Oz Hawe Petersson’s Rendezvous - Cheers to friendship!

Two Swedes, formerly members of short-lived outfit EYE, long-time friends, who like to write songs, put out their debut. Oz Hawe Petersson (g, OSUKARU) and Mathias Rosén (keys) among many high calibre guest musicians like David Forbes (v, BOULEVARD) or Jane Gould (ex-ICONIC EYE) create a fine AOR and melodic rock record full of magic moments. It can’t get any better, right? But let’s look at what the two main protagonists here have to say…

It’s certainly not the typical solo album of a guitar player. What’s the idea behind this album? The fact that you played together once has certainly been a factor, hasn’t it?
Mathias: Of course! We know each other a long time and wrote and write together this kind of music a lot. But in Eye we didn’t have this level. Back in the day we only made an EP. The tracks “Sacred Land“ and “All Roads Lead Back To You“ go back to that period. They should have been included on the debut album which unfortunately never saw the light of day.
Oz: I was the one who quit back then but we stayed in touch ever since. There are even more elements and parts from Eye on this album. And having my name on the cover is due to marketing reasons only. When Mathias and I work on something, it’s gonna be pretty special. We couldn’t do such an album on our own but with joined forces we can.
When there was a time with no Osukaru activities we intensified our contact.

Having Fredrik Werner from Osukaru singing on a couple of tracks was quite surprising, though.
Oz: Fredrik is very versatile vocally. He does prove that in Osukaru as well in the rather metal-like Airraid. We always call him the chameleon because of his range and different style he is able to sing in. He can even sing like Michael Bolton used to do in his early days. We wanted to try out lots of stuff also with the other vocalists involved on this album.

There are many guitarists like Manuel Heller (Violet), Chris Rosander (Rosander) or Sayit Dölen (Sayit) on this debut, too. They play more or less all the solos, which is surprising as this looks like a solo album of a guitar player…
Oz: I have always been rather someone who studied the big rhythm guitar players and their harmonies rather than the classic guitar heroes like Steve Vai, Neal Schon or George Lynch and their endless solos. I love these guys but have always rather been team Paul Stanley than team Ace Frehley. Therefore, this album is not about big egos for Mathias or me at all. We just wanted to make an album with a great atmosphere and lots of good friends. I really hope we achieved this goal…

Definitely! Alright, let’s go back to the voices involved. Apart from Fredrik, there is David Forbes from Boulevard. I understand the connection came about because your wife does the booking in Europe for them. And then there is Jane Gould from England. She was formerly fronting Iconic Eye. She truly offers a magnificent voice, too…
Oz: Oh yes! We played together an Osukaru show in Nottingham/England with her and became friends. Shortly afterwards we worked on a couple of songs and when I asked Jane to be part of this, she quickly agreed and even flew over to Sweden to do the proper recordings. On the whole album, you actually only hear close friends of us. Each and every one was eagerly willing to contribute to this project.

Is there a kind of keysong on the album in your opinion?
Mathias: Well, that’s difficult. But I think “As We Cry“ would be my choice here.
Oz: Yes, definitely “As We Cry“, which also comes as a video which provoked lots of positive reactions.It sticks out a bit.

Will there be shows in support of the album?
Oz: We will absolutely play live. Although not everybody involved might appear on stage but the core of musicians who played on the songs will.
Mathias: Other than Oz, I don’t play live very often anymore but I love it! So the answer is yes!
 
How do you listen to music these days? And what kind of music do you dig nowadays?
Oz: I love vinyl and also still buy and collect CDs although not as many as I used to in the past. I listen to all kinds of music actually.
Mathias: I used to collect CDs, too. But today the amount of music streamed is increasing because it is very convenient. My musical taste also changed to a certain degree. Obviously, I still love this kind of melodic rock but I do listen to heavier stuff these days. I wouldn’t even rule out metal core or melodic death…ha ha ha.

What about Osukaru? Any news? The last and brilliant effort “Starbound“ will be hard to beat, I guess!
Oz: We start working on the next one soon. All I can say is that we are going to follow the direction of “Starbound“. So we are heading further into a harder direction. But be assured, long-term fans will definitely dig the new material. The upcoming album will bring that development to an end as we are not going to become an even heavier band. It’s still about melodies! I promise! Given this, it actually makes even more sense to put out softer tracks under a different flag.

Is there anything you would like to add? Any message to the German fans?
Mathias: Thank you everybody for taking the time to check out our music. Don’t miss our album. And thank you, Martin, for the nice talk.
Oz: Yeah, I totally agree! And I have to say that this album is pretty special to me. Thanks to everybody who participated whatsoever and thanks to all the people who, for instance, share videos, spread the word or even write reviews. All these things are utterly important in a small genre like ours.

Martin Stark