Category Archives: Ramblings

Kiss ramblings II – September 2011

Posted on by Nils Brekke Svensson

Monster and the future of the music business

September is is almost over and my last ‘rambling’ post was quite piss poor, so I thought I would write a little about the music business and ‘record’ stores that are really starting to piss me off. I was involved in a discussion on Facebook about ‘physical media’ last night and It suddenly hit me that I could have problems to get the next Kiss release ‘Monster’ on the release date like I have with all records since Dynasty came out in 1979. Maybe It will be the first Kiss release I will have to order online to hear It at all.

What is the future of the music business. Or is there a future at all? Will we ever see bands with an incredible fan base as Kiss in the future? I really don’t think so. And who is to blame? My answer would be the ‘music and record business’. And please don’t give me the line about file-sharing and downloading. The rot in the business started a long time before the real decline started on the eve of the Twentieth Century.

In the beginning of the 70′s most records companies was run by people who loved music. And those kind of people built artists. If you didn’t succeed at first, they at least gave you a chance or two before you got the boot out the door. Kiss is a perfect example of this. The band needed three records before they really broke with Alive!, and even if they had not broken big they would have been able to go on with the sales they had up until then. And almost all the bands/artists that are big sellers today are artists who grew up under that climate. Continue reading →

Kiss ramblings – September 2011

Posted on by Nils Brekke Svensson

September has almost come and gone and I haven’t been able to update these pages as much as I want. Time just goes to fast and there is to much to do. I probably also have a little ‘Kiss depression’ because I’m not able to go on the Kiss Kruise. So I have been listening to Uriah Heep and the new Alice Cooper record ‘Welcome 2 My Nightmare’ a lot the last couple of weeks. And I really have to recommend the Cooper record if your an Alice fan. I haven’t had a record on that high rotation since Sonic Boom came out in 2009. I really hope the new Kiss record ‘Monster’ will be as good as ‘Welcome 2 My Nightmare’.

At last I managed to fetch my Kiss Army Norway T-shirts from Stig. And I think they look really cool. And It’s great that we at last managed to get people what they have been asking for for many years. I hope the people that are going on the cruise will wear them with pride.

The ‘Kiss Party’ that Cato B. arranged in Oslo on Saturday was also cool. There were more people than I expected and I had real fun meeting at the cool ‘Kiss people’ again. The owner of the place seemed quite satisfied also. So there will probably be more Kiss parties at the same place.

That’s all for today.  I will be back with more stuff soon.

Kiss ramblings – August 2011

Posted on by Nils Brekke Svensson

There is a MONSTER up ahead

OK. This is a new little feature I will try to do each month. As It says in the title It’s just me rambling on… So if It seems a little unstructured, don’t take It to seriously.

Most of you have probably read the news about the new record and a world tour that were released last week. And I hope you are as excited as I am. Just that we will be able to sit down and listen to a new album from Kiss after almost 40 years is just incredible and nothing I would have expected just 4-5 years ago. The thought that they were to deliver a ‘masterpiece’ like Sonic Boom was total unreal to begin with. That they would release a second album is something almost no one would even dare to dream about. After living with Kiss more or less as a nostalgia act for almost a decade It feels damn good that they are a creative unit again. Specially after having thought ever since 2001 that whatever happened in ‘Kisstory’ after the Farewell Tour would just be a bonus.

Sonic Boom was for me a real boost as a fan after many years without any new releases. An album that showed that Kiss was more creative and vital than they had been at least since Revenge, maybe as far back as Lick It Up. The album also showed how vital Eric and Tommy is to Kiss today. So Sonic Boom is still on high-rotation at home, in the car and on iTunes at work. I don’t think I have played a ‘new’ Kiss record this much since Unmasked or The Elder came out. And lets face It in 1980/81 there really wasn’t much competition with Kiss for me. Today the competition for my time is strong from other bands, girlfriend and kids. Continue reading →