News October 2006 I have been shopping my solo material to various companies and have been getting some nice interest. Unfortunately, I don’t have enough songs right now to release a full length album so I will not release anything until I can do a full length . However, I have been posting some of these songs on my MySpace site (myspace.com/russbergquist) along with some other stuff that I have done. I am currently writing more material that is similar to what I have already done and hope to start recording it in the next few months. I could release it independently as an EP but I feel it will be better to release something that is full length. My apologies to those who have been waiting. Sweden rocks! Well, Sweden and Finland anyway. Annihilator just played the Sweden Rock 34,000 Ton Metal Cruise on Oct 7 (at 1:30 in the morning). What a riot! I had never experienced anything like this before. Imagine, a few thousand scandinavian metalheads with unlimited access to cheap beer / alcohol and then have party on a cruise ship for 24 hours as it goes from Sweden to Finland and back. Through in a few metal bands and you have a pretty damn good party! The night we played were also bands Morgana Lefay and The Haunted (never got to see Morgana but The Haunted were really wicked). Sweden Rock and Silja Festival put on a very memorable event and if any of you ever get the chance to go on one of these cruises, do it! Russ August 2006 Hello again. A few things to update on concerning me! I just finished a few dates with Annihilator at the Metalway festivals in Spain at the end of July. We played 2 shows, one in Gernika and one in Jerez. It was good time and the first time I had played with Annihilator in 3 years. Also, I had never performed with Annihilator as a 4 piece (Jeff Waters and Dave Padden handled lead vocal duties and Dave played rhythm guitar as well). It was good time and the shows went well despite basically a new lineup with Ryan Ahoff on drums. We rehearsed for 5 days in Bergara Spain before hitting the stage. But, after about one song it was back to the norm of a kick ass Annihilator show! I look forward to the possibilities of doing some shows with them in the future. I am back in the Netherlands again after about 6 months of going back and forth between Canada and Europe. Immigration and relationship problems can really dictate ones life but everything seems to be in good order now and I can get on with it. So, I am working at getting into the Dutch way of things and being busy with music again. The DuskMachine situation is in the planning stages at the moment. Everyone has been busy with thier lives and other projects but we are now working on what we will be doing for next while. We gotta do another album sometime soon but are also looking at doing a bunch of shows. I will update you later on that or you can keep an eye on the DuskMachine website (http://www.DuskMachine.com). Concerning my solo stuff, I am posting an instrumental from those sessions. Check the downloads section for CASSINI (this location). This song has Devin Townsend Band members Ryan Van Poederoyen on drums and Dave Young on Keyboards. Dutch phenom guitarist Joop Wolters (site) played the leads and I , of course, played bass and all the rhythm guitar parts, including the little harmony guitar bits. I hope you enjoy it! I am currently talking with a few different companies about the release / distribution of my CD. When I have some news , I will let ya all know. Cheers and stay tuned! Russ May 2006 Hello folks! I have a few things to update on. I have been hanging out in Berlin doing some things with the Duskmachine guys. Just going over a few ideas for the next album. We have no dates pertaining to the next recordings but we will start rehearsing for our next gig, this week. A one off show at the Concerning my solo project, I have suffered some setbacks in the mixing process. But, I will be returning to Vancouver where I have enlisted Vancouver producer/engineer Ken Burke to do the mix. Ken is an old buddy of mine and we grew up in the same town in good 'ole Saskatchewan, Canada. Also, I will be having some keyboards added to a couple of songs. Dave Young (Devin Townsend Band, TenWaysFromSunday) will be doing these. I hope to post a song soon. Lastly, on July 1 I will fly over to Frankfurt Germany to start rehearsing for the upcoming Annihilator festival tour. There are a handfull of dates confirmed , but some are changing. For more info please see the Annihilator site at Annihilatormetal.com. Have a look in the "on tour " section. Cheers and talk to ya all soon. Russ March 2006 I am happy to announce that I will touring with Annihilator this summer in Europe. A few years ago I left the band to persue other things. I started a family, recorded a bunch of my own material, did some session work and moved to Europe where I also play with DuskMachine. Jeff asked me to come out and do this festival run and sent me a copy of "SChizo Deluxe". I checked out the tunes and really think it is a kick ass album. Jeff and Dave sound great. So, I cannot wait to get out and lay down some Annihilator bass and jam out with my fellow Canadians. Playing on stage with Annihilator was always a good time. So, I look forward to doing it again. Cheers and see you this summer! Russ October 2005 Hi folks ! Well, we have arrive in the Netherlands and I have already landed a new gig. I am going to play bass for a new band from Berlin called Dusk Machine. This band features my old rhythm section buddy from Annihilator, Randy Black (who is currently in Primal Fear). Their new CD titled "The Final Fall" will be released later this month through Twilight-Distribution. More info can be found on the website DuskMachine.com There will be a CD release party and gig in Berlin for the beginning of November. More info to come !
