Naked RainThe band Naked Rain was formed in 1996 by vocalist Simon Asikainen, guitarist Tin Soheili, drummer Jacob Schlein and keyboardplayer Thomas "TeeJay" Johansen - B. Joe's little brother. They recorded an album called "Brothers and Sisters" on the Nordic Metal label which was their first, only and last album. It has a lot of good melodies, a good feeling and an intersting pairing regarding Soheili's guitar work and "Teefay"'s bombastic organ. A pairing that lends towards Blackmore/Lord comparison.
Here are the words from guitarist Tin Soheili - he wrote the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth about Naked Rain:
Me (Tin) and Jakob were seeking musicians to kickstart a projekt we have been dreaming about back in 91/92.
By a coincidence we got hooked up with Simon and at the time our bassplayer who were together in a hardrockband.
Me and Jake demoed a couple of songs in a studio without vocals and bass, mixed it and sent it off. A little year or so later after auditioning 30 bassplayers in Denmark, we got a mail from Simon and the mentioned bassplayer, that they were coming down to Copenhagen to meet us and well see what happens.....
. The time is now December 93'! Simon and I hit it off pretty well from the start, so the next 3 months we wrote a couple of songs. As you know, the grunge thing had already been getting airplay and hardrock was not exactly THE thing. We wrote a song called "Edge of time" which kind of did it for us on the scene in Copenhagen.
We got ourselves a manager and because of the bad economy we decided to move to Sweden (1200 km north) - a city called Шenskjoldsvik. It was one big party for 7 straight months, we were treated like V.I.P.s'. A millionaire guy from the city who knew Simon, lent us a huge storage room with all the equipment we could dream about.
We played everyday and wrote songs, at nights wed do acustic sets to raise money for ourselves. After a while we hit the studio and demoed 3 songs which rocked (only "Brothers and Sisters" and "No mans land" made the final cut later.) You know after 7 straight months from home we were very tired of hanging around, time had come to make a change. We borrowed a van, booked Tex in Copenhagen for 3 days in a row to pay the expences and hit the road. Imagine, driving all the way, we borrowed a rehersal room in Copenhagen and once we were in Denmark we started rehearsing and getting ready. 2 days later we got a call from people at Tex telling us that the place had went bankrupt, and they could not keep their promise.
The guys from Sweden head home.
A couple of days later Allan Johansen(Sort Management) an old Pal of mine rings on my door, i had played the demo for him on the phone, while he was in NYC and i in Copenhagen, he liked what he heard and came almost straight from the airport (while visiting his family) to my home to ask me if i wanted to go to a meeting at Nordic Metals' head office. So i went, we sat down and for 5 straight hours the people from the label heard the demo and we talked. Allan was at the time managing the danish/american thrash outfit Unleashed Power(check them out if you can!). So "Kicked out of Heaven"- (the original band name at the time) got signed on the spot. Another year and a half went by and we wrote songs, i went to sweden on and off and rehearsed what was the ideas for the songs in Copenhagen. A while before we started the pre-production, me and Simon and Jakob agreed on sacking the bassplayer, hired Jerry Ericsson (Swedish session player) and got in touch with Thomas "TeeJay" Johansen as a member and NAKED RAIN was now born. Simon came down to CPH for the pre-production for 2 weeks.
We head into the studio January of 1996 without Simon, the money was tight and he would come down later to put down the vocals.
By the way....Allan Johansen ended up being our manager and producer of the record, and we all feel he did a hell of a job. We did the record in 3 weeks, Simon Came down to do the vocals in Febuary. After 2 weeks we decided to rent a studio in north sweden to do the Choirs and som Keyparts and so we did.
The mastering was done in Sweet silence by Frank Birch and a little assistance by Fleming Rasmussen.
The Cd got released on May 26th 1996.
Unfortunately due to some legal battle with some elements within the record buisness we never quite got the backup we needed to hit the road or get a proper promotion. On one hand P3 radio and popular magazines covered us well, on the other hand there was no record company to back it up, they all had their fingers up their own ass or something. We even got fanmail all the way from Greece...!"#¤%& Now the time had come to book a tour and the Band and Allan coul not agree on some terms. So we parted ways with Allan Johansen, and hooked up with S.B tour production who booked a small tour acress DK to warm us up for the coming time. We had a couple of offers from bigger bands in Germany as Suport act but we never got them because of their high prices. (Support acts usually have to pay a huge sum of money to come on tour with the headliner).
By the end of this little tour we were practically flat broke, tired and we felt it was time to have a break form eachother after 4 years of trying hard.
Simon went home to Sweden.
Jakob Stayed in Copenhagen.
Tin moved to Boston.
Thomas moved to London.
2 months after i moved to USA, my phone called and on the other end Jakob was telling med that S.B.Tour has got us an offer in JAPAN, that could be the thing. Apperently Ole Bang (Mercyful Fate manager) liked what he heard and while going to Japan he took our CD with him. Unfortunately this great message did not realy awaken any reaction on either of us all, we were happy doing our own little things. Simon was playing across Sweden and getting payed a lot of money.(which was nice for a change) I was miles away in my favorite corner of the world. Thomas was trying to break through in London as a producer or something..... Only Jakob was happy about it but without the band it was difficult for him to do anything.
Today.......:
SIMON, is working on his solo record in Sweden, he is getting signed to yet an unknown(record company policy) major label, the material is AMAZING and he sings in SWEDISH!(i will fill you in asap.)
THOMAS, "TeeJay", was last thanked! on an English Boy/Girl band called STEPS cd, i think he did some kind of job on that, whether he was cleaning the floor or warming the tea....i have no idea.
JAKOB, he used to play in Guns'n Roses Jamband, and i talked to him yesterday and he is soing an audition for an Original Rock act soon- that should be interresting.( i will keep you posted).
TIN.... I have been doing a quite lot of session work with different known and unknown artists, writing manuskripts(as you see i like to write) and i am working on a music/drama documentary. I have a record out with a projekt called "OUT OF PHASE"- N.E.W sound experience.... which is an ethnical chillout music mixed with electronic beats, it is not yet released in Scandinavia but you can get it on
http://www.Amazon.com . The record has sold over 50.000 in europe.
Both Jakob and Simon are going to play on the soundtrack for my documentary sometimes in the future. Simon has asked me to play the guitars on his solo-cd and tour with him later this year.
So we all "exept TeeJay" still do stuff together and keep in touch.
We also have spoken of a new release by NAKED RAIN if we get the time and if and when it feels right, we even have release offers from some very interesting people, but we'll see what the future brings.
........I think that must sum it up.
Best regards
Tin Soheili.
http://www.elstruppejtersen.dk/danish/nakedrain.htmlhttp://www.myspace.com/nakedraindk
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