Out with the old, in with the new - the crazy train keeps chugging along…

Alright, now that the horrid questionnaire has put me in the mood for writing, I’m gonna write yet another lengthy one about our favorite band, Lokomotiv. First off, let’s do a short recap of events that transpired since I last posted about them, shall we?

In the middle of June this year, Basti Artadi, lead singer of Lokomotiv, dropped a bombshell on the Pinoy rock community by saying that he was stepping down from his vocal chores in the band. Here was the post he made at the Lokomotiv forums:

Hello Friends,

I am writing you all today to let you know that due to personal issues it is finally time that my musical jihad comes to an end. The past thirteen years and the last two I had experienced with you all have been great and they will be something that I will always cherish and remember. The music industry is a beast and its one that you have to grab hold of and start stabbing in hopes that one day you can kill it before it kills you. Unfortunately my knives are no longer long enough or sharp enough to continue on. I wanna say thank you to all the people who have helped me out in some form or another while I was doing this.

To our fans, I wanna say thank you for making the hairs on the back of my neck stand each and every time I walked out on that stage. It was a pleasure screaming for you all. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!!!!…Bow.

Ingat kayong lahat…

Basti

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Not unexpectedly, the pinoy rock community, especially the Lokomotiv fans (and more specifically, the female Loko fans) were devastated by the news. Just when the band has gelled and was ready to face bigger stages, Basti’s departure was a huge damper on the parade, indeed.

Many naysayers said that Lokomotiv would be dead without Basti, and some of them never really gave the band a fighting chance after that. But as I have repeatedly said in the Loko forums, Lokomotiv is made up of FOUR people, not one. The loss of Basti was indeed big, especially since he was the voice of the band, but it didn’t mean that the band will hang up their guitars and call it quits.

And so the tough search for a new lead vocalist went underway. Again, some people considered Basti irreplaceable, and were wondering if anyone was ever worthy of replacing him in the band.

Those of us who stuck with the band coz of the music, and not the personalities, were rewarded in the last couple of weeks with the announcement that Lokomotiv has found a new vocalist. And his name was Ryan Hudson, a 21-year-old white guy from Oklahoma whose performance history wasn’t as extensive as Basti’s 13+ years in the business.

I’ve only heard some samples of Ryan’s singing but I can say for a fact that he is the right guy for the job. According to the band, he had a great attitude towards the business, and is very open to possibilities. He is not a replacement for Basti, but rather a brand new voice to the musical journey of Lokomotiv. Unlike most of the other people who auditioned for lead vocalist during that time, he did not demand the first album be re-recorded and re-released with his voice on it instead. He did not demand anything unreasonable from the band. He was in it for the music, and he wanted to make a name for himself with his new band.

As a person, based on the couple emails I had with him, he is an awesome guy. Now I’ll have to see for myself how he makes his presence felt onstage…

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Those who want to catch a glimpse of Ryan Hudson’s debut performance with Lokomotiv should mark this date: August 26, 2006. At the Universal Bar & Grill in Universal City, California at 10pm. After two months following Basti’s departure, Lokomotiv is back - better, wiser, and with more fire to feed the boiler.

Full details about the gig can be found here.

Lokomotiv will also be touring the Philippines sometime in late November, as they will be properly promoting their first album there, Rock N’ Roll Death Toll, which was just recently launched in the Philippines this year.

It’s an exciting time for Lokomotiv, as they once again load the boilers and chug forward at full speed. Out with the old, in with the new - the crazy train keeps chugging along…

Get on or get out of the way!

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