Stefan Elmgren - lead guitars Age: 28 Lives: Gothenburg Sweden Equipment: Washburn guitars, DR strings, Marshall amps, Shure recevers Other Bands: Hammerfall Previous bands: Highlander (Lost Horizon) Biggest influense: Yngwie Malmsteen, Gary Moore, Wolf Hofman Fave bands: Iron Maiden, Helloween, Edguy, Accept Fave Albums: Bon Jovi-Slippery when wet,Helloween-Keeper of the seven keys 2 Fave Movies: All Alien movies, Saving Private Ryan, Black Hawk down Fave Food: Pizza, Burgers (most fast food) Fave Drinks: Pure Vodka
History
I decided when I was very young that I wanted to become a musician, my family have always been in to music and many around me plays instrument. I started to play guitar when I was about 13 and when I was about 16 I decided that I wanted to go to Musicians Institute in Hollywood but it to a couple of years before I got there.
I was 18 when I got there and at first I wanted to learn about everything there is about different styles of music but after a while I realised that my heart was in rock and heavy metal and that it was not possible in learning it all, so I have since then been focusing on that style.
Musicians Institute was a very good experians, I got to meet and play with a lot of different people and thats also where I met Niclas, Chris and Björn. I also ended up sharing an apartment with Joacim Cans (Hammerfall) , Alexander Hedlund and Baskim Zuta (Meta4 music). When I got back to Gothenburg in 95 I was asked by Joacim to join Highlander (that later become Lost Horizon) we played together for about six months then Highlander spliteded up. About one year later (Some time 96) Joacim told me that he had joined a band called HammerFall, they had a record deal with a very small label and were about to record there first album. I was asked to play some guitar on there album and ended up playing acoustic and lead on a song called (I believe).
In January 97 I was asked to join HammerFall and we play heavy metal which I love so I was really happy but at that time heavy metal was totally dead and I don't think anybody had hopes for any real success. Later that same year a big label (Nuclear Blast) got a hold of the recordings and wanted to buy the band and release our first album (Glory to the Brave).
This debut album sold more than 150 000 copies around the world and I wasn't sad! After two more albums (Legacy of Kings and Renegade) I wanted to do something by my self and I asked Niclas Johnsson if he would like to be the singer, he was between bands at the time and it felt like the right time to do what we had talked about for a long time. We started making demos of the songs I had been working on at home and he wrote most of the lyrics and was also part of the melodies. After a little while we also asked Chris Goldsmith (Bass) and Björn Fryklund (Drums) to join, we then made a little more serious demo with real drums & bass and the hunt for a record deal also got more serious.
I had got some connections with a couple of labels from simply calling them and explain who I was and what this project was about and when it came down to the "dealing" I wanted professional help so I asked "Petri H Lundén" at Talent Trust, who is a very experienced manager (The Cardigans etc). He and he's partner "Carl Blom" started to work on it and in November 2001 the deal was done with "Eagle Rock Entertainment" That's also when we started to record the album (We will Rise) The recording Took two months and and the master was sent by the end of January.
We will Rise will be released on the 13th of May 2002 , that's also when the recording starts with the fourth HammerFall album that will be released later this year.
