SanandaMaitreya.com ....

To begin, please accept that all of these ‘recordings’ have been awarded 5 stars, our highest recommendation. Bear in mind that it makes no sense to have your own ratings system, and not use it to your best advantage. We crossed referenced these ratings with 3 other ‘journalists’. Purely by chance that one owes me for his career, another owes me still in the range of 1500 euro, and the other is currently in rehab, recovering nicely I am told. She’d never done any ‘journalism’ before, but seemed warm to the idea after paying her the monies she requested. They have all verified my rankings and wholeheartedly, without reservation or prejudice, agree.

‘Hardline’ Commentariat:

Everything that I‘ve ever heard said about my music (ad nauseum), was said about this, our initial foray into the ‘jungle’. About this recording, which was ably produced with the venerable Martin ‘Heaven 17’ Ware, it was claimed to be all at once, ‘Too white for blacks’, ‘Too black for whites’, ‘Not black enough’ (are you listening Sen. Obama?), neither one thing or the other, and that there was NO AUDIENCE for my kind of music. It was ‘rock’ a little, pop some, some R&B, blah, blah, blah. I was even told by an executive that had heard the mix of ‘IF YOU ALL GET TO HEAVEN’ for the first time, that it was ‘too mature’ for a first album. Even then cats were nervous of my mind and its ambition. The irony is that everything said about ALL OF MY SUBSEQUENT OFFERINGS, were first heard concerning ‘THE HARDLINE ACCORDING TO……’ Although myself and the great master Sean Oliver collaborated very little (we ‘worked’ ‘Wishing Well’ together), the generosity of his spirit remains with me still, and was a great vibrational influence on the whole of the recording. My hearts respect also to Phil Legg, our recording and mix engineer. All who worked on the project are dear to memory, including our secret ingredient, a red headed ‘scouser’, a one Mr. Grey, with whom 2 pieces were gotten off the ground to initiate the project, which included ‘IF YOU LET ME STAY’. We are grateful that the label, CBS/Columbia existed for us for the brief moment in time in which it appeared for me, there was simply no other label which saw me as anything but a young singer, no more. My window of opportunity would close, and hard after this foray into the jungle of recorded works. After being absorbed by the whale known as SONY, we would never again find ourselves in favour. A closing anecdote : During the mixing of this erstwhile project, I struggled to explain to the mixing squad the opening that was in my head for ‘If you all get to heaven’. My mouth grew mute trying to explain. During my attempt to convey my sonic dream, our ‘tape op’, (tape operator, real old school, was meant as: assistant recording engineer/gofer), a young (he and I were the ‘babies’ of the sessions) Swede, named ‘Sven’, was laying on the couch in the control room, trying to get a good nap in before completion of the track. As if annoyed that I was still explaining to a baffled room, he got up from his nap, without saying a word, went to the ‘half inch’ tape machine, took out a razor blade, and gave me exactly what I was describing. Satisfied that I was happy, he then went back to the couch, and dozed off peacefully. I would be neither forgotten for making this record, nor forgiven. Upon having been ‘signed’ by the label, after 3 previous rejections (according to legendary A&R man ‘Muff’ Winwood, I was ‘cute’ and could sing a little, but to his reckoning, I wasn’t much of a songwriter), and having signed for the lowest amount allowable by law, Martin Ware came to the rescue by promising that he would make sure that we made the record I was hearing. He was certain during our initial interview that he ‘got it’, and was the right man for it. History agrees with him. After this, recording would never be as simple again. The same industry that mocked my voice at its beginning, then flooded the market with so many clones, I was hard to find thereafter. The greater irony being, after we were successfully cloned, I would be forever expected to FOLLOW IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF THOSE FOLLOWING MY OWN. Just a little confusing, I’d say.
My very special thanks to Master Walter Yetnikoff, it being he who determined that I was good enough for America. The rest of the company disagreed, but since Walter was King, he recognized a young lion, and gave him some space to roar. We thank our God for him, and will certainly speak up loudly for him, upon his day of judgement, whereupon we must all meet the Lord, whomever he or she (or that) may be to you………. We thank as well the English for being willing to gamble on a nomad with a flute in his knapsack…….

