Talisman was formed by bass player Marcel Jacob, who had previously played with (among others) Rising Force, John Norum Group and Power. While Jacob was playing with John Norum, he started working on tracks which he thought would end up on Norum's second solo album. The singer on those demos was Göran Edman, also in John Norum Group at that time. Norum rejected the songs and, in the meantime, Göran was offered the opportunity to join Yngwie Malmsteen's band. Jacob found himself with record label interest but no band so a vocalist was needed. On a whim, Marcel contacted Jeff Scott Soto who also was in Yngwie Malmsteen's band years earlier. Both Soto and Jacob had played on Yngwie Malmsteen's "Marching Out" in 1985, touring in support of the album during 1985 - 1986. Soto was extremely interested in what Marcel had done and once the songs were done and mixed, Marcel changed the work name for his solo project, Guitars On Fire to a new moniker called, TALISMAN. In February 1989 recordings for the first album took place in Stockholm with Christopher Ståhl (Power) and Mats Lindfors (Norum, Grand Slam) on guitars, Peter Hermansson (220 Volt, Norum) playing drums on some tracks and Mats Olausson (Yngwie Malmsteen) on keyboards. Jacob programmed the rest of drums and played all rhythm guitars with the help of the producer Mats Lindfors on "Women, Whiskey and Songs" User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.