Niclas Johnsson - vocals Age: Timeless... Lives: Gothenburg, Sweden Equipment: My soul, Shure, EV, Alesis Other bands: Not for the moment Previous bands: Lozt Horizon, Mentors Wish, Fatal Smile, Metropolis, Trashed Pumkins, Tempel of the king, Fairland, Deja Vue, Natrium Biggest influense: Rob Halford, Ronie James Dio, James La Brie, Geoff Tate, Freddy Mercury, Ian Gillan Favourite bands: Dream Theatre, Liquid Tension, Deep Purple, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Jeff Buckley, Dio, Rainbow, Nazareth, Rush, Freak Kitchen, Black Sabbath, Ozzy, Queensryche, Queen, Iron Maiden, Helloween, Magnum, Judas Priest, Tomas Di Leva, Enya, Beethoven, Bach, Vivaldi, Chopin, Favourite albums: Queensryche-Operation mindcrime, Dream Theatre-Images and words, Rob Halford-Resurrection Favourite movies: Matrix, Fight Club, American History X, The Quill, The dead poet's society, The Lord of the ring's, K-pax, Magnolia, Torsk på Tallin, Hellraiser, Bad boy buddy, Highlander, Braveheart, Beethoven-The movie, MR Hollands Opus, Roots, King-pin, Sling Blade, Insider and Universums Änglar. Favourite food: Thai & Vegiterian Favourite drinks: Whiskey, Beer & Absinthe Other: People with great mind's who have effected my intellectual way of living - Jim Morrison, Noam Chomsky, Juri Lina, James Redfield, William S Burroughs, Chuck Palahniuk, Alister Mc Crowley, Astrid Lindgren, August Strindberg, Milan Ray, Louise L Hay, George Orwell, JRR Tolkien, Tage Danielsson, Margit Sandemo, Guillaume Apollinaire, Douglas Adams, Vladimir Majakovskij, Dalai-Lama, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Robert J Litton, Patrik Eriksson-Greenpeace.
History
Niclas Johnsson was born on a dark september morning in Boden north of Sweden. At the age of five I came to Skövde. When I was eleven years old I formed a band called Natrium with a couple of guy´s from Hentorp in Skövde. In the beginning I was playing the keyboard and doing the backing vocals and we did a couple of local gig's. Later on our lead singer had to quit the band, so I was forced to be the lead singer. The vocals became more and more importent for me so I decided to move to Stockholm and give it a fare chans. In Stockholm I hooked up with the guy's from Fairland and later on Tempel of the King's. At the same time I got connected with the Wahlquist brothers(Heavy Load).
We did a recording at the Thunder Load studios with Fairland and later on I started to work there as a recording Engineer and producer. I met a great guitar player Kristian Niemann(now in Therion) and we started to do some songs together. We were both Dream Theatre freaks at that time.
We decided to take the trip to Los Angeles and went to M.I (Musicians Institute) in Hollywood to make our dream come true. We formed a band called Metropolis with Mike Walle, Sam Watsson and Raphaell Cunwille from the states. It was a great band at that time and I loved doing the progressive stuff.
Being at M.I was the best period of my life, I met great musicians and people with great minds and hearts. Stefan Elmgren and Chris Goldsmith became one of the great musicians I ended up playing and partying a lot with in Hollywood. Unfortunally in the year of -95 Stefan and Chris went back to Sweden and later Stefan started to play in Hammerfall and Chris in Crowley. I graduated with honours from VIT and went back to Sweden in august -97. In the year of -98 I joined a band called Fatal Smile in Stockholm and we did a couple of gig's in Sweden. In -99 I hooked up with Johan Wikström in Mentors Wish (sonus.rec). 2000 was the year when Christian Nyqvist from Highlander(Lost Horizon) called me up and asked me if I wanted to join the band.
I was playing with these guy's for almost a year. And finally Stefan called me up and told me that he was working on a solo projekt and asked me if I wanted to do some writing with him. And it ended up with this album WE WILL RISE!!!
Organisation's Worth Respect: Greenpeace, WWF, Amnesty, Bris, CSIV, Mudi Mums, The vegiterian movement world wide, RAK(rage against kapitalism), Ordfront, Röda korset,And all other organisations that fight for human / animal rights, democracy, peace, nature and against racism.
FUCK OF's to: Fortune 500 and all corrupted politicians world wide, for being responsible of the poverty and crime in the world, just for you to increase your market-shares and to make some profit, PARASITES!!! The Freemason's way to use your control and power. The propaganda-model's acting towards total control and their way of twisting the truth for the people, for their political and above all economical intrests to control the world. The indoctrination system for its way to make sophisitcated slaves of the herd. The people with higher intelligence (the most of them), how they use their knowlege with blindfolds. The media responsibility to serve us the truth in an objektive way. The peopels responsibility for not engage in revolutionary acts and their blasé way of not seeking the truth.