‘NFNF’ - By far the most intensely real, involved, and emotional project I’ve ever done. Despite Sony’s wholesale rejection of it (and yes, some money exchanged hands, just to make sure), no other recording has had so much pathos and passion attached to it. Although I’ve heard more from people about the first project, this project draws always the most committed and fervent reaction. Who loves this work, seems to REALLY love it. It either calls you, or it doesn’t. I can vividly recall being given use of a castle, by some friends of U2, in County Kilarney, outside of Dublin, and recording more than half of the project there, and in Windmill Lane, U2’s spot in fair Dublin town. I can remember coming downstairs for breakfast one morning and seeing what looked like a double image of myself staring back at me from the newspaper. Upon closer inspection it was discovered to be a group that I’d never heard of, ‘Milli Vanilli’, and I gulped to see how a whole persona and look could just be outright snatched from someone. To have stolen a TV set brings more penalty than stealing a whole life. Mixed and yellow niggers started appearing everywhere, when just 2 years before, all of us were told to piss off, that there were already the 1 token mulatto being presented in their media, and 1, is all you get. The gentlemen behind ‘Milli V’ was a producer, named Frank Farian, a German, who had had the ‘rights’ to an album that was recorded with ‘the Touch’, my German group. Of course, we begged him to put it out, and for every reason under the sun, he refused. Fast forward 3 weeks before the release of ‘NFNF’, and lo and behold out, in Germany (which had been once a huge market for us) came, THE REVENGE OF FARIAN! I was told that, the confusion surrounding the ‘Touch’ release, which sold apparently over 200,000 in over a week, doomed the promotion of ‘NFNF’, my ‘real’ second album. After this debacle, which many held ME responsible for, ignorantly, Master Farian then launched ‘Milli V’, and all of a sudden, I was being accused by the ignorant, of imitating them. As fate would have it, about a week before one of the gentlemen, ‘Fabrice’, would answer to his massive pain and take his own life, he called me to in effect, ‘apologize for being a part of the charade’. As I too was undergoing pretty intense depression, I’m sure that I wasn’t as much help to him as I may have otherwise been, but was moved that he cared to reach out to me and clear what of his conscience ailed him. Nevertheless, this project, I have been told, had a formative influence on both what subsequently became marketed as ‘Hip Hop’, as well as what was sold as ‘Grunge’. Relative modesty dictates the use of no names specifically, but at least 3 of the bands that came out of the Seattle scene, cite this record as one of the recordings which inspired their own lunacy. Another historical ‘tidbit’, the only stations that played this in America, were the NYC and LA initial ‘alternative’ stations, the ones that later ‘blew up’ the genre called ‘Grunge’. In many vital respects, Sananda’s first recorded works……. It would take a few years before a larger pattern of interference emerged in my life whereby I was able to see just how entirely political and racist the business of music was. As well as just how concerned some people and governments were about our influence as a ‘head’. The most fun I’ve ever had making a record, until earning my freedom as an artist, yet more as a man. Little did I know the chilling North wind which awaited its lacquering…. According to Japanese Brain specialists at one of the major brain centers of the whole of Asia, this record is a major part of the restructuring of traumatized patients. It totally makes sense, since I sustained major brain damage to get to it, and to get it out, then to just get through the shellacking I took for not repeating the same thing all over again. I only ever meant to release a collection of songs which could be danced to, while assisting with post adolescent bed wetting……. The record which I remain proudest of, although (no lie), I’ve not heard this (or any of my ‘records’ for that matter), for close to 20 years. Also my favourite ‘album’ cover. Enjoy (and no you don’t have to have a traumatised brain in order to appreciate the music, although I am told that it doesn’t hurt)! Why, I cannot attest, yet I usually receive the ‘blueprint’ of the next project, as I am midway through the one preceding. I can recall that, during the recording of ‘Hardline’, I were sitting at table, at home in Camden (Kentish Town Road), where I shared a ‘flat’ with my then manager, K.P. Schleinetz, his lovely wife and infant daughter. Helping me to finish a thought, Judith Schleinetz, her husband German/ Italian, she, Austrian replied that in German was an expression which summed up what I were describing, which translated back into English, came out as; ‘Neither Fish Nor Flesh’. A thing that is neither one thing or another, but a new beast entirely. Upon hearing the phrase, I was captivated and knew that it contained the seeds I would bear and incubate next…… Unbeknownst to me, even then were forces, dark working to alter my blessed situation. They would succeed. This album is the one, of necessity, closest to my heart. This was my ‘fatwa’ project. This the one where Orpheus descended into the Underground, and began his deepest meditation….. Life would once again, as with ‘Hardline’ dramatically shift with this project, this time, much closer to hell……… We believe this is the project that literally killed ‘TTD’, and from whose molten ashes, began the life of Sananda.

