, what is it in music that grabs you? I really don’t know. The only thing I know is that Yngwie is one of the few rock players who can still bring a tear to my eye. His tone and vibrato touches me a lot. When I was a kid that was exactly what I wanted to hear. As I said before, here is this guy combining the music I grew up with, with heavy metal and he was a virtouso as well. I was also into the whole heroic, mythic thing you know. I was reading books about Paganini and all that. Up until his third album “Trilogy”, he was a big hero of mine.

You had already incorporated your unique use of the pitch bend into your playing then. Do you think that had anything to do with the fact that you were so influenced by guitar players.

Yes, that was definitely me wanting to be a guitar-player. I have never really liked the sound of the piano or keyboard, and I almost never listen to piano music. Because of the nature of the instrument you can not bend or put a vibrato on a note and I find that very limiting. I tend to like instruments that have a more vocal quality, such as the electric guitar, saxophone, violin etc… With the pitch-bender you can at least try to make the notes sound more alive by adding a vibrato or bending in and out of a phrase. I have never really liked the percussive side of the piano either, I think that I have developed a very light touch piano technique, because I want it to sound more legato, as if I am blowing out the notes. That’s what I hear in my head anyway. I much prefer to play the piano of course, that’s what I do best, but the keyboard just has a different expression.

You also started to get your solo sound together at an early age. How did that happen? Did you have a sound in your head that you were trying to find, or was it something you stumbled over by accident?

I had just bought a Roland D50 and I wanted a solo sound that sounded like a guitar, obviously the D50 was not the right keyboard for this. I should have had a Moog, Oberheim or something like that instead. Anyway, I found this sound called synth-lead which felt OK but sounded too much like a trumpet. I went down to the local music store and asked the guy if he knew anything about the D50 and he did. We sat down and I asked if he could make that sound more legato. We made the sound monophonic and changed the parameters until I found a tone that I liked. I have more or less used variations of that sound since then. I have really tried a lot of different keyboards. I am always looking for a timbre that I like and can work with but I still haven’t found anything that I like better than my original tone from my D50.

You went to Vienna and The American Institute Of Music to study for a year.
What was it that you wanted to get there that you couldn’t find in Sweden?

I was very young at the time (17) so I didn’t really know what I wanted. My first choice was to study overseas, you know, M. I. or Berklee, but that was too expensive and I didn’t want to take any big loans. Then I read that they had opened an American school in Europe, Vienna, Austria, and that sounded good to me.
I stayed in Vienna for two years. We had some good teachers there such as Les Wise, Elias Meire, Skip Higgins, Rick Margitza among others. It was also a great opportunity for me to meet musicians from all over the world, some of which I`m still in contact with today.

This was when you started to get known for your amazing technique and began to work with the American guitar player Todd Duane. You did some totally ground breaking demos with him, how did that happen?

Well, that’s a cool story. My buddy and fellow student Phi Ansari Yaan Zek had this fanzine called G-Force together with writer Matt Williams amongst others. He always received demos from unknown guitarists from all over the world, some of which are not that unknown today. At this time Paul Hanson was the “Head of the Rock department” but for some reason he quit and moved back to the States. So now they were looking for a new rock guitar teacher. Ansari had just recieved a demo from “- One of the hottest guitarists around”.
An unknown guy who lived in L.A at the time, and that was Todd Duane. Since Phi was a guitar student himself he went to Les Wise office with Todd’s bio and demo, he sat down and told Les that he would like to have this guy as his guitar teacher, Wise probably liked what he heard because they flew him over and Todd was the new “Head of the Rockdepartment”. It was an opportunity for him to come and work in Europe, so that was cool for Todd too I guess. I remember the first thing Todd said to me when he arrived in school: “- Are you that crazy keyboard-player meister from Sweden?”
I thought to myself; “- How the hell did he know who I was?” Later he told me that Mike Varney had played him a keyboard solo that I did called “Atmosphere”. He had played it over the phone so at first Todd thought that it was a guitar player.
He was totally blown away: “man that’s impossible to play on guitar!!” In this solo I did this descending line where the notes are ascending, one of Todd`s trademark sounds too. He thought it was cool to hear a keyboard player who played in a similar fashion.
After that it all just went insane,we had all these guys in school screaming for “trade-offs”, “weirder licks”, “FASTER….” ha, ha, ha! I played with the Viennese guitarist Milan Polak at the time so I was use to playing with guitar players. Todd and I began collaborating on some tunes trying to “out do” each other with impossible and funny licks. The sounds we did required a lot of technique so it was very challenging to play. There was so much energy in school during that time, it was a very happy time for me. Our collaboration resulted in a tune called “Schizoid” which was featured on Mark Varneys “Guitar on the edge Vol 1.No 4″Cd. We did a couple of tunes together and we played at the musicfair in Frankfurt - 93 -.

