The Guitar Player's Resource
Hoping to build on a strong melodic core of compositions, Swedish guitarist Magnus Carlberger submitted an eight song instrumental CD-R he describes as "melodically beautiful, with a storytelling feeling that could work as powerful film music." The demo features guitar, bass, keyboards and drum machine, presumably all performed by Carlberger. He has a knack for composing strong themes for his rock-based music, then building the track around those themes, as you can hear on tracks such as "The Spring" and "Eva's Dance". Carlberger utilizes harmonized lead lines, well-turned hooks and deftly improvised solos that support the main melody, as opposed to taking the track in a totally unrelated direction, something you hear a lot of on first demos. The production can only be described as 'basic', so, like a lot of musicians, Carlberger could probably benefit by collaboration with other, like-minded artists - the sum can sometimes be greater than the individual parts.
When Magnus was younger he tended to listen to heavy metal bands with great guitarists. Other bands that inspired him included Kansas, Blackfoot, Jethro Tull and Saga. Classical music and folk music from different countries have also always touched him in a special way, but he considers his biggest guitarist inspiration to be Yngwie Malmsteen. At eleven years old Magnus played the trumpet, and later the piano, and very soon realized how amazing and stimulating it was to write his own music. He started playing guitar when he was 17 years old, playing guitar and synthesizer in a local symphonic rock band. After the band split up, Magnus decided to pursue his own instrumental guitar music. He plans to include more acoustic guitar and other acoustic instruments in future compositions.
Carlberger's passion is to write music and play the guitar, so he plans to continue to play and write music no matter what, even though he expects it will never be published.
Magnus Carlberger
Sweden