MY LIFE AND MUSIC.

 

MY LIFE AND MUSIC.

I was born in 1962 in the middle of the birth of the Beatles, so I got stuck in the music quagmire

is not so strange, but now we have to start from the beginning I was born on June 16, 1962

due to social and other problems I was looked after by Norrköping's social services

and spent my first 6 months in an institution before being adopted by

Göte and Solveig Fredriksson. My upbringing on envigsvägen 31 in Herstaberg outside Norrköping was actually fantastic with cows in paddocks, dirt roads and unlocked doors, two adopted sisters appeared, we came from broken families and came to a family full of love and warmth, fate gave us a fantastic Start.

At an early age, severe allergies, eczema and asthma were discovered, which caused many problems, especially with asthma, which meant many visits to hospital and many periods of severe breathing problems. This led to a form of exclusion at an early age because I could not participate in sports activities as I had shortness of breath and severe eczema when sweating, already at an early age I escaped into my world of music, movies, books, but also a little musical brainwashing as my mother always played the radio and sang silly little songs to make the day easier.

Dad was a jazz lover by measure and often listened and brain to his old jazz gods, from all this a dream was born to continue with music and create his own world.

My first guitar was a Hobbex steel string stratta model purchased but after I didn't know any chords I tuned the guitar into a chord and put my finger over it and made it sound, remember plugging it into my stereo with cassette and overriding the recording volume so I got distortion. Over time I learned some chords so I could play along to bands and records, now I made up my mind that I wanted to be a drummer and pestered mum and dad to get a drum kit. In 1973 I got a maxvin py pearl set and placed it in my boy's room in the basement in Herstaberg, now I started practicing to my favorite records like: Hurriganes, Gasolin, Tom Robinson band and my wonderful parents let me be held and bought earplugs. In the same year I started high school at Matteus school in Norrköping which was a culture shock in itself after 3 years at Jursla school and three at Åbymo school in Åby outside Norrköping, school time in primary school was okay but middle school became hell on earth when I got my very own personal torment that ruined my life for three years. Now the city boundary was moved, which meant that I had to start high school at Matthew's school in Norrköping, here it was a happy mix of individuals from different social backgrounds and also many different nationalities. Here I met Peter Nolér who played guitar and we played a little together in my boy's room, now we wanted to start a band and started looking for members it became: George Gustafsson on guitar and Micke Johansson on bass, Kerstin Elgenmark on drums, Peter Nolér on guitar, the Peking rock and blues band was started. We played 50s rock, a bit of punk like The Tubes "i saw her standing there" or Hurriganes (Finnish rock n roll). I started on drums but after a while I was replaced by Kerstin on drums

When it was discovered that I sang so much better than I played the drums. We rehearsed at Matthew's Garden, which is the premises of Matthew's church, and we got access to the auditorium on Sunday mornings before the church coffee. We hung out for a while, but after junior high school we lost contact, although Georga and I played a little sporadically from time to time. In 1978 I started vocational school and one day when I was sitting and listening to my cassette freestyle, a classmate, Nisse, came and took my headphones to listen he looked at me and said this won't work, I'm bringing some records you have to listen to , which he did it was:

Thin Lizzy: Live and dangerous, Status quo: live, from the first notes on Lizzy's record I was sold, hard rock had taken hold of my soul. But I had never seen

a concert, but when Lizzy came to visit I went to the court in Stockholm by bus I stood in line to get to my mecca, I had parquet tickets and while waiting for the concert I slipped to the front to check out all the cool stuff.

When I was about to go to my seat, the light went out in the hall and a storming of the stage that was like a herd of buffalo made us stay at the edge of the stage, smoke poured down from the edge of the stage,

Phil Lynnot's voice was heard through the night "are you ready Stockholm" and with a smoke bomb of a bigger variety the concert started, it was a religious moment that changed my life. I was now firm and sure, what I wanted to do, music was my thing and nothing could stop it, at this point, I sang in a band called "Black mushrooms" who played a lot of ACDC covers and a little mixed type Uriah Heep.

We had a rehearsal room in Marielund at the youth garden underground in the basement.

During the time from 1975 to 1978 when we played together, the rehearsal room became our universe and we got to go on the ungdomsgårds tour because it was a fantastic idea of the ungdomsgårds which gave us a chance to play music for a live audience.

Taking responsibility and being the front man in a band was not something I took lightly, I was shy, introverted and really only interested in making music, seeing live performances mostly as something that had to be done.