Did you ever have a special practise routine to develop your technique, or is it something that you got from just playing so much?

Well, I developed most of my technique by just playing a lot. I have always had pretty good motorskills. Technique is all about rhythm. If you have a strong clear and clean rhythm in your playing then it sounds 10 times cleaner and faster, more flowing. My technique is much better today, not because I practise a lot, but I think that the longer you play, the more you develop a natural relaxed timing. Sure, I did my share of woodshedding to achieve a certain level of technique. There was a time when I woke up in the morning, played until I became hungry, ate, then played again until I went to bed. That went on for quite some time. I did not have much of a social life then, ha, ha, ha!!
You get nothing for free unfortunately, it takes a lot of energy and passion to achieve something beautiful.
Life is not always beautiful and perfect, so I guess that I will spend the rest of my life trying to at least make my playing beautiful and perfect. I don’t know if I will ever get there, but at least I’m trying to do my best.

Then you came back to Sweden in 93 and started the band Ominox which had a more fusion oriented sound than the over the top shred stuff you did with Todd. Where did that come from?

I think that when I started Ominox I went back more to the way I originally played.When I was in Vienna I listened mostly to electric Jazz/ fusion music, Allan Holdsworth, Tribal Tech, Chick Corea Electric Band etc, and I had just discovered John Coltrane and Charlie Parker, so that was where I was coming from. Todd’s music required a certain kind of playing, a certain kind of energy that I haven’t found in any other kind of music. His music is like a very fast Tom & Jerry cartoon or something, so it’s not only physically hard to play but also mentally hard. I mean, if you are tired and moody then it’s just impossible to play that stuff. You need a lot of energy, and that can sometimes drain you. Todd is a fast-living American, I’m just a laid back cool Swede, ha, ha, ha!! And we don’t take any drugs other than Red Bull, Dr Pepper and caffeine pills. So forming Ominox was a way for me to relax really. ;-)

Your music is very complex and I know that you for example have had problems finding guitar players that perfectly suit your music. Do you find it hard to find good musicians to work with?

It’s not so much about finding “good” musicians, there are lots of great musicians out there, but it`s hard to find musicians who suit my music. I am always looking for a personality and individuality in a musician. Someone who would maybe add something interesting to my music. Since there is no real money in this kind of music it’s really hard to find passionate musicians who have got a style and the time to be in a band. It also depends on what music you are playing. It’s not too difficult to find fantastic players who play notated music, but It’ harder to find improvisers who can play over changes and still sound like themselves, especially guitar players.

Let’s talk about your project “Seven Deadly Sins”. It is a very different and extremely complex piece of music. Where did the idea to make a project like that come from?

I think that it’s every composers dream to one day write something bigger. The ultimate thing of course would be to make a movie or write a book, but if you can’t afford to make a movie, the second best thing must be to write a big piece of music with a theme. I had this idea in the back of my head for quite some time. I was just waiting for an inspiring theme,you know like “The Four Seasons” or “The Planets” or something like that, but I didn’t really want to use the most obvious ideas. At this time I had no idea what intruments I was going to use for this either. Then one day I was reading a question and answer page in the newspaper and one of the questions was: “Which are the seven deadly sins and in what books do they appear?”
I learned that they were originally in a specific order (the first letter of every sin should create the word Saligia)and I also learned the latin names for them, Superbia, Avaritia, Luxuria etc.. and I thought to myself: “what could describe our world better than these seven different emotions: Pride, Greed, Lust, Envy, Gluttony, Wrath and Sloth”. There I had my theme!!!!

So then I decided to write a piece of music, with different instrumentations for the different “sins”. I ended up with a speed-metal band playing in “Wrath” and “Pride”, because that was the sound I had in my head for those two emotions. I used piano, trumpet, flute, tuned percussion and a string quartet as sounds for the other “sins”.

Then I started to write and write and write…. this was before I had any computer software so I wrote it all down by hand. I wrote hundreds of pages and probably threw away about half of it before I was satisfied. I ended up with about 80 pages of handwritten music which I used for this project, which really isn`t that much if you compare it to other notated pieces for chamber orchestras. I used a lot of improvisation in this piece so for some of the parts the notation is very simple. Now I had all the music written out so all I had to do now was find musicians who wanted to play it, and since I had no funding for this I couldn’t afford to pay them anything! Good luck, I say!!!

It is recorded live, involves 14 different musicians and has a lot of music so it seems to be a huge project. How did you pull that off without backing from a record company?

