Missing in Discography - The Gift, Demo 1996 - 4tr Demo, 199X ("Demons" etc) - The Search Has Begun..., Demo 2006 ("Cities Are Burning", "Let The Curtain Fall", "The Price", "Back In Her Arms") - Demo 2007 ("Cities Are Burning", "Let The Curtain Fall", "The Price", "Only For You")
Jonas Hörnqvist - Guitar, Keyboards (Calilio, Neil Turbins, Burning Mustard, DeathRiders, Lucid Force, Bleed The Hunger, Gaia Epicus (guest), Tower of Stone (guest), Brother Against Brother (guest), Francis Soto (guest), Christopher Jacobson (guest))
David Sivelind - Bass (A Hero For The World, The Murder Of My Sweet, In Bloom, Issa, Find Me (guest))
Tobias "Toby Jay" Jansson - Vocals (Saffire, Angel Blake, The Law, Gathering of Kings, Evil Masquerade, Silent Scythe, Sugarglider, Beyond, The Law, Neuronaut (guest), Perpetual Etude (guest), Echoes (guest), Fighter V (guest))
Rickard "Rick Altzi" Thornberg - Vocals (At Vance, Thunderstone, Heaven's Trail, Herman Frank, Masterplan, Sandalinas, Frequency, Altzi, Gathering of Kings, Circus of Rock, Sanity, Ablaze My Sorrow (guest), Aldaria (guest) Ancestral Dawn (guest), Beyond The Black (guest), Boguslaw Balcerak's Crylord (guest), Dreamland (guest), Empires of Eden (guest), Epysode (guest), Evil Masquerade (guest), Exit Eden (guest), Hollow Haze (guest), Magnus Karlsson's Free Fall (guest), Marius Danielsen (guest), Secren Society (guest), Status Minor (guest), VII Gates (guest), Tristana (guest), Circle of Friends (guest), Heartwind (guest), Disaster/Peace (guest), Jades Heart (Ger) (guest), Wolfpakk (Ger) (guest))
Info from Janne Stark's Encyclopedia Treasure Land are on of Sweden's top league progressive bands, but a sadly underperforming band release-wise. The style is somewhere in between Impellitteri and Dream Theater, with outstanding musicianship. Jonas, Magnus and Magnus have previously recorded a single with the band Calilio and original singer Zenny Hansson (Gram) recorded four albums with darksters Destiny and previously sung with Faith, Metal Muthaz, Spin Air, Spitfire, etc. After the first album Zenny was asked to leave the band and he was replaced with Jakob Samuelsson (aka Jake Samuel), who simultaneously released the second album by his own band Jekyll & Hyde. In May '98 Kaspar left the band to pursue a career in new age music, but later appeared in Stormwind, Sahara and Dionysus. Zenny later re-joined Destiny for a while, but now mostly does cover gigs. Jonas has previously also recorded some highly acclaimed solo demos. In 2002 the band began working on a new album. The line-up featured Jonas, Magnus L, Magnus H, new singer Rickard "Altzi" Thornberg (ex-Sanity) and Italian keyboard player Giulio Capone. It didn't last long and Altzi later joined At Vance, Thunderstone and is now in Masterplan. In 2005 the band recorded an excellent four-track promo entitled 'The Search Has Begun', but unfortunately the search is not yet over. The line-up on the promo featured Altzi, the Hörnquist brothers and Lind. Lind, who was ex-Blue Balls, is now in Scull Parade and Jake Samuel is fronting The Poodles. The band is currently "resting", while Jonas is active as a guitar teacher and there's still music to be made from the brothers (we hope!)
Official Biography #1 Treasure Land was founded in 1993 by Jonas and Magnus Hörnvqist. A bass player was found soon in Magnus Lind, with whom they had played together previously in the band Calilio. The trio honed their abilities together for almost a year before finding Kaspar Dahlqvist to fill out keyboard duties, who excelled above and beyond any previous keyboardist they had auditioned. His symphonic approach fit the band like a glove, and brought the band into the next level. Finding a suitable singer, however, was not going to be easy. Many tried out, and even performed live with the band, but had lacked that special quality Treasure Land was looking for.
