Sami Yaffa to release debut solo album “The Innermost Journey to Your Outermost Mind” on September 3rd 2021

Sami Yaffa The Innermost Journey to Your Outermost Mind cover
Sami Yaffa, best known for his work with New York Dolls, Michael Monroe Band and Hanoi Rocks has announced the release of his first solo album “The Innermost Journey to Your Outermost Mind”, out on September 3rd, 2021, via Livewire/Cargo Records.

The album was produced by Sam Yaffa, mixed by Erno Laitinen, mastered by Pauli Saastamoinen at Finnvox Studios and recorded by Erno Laitinen, Sam Yaffa, Janne Haavisto & Jose “Puter” Puigserve.

Sami Yaffa has had a unique career as a musician. He joined the punk band Pelle Miljoona Oy at the tender age of 16 and played on the bands now legendary album Moottoritie On Kuuma. Pelle Miljoona Oy was Finland’s number one band at the time, but Yaffa and his future cohorts were aiming higher: as an original member of the band Hanoi Rocks, he spent the first half of the 80’s as an international rock musician with all its ups, downs and trappings. The band influenced many of the acts that would later become huge in the world of Rock n’ Roll - including Guns n’ Roses.

After the break-up of Hanoi Rocks, Yaffa was asked to join some of the most notable artists in R‘n’R history such as Joan Jett and The Blackhearts 2002-04, as well as one of Hanoi Rocks’ major influences, the New York Dolls 2004-10. In 2009 he started a band with the Hanoi Rocks singer Michael Monroe. This collaboration continues to this day, but now Yaffa is also releasing music under his own name.

“The idea for the solo album started to take shape a few years back. Previously I had written music for the New York Dolls and the Michael Monroe Band, but now some of the songs that I was writing and had written, started to sound more and more like my own stuff instead of what I would write for those bands”, comments Sami.

Tracklist:
1. Armageddon Together
2. Selling Me Shit
3. Fortunate One
4. Rotten Roots
5. Germinator
6. Down at St. Joe’s
7. I Can’t Stand It
8. You Gimme Fever
9. The Last Time
10. Look Ahead
11. Cancel the End of the World

What kind of music does Yaffa then release under his own name? Versatile. “I’ve always loved the music of the bands like The Clash and The Rolling Stones. They can play country, funk, reggae and rock‘n’roll, and still sound like themselves. I wanted the same kind of versatility for my own album. “The album has influences on a fairly wide scale, but it hardly surprises those who have followed Yaffa’s career: in addition to his own music career, he has been seen getting to know the musical cultures of different parts of the world as a host of the Sami Yaffa: Soundtracker TV series. However, the beating heart of the album is in rock‘n’roll and punk, I don’t shy away from that”.

Even though it’s a solo record, Sami has always been a member of bands and because of that, a team player. Yaffa mentions a couple of names without whom the record would not have come to completion - at least the way it finally became. The first to mention is a childhood friend, drummer Janne Haavisto with whom Sami made his first forays into the world of music. Sami and Janne created the basic tracks together and invited valued friends and musicians to collaborate on the album. Rich Jones, the guitarist from the Michael Monroe band helped pull together a lot of the songs lyrically, Christian Martucci from the band Stone Sour played guitar on half of the album, the other half was played by another old friend Rane Raitsikka from the cult band Smack and Sami’s old bro from the Hanoi days, Timo Kaltio.

Line-up:
Sami Yaffa - Vocals, Bass Guitar (Hanoi Rocks, Michael Monroe, New York Dolls)
Rich Jones - Guitars (Michael Monroe Band)
Christian Martucci - Guitars (Stone Sour)
Rane Raitsikka - Guitars (Smack)
Timo Kaltio - Guitars (Izzy Stradlin, Cheap And Nasty)
Janne Haavisto – Drums

Weblinks:
samiyaffa.com
www.facebook.com/sami.yaffa