Well, I almost didn’t. It took me about three years to write, record and finish the piece.
I did apply for cultural funds etc, but since I hadn’t really done anything of interest to anyone before, I didn’t receive any funding whatsoever. So I was on my own here.
I could never have done this CD without the fantastic help from all the great musicians and friends who supported me throughout this project.Everyone I approached with the music were really enthusiastic and everyone did it for free. I used members of the thrash-band Darkane for the metalparts and I used members from different symphony orchestras for the orchestral parts.
I worked at a place called “Musikhuset” at the time. A good friend of mine worked in the studio there, so I managed to get a good deal. There was a lot of planning involved. I didn’t know how hard it was trying to fit everyone’s schedules together, you know, book the studio, getting all the musicians together, the viola player came all the way from Denmark etc. On top of all that I had to make sure that the music sounded good!
If I had known how much work I had ahead of me, then I probably wouldn’t have done the project in the first place.

When you are doing projects like this, time is money. I still had to pay for the studio-time and most of the musicians didn’t have time to rehearse so I had to send them the music to look at and then we rehearsed it in the studio while soundchecking. I had to record this CD in segments, therefore we did a lot of overdubs (trumpet, guitars etc.) to save time. It was almost impossible to get all the musicians together at the same time. “Invidia” (Envy), Acedia (Sloth) and the Epilogue were all recorded live (except for some guitar overdubs), the rest of the CD is more or less overdubbed. It was fun to see the piece grow, almost like a puzzle or a painting with everyone adding their parts. In the end I was so sick and tired of the piece that I just wanted to get it over with. It feels cool to have done it though, but I would never do it again. Not under those circumstances.

This piece involves many different instruments which I know that you can’t play yourself, so how did you learn to write for them?

When you write for different instruments you have to study the characteristics. One of the important things is of course to learn the ranges of the instruments, so that you don’t write too low for instance. Of course I prefer to write for instruments which I can play myself (piano, drums or guitar) but this time I used strings and winds. So I had to study a little, but I really didn’t write anything too advanced for those instruments. I wrote all the guitar parts on the guitar and the drumbeats on drums. Writing the tuned percussion parts felt very natural to me since it’s a mixture between drums and piano. So writing this piece wasn’t too difficult for me.

Where do you think the inspiration for a piece like that comes from?

Mm… that’s a difficult question. If I knew I would visit that place more often, ha, ha!
I really don’t know, all these ideas pops up in my head and I feel that I just have to do something with them. The “Seven “project is a mixture of all the music I have listened to I guess. I would need several lifetimes to realize all the projects that I have in my head. That`s probably why I can be absent minded sometimes if I’m in a boring social situation, I have all this music in my head! Ha, ha, ha!!

This music always puts pictures in my head when I listen to it.
Is that the way you wrote it,trying to put music to pictures in your head?

In a way I guess that you could say that. When you write music over a theme you have to translate the emotions you get from that theme into music. Sometimes it can help to visualize your emotions, and by doing that you can put music to pictures in your head.
Yeah, that’s one way to look at it.

Did the project turn out the way you intended it to do?

Parts of it did and parts of it didn’t. If I had more money I would have re-recorded some of the stuff because I’m not happy with the playing on certain pieces. Also the production could have been better. I couldn’t even afford to record a proper grand piano, so the piano you hear in “Acedia” for instance, is an out of tune upright piano with broken keys. That’s the only piano they had in the studio. I used it as a musical effect instead, you have to work with what you’ve got. As a whole I’m not satisfied with the recording, but it has a certain charm I guess. We didn’t have enough time in the studio and the budget was super-low. Under the circumstances it’s OK I guess. It’s unlike any other music that I’ve heard, it involves 14 musicians and I did it all for a budget of 10.000 SEK. I don’t regret doing it anyway.

You always play over intricate chord changes with an amazing fluidness while keeping the melody in context.
How have you achieved that?

Playing over changes is something that you develop over a long period of time.The only way is to study and learn about chords and their scales.At first you have the muscular memory,you know, you see the chord and your fingers know what scales to play.
That`s the mathematical left side of the brain working. When you start to play creative music you can`t let the chords stop your flow.Therefore you really need to hear or sing the notes in your head before you play them.When you are doing that you are using your creative intuitive right side of your brain.It may sound difficult but it`s really all about being able to sing the scales.
I mean,most everyone can sing a major scale and make melodies out of it.Playing over chords is just singing different scales and melodies.

It sounds to me like you can play any kind of music with a fantastic sense of style and still always sound like you. How have you achieved having your personality shine through no matter what you play?