In the summer of 1978, Ungdomsgården had a summer concert where we played and without me being aware of it, Anders Jensen who was the drummer in the band Dame Fortune

Was there and listened, after the concert he asked if I would consider coming and try some singing with them, as they were looking for a vocalist.

It was a big deal for me, they were locally known as bad boys but also really good musicians so we set a time for an audition.

The first time I met Per Connman/guitar, Anders Jensen/drums, Roland Forsen/bass, Willy Langstedt/guitar it went like that,

we ran some Lizzy tracks and something they were working on with it didn't click 100%.

But they gave me another chance the next day, Per asked if I knew some Zeppelin songs, which I did, and then "Magic" happened, something that you as a musician only experience a few times in your life, everything else in your head just disappears here and now exists , Willy Langstedt/guitar was fired and now started playing and practicing which would result in new own songs, which after about 6 months were recorded at the stage and music studio in Norrköping with quite successful results for that time. During the next 2 years, we played a lot live, often at Queens corner, our regular hangout, we also got a small record contract with a small label that was run by 2 guys in Skärblacka outside Norrköping, we did some recording and also a promo gig at IKEA of all places.

After 3 years of partying, I quit the band that could have become something big, but with a richer experience and a great desire to write music.

The Dolls 80. Partyband.

In 1980 I started working at Holmen paper ab 5-shift with good pay for a normal carpenter's job, that I ended up there was quite natural as my father worked there and my grades from v-mek looked like a 1X2 tip sheet so it wasn't much to choose on. The job suited me well with 1 week off a month it gave me time and money for my musical adventures. In 1982 I did the rag in Stockholm

I was asked if I wanted to join and start a heavy metal band based on the concept that it is possible to scare everyone into obedience, I said sure, and I, Pal Kebell AKA Paul Marshall, Billy Johansson and Pelle Frimodig started writing songs and scratch their own music which later ended up under the band name Big hozz and the animals.

Military service in Stockholm meant that playing was concentrated on weekends when I was at home, which was not very often.

Symbolism in music was always evil and all attributes were allowed, we played at the Skandia theater in 82 a gig that lived a long time in the people's mouth due to a cross that was broken during the show. I can now reveal that there was very little planned with that piece, Pelle found two boards in the room and joined them into a cross and I carried it in during the start of the concert,

but it wasn't planned, everything was spontaneously invented, the minutes before the gig, we had bombs planned in the show, but the cross was just a ball thing that became a giant gadget.

We were contacted by some free churches who thought the symbolism was not preferable, this just showed us that we were on the right track. I am completely convinced that we could have become something good, we were one of the first metal bands in Sweden, but there was no scene for it at the time and we had to work a lot with the underground roads that existed then. There were very few recordings made, a demo with the band, was recorded in the CWC studio in Norrköping, but it was a dance band's studio and the technology was not of the best quality and we held it in the evening so we didn't scare the possible dance band nerds who nested in the studio. We recorded a two song single at Jade music studios but only a sample of the single exists today. During the final phase of the band, various drummers, guitarists, etc. played in the band, here is a list of them: Gustav Liljenström: drums, Daniel Gese: drums, Anders Jensen: drums, Clas Vålberg: guitar. A final reincarnation of the band was under the new name Tox. New demo was recorded in a studio in Finspång, and a last gig was at Marielund's summer party in 1985.

In the summer of 1985 I was without a band and spent the time with my Rick Springfield records and wrote some songs that felt like ok pop songs.

Headline 82 - 85.

I looked for musicians and found, Peter Ström - piano, synthesizer, organ, Bobby Johanson - drums Björn Zerpe - bass. We started scratching and a three-track demo was recorded in Finspång. After a while Bobby was replaced by Per-Anders Gustavsson on drums and Zerpe was replaced by Claes Jonzon on bass, we also added another guitarist: Magnus Jonsson, we played live a bit and had ambitions with songwriting but it didn't really take off. After we simply got tired of each other, which can happen when you're more a group of friends than a driven project. I recorded my own demo with songs, with hired musicians just to get the songs saved, participated by: Björn Sahlin – keyboard

Magnus Jonsson – Guitar, Pal Kebell – Bass, Magnus Hedin – vocals, technology, etc.

At the age of 23, I was very torn and not at all sure what I wanted to do

Musically, but also on a personal level where my attempts to find someone to love didn't work in any way at all as I turned into

Goofy (long-legged) when dealing with the opposite sex. Had no problem talking to ladies but when it came to the more sexual, I was completely paralyzed. There were definitely ladies to fall in love with, but they probably mostly thought I was strange and were completely scared, and when it went right, it still went wrong and I was convinced that I was doomed to live alone with my music.