‘Symphony Or Damn’ - The first of the ‘L.A.’ trilogy (ending with ‘Wildcard’). Recorded in the ‘Monasteryo’, my home studio in the generous canyons of Hollywood. I was living on ‘Astral’ drive, in a home which had previously been inhabited by ‘Pee Wee’ Herman, Mickey Rourke, as well as my old drinking buddy, Billy Idol. It were owned by a most beautiful wonderful couple, the actor (of ‘F-Troop), Larry Storch, and his splendid wife of many years, a Swedish former beauty queen named (if not mistaken), Eva, who were always concerned that I were looked after properly, and who were always never less than delightful to be around. Mr. Storch insisted that I keep a gun, and wouldn’t hear of it when I rejected it. To appease him, I kept the gun, but never bought bullets for it. We had a view which overlooked the canyons, and were always grateful to be able to make music in such an inspiring atmosphere. I were able to just roll out of bed, roll spliff, and immediately set about work, until very late in the evening, whereby, being single, known, an in Babetown USA, I’d break out the book, and be thereafter a toy in ‘Babeland’ until exhaustion summoned sleep. The creative drive and sex drive are fed from the same well, and those were my bona fide ‘young player’ years, one I relished for the scale of what it offered of carnage, debauchery, and the other roadblocks incumbent upon youth to traverse. A debauchery, the reverse of its twin, abstinence, which teaches as much as it drains, much as its twin, abstinence. And armed with good reason, we survive, move on and plant our feet in other climes. Of particular note, I recall these events. A publisher had asked me for a song for a ‘girl group’ he had, a sort of post modern ‘Shangri-Las’. I set about home after meeting with him in his office, and that evening after dinner, working up what became ‘She Kissed Me’. At the time titled; ‘He Kissed Me’, I called my engineer, an ‘Aussie’, Craig Portiels, who came over and recorded me playing the instruments and vocal, which we ‘mixed’ that night. After listening to it, then going to sleep. Next morning, I called Portiels and told him that we had to keep the song, ‘fuck the publisher’. Despite the disappointment of said publisher, I booked time in one of the big LA studios, and had a live band re-record over everything but my initial rhythm guitar track. While performing it, it were always a popular crowd favourite. I encountered great resistance to this song being a ‘single’, ‘I wasn’t singing ‘black’ enough’ according to one executive, ‘It’s his damn ‘Rock’ fixation’ uttered another! Fair enough. One of my proudest things ……. During the mixing of ‘Symphony or Damn’, at a famous studio in East Hollywood, I would occasionally leave Mr. Portiels to do his portion of the work, while I fluttered into the canteen/office, flirting with the lovely California lass who ‘managed’ the joint. Things being what, and nature being why, we started a ‘scene’. At one point, near the end of the mixing, as both the project and our ‘amour’ was winding down, I realized that I would have to find a ‘gentlemanly’ way to bring our ‘scene’ to ‘closure’. While thinking these thoughts, I tapped Mr. Portiels on the shoulder and told him to hold the fort down, and continue, while I ran home as quickly as I could, to my piano, to write what was coming to me as ‘Let Her Down Easy’. Some things were changed in the moment of inspiration, even ‘auto biographical’ things are never completely so, but also imbued with the light of imagination, and the need for its release. She certainly wasn’t 17, as implied in the lyric, this young woman was more like 25 (but then again, in those days, 25 was 17). Some various liberties were assumed, yet it captured the simple emotional truth I was moved to work with at the time, to wit, ‘How can I get out of this while not being a total dickhead’? After composing it in what seemed like a flash, I recalled Mr. Portiels to home base, where we recorded it in a flash, wrapped it up, and next day completed the whole of what was thereafter marketed and discussed as ‘Symphony Or Damn’. After my flight of survival from London, though my mind would for a spell never again be the same as were, it was tremendous relief to be here in these canyons, with no one looking over my shoulder. It was understood that since I were not in line for the sort of further promotion to which my young lionhood felt obliged to receive, that I may as well take full advantage of my ‘creative freedom’ clause, and do what the hell I wanted. Having survived the ‘dare’ of those years. I am most grateful to the muses for having allowed me access to them during these underground years. We thank the various musicians who helped to flesh out our vision, and as I recall, it were the first time that I got a chance to work with ‘Spike’, who blew up afterwards! I remember we ‘mastered’ the project in Olympic (Olympia?) Studios, in London. It were also the beginning of the constant whining I’d hear from the label about my ‘generosity’ of songs. I would keep hearing that, ‘No one can sustain more than 45 minutes of interest in the listener’, ‘14 songs is too much!’; ‘You’re…blah/infinity’. It is hard to convince ‘bean counters’ that when you have, while you have it, you simply give it. It is the giving that produces more to give. That isn’t ‘spiritual’, it is basic physics! Things being that, I am told that, having gleaned but 4 albums from me during my tenure in the heat box, they are more or less happy that they inherited more songs, to recompile, as opposed to less…..