Wow,thank you very much!!That`s the greatest compliment I`ve ever received!
I think that every musician has their own fingerprint no matter what they play.
The problem for a lot of musicians I think is that they try to base their own style on a couple of licks. You cannot build your personality around licks.It takes time to develop a style,it also takes a lot of courage to be yourself.
It´s so much easier to be liked by other people if you play something that they will recognize immediately. I think that you have to learn to trust your ability,and that a “style” is not important,licks are not important. If the expression of the music is true then your identity will shine through whether you like it or not.

Do you think about how hard your compositions are going to be to play over when you do them?
Or do you find yourself thinking, shit, this is tough?

When I write a tune I usually come up with the head (main melody) first and then I see where the chords are leading me.
A good example of that is my tune Ominox. I wrote the main theme first and I was going to go into some easier solo changes,but I just couldn`t seem to find anything that fitted. So I decided to have the solo over the same chords as the melody to keep the character of the piece.When I tried to solo over it I went: - “Shit,this is really difficult…why did I write this tune?!”
Some of my compositions comes pretty easy, others are damn tough to play over.

Have you ever tried to analyse where the music in you comes from?

One of those difficult questions again! Where does all creativity come from? It`s a very big question.I really don`t know.Some would say that all creativity comes from GOD,but that might sound pretentious. I think that all creation comes from America,no I`m just kidding. ;-)

I personally think that the word GOD has been misused for such a long time now and it`s been used to suppress people. The church has throughout history ,as you know,used its position to put fear into people,-”If you do this,this will happen…..etc” I still cringe at the old religious texts sometimes,some of them are very judgemental and very human and stupid,if you know what I mean. All this has of course very little to do with the real “creative source” ,god ,or whatever you want to call it. I usually say that I believe in what I see and what I feel. And I truly feel that oneness or that contact with the”creative source” sometimes,especially in my music. Life doesn`t have to be as difficult as we make it out to be. I mean just go out in the nature and look around you ,you are a part of something very big and magical and that`s GOD to me.The goal would of course be to always be a part of that creative flow,but we are only human and that sucks,ha,ha,ha! I don`t know if any of this answers your question but that`s how I feel about it anyway.
I think that you have so much spiritual strength when you are born,but then unfortunately you develop fears and limitations.
Disappointment creates loneliness etc… I think that we are all born in love but for some reason we live in fear and that`s a hard circle to break.That`s why the world is the way it is I guess,where the main purpose is to gain status,respect,money,with very little concern about other people.But are the so called winners in our society really happy? Have they found happiness? I don`t think so. I am sure that you can label a lot of outlooks with words such as ,Buddism,Christianity,Tao,etc,etc… but to me it all comes from that same source which we can`t understand.Labels are not interesting to me it`s all about trying to be happy. Somehow the purpose must be to be just happy and to see the beauty in the “little” things in life. To me the most beautiful thing in life is music,and if I can have a small part in creating that,then I`m happy.
I`m just following my instincts.

What kind of things in life inspires you to write these days?

Creative people always inspire me.
Whether it’s film makers, artists or musicians, it really doesn’t matter as long as their work touches me in some way. I also try to keep myself open to creativity. I believe that all people can be creative if they are open and listen to their own creative side. Inspiration comes to me in many ways, sometimes from other musicians and sometimes from inside myself.

Not so long ago I read a book about the composer Conlon Nancarrow.
He heard rhythms and melodies which were impossible for a human to play so he wrote a lot of music for the player piano.
Nancarrow spent most of his life punching holes in pianorolls, all for the love of art.
After he had composed a piece it could take him about eight months just to punch the roll for a six minute piece!
People probably called him crazy,spending so much time writing “weird stuff that no one would listen to anyway”. He didn’t care because he knew that he could create something beautiful and unique and bring it into the physical world.
That was his big contribution to life. I find that extremely inspiring.

What do you listen to for inspiration?

I listen to a lot of different music, but there are a couple of musicians who always inspire me. One of them is Allan Holdsworth who is just incredible. He found his own true voice and he never stops perfecting his expression. He is totally unique and a true innovator, a genius in my opinion. Everytime I listen to his music he inspires me, same thing with Eric Dolphy who was an innovator and a saxophone virtouso. Even when he played on other peoples records his personality was so dominating. The way he flied through the changes with an amazing flow and individuality, wow!!!
Not only that, but he was just as efficient on flute and bass-clarinet. An incredibly inspiring musician! There is so much great music out there, you just have to know where to look. I’m always listening to music, and it’s changing all the time. Right now I’m listening a lot to Joe Diorio and the underestimated guitarist Ted Greene for instance.

I know that you are a big film fanatic; do you get ideas for music from there?