September 2005 Yo! I have not done an update since July and alot has happenned from then until now. First of all, I have been in the studio recording my own project. It is now almost all recorded. The only thing left is some guitar solos that will be performed by Joop Wolters. The drums were recorded by Ryan Van Pooderoyen at Greenhouse Studios in Burnaby. The lead vocals were recorded by Mark Patrick with Mark and myself doing backups. I had Scott Webb do 2 guitar solos and I played all the bass, rhythm guitar, acoustic and harmony guitar parts. These tracks were all recorded at JMP Studios in Vancouver and were engineered by Scott Cooke. After Joop does his solos then I will send everything to Vivien Lalu to put a little keyboards on and have him mix it. In the mean time, I will be trying to find a distributer for it. People may have never heard of Scott Webb or Mark Patrick but they were the absolute best choice for what I was looking for with this project. Everyone involved did a fantastic job and we created something that rocks and has a live feel to it. I am pleased. On the move. As of Sept 30, I will no longer be living in Canada. My wife Monique and I along with our son Jesse will be moving to the Netherlands. Monique is from NL and has all her family there. We do not have any family in Vancouver and with a 7 month old son, it is very difficult to do anything with no support to help with our child. Also, the music scene in Vancouver really sucks and it is a great opportunity for myself as a musician to go further than I am now. So, with my own project almost complete, sessions coming up with Joop Wolters, Vivien Lalu, Ryan Van Pooderoyen and the promotion of my own project, I am quite busy. I will also be looking to teach music independantly when in NL. It feels good. I have shut down my furniture business that I had for the 2 and ½ years and have gotten rid of almost everything that we will not take with us. Now all I have to do is clean the carpets, wash the walls and have a moving sale. Fun stuff! Oh yeah, anyone interested in my services as bassist or whatever, can reach me at info@russbergquist.com. My next update will not be for a while so cheers and take care.
July 2005 Hello everyone. Well, it has been a while since my last update and I have a few things to tell. So here it goes. Have a few recording projects that I will be participating in over the next six months or so. First off, The drums will be recorded for my solo project starting on August 1. Unless of course Ryan Van Pooderoyen (drummer) breaks a leg or something. Following that I will record the bass, rhythm guitar parts and vocals throughout the month of August and probably September. Also, the guitar solos will be done during this time as well. I have not finalized who exactly will be doing these solos but I know for sure that Joop Wolters will do a few. Also Scott Webb, an old friend of mine and guitarist in a band I was in a number of years ago called Freaks By Nature. I have no title for this project yet other than my name and have not yet figured out distribution. It will be five songs. Stay tuned !!! I am also going to do some bass tracks for the new Joop Wolters project. He is doing a metal style record with vocals ( most of his music is instrumental) and has asked my to play on some of it. Joop is a pretty fucking wicked guitar player so I am sure it will be a challenge, which I look forward to. And , last but certainly not least, Vivien Lalu has got the same line up from his first solo album returning for his second, which will be titled “Temporal”. I have heard some of the tracks already and it sounds awesome. Also, drum legend Virgil Donati will be guesting on a couple of tunes. All the other details for this record. And Joops, will come at a later date. That is all for now. I will be in touch soon with more updates on these projects. Cheers Russ April 2005 THE RUSS BERGQUIST OFFICIAL MESSAGE BOARD is
now opened for business !!! March 2005 Hi folks! Well, Monique and I are parents! Our son, Jesse Johannes Bergquist was born Feb 13, at 00:53 .He is a healthy little guy and we are both very happy. You may be wondering why it took a month to let you all know but, we have been busy! I have put a picture in the photo gallery under “friends and family”. Back to the music, I have also provided some music files from Vivien Lalu, an album which I was lucky to play the bass on. This CD will be released through Lion Music on March 25. Viv gave me the o.k. to give you some samples so I have provided one full song and some short clips in the downloads section. Check them out! Also, there is a bass solo I hacked out on a demo of mine that is in the download section called “Russ Demo Bass Solo”. Cheers everybody, talk to you next month! January 2005 Happy New Year everyone! Best wishes to all and I hope
