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THE STORY OF THE ALBUMS: POWER RIDE

by Thom Blunier

«First harsh setbacks and new motivation»

After a lot of great experiences on the road, there was now the first bitter setback. Roger Badertscher, our bass player at that time, decided to leave the band. We not only lost a solid bass player. Roger was one of my best friends. We knew each other forever and made music together even before SHAKRA. After an arduous search, we finally found an adequate replacement in Oliver Linder. With new motivation we started working on the new album. Pete had to sing in the stairwell while I was directing in the office. The recordings were partly done at home. I didn't want to bother with background noise in our rehearsal room anymore. Pete had to sing in the stairwell while I was directing in the office.

«The ringing on the vocal track»

During the mix, which I also did at home, I often heard the front doorbell ring. To my astonishment, there was never anyone at the door. After some detective work, it turned out that the ringing was recorded on the vocal track. Jonas, the son of our neighbors, often rang the doorbell at that time 🙂 In addition, I was struggling with digital recording machines, which were new at that time. The tapes kept breaking, which was devastating. I was almost just making backup copies. Eventually, however, that was also overcome and the disc was finally in the box.

«The snail on the cover»

Our cover proposal, a Lotus Formula 1 piloted by a snail, which roared towards the sunset, Harry from our label found quite crappy. He said that we were not a "snail band" but the sunset remained.

«First time in the CH charts at #64»

The album even entered the CH charts at number 64. We were proud. With Domain and Hotwire from Bavaria we went on *The Melodic Return* Tour. Three bands in a nightliner was a challenge! It was cool anyway.