Sometimes, yes. I really admire the films of David Lynch. They can inspire me to visit other places inside myself, and Lynch’s moods can sometimes make me write new music.
Same thing goes for some of David Cronenberg’s movies, I also like Howard Shores filmscores. As a matter of fact I get very inspired by listening to old Warner Brothers cartoon music, you know, Tom & Jerry and that stuff. I mean, listen to the music!! I have a tape of Carl Stalling’s music which is just incredibly creative. Stalling did most of the music for “Looney Tunes”; Daffy Duck, Bugs Bunny, Sylvester, Tweety Bird, Road Runner and such other characters. Fantastic and innovative music. Another underestimated genius I think.

I think a lot of your music would be perfect film music,
Have you ever considered film scoring?

No not really, It’s nothing that I have thought about doing anyway.
It might be fun, I wouldn’t be too interested in writing traditional film music,but it would be cool to do a creative collaboration with some psychedelic puppet-maker or something!! Ha,ha,ha, I’d love to write music for a surreal animation or stop/motion or something like that. But sure, if I meet a film director whom I like, I might be interested. If the work fits my personality.

You just did a recording of solo piano music that will be released on CD soon. Tell us about that?

Yeah, finally I have a CD with me playing the piano! The reason why I have done most of my recorded projects on electric instruments before, is that no studios around here can afford to have a grand piano. The idea for this CD came out of a studio session that I did in January. I was recording the piano tracks for a compilation CD called “The Warmth In The Wilderness”. It’s a tribute and a charity cd for the ALS diseased guitarist Jason Becker. Me and guitarist Phi Yaan Zek are performing Becker’s piece AIR. (By the way, it should be out on Lion Records July 22, 2001).

Anyway, it went quicker than I thought so I used some of the studiotime to record some improvised piano music. It turned out really great so I booked another two days. The idea was to record as much material as possible and then pick the best stuff for an album. I recorded about an hour of music and I ended up with about 45 minutes for the CD. I played some of my own tunes plus a couple of standards. It turned out to be a really creative session, I picked songs that I really knew well and I tried to go into the studio without any preconceived ideas/ trying to find the flow. There is a creative version of “All The Things You Are” and “Moments Notice” + a tribute to Nancarrow on there among other things. This is without a doubt the best CD that I have recorded so far I think. For the first time I’m satisfied with the result and the creative flow. Hopefully someone will be interested in releasing it. If not, I will release it myself and sell it at gigs and through my website www.lalelarson.com.

You have recorded all your parts for a CD with Todd Duane and Peter Wildoer. How did that turn out? And when will that come out?

Yes, finally we are playing together again! That’s fun! When we did “Schizoid” back in -93- we were supposed to have done a fulllength album on Shrapnel Records, but that never happened. So now 8 years later we are finally making that CD on the Swedish label “War Music” instead. Last year War paid me to go to America for three weeks to do the guitar/ keyboard tracks with Todd, then we got Peter Wildoer to do the drums in Sweden. We tried to capture the energy and insanity that we had in Vienna and I think that we have succeeded this time. Wildoer added some really mindboggling stuff, some of the most intense drumming that you are ever likely to hear. He was the perfect drummer for this CD. I will not try to explain the music, you will just have to hear it for yourself.
If you have heard “Schizoid” and Todd’s other stuff, add some more Red Bull, and that’s what it sounds like, ha, ha, ha! Insane cartoon music on electric instruments. In one song I solo over Coltranes “Countdown changes” while Peter is going insane with double bassdrums in the background, it’s all pretty crazy. ;-) It’s called “Electrocution 250″ and it will hopefully be out late this fall on Warmusic.

I know that you are thinking about putting life back into Ominox.
Any other projects that are in the making that you would like to tell us about?

Yes. I have a new duo, with marimba soloist Thomas Widlund, which I’m really excited about. We call ourselves Marimba Flesheaters and I have written about 30 minutes of music for this duo. It’s all notated music, very hard to play and very entertaining for the listener I think. The rehearsals will start this fall and I hope that we will nail all the difficult passages, ha, ha, This is some tough shit! The music lies somewhere between Nancarrow, Zappa and Carl Stalling’s Cartoon music I guess. And yes, I am also trying a new line up for Ominox this fall. I have some new material to try out so we’ll see what happens. I’m looking forward to that.

And finally, what are your plans for the future?

To relax more and try to enjoy myself. I also would like to concentrate more on my own music in the future. It feels as if the time is right for me to do something with it. I have all these new projects ahead of me which I`m looking forward to. I have been working so much with my compositions lately so right now I just want to get out there and play as much as possible. I just want to play what I feel and share it.