‘Vibrator’ - My second favourite ‘album’ cover. The second of the ‘L.A.’ trilogy, the second recorded in the home studio confines of the ‘Monasteryo’. Envisioned all along as more live, I’d wanted to take advantage of the live band put together for the ‘Symphony Or Damn’ tour, which had been honed to a blades edge, and combine it with the new songs I were hearing/writing, and with the more relaxed atmosphere of the canyons. I recall getting it started with me as principal drummer (my old ‘Gretsch’ kit !), and various other instruments, then calling in the others as needed, as well as us all recording together, ‘live’. My recording engineer was an Englishman, Pete Lorimar, a musician, whose father had also been one back in ‘merry olde England’, a trombonist of some repute. He was affable, funny, nervous, and a damn good engineer. The first 2 songs recorded were as they appear on the ‘album’, the title track (that’s me and Louis Metoyer on guitars, just like in the video!), and perhaps same day or next, we recorded ‘Supermodel Sandwich’, which arose out of a request to take part in a film, helmed by the Master Robert Altman, as much as it did my desire to release, once and for all, in a creative way, my love for ‘CREAM’, whose ‘White Room’, and ‘World of Pain’ contain seeds which still haven’t finish hatching even after like 40 years or something insane. Again, there was resistance at the ‘label’ to ‘pursue this direction in music’ (according to an executive ‘who’). The song was relegated to ‘filler’ status on the soundtrack for the Altman film, and it seemed like every song on it was released but my humble contribution. I even heard someone float the idea of releasing the ‘catalogue number’ from the soundtrack, but never ‘SMS’. Nonetheless, it got great radio play and was always received during its season of performance with raucous appreciation. Funny thing life, it is now considered one of my ‘greatest hits’, though it was never even promoted as a single. We are grateful that time weighs our sincerity in the balance of all final judgements. I recall that the subsequent tour, which due to lack of interest by the label, I had to pay for out of my own pocket, less I cold shouldered what American fans remained, was, despite the total media blackout, as decreed by the company, was perhaps the most thrilling and electrifying concert tour I can remember being blessed to witness. Despite every conceivable hurdle, despite heartbreaking indifference to my craft, this tour absolutely rocked, and I swear at times, less I blaspheme, that once or twice, I saw the Lord, and that he seemed pleased. I also recall at the time being just hammered repeatedly, ad infinitum, about the need to alleviate the world of 2 ‘brothers’ having ‘dreads’. It seemed that while it were required that all bands from Seattle or suburban hither- yonds have identikit hair, regulation over shoulder length, expensively made to look as ‘dirty’ as possible, the world and her tempered stretch could nay handle 2 ‘dread dudes’. Finally, in any event, it was time for me to make a change, do something bold and fresh, and spying a picture in a movie magazine, promoting her character’s look, was a stunning ‘coif’ sported by Jada Pinkett, ‘pre-Smith’, with blond wavy curls. She rocked! Later, things being things, it were said that I was ‘pimping a Rodman’, and while a fan of the great master Dennis, I was inspired by Miss JADA, just to throw the truth at it. I was feeling my body at that time, it was Bruce Lee tight………… The ‘L.A.’ trilogy would come to a close with the long struggles of ‘Wildcard’, a record essentially finished in 1998, yet which had to undergo 2 years worth of politics before I could get it back. Was it worth it? You bet. With that project, our time spent in the underworld came to a close, our debt to time, relieved. It helped us through some painful, at times exquisite parameters, and helped us to move on.