When it came time to record the band’s first demo, Jonas had offered to lay down temporary vocals for the songs although they knew this wouldn’t work in the long term. They would eventually find their vocalist in Zenny Gram, singer for the dark metal band Destiny. There was one snag, however, as Zenny could not legally perform under his own name due to a contact he had signed with Destiny. They chose to call him “Frippe” on the demo (taken from the name of a friends’ dog). In February of 1996, the band recorded their 5 track demo, which included the songs The Gift, Kingdom, To Live Again, Demons, and Liar. All but “Liar” would eventually find their way to the first Treasure Land album. The demo attracted the attention of 5 labels right away, including German based Modern Music T&T, which is who Treasure Land eventually signed with.
Mark I “Questions,” the debut album, was recorded in September of 1996 and produced by Jonas and Magnus Hörnqvist, with Alex Losback engineering. The recording went well, despite a pestering rat problem in the studio, and was released in February of 1997. The album was met with met with great acclaim, and Treasure Land found themselves voted “best new band” in several magazines and webzines.
Mark II Shortly after the release of “Questions,” Zenny quit, feeling that he was not able to give Treasure Land the 110% they required of him. After much searching, Jonas and Magnus decided to give singer Jacob Samuelsson (ex-Totem) a call. Jacob jumped at the chance and recorded 4 demo tracks with Treasure Land (including one reworked old song, Demons). These demos would lead to the 2nd album, entitled “Gateway,” that was recorded in January of 1998 in Jönköping, Sweden.
After doing some shows in support of “Gateway,” Kaspar and Jacob both decided to leave Treasure Land, but not before Jacob recorded a cover of ex-Europe guitarist John Norum’s song “Love is Meant to Last Forever,” which appeared on the “Power from the North – Sweden Rocks the World” compilation.
After much frustration and disputes with their label, Jonas decided to put Treasure Land on hold at the end of 1998, although they still recorded a cover of “Icarus Dream Suite” for the Yngwie Malmsteen tribute album “A Guitar Odyssey.”
Mark III Rick Altzi (vox) and Mathias Scheffler (keyboard) enters. New songs are written, the style is more straight in your face metal with strong classical influences. The only remaining members from the last CD is Jonas and his brother and Magnus Lind, the other two members are all new.
Mark IV Mark III turned out this way; Mathias (keyboards) quit the band since he couldn't devote the time and Rick and Treasure Land parted ways after 5 years of hard work for the 3rd CD "The search has begun".
Mark V New singer Toby Jay is now fronting Treasure Land.
Official Biography #2 The Beginning: It all started in 1993 when Jonas & Magnus Hörnqvist started to talk about putting a band together again. First of all, they needed a bassplayer, so who was the first guy they would call? Magnus Lind, because they had played together before, (1986-1991) in another band called Calilio. This line up of Treasure Land played together almost a year as a trio before they started to look for a keyboardplayer and vocalist.
They put out adds in the music shops and magazines that they needed a keyboardplayer who could play fast and a vocalist who could sing very high and follow all the tempo changes and keys. A couple of different keyboardplayers tried out but none of them could stand the test. It wasn't until a friend of Jonas told him that there was a guy nearby by him that might be the right guy for them.
His name was Kaspar Dahlqvist, and Jonas immediately called him and asked him who his influences were. This guy had a lot more symphonic taste than the other guys they had tried out, so they set up a time and place to check him out, and he fit like a glove to the band. So now they were a four piece band, the only thing they needed now was a singer. A couple of the singers they tried out made it as far as doing live gigs with them, but there were always something missing with the guys who sang. Things did not look bright for the guys in Treasure Land.