Grand Vision

In 1986 I was asked, if I wanted to participate in a project called Grand Vision which was run by Christer Björkholm on guitar, it resulted in a period of a lot of playing live because Christer also ran it as a cover band, playing for everyone who paid. In GV were: Christer Björkholm – Guitar, Daniel Gese – Drums, Michael Lövdalen – Keyboard, Johnny Nielsen – Bass later Johnny Nielsen left the band and Lars Hultman took over on bass. In this band, quite a few musicians cycled in and out many times due to Christer's stubborn way of not letting the rest of us into the creative process, but in his defense, he did write a lot of good music and a single was released around 1987.

During this time i came into contact with drugs that were found in the environment i didn't think it gave me anything, luckily as others disappeared into the fog, and never found there way out again.

Sleazy Rose.

In 1987, I saw Sleazy Roze play at Skandiateatern in Norrköping during one of the many rock events that Studiefrämjandet organized during the 80s. My spontaneous impression was that they were a competent band, Wallentoft on vocals was and is a fantastic frontman for a band. Now I was asked by Per-Ove Johansson, who was the drummer in Sleazy, if I could be part of a demo that would be put together for sending to record companies, as Wallentoft didn't have time at the moment.

What I didn't know was that the band thought exactly like me and was looking for a new singer for Sleazy, we recorded the demo in Linköping, because the band was from there and was a continuation of a band called Axewitch, after recording I was asked if I was interested in being in Sleazy ugly and you could say I was.

Per-Ove and I were from Norrköping and commuted for many years to Linköping for rehearsals with the band. I also visited both denny and mange many times and thus built up a friendship and trust in these people.

This band existed from 1987 to 2010 with different band members, a lot of music was written and many hours were spent in both the rehearsal room and the studio, unfortunately we played far too little live and were bad at promoting ourselves, but it was a fun time and absolutely fantastic musicians with whom I had the privilege to play, but who also became great friends after so many years together.

Members were:

1987

Ralph Petersson – guitar, Magnus Jarl – guitar, Per-Ove Johansson – drums,

Denny Printz – bass, Me – vocals.

This lineup makes two singles: 1990 Single 1. Only one / She's so fine

1992 Single 2. Caution the filling is hot/ Riding High.

1992

Me – vocals, Mikael Qvist – guitar, Per-Ove Johansson – drums,

Stefan Petersson – Bass.

Full-length CD: Caution the filling is hot was made in 1994 and mixed in

Rostinghouse studios in Malmö and was released on an indi label owned by Rostinghouse.

Name change from Sleazy Roze to: Sleazy 1996

Members 1996:

Me - vocals, Mikael Qvist - guitar

Per-Ove Johansson – drums, Paul Marshall – bass

This lineup makes two full-length CD's:

In due time 2000 and Pandora's box 2004

New members of Sleazy 2005:

Me - singing

Mikael Qvist - guitar

Per-Ove Johansson - drums

Lars Hultman – bass

I quit Sleazy in 2010.

1994

Big Hozz And The Animals makes a new try and

Playing on tv4 members were:

Me - vocals, Paul Marshall - bass

Billy Johansson – guitar, Lars Jonsson – drums.

After a series of internal battles, this was ended.

Frontiers

In 1992 I get the question from my old band members in Headline

if I would like to play some cover songs of West Coast rock type.

I thought it was time to bury the hatchet between me and Peter,

who had been the best friends but also worst enemies musically.

We hadn't spoken to each other for ten years then, but after some scratching and talking

it felt good and we could move on with the project. Now someone came up with the brilliant idea that everyone in the band should make a list of their favorite songs with American west coast rock. When we compared lists, we saw that everyone had several songs with the group Journey, said and done, we decide to start a tribute band that only plays Journey songs. This turned out to be a brilliant decision, we form the group Frontiers which results in a lot of live playing, we participated two years in the radio station Rock classics battle of the tribute bands in Stockholm, in which we came second, both times. If we had won, we could have played at the Sweden rock festival, which would have been a boost for us as a band. We also played live on tv4 and received a lot of praise and had a small but devoted fan base.

