Pain Of Salvation mastermind Daniel Gildenlöw is back on writing the follow-up to the band's 2020 record Panther. According to Gildenlöw in a lengthy Instagram post, the record got put on the backburner for a few years as he explored other joys in life, but he's back at it!
"I've had problems finding my way back to the album. But now I'm at it and having fun!" wrote Gildenlöw. "There was a time when sharing my music with others meant the world to me. With age, and especially after the pandemic, I've grown frighteningly content with just sharing it with a few selected friends, or even just hearing it in my head without recording it.
"Many of the key aspects of why I loved making albums have dissipated over the years. The process has become a lonely one, without hanging for hours on end in a rehearsing room, without spending weeks in a big studio. And with every album release, there is more back catalog for the fans and press to compare with and express dissatisfaction with. I didn't dive headlong into music as a kid to sit at a computer on my own week after week, or to get judged and rated by opinionated somebodies around the world. I love making music, singing and playing my heart out, having fun with other musicians, show and be shown the ropes on new techniques and creative ideas. I simply fell in love with music.
"If these aspects fade too much out of view, I will respectfully back out. See, I have a responsibility to Music – to remain passionate. To invest my entire heart and soul into it. Every inch of the way.
"These last years, I have grown extremely tired of opinions, posts, content, arguments, upset feelings and agitated world views. Why should I even consider bringing my thoughts and my music to that overly set table, creaking at the hinges from all the indigestible stuff that's already heaped upon it? Would I not be part of the problem? If I have a strong longing for the entire mankind to just shut the fuck up for a mere two seconds and take a deep breath, should I not be the first to do so?
"Teaching music to kids have been an absolute joy these last two years. They make sense, and I learn a lot myself from teaching them. And we have fun, playing music together. A lot of the building blocks that I have come to miss from the album making processes.
"So, I shut the fuck up a bit and took a deep breath or two. And now it's fun again. If 90% of this species are halfwits, then what the hell, I'll give my heart to the remaining 10%."
