Well, we got in touch with the company hosting the files of our album, and at least managed to temporarily plug the torrent of illegal copies. Fruitlessly, I’m sure, and not for long, but it was important to do something.

And to all our fans, please don’t get us wrong - we don’t want to hide our music from You, or disrespect You, or accuse You of anything. We love each and every one of You and Your support has been invaluable to us from day one. It’s hard to take something away from You all, but trust me, it’s worth the wait. New bands that are just coming out need Your support, to convince the business part of the music business that their investment is viable. We depend on these people as much as we depend on You, and sometimes it’s hard when the blade falls their way. Trust us, it’s worth the wait.

A funny thing just happened. I just did a Google on my band and found out that our album’s available on filesharing. And a funny sort of “punch-in-the-belly” feeling started spreading in me.

The thing is, the album’s not out until August 22nd! Some ‘rock journalist’ took an advanced copy of the album and shared it and is just eats me alive - Give us a damned chance! These days if Your first album doesn’t make a profit You don’t get to make a second one, so for us it’s so vital to make a decent turnaround just to stay alive in the business…

Record companies can’t afford loss leaders anymore, and You need to be making them money from day one unfortunately. I know that for us as a band, the more people that hear our music the better, so from that perspective filesharing is great, since more people show an interest in the band, spread the word and show up at gigs, and that kind of support is invaluable - but none of that, absolutely none of it is worth it if You get terminated by the label for losing money…

And the worst thing is, right now there isn’t even an option to buy it legally since it isn’t out for another month - which means we run the risk of saturating the market before we’ve even set off.

I’m in no denial about the times we live in, I was expecting the CD to show up online eventually, I just didn’t think it would happen this early on - obviously it was someone that received a promo CD, meaning a magazine, radio station or what not, and these are not people out of the business, it’s a guy or girl that should know exactly how broke the music business is these days…

I know it’s inane not to believe Your stuff will end up online, but give us a damned chance.

Well, it’s official. I am now officially a Guitar Hero player. Not only that.

A few mornings ago, I woke up early to be standing in front of the local game store sale at opening hour (8 AM), and came fifteen minutes early, only to be put at the back of a two block line! Naturally, by the time I got there, not only was I in desperate need of medical attention from the typically Swedish temperature this time of year, but guess who was al out of what, eh?

Two hours later I showed up at another place, just in time to notice they opened an hour later than I thought. Luckily, this meant I was first in line this time, and hooked myself up with this beauty:

And I can honestly tell all of You Guitar Hero players: You are nowhere near the mark with this game! I was surprised by JUST how un-guitar this game was. Brilliant entertainment, wonderful to watch, awesome for practicing left and right hand coordination, but as a not-so-talentless guitarist I must say it’s nothing at all like playing guitar.

Of course, I’m only saying this, because I was awful at it. But there You go! Happy New Year everyone.

Today marked another ‘first’ for me…

A little less than a year ago I was blessed by the first of what would prove to be very many fan emails. I always take the time to answer every single one, and I truly believe that if another human being took the time to write me, after taking the time to consider writing me - me of all people? - the least I can do, the very least, is to write back, and be as polite and friendly as I possibly can.

But today was a different story. Today marked the emergence of my very first - hate mail. A very unfriendly piece of mail, explaining to me just how unworthy I was of everything I had.

For a person such as myself, who takes pride in always being friendly in my replies to people, such a thing is new. What brings a person to feel so much unrest to write such a thing?

There are a lot of things one fails to understand.

Today we celebrate the feast of St Lucia in Sweden. It’s the start of the true holiday season, as evident by the Santa Claus hat, and Christmas CD present at the time of me writing this.

It’s been an interesting few days. I’m deep into my winter depression, and have rarely felt as useless and crap at everything I try as I do now. The days are dark and short, the nights bitterly cold. I also read lately that December is the month when we put on almost all the weight we end up keeping, due to overeating and stress, and that lesson makes nothing better or easier.

I finished mixing the Zleipner demo today. A great bunch of young guys whose career I hope to have given a small puff in the right direction. There were a few recording technique snafus, but I truly hope that the finished product will be something they will be proud to play with their friends. And so I am magically transported through the looking glass into the shoes of the people mixing OUR album. And realize where they’re coming from.

I also seem to have invented, according to a few emails, a new guitar technique - and I’m pleased about that. It’s important to leave some sort of imprint of ourselves.

I spent all day watching Mr Petrucci’s excellent Discipline video. Warming up the muscles, programming positions into muscle memory, stretches and so on. It felt so wonderful, like being back in the days when guitar was still all about discovery and amazement, when improvement was daily and the sky was the limit. Off to the practise room, to sweat.

Tomorrow’s another day, time to play.

I’ve just come back from the rehearsal studio having witnessed one of the most horrifying snarling pig noises a keyboard could make… A new song is coming together and it feels so good to be a part of the creative energy that is so alive and vibrant when so many minds meet and create music together. It is these writing sessions that remind me that life is worth living - the wonderful feeling when one is writing, of the fact that noone in the world knows how these songs sound, except us… Like witnessing a miracle in so many ways.