Members during this time were:

Me on vocals, Christer Lejdemark – Drums, Peter Ström – Keyboard

Magnus Jonsson – Guitar, Clause Gauffin – Bass

2007

Members:

Me on vocals, Christer Lejdemark – Drums, Peter Ström – Keyboard

Magnus Jonsson - Guitar, Roger Hedin - Bass

I see an interview with the manager of Louis de Geer concert & congress where he applies

some local band that you can play in the Flygeln, we get in touch and it becomes fire and flames and a project takes shape, where together with Hartvig Gjesdal's Women's Choir we will run a Journey tribute evening with a large choir. Due to lack of time, Magnus Jonsson cannot participate on guitar, I ask my old friend from Dame Fortune Per Connman to join and I thank him, after five reptilian traps with choir and band the concert is carried out on the grand piano, unfortunately my voice was a bit shaky this evening but worked and we could feel pride and relief that we completed this marathon.

Between 2007 and 2010 I sang in various cover bands and contexts.

Among other things The cover later called B.O.B Band of Brothers

In The covers the members were:

Me on vocals, Roger Hedin: Bass, Tommy Tirfing: Guitar, Peter Litzegård: Drums

Peter Ström: Keyboard.

In B.O.B the members were:

Me on vocals, Roger Hedin: Bass, Tommy Tirfing: Guitar, Peter Litzegård: Drums

Ulf Karlsson: Keyboard.

In 2010 I participated in Talang 2010 (AGT) on tv4, which was an exciting journey of discovery into the wonderful world of television production, a world where everything is fake and artificial to look good on television and whose real task is to be so entertaining that the advertising money comes in to tv4 . Something that you, as a simple musician, are not really prepared for, after 2 trips and performing in front of a jury that consisted of Bert Karlsson, Charlotte Perrelli, Johan Pråmell. After the jury went on an audition tour, they selected 72 talents to go to the final audition, where they would decide which 24 would get another chance in the semi-finals. I was not allowed to go on to the semi, despite three greens at the audition.

Just to go home and start over, I continued working on a solo program with Journey's songs and did a show at the Skandia theater in Norrköping in 2010.

2011

Big Hozz And The Animals re-formed and members were:

Me - vocals, Paul Marshall - bass

Billy Johansson – guitar, Lars Jonsson – drums

We start recording what would become the full CD: Born to Rock

With sponsor money, we could go into a professional studio and record songs.

7 songs were recorded that are still not mixed today as the production is not completed, when old ghosts started to appear from our past and the sponsors pulled out after too much fuss. It was the third time we tried to work together and now had to realize that we cannot work together, time to bury the corpse one last time.

We did a live gig at The crash in Norrköping 2012-05-05 but after this performance we went our separate ways, sad as the songs that were written were really good hard rock.

On a personal level the time from 2000 – 2008 was turbulent with the passing of my father in 2001 and mother in 2007 I was also pressured by my workplace to have a laparotomy due to being overweight but when I refused I was fired in 2010 which sent me into a depression with anxiety attacks as a result.

In the fall of 2008, I became friends with Anja Vervold on my space and we started talking online and Skype, this led to Anja coming to visit in December 2008.

We realized pretty soon that our lives were meant to be spent together, so on 081231 she moved here from Hanover Germany and on 090411 we got married at the town hall in Norrköping.

2014

I was asked if I would be interested in being in a newly started band, not yet named, which would write its own material in the style of symphonic hard rock with 70s influences. It's exciting and after a few meetings we started writing songs,

Gray Rabbit was born the name, came from our old age and that it was Easter when we started playing together, everyone is around 50 except the drummer who is in his 40s. 2 songs are being recorded to be included on a compilation CD, which will be played on American radio.

Mikael Fredriksson: Vocals

Per Ramsby: Organ, piano, synthesizer

Lars Jonsson: Drums

Claes Kjellström: Guitars

Magnus Pettersson: Bass

2015

I get asked if I would be interested in singing with Frontiers again when Fredrik moved to Stockholm, I thought it sounded fun and after a few reps we started playing gigs at home and in Stockholm. What awaits now around the corner, the future will tell with a tired body and many years in front of an audience, it's still fun but it's starting to get more difficult to carry out live gigs, but like a stubborn terrier I bite the bullet and drive for a while longer.

October/November 2021 I did my last rehearsal with Frontiers, when Fredrik moves back to Norrkoping and I was not fit to stand on stage, they choose to continue with Fredrik on vocals. I've had my longest break from singing in my entire life 2021 to now 2024, miss writing music and paying but i don't miss lugging stuff in the middle of the night. Love Peace And Rock n Roll Forever.

Mix of images 70s to 2021.