 Happy New Year! 2019 was an exciting year with album release, UK tour and trip to San Francisco. Looking forward to seeing what 2020 has to offer; other than perfect vision.
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 Merry Christmas / Happy Holidays / God Jul
Here's a picture of me from the North Pole, personally delivering Santa Claus a delicious piece of Christmas ham and his favorite marzipan sweets. Surprising fact, he's not very tall. The Rock Star dream continues… First of all, I am and always will be a metal guitarist. I’m also a huge fan of 80s music, and the artists of that era relied heavily on either guitars, synthesizers or both. It’s a decade that has always inspired me to play and write music, and even though my songs are normally on the heavier side, I still enjoy playing around with alternative instruments and arrangements. Rock Star is a very special song to me, and when we went into the studio to record Firestorm, we recorded it how I envisioned it. Since then, after rehearsing, recording and performing the song so many times, I’ve added all these new ideas in my head. As a songwriter, you always have to ask yourself, “when is the song finished?” In this case, I couldn’t stop, and it got to a point that I wanted to know what it would sound like. Since I’m a guitar player, the notion of recording a song with just synths and a drum machine might sound crazy, but it also demonstrates a side of me you rarely get to see. It also might allow the song to reach ears that would miss it otherwise. So I present to you, the synth pop version of Rock Star! I was fortunate enough to be nominated for a 2019 Hollywood Music in Media Award for Best Rock Song, for which the band and I are very grateful! Now, we were up against very stiff competition and we didn't win. However trite it may sound, I honestly believe that just being nominated was quite an honor and I want to congratulate all of the nominees and thank everyone for helping us take Rock Star to the top of the charts! Although I never had an opportunity to read my "thank yous," I still want to thank the many people who helped us with the Firestorm album, so here's what I was planning to say had we won: First off, I want to thank the HMMAs for the nomination and for giving exposure to up and coming artists. A big thank you to Kim Richards for believing in me since my beginnings here in LA, the late Stephan Bauer for signing me and John Velasco for taking over his role as president of Allied Artists Music Group; Sandra Hahn for helping out in so many different ways and being my surrogate mom all these years; my band, Alejandro Mercado, Michael Dwyer and Matt Grossman, for hanging in there since the beginning and most importantly, my late mom Ingjerd, my dad Bjørn Arne and brother Ståle, who put up with a basement rocker for all of my life! And all the others time doesn't permit me to thank, but are no less important. Please know that I love you all!  I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who came to the shows on our first UK tour! I also want to thank The Treatment and Buckcherry for being an awesome bunch of guys and for putting on one hell of a show, night after night. We had a blast, met a lot of cool people and can't wait to go back some other time! I also want to thank my band and crew for their dedication and hard work. Thank you!
The October issue of Music Connection has a review of Firestorm in it by Eric Harabadian. Thank you Eric for the kind words! Digital edition (album reviews on p. 48): https://www.musicconnection.com/digital/   There's an interview in the newest issue of Fireworks Magazine (#88) that goes into great detail about the 'Firestorm' album, my musical influences, background and what's in the future for Rocky Kramer. I'm very pleased with how it turned out, so check it out on the link below:
http://www.rocktopia.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=10993:fireworks-magazine-88-is-out-now&catid=41:latestnews&Itemid=65 The Firestorm release party was held on July 30th, 2019 at LA River Studios in Los Angeles, CA. Experience the red carpet interviews and The Rocky Kramer Band performing songs off the Firestorm album. The concert ended with an all-star jam, featuring special performances by Alex Cole, Prescott Niles and Mike Pinera. Get a chance to see how the Firestorm album was mixed at Sphere Studios and mastered by Bernie Grundman, with never-before-seen interviews with Rocky Kramer and Kim Richards while they were mixing at Sphere. Be a fly on the wall while The Rocky Kramer Band records the Firestorm album at 17 Hertz in North Hollywood. This 29 minute documentary gives you a chance to get to know the band, engineers and producer Kim Richards, while they're making an unforgettable concept album. |
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