The Demo Because, plans were made to record a demo, the only problem was that they didn't have a singer. Jonas said that he could do the vocals on the demo and then show it to whoever were going to sing in the band, but at the same time, this wouldn't work in the long run. So what would they do? Why not ask Zenny if he can do the vocals as a guest singer? Zenny Gram was the singer for the Swedish dark metal band Destiny and a friend to the guys in the band. He agreed to sing on the tape but not as Zenny, because of the legal problems that can cause. The name Zenny has on the demo is Frippe. (a friend to Jonas calls his dog that)
The guys went in to the studio in February 1996 to record a five track demo. The songs on the tape were: The Gift, Kingdom, To live again, Demons and Liar, (all but Liar made it to their debut CD). The tape was then sent out world-wide, and five record companies showed their interest almost immediately to sign the band. After legal assistance and much consideration, the band signed for the German record company Modern Music T&T
The CD Their debut CD was recorded in Sep-96 and was produced by Jonas & Magnus Hörnqvist, and was engineered by Alex Losbäck. This recording session turned out to be a really strange experience for T.L. One of the memories that maybe come closest to their minds, may be the huge rat they had visiting them. The rat disturbed their sleep, ate their food and scared the shit out of them, but they had a really funny time recording the CD, despite the rat. The name of the CD is "Questions" and was released in February 97.
The Treasure Land Philosophy Treasure Land's purpose is to take metal-music to unknown territories, and mix in different styles of music to metal. The music of Treasure Land is a blend of metal, thrash, fusion, reggae, Latin and classical music. By doing this, the songwriters of Treasure Land can choose whatever kind of style of music they think will fit in and put it in the songs. Specially important elements of Treasure Land's music are, for instance, choruses, technique, and carefully prepared arrangements.
The Story Continues... After the release of "Questions" the band did a couple of live gigs and more interviews then they expected. The band was voted among the best new comers in several zines and web pages. So far everything looked good, then some unexpected things started to appear. Zenny (the singer) felt he didn't have the time to give the band the 110% a band need, so instead of slowing the band down he quit. This left Treasure Land again without a singer, back to scratch. Adds were put up on the Internet and in music shops.
There were many singers who wanted to audition but most of them lived far away from Sweden so Treasure Land started to look for a singer more closely, like in Sweden for instance. One night when the two brothers discussed this they came to think of a singer they liked very much, his name was Jacob Samuelsson.
Jacob used to sing in a band called "Totem", this band was formed by ex King Diamond guitarist Pete Black (Jonas once auditioned for this band and got the place, but that's another story) Anyway, Jonas and Magnus thought they at least should give it a try to call Jacob and ask him if he wanted to test his vocal abilities in Treasure Land. Jonas phoned him and he was willing to try, 4 songs were recorded, 3 new ones and one old (Demons). Jacob passed the test perfectly, so cassette tapes were sent back and forth. Now they only needed a studio, several calls were made and finally there was a studio in a town called Jönköping. The band entered the studio the 1st of January 98 and by the 26th of Jan it was recorded and mixed. The CD is entitled "Gateway".
In March/April 1998, Treasure Land did a couple of live shows together with Swedish band Lion's Share. These shows proved that metal is slowly coming back to Sweden again. Kaspar Dahlqvist (keyboards) left Treasure Land in May/98 due to problems with the record company, so after a mutual agreement Treasure Land and modern Music parted ways. Kaspar was back in the band again in September 98. Treasure Land is at the moment working hard on new songs for the third Treasure Land release. Several record company's have shown their interest. May 99. Treasure Land fired Kaspar Dahlqvist.
Members in and out Sometimes it's hard to keep all the members in a band equally interested in the future for the band. Those who have no interest whatsoever being a full member will get fired/sacked. Treasure Land have no time dealing with "I want to be a rockstar" type of guys.
THE LEGACY + a new keyboardplayer Since June 99, Jonas and his brother had talked about doing something more commercial, something more in the vain of Malmsteen/Royal Hunt. Since Kaspar was out of the picture they had to think about who could play this style of music, they came to think about the Italian keyboardplayer Giulio who had visit them summer of 98. Giulio was the perfect candidate for this music, beautiful melodies and and nice feeling combined with an extraordinary technique would suite the project really well. Giulio said yes before Jonas had a chance to ask him to join them.
So right now the members are working hard writing songs for the project they entitled "THE LEGACY". A demotape will be recorded in Feb/March 2000. A CD should be out by the end of the year! Meanwhile, TL have only been put on hold for a while. There are 7 new songs written for a third TL release, but at the moment "THE LEGACY" have a higher priority.
