From Anders

Started writing for this record around late 2017 or so. Had a lot going on in life so this was a little bit here and a little bit there whenever time allowed. Did 2 different recording sessions, 1 at the Warehouse and 1 at Rain City, both studios in Vancouver. Released in 2020. The process to throw this record together took longer than I wanted because so many things kept getting in the way. I love the songs on it, especially the OG version of "Still the Same" and "How Many Mountains". I feel the whole record just kind of encapsulates and represents who I am as an artist. Got a lot of good reviews. What I remember the most is making the music video for Broken Promises. It was filmed late August 2020 right as all the covid stuff was going on but starting to come to an end. Restrictions were being eased and modified. I wanted to do a video for a song to coincide with my record's release so I kind of called around to see if I could make it happen. Because everything was so slow due to the pandemic and all that, I ended up getting a really good deal on a video shoot. Total bang for the buck. That being said, this meant there was very little time for preparation and planning because things had to be done in a hurry. The director basically threw things together quickly and we had to do things hastily. Set up, shoot, and strip down in not even 12 hours. Full crew. We basically shot on the fly. 1 or 2 takes for each segment, and that was it. It was totally rushed and let me tell you, I was just feeling off that day, because I just felt totally stressed out. I got a deal on things but it still cost me a lot of money, make no mistake. Hence that was on my mind. I had different ideas for the concept and stuff too, but there was no time. Considering the circumstances, it being at the tail end of covid etc, everyone did great. At the end of the day, it's not THAT bad of a video. Could've been a lot worse. Add to all this I went to some salon a couple weeks before the shoot to get my hair cut and the lady there totally gave me a chop job! She totally butchered my hair. So much so, that I had to tune it up myself after the fact haha. There were limited places open then because everything was kind of just emerging and coming out of covid, so I had to just kind of go to this place I was unfamiliar with hahaha. Bad haircut, looked kind of silly, and in retrospect, I should've picked another song to do a video for..

Tracklist

Primarily Recorded at The Warehouse Studio, Vancouver, BC.
Drums: Pat Steward
Bass: Murray Yates
Guitars: Mark Watson
Additional Guitars: Murray Yates, Chris Turner
Produced and Mixed by: Murray Yates

Videos

"Man on Fire" roars out of the gate with thunderous drums and a chugging rhythm guitar that skirts metal. Before the record finishes, Eriksson drops in piano and pads his arrangements with synths. Melodically he is reminiscent of Def Leppard (another act that isn't hip but which is faring well).  Vocally, there is a cross section of Joe Elliott and Bon Jovi. The closest Eriksson gets to a current trend is "Dreams", but even this nod to electro is more like something Ultravox might have done in the late 1980s. "Still The Same" is hip-hop on Eriksson's terms. The nearest he gets to a ballad is "For Less Than Stellar Crimes", but even this has a heavy rock dynamic. 

So it isn't that "Man On Fire" is unaware; more that this is an honest expression of Anders Eriksson.

~ Tom Harrison (The Povince Newspaper)

I was working with some different producers and doing different projects at the time. I contacted this producer by the name of John Maclean who was working out of The Factory Studios in Vancouver (formerly known as Little Mountain Sound, where so many great records of the 80s were made. 

Place had a great drum room and an awesome Neve console). Anyway, John hooked me up with this guitarist by the name of Saki. He was a greek guy. Dude was fantastic and pretty cool to work with. The original plan was to do 3 songs, but because of time constraints and availability we only managed to do 2 at The Factory. 

To get a 3rd song done, me and another guitarist I was also working with on another project, Dave Young, quickly threw together a mellow tune called Way I Feel. We just recorded it right off the floor at Marpole Studios in Langley, BC. Rob Begg recorded and mixed it. So this project kind of became a salvage operation towards the end. Oh well, it is what it is. I still like it.

Tracklist

Recorded at The Factory (Formerly Little Mountain Sound), Vancouver, BC.
Drums: Pat Steward
Bass: JR "Squid" Harder
Guitars: Saki
Guitars on "Way I Feel": Dave Young
Produced and Mixed by: John Maclean
Engineered by: Sheldon Zaharko
Track 3 "Way I Feel" mixed and engineered by Rob Begg at Marpole Studios, Langley, BC.
Produced by Anders Eriksson
All vocals for EP recorded by Rob Begg at Marpole Studios, Langley, BC.

Done around the same time as the Anvil Clouds EP more or less. Was referred to a producer who went by Gordini. Dude worked out of Greenhouse Studios in Vancouver, which was pretty slick. I gave him a bunch of songs and demos and told him to pick one. He chose Roses. 

Ended up being this huge over the top rock/techno/pop hybrid thing. Sounded awesome. I also wanted to do a crazy remix too just for good measure, so I got Rick Almeida aka Blush Response to make it. Called it Omnibloomer. 

In hindsight, doing this single and remix was kind of a crazy endevour, and I was all over the place musically. Maybe I was bored? At the end of the day it was a good experience I guess. 

Tracklist

From Anders

This was my first ever cd. Released way back when dinosaurs walked the Earth. I made a few demos and got some interest in Japan. Was basically told if I pressed a full and completed record I would get distribution over there. So I went ahead and finished the whole thing, pressed and ready to go. Keep in mind, to make records back then wasn't cheap. Studio time was expensive, as was manufacturing and duplication, etc. The whole process was a grip and I was working at an industrial bakery to pay for it! And I also went into debt!? Every penny I made went towards this record. So after I totally overextended myself to pay for the whole thing and send it over to Japan, I find out the label had undergone a management shuffle and my contact/guy was no longer there. Literally last minute. That meant no distribution. I was stuck with this cd now that I did not intend to push anywhere but Japan. Certainly not in North America where the musical landscape was not at all any place for the kind of music on the record. I pushed it anyway locally and sent a few copies to Europe just to get some practice at doing that type of thing if nothing else. I hired a promoter, went to some radio stations and talked to some programmers knowing full well I wasn't gonna get played. In hindsight i should've shopped it around Japan more at least.. I wrote some of the lyrics in a hurry. and even some of the songs, for to get it completed and over to Japan. Because of this, I cringe when I listen to some of the cuts on this record, because with more time they could've been much better, but there are also some great tracks. "She Stands in the Rain" is still one of my favourite songs that I've written. Funny enough, after I had written this release off and just had a bunch of boxes full of CDs in my closet collecting dust, out of the blue 4 years after I released it I got contacted by a rock magazine in Germany. They did a great review of the record and as a result, I ended up selling a few thousand copies so I made some of my money back, but not all. Far from all, but at least I recovered a bit, and it was totally unexpected. I had no idea what I was doing back then. It was shoot first, ask questions later. There is more to this story but that's enough for now

Tracklist

Drums: Dave Stevenson
Bass: Greg Newsome
Guitars: Devin Townsend
Keyboards: Carl Craig
Produced by Eriksson, Townsend & Calibaba
Recorded at Slack and Elementary Studios by Blair Calibaba
Mixed at Utopia Park by Blair Calibaba
Mastered by George Leger