Watch this interview with Joey and Åberg about our gig at Arvikafestivalen this friday. And get a short preview of the new “My World Of Sin” video!

New video! Get the song on Spotify or iTunes! NOW!

Long time since anyone wrote anything in this blog!

Anyway, last weekend Sparzanza was of to Finland again. This time to play at the festival Sauna Open Air. We left Karlstad on friday afternoon. This time The Mighty Kim could not drive us so we got a nice new dude to drive and help us out named Karl. Cool dude!
Also Magnus could not play this festival so Krolle from Inferior helped us out once more! So 6 merry men in a minibus on a Finland ferry, well it could only mean one thing - KARAOKE!!!
Fred got lots of great feedback after singing some tunes, I did not! I wonder why?

We met the guys from Hammerfall on the boat aswell and had a few beers with them! Cool guys that we have not met before.

A little bit hung over we woke up the next morning and went our way to Tampere! Got to the festival area very early and met up with our friends from Headstomp and formerly bandmembers of Silver Moth. Just the sight of the stage at the festival area made Krolle a bit nervous (well, me too actually). The headliners, Motley Crue, (their crew) was preparing the stage so our soundcheck got a bit late, but that was no problem!

And then it was time to go on stage. When our intro started I looked out and saw thousands of people in front of the stage. We did a set about 50 minutes long and the audience was paralyzed! Best gig so far I must say. Everyone in the band played as good as they possibly could so…it was a blast!!!

Just before we had to leave Tampere to catch a boat back to Sweden we had time to say hi to Nikki Sixx from Motley Crue!

Check out pictures from Sauna Open Air in the gallery!

Now we are really looking forward to some other festivals in Sweden that we are going to play. We will also try to find some time to record a special treat for all of our fans this summer and write new songs!

Cheers!

Joey

Hey!!!

This weekend we first went to Gothenburgh to play at the Bandit party at Sticky Fingers. Before the soundcheck me and Fred went to Radio Bandit to to an interview. That was cool, they played “The Blind Will Lead The Blind” and “My World Of Sin” and after the interview they got lots of mails requesting more Sparzanza song! That is cool!
We did a soundcheck at Sticky Fingers and then went to check in to our 4 star hotel! At that time we were a long way from discusting junkie flats in Germany! Luxury at its best!

As you may have read, Calle could not play the gig, so we borrowed Kristofer from the thrash metal band Inferior! He did a great job on stage! Sticky Fingers was crowded and the audience was so cool! Our good friends in Dia Psalma did a gig after us on the top floor. We met some really cool people but could not stay that long so we missed the afterparty. Too bad, but what the hell!

We came back to the hotel pretty late and Fred was the first to notice the swedish popsinger Emilia in the lobby! Of course we had to say hi! Look at the picture below, she really loves Sparzanza, dont you think!!!

The next day we woke up at 7 am, packed the bus and drove back home to be on time for Calles wedding. This you really should have seen, never has the band looked so hot in our black suites. Of course Calle and his wife Jessie was the ones that really looked like a million dollars!
So, take a minute to sign our guestbook and congratulate the two!!!

Now I have to go back to cure my bad hangover!
Should it really have to be this bad? 2 days!!!

Today we rehearsed for the Bandit Party in Gothenburght on the 15th of may. The line-up at that gig is going to be a bit different than usual. This is because our good friend and band mate Calle has something much more important to do! Sparzanza will be joined by Kristofer Strandberg from our friends in the thrash metal band Inferior!
A good guitar player and he sure had done his homework, cause the rehearsal was great!
We hope you will enjoy this gig without Calle!

The first thing I did this morning was to welcome our new street team - The Black Cult Eskilstunda - to our clan! Welcome, and thanks for the support! The Black Cult is the official Sparzanza street team, for whom we arrange some special stuff. They are the first to hear unreleased and upcoming stuff, we arrange meet n greets, free tickets and special merchandise!

When I logged in to our Myspace page I noticed that our good friends from Damien has published their new video online. You should really check it out, not only  because it’s called “Black Heart” or that the drummer has a very nice t-shirt in the video, but because it’s a great song from a great band.

There has been alot of talk on the news about the new IPRED law which means that record labels and distributors can go to court and get the IP no’s from file sharers, who share copyright controled content, such as music, movies and e-books.
Now, if this law has any success we’ll see, but I personally think that it’s about time that something is done about the problem with illegal sharing and downloading. I used to think that it was pretty good, I thought that the artists that suffered the most really had enough money. But since the Sparzanza album “Banisher Of The Light” which we released on our own label Black Cult Records, I have somewhat changed my mind. Then we really could see how much money we lost because of this. Now, I’m sure that alot of people discovered Sparzanza because of that, and I’m happy for that, but then where are we going to get our money from, both as artist and label? I guess that more people came to our show, and some of them bought our album or some merchandise at the show, but not enough to cover the estimated loss for the illegal downloads.

Some of you might also know that we used a torrent-site to spread the single “Methadream” a while ago, and that is true, we did that. But that was our own choice, to spread that particular song for free to get some attention for the album “In Voodoo Veritas”. And this is what I really do not like; you can not longer decide for yourself if you wan’t to spread your music for free or not! If you choose to do so, it’s really up to you! Spread it everywhere! But if I wanted to keep the control on my own material, then there  is no choice, because as soon as the music is released (or even before), someone has posted the material on some torrent site, for everyone to download, and suddenly I have lost control of my own copyright controled music!

Well, what do you readers think about the IPRED law, downloads and such? Speak your mind!!!!

…spring has arrived! Today I went to the garage and started up my new Harley that I bought in december last year. I just had to take it out for the first ride this season! And man, it was great! A little bit cold, since I didnt have my biker clothes at the garage. But what the hell…what does not kill you…

The bike is a Harley Davidson Night Train, 2003.
It has nice longshots that makes it sound really nice! The previous owner has put on new indicators, forward controls and some more stuff that I really wanted to do with this bike! The only thing is to buy a new saddle bag and in a while probably lower the bike both front and back.

Tomorrow, if the weather is still good, I will bring my good clothes and take it for a longer ride!

Regarding the band, we are going to do a virtual gig at www.blipville.se on tuesday next week. I’m not really sure how it works, but I know that we will chat with the fans that will go to that show. I believe “we” will perform 7 songs. The future is here!!!!

I also have to order some more merchandise for the Finland Veritas Tour that starts on the 17th.

See ya out there!

Joey

Being in a band is hard work, I guess some of you know that! Not only are you tired after a weekend on tour, you will have to take care of business when you come home!

Today I have:
1. Taking care of paper work for the acountant.
2. Counting money for merchandise sold this weekend.
3. Learned how to deposit the money in a box in town.
4. Looked for papers we seemed to have lost in our rehearsal room.
5. Sorting out our t-shirts, while trying to find the missing papers in the t-shirt boxes. No luck!
6. Been scratching my head, desperate to find out how to get the fans to be able to do re-mixes of “My World Of Sin”.
7. Been swearing over Rikard, the producer, for recording so many tracks on the song mentioned above.
8. Gone bowling! And I won! Wanna challenge me?

/Joey