What's been going on since 2000? Before I tell you what we've been up to, let me take this opportunity and thank all of you who've been writing us emails, letters, and sending us gifts throughout the years. I still get emails and letters from ppl who just discovered Treasure Land or might be wondering if it's true that we split up. We have not split up, we just took a very long vacation from it all since I was pretty burnt out after all the fights and shit with our former label.
Let me sum up of the last years for you. Thing got really bad in the middle of 1998, our label didn't do anything to promote us really. They arranged some interviews here and there but that was basically all. The label sent me wrong dates for some of the radio interviews which made me look like a fool when I called the magazines. The distribution in Sweden didn't do anything either even though they promised us they would put out adds in the biggest magazines in Sweden, arrange interviews and so on, but it was all bullshit. It was impossible to talk to them, they just saw metal guys as dumbasses! They told me so many lies that I thought, damn, our record company has found the perfect companion!
We were supposed to go on tour with 2 big bands as soon as our 2nd CD was released. That never happened, yet another empty promise from the label. That was the 3rd tour they promised us, we were promised to go on tour with this HUGE german power metal band to support our first CD "Questions", but all of a sudden the tour was not going to happen for us. Why? They said we were unexperienced as a live act??? WTF! All of us in TL have been on stage since we were 12-13 years old. The label didn't know how we were as a live act?!
Treasure Land was slowly becoming what I feared the most, a studio band! We did however play a couple of shows here in Sweden, both on our own and as a support band to Lion's Share.
In Maj/April 19998, I was so tired of all the bullshit from the label that we more or less made them disolve the record contract with us. There was no other way out of this shitty contract, we didn't want to get sued for breaking the contract so we had them break it. There was other stuff that happened during the years we were signed to them, but I better leave that out for now :)
By the beginning of 1999 I told the other guys that I was going to take a break from it all, I just wanted to find the love and joy in music again since our label took all those feelings away with their shitty attitude and stuff. I started writing new songs but they weren't progmetal songs, they were more towards neoclassical metal. So I wrote about 8 songs and was prepared to look for musicians to play with when I more or less crashed right into a wall, mentally. But even though I got diagnosed "burnt out" and was told that I had to calm down or something bad might happen to my heart, I continued writing new songs, practicing guitar, teaching guitar. I don't believe in taking medicine when someones mind is burnt out, so I recovered by myself through the love from my girlfriend, my kids, my brother and parents and of course, music.
In 1999 we got an offer to participate on a tribute cd to Yngwie J Malmsteen, that was an offer too good to refuse :) We also participated on another tribute cd "Power from the north - Sweden rocks the world" in 2000. We covered a John Norum song. I usually doesn't like all these tribute cd's but I felt it was cool to cover Malmsteen and Norum, my guitar heroes since I was a teenager.
We got contacted by a shitload of different record labels during 1999-2001 that wanted to hear our new stuff but I told them that when the time is right, you will all get a chance to hear the new Treasure Land.
The time is coming closer and closer, we're in the studio right now recording 3 songs and before you know it, Treasure Land will come back stronger than ever!
I will never again go into the same trap I went with our last label!
- Jonas Hörnqvist 2006
Info from Janne Stark's Encyclopedia Treasure Land are on of Sweden's top league progressive bands, but a sadly underperforming band release-wise. The style is somewhere in between Impellitteri and Dream Theater, with outstanding musicianship. Jonas, Magnus and Magnus have previously recorded a single with the band Calilio and original singer Zenny Hansson (Gram) recorded four albums with darksters Destiny and previously sung with Faith, Metal Muthaz, Spin Air, Spitfire, etc. After the first album Zenny was asked to leave the band and he was replaced with Jakob Samuelsson (aka Jake Samuel), who simultaneously released the second album by his own band Jekyll & Hyde. In May '98 Kaspar left the band to pursue a career in new age music, but later appeared in Stormwind, Sahara and Dionysus. Zenny later re-joined Destiny for a while, but now mostly does cover gigs. Jonas has previously also recorded some highly acclaimed solo demos. In 2002 the band began working on a new album. The line-up featured Jonas, Magnus L, Magnus H, new singer Rickard "Altzi" Thornberg (ex-Sanity) and Italian keyboard player Giulio Capone. It didn't last long and Altzi later joined At Vance, Thunderstone and is now in Masterplan. In 2005 the band recorded an excellent four-track promo entitled 'The Search Has Begun', but unfortunately the search is not yet over. The line-up on the promo featured Altzi, the Hörnquist brothers and Lind. Lind, who was ex-Blue Balls, is now in Scull Parade and Jake Samuel is fronting The Poodles. The band is currently "resting", while Jonas is active as a guitar teacher and there's still music to be made from the brothers (we hope!)
