BWO (band)

BWO

Bodies Without Organs is an electronic pop group, formed in Sweden in 2004. Since early 2006 they have usually been presented under the shortened name BWO. Throughout their career they have enjoyed considerable commercial success and recognition in Scandinavia and Eastern Europe.

Origins

Alexander Bard started work on a new music project during 2003, working with the record producer Anders Hansson who became the band's co-producer. They auditioned over 35 different vocalists before meeting Martin Rolinski who was duly chosen as lead singer.Marina Schiptjenko, an art-dealer and a one-time member of Vacuum, Bard's previous music project, then came on board as the third member of what became Bodies Without Organs .

There was initially a suggestion that the band would be a four-piece including Jean-Pierre Barda from Army of Lovers, but this did not come to fruition, and Barda's explicit involvement extended only as far as co-writing BWO's first single "Living In A Fantasy" .

The name of the band derives from the philosophical term body without organs, developed by French philosopher Gilles Deleuze and psychoanalyst Félix Guattari in their 1972 book Anti-Œdipus. Bard, an author and lecturer of philosophy, has referred to the ideas of Deleuze in his books Netocracy - The New Power Elite And Life After Capitalism and The Global Empire, both co-written with Jan Söderqvist.

Style

Musically, BWO have come to represent the more commercial side of the Swedish electro scene, also featuring artists like Robyn, The Knife, Jenny Wilson and September. Alexander Bard has claimed that BWO's electronic pop music is the missing link between ABBA and Kraftwerk .

Visually, BWO have been working with most of the high-brow Scandinavian music video directors, including Fredrik Boklund, Kalle Haglund and the award-winning Kamisol team. Like most of the other Swedish electro acts, BWO have been featured in hundreds of fashion articles, working closely on their visual style with their in-house Irish stylist Sally O'Sullivan.

Chart and airplay success

BWO's debut album Prototype, first released in Russia in December 2004, generated seven Top 20 hit singles in Sweden and reached platinum status, with further success in Finland. Two singles off the album, "Living In A Fantasy" and "Sixteen Tons Of Hardware" went Number 1 in the Europa Plus Airplay Chart in Russia, and the album soon crossed over to neighboring countries, generating no less than five Top 5 hit singles in Ukraine and two Top 5 hit singles in Hungary. The track "Gone" was a Number 1 hit in Lebanon.

BWO's second album Halcyon Days, released in April 2006, entered the Swedish Album Chart at Number 1, shipping gold and generating four further hit singles, of which the first single "Temple Of Love" was a Number 1 smash in Sweden and charted across Scandinavia and Eastern Europe. The album was followed by a remix collection called Halcyon Nights, released in December, 2006. A third studio album Fabricator, was released in Sweden in September, 2007, entering the Swedish charts at Number 6. A pre-release single "Save My Pride", was released in May 2007 and went Number 1 on major Turkish radio station Radio Mydonese's Top 40 Countdown in July 2007. The album has since generated a further three hit singles.

So far two of BWO's hit singles, "Sixteen Tons Of Hardware" and "Chariots Of Fire", have also reached the Top 10 of the British club charts. However, an attempt in 2007 to enter the main UK singles chart has so far been unsuccessful, despite the remixed 2005 single "Sunshine in the Rain" receiving heavy airplay on daytime BBC Radio 2.

Noteworthy is BWO's considerable success as a radio airplay act. According to Nielsen Music Control, Europe's leading airplay scanning company, BWO have had more international radio chart hits in continental Europe in the 21st century than any other act, with the exception of Robbie Williams. BWO were the most played act in total on Swedish radio both in 2005 and 2006.

Melodifestivalen participation

BWO competed in the Swedish Melodifestivalen 2005 with the song "Gone", written by the band's co-producer Anders Hansson, but failed to qualify for the final, finishing fifth out of eight in one of the four semi-finals.

In 2006, they competed once again in Melodifestivalen with the song "Temple Of Love", this time qualifying for the final at Stockholm's The Globe Arena, where they finished second behind Carola. "Temple Of Love" went on to reach Number 1 in the Swedish singles chart, and has been assessed as the most internationally successful Melodifestivalen song from the 2006 competition.

