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     Chasin' Voodoo (2015)






Your new excellent solo album "Dream Catch" is your second solo album I believe? How come it too so many years and what have you been up to since releasing "Pictures of a Dream" ?
 
- Thank you, I'm glad to hear that you enjoyed it! Yes that's right, it's my second solo album. I have been in a lot of other projects and other things in life that have taken much time. And my band mates have had a lot of stuff to do to. It's hard to get the time to be enough to everything in life. But I'm happy that we waited until now, because I have made some changes and written some new parts that wouldn't have been there if we released the album a few years ago.
 
How long did it take to record "Dream Catch"?
 
- Very hard to say, but in effective time, it has probably not taken so long. But... since I've also mixed and done the master and along with all the recording, it certainly took a few weeks in an effective time.

Do you have any plans to perform live with this music?
 
- I have been dreaming about it and it would have been fun, but I don't have any plans about that today.




  Do you have any specific goals you want to achieve with this album?
 
- Music for me is life, all I wanted with this album was to make a really good album that I'm happy with. I have no pressure that I must make money on my music, so it’s just joy and happiness. Releasing the disc allows me to start focusing on other and new material. It really feels great!

 Who were your main influences when growing up and now?
 
- Randy Rhoads was my biggest influence when I started to play, my favourite album which I also played a lot along to was Blizzard of Ozz, still love that album! Randy was such a brilliant guitar player! His guitar solos is always played with mind and a big heart.
 
Then when I heard Vinnie Moore’s; “Mind’s Eye” and Tony Macalpine’s; “Maximum Security”, for the first time, I was blown away and a new era was born for me. When I was about 17 or 18 years old I started to study Vinnie Moore’s album “Time Odyssey” and played a lot along to it. I almost picked every note of it. Vinnie’s tone, technique and vibrato are 100% perfect in my opinion. I guess you can hear influences of him in my music.
 
Other guitarists/artists and albums that has been a big influence for me through the years are: Yngwie Malmsteen’s album “Rising Force” and “Marching Out”, Joe Satriani’s “Surfing With The Alien”, “Not of This Earth” and “Flying in a blue dream”, Tony Macalpine’s “Edge of insanity”, Joey Tafolla’s “Out of the sun”, Steve Vai’s “Passion and Warfare”, Al Di Meola “Casino”, “Elegant Gypsy” and “World Sinfonia”, Mike Oldfield “Ommadawn” and “The Songs of Distant Earth”, Dream Theater “Images and Words” and “Metropolis Part 2: Scenes from a Memory”. I have of course listened to lots of other music and bands through the years and I guess I got influences from all of it. As I said, music is life, both listening to it and writing it.



What about the band Mindsplit? Was this just a studio project or do you plan to do any touring?
 
MindSplit is a studio project but if we manage to do another album, (allready got a few song idea's), we should got enough material to do concerts, so let's see in the future how it will be.

What kind of guitars and amps do you use and how about your pedal board?
 
Since I'm just sitting in the studio and playing and have not played live for many years, I've sold the guitar amplifier, I had a Peavey Classic 50W, (I used it on my first album "Pictures of a Dream"). My absolute favourite guitar is an Ibanez RGT320QRBB but also uses another Ibanez, a Godin and a Fender Stratocaster. They all have their advantages, but the favourite can handle most and have incredibly nice harmonics on the high tires. As an effect, I have an amplifier simulator, VOX Tonelab with pedal table. I have been very happy with it as well.

How do you see the music business of today with disappearing CD sales and everything focusing on streaming?
 
Obviously it is harder to make money on music, the music industry is changing and in some way it must be reformatted so that those who make music can still earn money. One thing that certainly influenced this is that it is possible for everyone to record music and you are not addicted to a record label or a distributor anymore. But it also means that the layer between the smaller ones and the larger becomes even bigger than it was before. But it also enables more artists to spread their music and that listeners get a bigger selection of music. I've never made music for money, for me music is a necessity and a pleasure. If I had been able to live on the music, I could of course have been more efficient and create more music...

Is it true that there are too many artists and not enough music fans for lesser known artists?
 
Absolutely. And that was a little bit of what I was about to say. Today, everybody can record both music and movie clips and appear on various internet channels or join Spotify, etc. Though I think the biggest problem is, that it's so much more competition of time now than before, I'm not aiming for competition only in music, more above all what there is for something to spend time on. When I was young, there was not so much competition for the music, we had a few channels on TV, that's all. Today, there are computer games, facebook, youtube etc ..., hundreds of channels on TV, movies, smart phones, more sports to execute etc ... etc .. The young people hardly have time to listen to a song without zapping on to the next, just because they're going to catch up with everything that's on offer. There's a huge stress in all media flow nowadays. Today, "watching" music is more what peoples do rather than listening to music. It’s just my point of view…

Please feel free to add whatever you like....
 
Something that people have always been interested in, are talents and things to be impressed by. The music I do is very much aimed at people who want to be inspired and impressed by dexterity and high musicality. I hope that with my album "Dream Catch", I can inspire others to create music where it takes a lot of time, mind and heart. I have in no way attempted to create an innovative disc but just tried to make a record of good melodies and great songs that will grow with the number of listenings. I guess it will take some listenings to understand my album. But I also think that those who really give it a chance have an album they will listen to many times for many years. There are no verses or choruses in the songs I do, just a start and a journey to the end, and what I often hear from those who listening to my music is that they get the feeling of going or flying through beautiful landscapes and environments. I hope you will like and enjoy it too! Thanks for reading!
 
Here are some addresses, please write me a few words and add me as a friend or subscribe!
www.mathiasholm.se
www.facebook.se/MathiasHolmKlarin
www.youtube.com/user/MathiasH0lm (it's a zero between H and L)
www.twitter.com/MathiasH0lm (it's a zero between H and L)