Official Biography #1 Treasure Land was founded in 1993 by Jonas and Magnus Hörnvqist. A bass player was found soon in Magnus Lind, with whom they had played together previously in the band Calilio. The trio honed their abilities together for almost a year before finding Kaspar Dahlqvist to fill out keyboard duties, who excelled above and beyond any previous keyboardist they had auditioned. His symphonic approach fit the band like a glove, and brought the band into the next level. Finding a suitable singer, however, was not going to be easy. Many tried out, and even performed live with the band, but had lacked that special quality Treasure Land was looking for.
When it came time to record the band’s first demo, Jonas had offered to lay down temporary vocals for the songs although they knew this wouldn’t work in the long term. They would eventually find their vocalist in Zenny Gram, singer for the dark metal band Destiny. There was one snag, however, as Zenny could not legally perform under his own name due to a contact he had signed with Destiny. They chose to call him “Frippe” on the demo (taken from the name of a friends’ dog). In February of 1996, the band recorded their 5 track demo, which included the songs The Gift, Kingdom, To Live Again, Demons, and Liar. All but “Liar” would eventually find their way to the first Treasure Land album. The demo attracted the attention of 5 labels right away, including German based Modern Music T&T, which is who Treasure Land eventually signed with.
Mark I “Questions,” the debut album, was recorded in September of 1996 and produced by Jonas and Magnus Hörnqvist, with Alex Losback engineering. The recording went well, despite a pestering rat problem in the studio, and was released in February of 1997. The album was met with met with great acclaim, and Treasure Land found themselves voted “best new band” in several magazines and webzines.
Mark II Shortly after the release of “Questions,” Zenny quit, feeling that he was not able to give Treasure Land the 110% they required of him. After much searching, Jonas and Magnus decided to give singer Jacob Samuelsson (ex-Totem) a call. Jacob jumped at the chance and recorded 4 demo tracks with Treasure Land (including one reworked old song, Demons). These demos would lead to the 2nd album, entitled “Gateway,” that was recorded in January of 1998 in Jönköping, Sweden.
After doing some shows in support of “Gateway,” Kaspar and Jacob both decided to leave Treasure Land, but not before Jacob recorded a cover of ex-Europe guitarist John Norum’s song “Love is Meant to Last Forever,” which appeared on the “Power from the North – Sweden Rocks the World” compilation.
After much frustration and disputes with their label, Jonas decided to put Treasure Land on hold at the end of 1998, although they still recorded a cover of “Icarus Dream Suite” for the Yngwie Malmsteen tribute album “A Guitar Odyssey.”
Mark III Rick Altzi (vox) and Mathias Scheffler (keyboard) enters. New songs are written, the style is more straight in your face metal with strong classical influences. The only remaining members from the last CD is Jonas and his brother and Magnus Lind, the other two members are all new.
Mark IV Mark III turned out this way; Mathias (keyboards) quit the band since he couldn't devote the time and Rick and Treasure Land parted ways after 5 years of hard work for the 3rd CD "The search has begun".
Mark V New singer Toby Jay is now fronting Treasure Land.
Official Biography #2 The Beginning: It all started in 1993 when Jonas & Magnus Hörnqvist started to talk about putting a band together again. First of all, they needed a bassplayer, so who was the first guy they would call? Magnus Lind, because they had played together before, (1986-1991) in another band called Calilio. This line up of Treasure Land played together almost a year as a trio before they started to look for a keyboardplayer and vocalist.
They put out adds in the music shops and magazines that they needed a keyboardplayer who could play fast and a vocalist who could sing very high and follow all the tempo changes and keys. A couple of different keyboardplayers tried out but none of them could stand the test. It wasn't until a friend of Jonas told him that there was a guy nearby by him that might be the right guy for them.
