Back in the 80s I listened a lot to Lee Ritenour and whenever I play clean I think that influence shines through. Not the least in this tune.

Five Days Hence

I don't know if anyone can hear it but two of my main funk influences are Prince and Mark Lettieri. To my ears that's kind of obvious here.
One day I wanted to play some funk so I wrote this.


Spicy Funk Food

I started getting seriously into music in the late 70s and the 80s so there's were my main musical influences can be found. Both as a player and a composer.

This tune channels some of the lighter guitar fusion styles from that era. The guitar sound I was aiming for here is that of a Dumble ODS on its brighter side.

Force Of Habit

My goal with this track was to create a tune that would reflect my influences from the 80s. Larry Carlton for guitar and Michael McDonald for the arrangement.
Many people would probably call this Smooth Jazz but, personally, I'd call it Smooth Pop as the jazz influence is fairly minimal.

None The Wiser

I'm a huge fan of Michel Landau. I've seen him live a few time and I'm always blown away by his playing. In this tune I tried to channel the dynamic kind of rhythm he does so effortlessly.
For the rhythm guitar I used a James Tyler Studio Elite and for the solos I used first the Tyler and then a Collings City Limits. Amp and FX was the Fender Tone Master Pro.

The Very Same Thing

This is what we, in Sweden, call LA Slick or West Coast. A big ballad with lots of wide stereo guitar tracks, long delays and big reverbs.

The title came to me as I passed a fairly new building at Sveagatan 117 in Varberg and noticed what a nice door they have.

The Door At 117

This tune is a reflection of a painting I saw at a local art exhibition. It showed a young man in NYCunder a road sign saying ONE WAY and there was a "talking bubble" in which the guy said: "I'm lost!". 

I spoke to the artist and he told me he had used to photos and superimposed them on each other so, somehow, parts of both photographs were could be seen. I tokk that concept to my DAW and layered two grooves and deleted some hits from each groove to get the intended result and then build the tune from there.

So thanks to Bengt the artist for the inspiration. You can find the picture here:
https://www.bengtbakomkameran.se/product-page/i-am-lost


One Way and I'm Lost

If there's one player from the 80's whose rhythm playing I really admire, that would be Paul Jackson, Jr. His got such a command of "small chord" voicings and his right hand has such a groove.
So that's where I got the inspiration for this tune.

No Never Mind

Once in every great while I like to get my slide out a play some stuff. As I seldom play with slide, when I do, it tends to be blues or rock.
I never retune any of my guitars so I always play in standard tuning.

This is a funkyish kind of blues with some really undisciplined slide playing.

The Physiotherapist

This tune has a real story behind it. Every year in our part of Sweden there's a long weekend where local artist open up their painting studios or rent a place to show their paintings. Last year I came across artist Rolf Enström and I really liked his work. There was one painting in particular that caught my eye and it was called "Känsloregn". It's hard to translate it into English so the closest I can get is Rain of Emotions, but that doesn't really convey the deep meaning of the Swedish word. The title and the painting made me realize that it displayed how I felt as a teenager. 
Somewhere in that painting, I felt there was a piece of music, and I wanted to write it. But as time passed, I didn't find anything to do it justice. 
This spring, the long weekend came along again and I made a point to go see what Mr Enström had done. Once again, I saw Känsloregn displayed and I was equally moved this time. But after seeing it again, I now found the basic musical idea to write a tune, which aptly, is called "Känsloregn".

Känsloregn

Mats Nermark's tunes

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