you have a kick ass 2005. The last couple of months in 2004 were a bit
of a drag with the Dime loss and the shit that happenned in Asia, so all
we can do is forge ahead and have good year! Over the last while I have very busy with the life around me and have not had much time, or inspiration to do much writing. I do have a bunch ideas I have come up with but they will stay dormant while I write the lyrics and melody lines for my next session , which will be for my own recording. Over the last year I put together about 20 tunes and picked 5 that will work good together in the same package. The music is all there , I just need to work on some more lyrics and stuff. Ryan is working on his drum parts. It will rock! So, having a baby and then creating this little music project shall keep me busy until summer. Moving to Europe We have decided to move to The Netherlands this summer.
It will make life easier for us living close to Monique’s family
as we will have some family support. All my family lives about 1500 kms
from us so we decided to go to Holland. Any inquiries about teaching or gigs can get more info at info@russbergquist.com Cheers everybody and talk to you soon October 2004 Hello everyone. I have finished up the recording of
Vivien Lalu’s
“Oniric Metal” CD. I was a very intense couple
of days. The first day in the studio we (me and Jay VP, ..engineer) managed
to get the tracks done for 7 songs. It was a long day. The next day was
even longer as one song is about 14 minutes long, with some very challenging
parts. But, I m, happy with how it turned out and also quite pleased with
bass tone. I used my old Fender Power Jazz that I converted to low tuning
(B,E,A,D). I hardly ever use this bass but it sounded great. One more guest to mention will be Jeff Loomis from Nevermore.
Although he is not confirmed and I have not been able to get a hold of
him lately (where are ya dude?) , I look forward to have his stellar guitar
playing on this projecty as well. I hope it works out. August 2004 May 2004 Secondly, I want to thank Geoff (webdesigner) for all
the great work he did for me. He is a cool dude with great vision. Check
more of his works on deeppeace
design O.k. About me. Quite a few people have asked me why
I left Annihilator as I stated it as “personal reasons”. The
situation for me and my position in Annihilator were not beneficial for
myself any longer, plain and simple. Jeff gave me an opportunity with
Annihilator in 1999 and I enjoyed all the time I spent with he and his
band of annihilating matadors. So here I am. Currently, I am writing songs of my own with the objective
of releasing my own material. That is my ultimate goal. As far as the
music is concerned, I am not going after one style. As I am writing on
guitar and bass, I find that alot of different influences are coming out
of me. Some of the music is definateley heavy and then some of it is hard
rock to prog rock. to mellow. I am also going to do the bass tracks for Vivien Lalu’s solo album “Oniric Metal”. Vivien is a very talented French Freak and I look very forward to doing this project. I am learning the material right now. More details to come but you can view Viviens website at www.Lalusworld.com I have also just finished a four week fill in gig with a band called Escape. They asked me to fill in and threw a setlist of more than 40 eighties cover tunes at me! Hilarious! A blast from the past. Gigs like that are good to keep you on your toes. Plus, they are all great players. About this site. This site is for me to get my music
out to you and also get studio or live gigs. In the Downloads section
there are MP3’s from my old band “Freaks by Nature”
and also some “Annihilator”. In the Gallery section there are live pics and also some cool pics of me and my peers. Also, as some of you may already know, I am a bit of an outdoorsman and love to be out in nature, so there are a few photos of that in there as well. That is all for now peeps! Thank you for stopping by and I will talk to you all in a month or so. We will post more content soon. Cheers!!
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