Carl Begai

The following is an excerpt from the book I co-wrote with ex-BONFIRE bassist Joerg Deisinger, entitled Fire And Fame. His story, my words…

By the middle of July our follow-up to Don’t Touch The Light was nearing completion, and our label partners at RCA in Hamburg were anxious to hear what we’d come up with. Mario, who had travelled from Germany to Los Angeles in preparation for the impending promotional campaign, had intended to bring them an advance tape featuring the four most promising new tracks from the album – ‘Ready 4 Reaction’, ‘Sleepin’ All Alone’, ‘Sweet Obsession’ and ‘American Nights’ – as a taste, but Michael (Wagener / producer) was dead against doing so.

“Forget it; the record label is not getting any advance rough mixes,” Michael told him. “Those mixes aren’t representative of what the album is going to sound like in the end, and I don’t want people who don’t have a clue telling me that the final mixes aren’t as good as the rough mixes. If they want to hear the music they can get their asses to L.A., sit down in the studio control room and blast the album here, but I’m not sending out unfinished work. The end.”
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