Rydholm/Säfsund - Album of the year? YES!

Anders Rydholm (g, ex-GRAND DESIGN, ART OF ILLUSION) and Lars Säfsund (v, WORK OF ART, LIONVILLE, ENBOUND, ART OF ILLUSION) put out one hell of a record. It’s a perfect blend of TOTO and CHICAGO. A very pleasant talk with the main songwriter and guitarist should follow. “Kaleidoscope“ surely is going to make it into many “top albums of the year“ lists by both fans and journalists. Sheer quality from songwriting to arrangements and from recording to production.

How and when did the debut album of Rydholm/Säfsund come into being?
First of all, I wanted to give these tracks a different label to avoid explaining all the time why it sounds pretty different from Art Of Illusion. That’s why we choose Rydholm/Säfsund rather than a continuation of Art Of Illusion. Don’t get me wrong but this kind of style is where I come from. This Westcoast style I love so much, just like Lars does. The song “Hey You“ started it all, it was the first song we did. I love everything in the vein of Earth, Wind & Fire and everything for instance David Foster did. All this funky stuff is real music and a huge influence for what later became Grand Design. But suddenly when Grand Design took off, everyone was pushing for more and more guitars. The first song “Hey You“ goes back to 2004 when I worked on the Code album with Sherwood Ball who sang the first version. He passed away in 2015 and I wanted to use his vocals on this song but his family, who own the rights, was not interested. It was also the first song I had a horn section playing. We took it more or less from there and here we are with an album like this.

Does it mean that there won’t be any Art Of Illusion records anymore?
I love melodic rock and from what I can tell, Lars, too. The initial idea was to do another record as Art Of Illusion but Lars was not too keen on it as he felt stamped as melodic rock singer but wanted to do something else. I can imagine doing more songs in this very style although the next album will be very likely a mixture of melodic rock songs and tracks in the vein of this album with not only Lars singing but some others singers, too.

Having all real players, all the horns and stuff and no samples at all, it must have been quite an expensive production, though…
Yes, indeed! Back in the day, this sort of production was like some million dollars but even today it is definitely not cheap. Everybody involved, of course, wants to be paid. This is the reason why I was not willing to let go of the rights of the songs. You know, there were some offers from the obvious labels but there was no chance at all to recoup the expenses. What we did is that we tried to keep control. So, Pride & Joy is selling the CD exclusively.

Two of the many guests on this album are Robert Säll from Work Of Art and Tim Pierce, a Westcoast rock legend, on guitar. How did that come about?
Robert is a friend of mine and obviously goes way back with Lars, too. He plays on “The Plains Of Marathon“ which, I think, fits his style very well. He did not even want any money and said that it was just so much fun. The track with Tim on it is “4th Of July“ and that was recorded some years ago, in 2010, and meant to be on another album. It should have been used for Grand Illusion but has never been published.

My favorite at the moment is “Sara’s Dream“. What can you tell me about that song in particular?
Oh thank you! I sent “Hey You“ to Bill Champlin, a hero of mine and was interested in what he would say. He wanted more songs in that direction and then I wrote “Sara’s Dream“ with his voice and his special phrasing in mind. My dream has always been to have him sing something on one of my albums. But I don’t know if he listened to the song…ha ha ha.

And then there is “Bucket List“. A wonderful Toto-esque tune…
Especially in the chorus, isn’t it? Martin, I guess the two of us are in that particular age where you start and reflect on things you still want to do. This song is exactly about that, doing things of that list. Yeah, there is probably a mix of “Georgy Porgy“ and “Africa“ in the chorus. Making such an album was on my list for sure. And musically it was the last song written for “Kaleidoscope“. The album production came to an end and there was one song missing. I had more tracks written but with some of them Lars was not too happy. So I wrote this one knowing that he would love to sing it although for me personally          it certainly is a little bit too Toto-ish.
 
The beautiful artwork of the album and the corresponding artworks of the various singles, that can be found on all streaming platforms, are both simple but highly sophisticated.
Yes, that’s true. The theme of a kaleidoscope actually seemed to be very suitable for the many faces or facets of the album. The artist responsible is Carl-André Beckston. He calls himself Blekkmark and truly did an amazing job. Everything is connected and suits the lyrics to a certain degree. In the past I haven’t been happy with all artworks that were used. But this is amazing.

Anders, is there anything you would like to add? Any message to the customers of Pride & Joy Music, the German melodic rock fans?
Listen to the album! Buying music is the only way to make sure there will be new releases! I am very grateful to Birgitt and Pride & Joy Music for helping me getting this album out. I was a little bit insecure because the album is a bit different and perhaps needs a couple of spins to reveal every detail.

Martin Stark