4 More Shots (The Acoustics) Ronnie Atkins

• 1 Carry Me Over 03:24
• 2 When Dreams Are Not Enough (Acoustic) 04:00
• 3 Picture Yourself (Acoustic) 03:42
• 4 Real (Acoustic) 04:14
• 5 One Shot (Orchestra Version - Bonus Track) 05:26
• Total Runtime 20:46

Info for 4 More Shots (The Acoustics)

On the heels of his well received solo album "One Shot", Danish vocalist Ronnie Atkins (Pretty Maids, Nordic Union) has announced the upcoming release of a new EP, "4 More Shots (The Acoustics)" on October 1, 2021. The EP consists of one unreleased studio track, 'Carry Me Over' and three acoustic tracks. All three acoustic tracks, 'When Dreams Are Not Enough', 'Picture Yourself', and 'Real', have original studio versions that appear on "One Shot". ​Additionally, the EP contains a special bonus track, 'One Shot' (Orchestra Version) that was originally available as a bonus track in Japan with the album "One Shot".

“'Carry Me Over” was in fact the first song I wrote after I was told my cancer was back in March 2020. It was written when I hit rock bottom mentally and emotionally and in a very hopeless and frustrating period of time in my life. That’s pretty obvious when you listen to the lyrics. So, when I had to decide which songs were gonna go on the album "One Shot", I deliberately decided to leave “Carry Me Over” out for two reasons. One being the fact that, you know, I simply thought the lyrics were too sad/depressing and that’s not what I wanted to signal to the fans. Second, I felt it would tip the balance on the album. However, I still think it’s a beautiful melody!! Melancholic indeed, but also very honest and therefore I can back it up at any time. That’s how I felt and that was the state of my mind when I wrote it," says Atkins of the studio track 'Carry Me Over'.

"Today, I’m in a different place, not diagnosis wise really, but I feel good and I guess I’ve somehow learned how to adapt to the situation and deal with it. Thanks to immunotherapy, a positive mindset, and, not the least of which, the almighty God, I’m still here," he concludes.

The EP was produced and mixed by Chris Laney, co-produced and arranged by Anders Ringman, and mastered by Jacob Hansen. It was recorded during 2020 at Hansen Studios, Laneyland Studios and Platform CPR.

Ronnie Atkins, lead vocals, backing vocals
Chris Laney, acoustic guitars, bass, backing vocals
Anders Ringman, acoustic and lead guitars, bass, piano, keyboards
Allan Sørensen, drums
Linnea Vikström Egg, backing vocals

Ronnie Atkins
vocalist of Horsens, Denmark-based hard rock / heavy metal band Pretty Maids, has made the track ‘Scorpio’ available for streaming via YouTube, which can be accessed below.

Ronnie Atkins issues debut full-length solo studio album One Shot on March 12th, 2021 through Frontiers Music Srl. The outing can be pre-ordered here.

“To be honest, I initially had no intention to do a solo album to begin with, but for various reasons and in particularly my own personal health situation I finally decided to have a crack at it,” said Atkins. “Around Easter 2020 and only some six weeks after I was told that everything seemingly looked very positive for my health, I was unfortunately diagnosed with stage 4 cancer and told it was incurable, which was devastating news for me. Needless to say, that was a total game changer and I went into kind of a panic situation for a while! But when the dust had settled, I realised there were two ways to approach the situation. I could sit down, accept the facts, and feel pity for myself or I could pull myself up, set some goals, pursue my dreams, and carry on living! And with fantastic back up from my family and true friends, I went for the latter!”

With the global pandemic shutting down touring for the foreseeable future, Atkins knew a tour promoting the latest Pretty Maids album, Undress Your Madness (2019), was not going to be on the cards anytime soon. Suddenly, the timing for working on a new solo album seemed to have presented itself.

“Well, I couldn’t change the facts by any means,” continued the singer. “The whole world was on a lockdown and the future prospects of concerts were very uncertain and still is to this day! Basically, that meant that if I was gonna carry out the idea of a solo album, it had to be now since I don’t necessarily have all the time in the world. I had all these ideas recorded on my iPhone that I felt were too good to never see the light of day and I was writing a lot at the time to help ease my frustrations.”

Ronnie’s next step was to connect with producer and Pretty Maids band mate Chris Laney to begin the work of putting the ideas together into songs.

“Not being able to handle the recordings myself since I’m old school and a complete idiot when it comes to IT, Pro Tools, etc. I hooked up with my Pretty Maids friend and firesoul Chris Laney, who literally cheered me up and convinced me to go ahead with it,” he revealed. “So, I decided to get moving and literally recorded my ideas on either piano or guitar and with a mellotron click to keep the beat and the accompanying vocal. Then I would send these along to Chris, who did the instrumentation in Stockholm and would then send back demos to me. Then, I recorded the vocals first, which is totally the opposite of what you’d normally do, but based on the uncertainty of my health situation, I wanted to get them down. After that we did the basic tracks, drums, guitars, keys, backing vocals, etc. Odd way of doing it, for me at least, but it worked. And so, this procedure slowly moved on during the summer and finally turned into an album of 12 new songs.

“I wouldn’t have been able to carry out this project without the enthusiasm of Chris, who has been my constant partner in this project from day one. On top of that, I had the pleasure of working with a variety of great musicians/singers such as Pontus Norgren, Kee Marcello, Olliver Hartmann, Pontus Egberg, Linnea Vickström Egg, Björn Strid, and at last, but not at least, my Pretty Maids relatives Allan Sørensen and Morten Sandager.

“Musically and lyrically this album has been a different process for me, considering everything going on. Musically, it could have gone in various directions. It’s always a question of what you want it to be. A good song is a good song, so it’s really a matter of how it is packaged. But I decided to make it appeal to the fans, the supporters who’ve been following me for almost 40 years, so this is basically a melodic rock album with a heavy twist. Lyrically, it also has a different approach. I found it hard to write about sex, drugs, and rock’n’roll, etc. due to the situation I’m wrapped up in, so I guess it turned out a bit more personal and maybe melancholic at times. But it reflects my thoughts at the given time these lyrics were written.”

One Shot was produced by Chris Laney, while mixing duties fell to Jacob Hansen at Hansen Studios in Ribe, Denmark.

This album contains no booklet.