His name was Kaspar Dahlqvist, and Jonas immediately called him and asked him who his influences were. This guy had a lot more symphonic taste than the other guys they had tried out, so they set up a time and place to check him out, and he fit like a glove to the band. So now they were a four piece band, the only thing they needed now was a singer. A couple of the singers they tried out made it as far as doing live gigs with them, but there were always something missing with the guys who sang. Things did not look bright for the guys in Treasure Land.
The Demo Because, plans were made to record a demo, the only problem was that they didn't have a singer. Jonas said that he could do the vocals on the demo and then show it to whoever were going to sing in the band, but at the same time, this wouldn't work in the long run. So what would they do? Why not ask Zenny if he can do the vocals as a guest singer? Zenny Gram was the singer for the Swedish dark metal band Destiny and a friend to the guys in the band. He agreed to sing on the tape but not as Zenny, because of the legal problems that can cause. The name Zenny has on the demo is Frippe. (a friend to Jonas calls his dog that)
The guys went in to the studio in February 1996 to record a five track demo. The songs on the tape were: The Gift, Kingdom, To live again, Demons and Liar, (all but Liar made it to their debut CD). The tape was then sent out world-wide, and five record companies showed their interest almost immediately to sign the band. After legal assistance and much consideration, the band signed for the German record company Modern Music T&T
The CD Their debut CD was recorded in Sep-96 and was produced by Jonas & Magnus Hörnqvist, and was engineered by Alex Losbäck. This recording session turned out to be a really strange experience for T.L. One of the memories that maybe come closest to their minds, may be the huge rat they had visiting them. The rat disturbed their sleep, ate their food and scared the shit out of them, but they had a really funny time recording the CD, despite the rat. The name of the CD is "Questions" and was released in February 97.
The Treasure Land Philosophy Treasure Land's purpose is to take metal-music to unknown territories, and mix in different styles of music to metal. The music of Treasure Land is a blend of metal, thrash, fusion, reggae, Latin and classical music. By doing this, the songwriters of Treasure Land can choose whatever kind of style of music they think will fit in and put it in the songs. Specially important elements of Treasure Land's music are, for instance, choruses, technique, and carefully prepared arrangements.
The Story Continues... After the release of "Questions" the band did a couple of live gigs and more interviews then they expected. The band was voted among the best new comers in several zines and web pages. So far everything looked good, then some unexpected things started to appear. Zenny (the singer) felt he didn't have the time to give the band the 110% a band need, so instead of slowing the band down he quit. This left Treasure Land again without a singer, back to scratch. Adds were put up on the Internet and in music shops.
There were many singers who wanted to audition but most of them lived far away from Sweden so Treasure Land started to look for a singer more closely, like in Sweden for instance. One night when the two brothers discussed this they came to think of a singer they liked very much, his name was Jacob Samuelsson.
Jacob used to sing in a band called "Totem", this band was formed by ex King Diamond guitarist Pete Black (Jonas once auditioned for this band and got the place, but that's another story) Anyway, Jonas and Magnus thought they at least should give it a try to call Jacob and ask him if he wanted to test his vocal abilities in Treasure Land. Jonas phoned him and he was willing to try, 4 songs were recorded, 3 new ones and one old (Demons). Jacob passed the test perfectly, so cassette tapes were sent back and forth. Now they only needed a studio, several calls were made and finally there was a studio in a town called Jönköping. The band entered the studio the 1st of January 98 and by the 26th of Jan it was recorded and mixed. The CD is entitled "Gateway".
In March/April 1998, Treasure Land did a couple of live shows together with Swedish band Lion's Share. These shows proved that metal is slowly coming back to Sweden again. Kaspar Dahlqvist (keyboards) left Treasure Land in May/98 due to problems with the record company, so after a mutual agreement Treasure Land and modern Music parted ways. Kaspar was back in the band again in September 98. Treasure Land is at the moment working hard on new songs for the third Treasure Land release. Several record company's have shown their interest. May 99. Treasure Land fired Kaspar Dahlqvist.
