The LA Project Arizona

The LA Project

Peter Friestedt

Border Music, 2002

REVIEW BY: Tommy Johnson

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: 03/06/2003

Imagine this: me, great ingredients and a nice kitchen. These three things wouldn't necessarily mean that I would cook a tasty soup, would they? Sure, I would have a shot at it, but there are still tons of things that could go wrong. I could, and most likely would turn the long-awaited meal into something that looks like coal. So I guess you could say that to make a great soup out of great ingredients, you need to be a great cook, too.

Peter Friestedt, from Stömstad -- he is a great cook.

Let me explain. Peter was born in Strömstad, Sweden in 1973. At the age of 11 he began to play the guitar and luckily, he never stopped. After studying at various Swedish music institutions, Peter moved to L.A., where he studied at Los Angeles Music Academy. It was during this time he began to work on the project that would see the light of day in December of 2002, The L.A Project.

Peter is, as many other Swedish musicians, greatly inspired by the slick "westcoast" (a.k.a. West Coast) sound circa 1977-1983. Names such as Bill Champlin, Joseph Williams and Abe Laboriel may not ring a bell for the average music listener, but those of us who are fans of the "westcoast" genre, consider them to be among the greats of music. With the intention of creating an album that captured that great westcoast sound, Peter gathered not only Champlin, Williams and Laboriel, but also many other great L.A musicians.