American guitarist/songwriter JEFF KOLLMAN (COSMOSQUAD, ALAN PARSONS LIVE PROJECT, ASIA FJP, GLENN HUGHES) has launched a promotional video for ‘Superstring Theory‘, the advance single off his forthcoming solo album, ‘East of Heaven‘, out May 21.
‘East of Heaven’ is Kollman’s sixth instrumental studio album as a solo artist and his 22nd overall on the Marmaduke label. The ‘Superstring Theory’ clip can be viewed below. The song is available for purchase on Kollman’s Bandcamp site at https://marmadukerecords.bandcamp.com/track/superstring-theory and will go to Apple Music and other digital outlets shortly.
The infectious, hard driving ‘Superstring Theory’ sees Kollman get back to basics and revel in unleashing the power of simplicity. “There’s certainly an underlying early AC/DC influence in there”, he readily admits. “Between my solo work and COSMOSQUAD, it’s easy to get complex and self-indulgent. This one is straight to the point embracing the 4/4 rock! For the video, I hit up my brother from another mother, Shane Gaalaas, on drums, and our good buds, Jeff Marshall, and Corey McCormick (Chris Cornell, Neil Young) to join us on guitar and bass, respectively. We had so much fun during the shoot – it was great to actually be with everyone in the flesh again. Covid certainly has done a number on us…. Shane and I in particular have been in each other’s musical lives so much over the last 25 years, writing, recording, and playing live – it’s strange to not have had that close proximity for a whole year now.”
Borne out of the COVID-19 induced lockdown that hit the music industry and touring musicians especially hard, Kollman began to collect and shape musical ideas for what became ‘East of Heaven’ last March. “2020 was gonna be a busy year on the road for me. I was scheduled to go on a world tour with Alan Parsons as well as go out with ASIA FJP, Lou Gramm, and the ‘Rock Pack’ all-star thing. Of course, all that went out the window once the pandemic hit. So all of a sudden I had a lot more down time than anticipated. Luckily, I’ve always been able to make records without having to rely on outside engineers and studios so I hunkered down and got a few of my closest friends involved to play on various tracks.”
‘East of Heaven’ features Kollman on guitars and bass, aided by long-time collaborators Shane Gaalaas (COSMOSQUAD, MSG, YNGWIE MALMSTEEN) and Jono Brown on drums, ‘Cirque du Soleil’ music director, Paul Shihadeh, on bass, and Guy Allison (DOOBIE BROTHERS, UNRULY CHILD, WORLD TRADE) on keyboards. Allison is also repsonsible for the ‘East of Heaven’ cover artwork.