During 2007 BWO stated in interviews that they had no intention of returning to Melodifestivalen, but might consider instead seeking to enter Eurovision for Martin Rolinski's homeland of Poland. However, there was a change of heart, and BWO entered Melodifestivalen for a third time in 2008 with a song called "Lay Your Love On Me". This was co-written by Bard and Hansson together with Bobby Ljunggren and Henrik Wikström, ironically the two composers who wrote Carola's winning song which beat BWO in 2006. Going into their semi-final as heavy bookmakers' favourites to qualify, the song duly progressed directly to the final, to be held at Stockholm's The Globe Arena on 15 March, 2008. This along with swedish rapper Frida Muranius.

Recognition

BWO won the prestigious Rockbjörnen award in both 2005 and 2006, voted Sweden's most popular band, all categories. In 2006 they received a Grammis Award for Sweden's most popular band of the year. BWO were nominated for four Grammis Awards in 2005 for the Prototype album and five Grammis Awards in 2006 for the Halcyon Days album. BWO were also nominated for dance act of the year in 2006 at the NRJ Scandinavian Awards in Helsinki and won the category for the most popular band.

Fabricator

A third studio album, Fabricator, was released in Sweden on September 19, 2007. The singles "Let it Rain" and "Rhythm Drives Me Crazy" were both released in August 2007. "Rhythm Drives Me Crazy" was chosen as the theme for the Swedish team in the Women's Football World Cup in China in September 2007. A third single "The Destiny Of Love" was released in October 2007 and a fourth single "Give Me The Night" is released at the end of December 2007.

Discography

Albums

Release	Album	Sweden Albums	Sales/Certification
March 2005	Prototype	2	GLF: Platinum (January 2006)
April 2006	Halcyon Days	1	GLF: Gold (April 2006)
December 2006	Halcyon Nights	-
September 2007	Fabricator	6
April 2008	Pandemonium	-

• Halcyon Nights was a remix album including new and previously unreleased remixes.
• Pandemonium will be a 'greatest hits' album, containing all singles + three new songs (including "Lay Your Love On Me"). A DVD by the same name, containing all video clips, will be released in the autumn of 2008.

Singles

Release	Song	Sweden Singles	Sweden Tracks	Finland Singles	Ukraine Singles	Russia Singles	Europe Official Top 100	Album
May 2004	"Living In A Fantasy"	44	20		1	2	30	Prototype
October 2004	"Conquering America"	27	15		2	16	35	Prototype
February 2005	"Sixteen Tons of Hardware"	11	14	8	1	10	28	Prototype
May 2005	"Gone"	40	16					Prototype
June 2005	"Open Door"	28	4		2		41	Prototype
August 2005	"Sunshine In The Rain"	12	6					Prototype
December 2005	"Voodoo Magic"	38	14	12	3			Prototype
March 2006	"Temple Of Love"	1	2					Halcyon Days
May 2006	"We Could Be Heroes"	26	10					Halcyon Days
September 2006	"Will My Arms Be Strong Enough"	39	16					Halcyon Days
October 2006	"Chariots Of Fire"	45	14					Halcyon Days
May 2007	"Save My Pride"	14	18	6			62	Fabricator
August 2007	"Let It Rain"	23	17					Fabricator
August 2007	"Rhythm Drives Me Crazy"	35		13				Fabricator
October 2007	"The Destiny Of Love"	56		18				Fabricator
December 2007	"Give Me The Night"							Fabricator
March 2008	"Lay Your Love On Me"	-	-	-	-	-	-	Pandemonium
August 2008	"The Bells of Freedom"	-	-	-	-	-	-	Pandemonium

See also

• Melodifestivalen 2005 (semifinals)
• Melodifestivalen 2006
• Melodifestivalen 2008

External links

• Electro Nordica - A great route to BWO
• BWO - Fan website
• www.bwo-fanclub.com - The authorised BWO fanclub - English, Swedish, German & since 09/07 in French
• The Shrine - BWO & Alexander Bard fansite
• Bodies Without Organs (BWO)
• Martin Rolinski Fanlisting