Los Angeles, CA based musician Kevin Chown, bass player for Finnish artist Tarja as well as Cosmosquad, Chad Smith’s Bombastic Meatbats, and Der Elefant, is among the last four cast members left in Season 8 of top rated Swedish reality TV show Allt för Sverige (Everything for Sweden). The final episode, which will reveal the winner, is set to air this Sunday, November 4th at 8 PM on SVT television.  

"My hope was that I would win, of course. It was suddenly much larger than ‘me’. It was for and in honor of my family, past and present", reflects Chown on his whirlwind Swedish adventure during which time he experienced the highs of playing the massive Sweden Rock festival with Tarja and the lows of losing one of his beloved Golden Retrievers. "I carried the torch of a long journey of survival.  It was to be done with determination, class, and Swedish persistence. If I was to be victorious, it was to be won on my terms, within the context of my family heritage: with dignity. When you define what “winning” is and accept it as “fate”, you cannot lose. I only had to try my best. I felt lucky to be alive. That’s the ultimate victory in everything in life. Finding grace. Appreciation of the moment. That spirit defines my family. It is who I am, imperfections included. In the end, the journey was more important than the destination to me.

"Allt för Sverige really was transformational for me. I feel like learning the truth has given me a sense of freedom. It planted the seeds of my future. I recently met with Lars, the relative I met for only two minutes, early in the show. He came to see me perform with TARJA in Berlin! It was an amazing experience to be the two relatives that re-connected a continental bond that was broken. We have so much in common, including the fact that we’re both bass players. Sweden will be changing my life from this point forward as a result. I can already say, I have and have started to meet, my Swedish family. Social Media has made it possible to begin the process of putting the puzzle back together again, one by one. Once I am back in Sweden, with some Fika time and more than a few beers, with each conversation we can tell each other what has happened since 1879!"

On the release front, Chown's all-instrumental solo debut, Freudian Slip (1996), and the Light the Way EP (2013), which spawned the videos “We Light The Way” and “Alive”, respectively, are now available as a remastered 2-for-1 digital reissue, simply titled Kevin Chown.  The set includes three previously unreleased songs, "Move The People", "Paris", and "Fortified Bastions Of Liberty", as bonus tracks. 

Chown will be heading into L.A.'s famed Baked Potato venue with his progressive rock trio, Cosmosquad, this Saturday, November 3rd, the band's first show since their 2018 tour of Japan in support of their fourth album, The Morbid Tango. Sets commence at 9:30 PM and 11:15 PM.