A BIG HAIL TO ALL THE PEOPLE WHO DARES TO SEEK THE TRUTH!!!
Chris Goldsmith - bass
Equipment: Gibson Les Paul (winered), SansAmp and a cord
Fave bass players: Billy Sheehan (Thanks for the bass shops and partying at RAINBOW, And a good friend at .M.I. Steve Bailey (U Rock) John Alderete (Racer X, let´s shreed again sometime) and ofcourse Doug Pinick (KINGSX)… Best Live performances that I´ve seen: Monster of rock -84 -86 Pantera at the Civic center, SantaMonica -94 ? (Last gig of the " Far beyond driven tour") The Randy Rhodes tributes at the Palace-92(-93) in "Hollywood" and many more… Best performances: Rumble Tribe-94 and Spicey Spiders-93 at FM station (L.A), CRAWLEY at the Cromebar-96 (Stockholm) and many more… Fave bands: THIN LIZZY, PANTERA, The younger Y. Malmsteen, OZZY, KINGs X
Fave book, comics: Someday I will read a book, why read when u can shreed!!!!
Fave movies: HellRaiser 1-5, T1-2, NightBreed, TheCell and many more…
Fave car: Corvette, any model
Fave food: Pasta! Burgers! Fish and Pizza!
Fave drinks: Beer and Whiskey
History
Chris"savage"Goldsmith Born and raised in Stockholm, Sweden. Picked up my first bass at the age of 13, I used to play on my big brothers bass when he came by to visit me. When I turned 15 I got my first bass from my Mom and Big bro . That was an Ibanez (Explorer).
91, I took off to M.I.T with my good old buddy drummer Mally (RoarApe,PIKE). B.I.T was a great opportunity for me to meet other cultures, music wise.
B.I.T: I formed an Instrumental band called Spicey Spiders over there with Anders Moberg "guitar" (Pandora), Björn Freaklund "Drums"(The Sponiks, Freak Kitchen) great band.
94, I hooked up with the drummer De, he lived with James Christian in Burbank and they needed a bass player for De`s band called Rumble Tribe. In April Me and Rumble Tribe released our first debut album, Fire, water, earth and stone. James was the producer and helped us out with some of the writings and so did also Mark Baker.
James Christian recorded a solo album (Rude Awakening) the same year, so Me, Chris Lane and De played on one song on it (Mother Night). After that in March 95, I headed home to Sweden.
96, I joined a band called CRAWLEY. Vocals: Joel Guitar: Lawrence Drums: Perra, they needed a bass player for their 3:rd album "Territorial" and I just loved the stuff that they where doing. Check out this album, it's just fucking awesome.
97, I hooked up with George Wallen, he needed a bass player for his debut album Gemini Souls"GS". Thomas Vikström (Candlemass, Stormwind) did the backups on it and Jonas Östman (ex.Y. Malmsteen) did the drumming parts. Later that year I played bass on a KISS Tribute album called, Kisscovered in Scandinavia (Cold Gin). Vocals: Håkan Hemlin (NordMan), Guitars: Micke Nilsson and Drums: Mally.
98, Janne Granvik called me up and asked me to play bass on one of his songs for the new GLORY album (Wintergreen). Vocals: G. Edman (ex.Y.M), Keyboards. M. Olaussonm (ex.Y.M), Drums: J. Östman (ex.Y.M) & Guitars: Janne Granvik. Produced by Janne Granvik. Great musicians!!!!
00, played bass with Pontus Norgren / DAMAGE DONE, album out November-00! Vocals: Mats Leven (ex.TREAT, Yngwie malmsteen), Drums: Thomas Broman (ex.Great King Rat, Electric Boys), Guitars: Pontus Norgren (ex.Great king Rat, Talisman, Humanimal).