Members in and out Sometimes it's hard to keep all the members in a band equally interested in the future for the band. Those who have no interest whatsoever being a full member will get fired/sacked. Treasure Land have no time dealing with "I want to be a rockstar" type of guys.
THE LEGACY + a new keyboardplayer Since June 99, Jonas and his brother had talked about doing something more commercial, something more in the vain of Malmsteen/Royal Hunt. Since Kaspar was out of the picture they had to think about who could play this style of music, they came to think about the Italian keyboardplayer Giulio who had visit them summer of 98. Giulio was the perfect candidate for this music, beautiful melodies and and nice feeling combined with an extraordinary technique would suite the project really well. Giulio said yes before Jonas had a chance to ask him to join them.
So right now the members are working hard writing songs for the project they entitled "THE LEGACY". A demotape will be recorded in Feb/March 2000. A CD should be out by the end of the year! Meanwhile, TL have only been put on hold for a while. There are 7 new songs written for a third TL release, but at the moment "THE LEGACY" have a higher priority.
What's been going on since 2000? Before I tell you what we've been up to, let me take this opportunity and thank all of you who've been writing us emails, letters, and sending us gifts throughout the years. I still get emails and letters from ppl who just discovered Treasure Land or might be wondering if it's true that we split up. We have not split up, we just took a very long vacation from it all since I was pretty burnt out after all the fights and shit with our former label.
Let me sum up of the last years for you. Thing got really bad in the middle of 1998, our label didn't do anything to promote us really. They arranged some interviews here and there but that was basically all. The label sent me wrong dates for some of the radio interviews which made me look like a fool when I called the magazines. The distribution in Sweden didn't do anything either even though they promised us they would put out adds in the biggest magazines in Sweden, arrange interviews and so on, but it was all bullshit. It was impossible to talk to them, they just saw metal guys as dumbasses! They told me so many lies that I thought, damn, our record company has found the perfect companion!
We were supposed to go on tour with 2 big bands as soon as our 2nd CD was released. That never happened, yet another empty promise from the label. That was the 3rd tour they promised us, we were promised to go on tour with this HUGE german power metal band to support our first CD "Questions", but all of a sudden the tour was not going to happen for us. Why? They said we were unexperienced as a live act??? WTF! All of us in TL have been on stage since we were 12-13 years old. The label didn't know how we were as a live act?!
Treasure Land was slowly becoming what I feared the most, a studio band! We did however play a couple of shows here in Sweden, both on our own and as a support band to Lion's Share.
In Maj/April 19998, I was so tired of all the bullshit from the label that we more or less made them disolve the record contract with us. There was no other way out of this shitty contract, we didn't want to get sued for breaking the contract so we had them break it. There was other stuff that happened during the years we were signed to them, but I better leave that out for now :)
By the beginning of 1999 I told the other guys that I was going to take a break from it all, I just wanted to find the love and joy in music again since our label took all those feelings away with their shitty attitude and stuff. I started writing new songs but they weren't progmetal songs, they were more towards neoclassical metal. So I wrote about 8 songs and was prepared to look for musicians to play with when I more or less crashed right into a wall, mentally. But even though I got diagnosed "burnt out" and was told that I had to calm down or something bad might happen to my heart, I continued writing new songs, practicing guitar, teaching guitar. I don't believe in taking medicine when someones mind is burnt out, so I recovered by myself through the love from my girlfriend, my kids, my brother and parents and of course, music.
In 1999 we got an offer to participate on a tribute cd to Yngwie J Malmsteen, that was an offer too good to refuse :) We also participated on another tribute cd "Power from the north - Sweden rocks the world" in 2000. We covered a John Norum song. I usually doesn't like all these tribute cd's but I felt it was cool to cover Malmsteen and Norum, my guitar heroes since I was a teenager.
We got contacted by a shitload of different record labels during 1999-2001 that wanted to hear our new stuff but I told them that when the time is right, you will all get a chance to hear the new Treasure Land.
The time is coming closer and closer, we're in the studio right now recording 3 songs and before you know it, Treasure Land will come back stronger than ever!
I will never again go into the same trap I went with our last label!
