Band of Spice

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Band of Spice
General information
origin Värnamo , Sweden
Genre (s) Rock music
founding 2007 as Spice and the RJ Band
Current occupation
Peter "Trailer" Lundstedt
Johan "Hulk" Hultgren
Robert Hansson aka Bob Ruben
“River” Linusson is different
Electric guitar, vocals
Christian "Spice" Sjöstrand
former members
Electric bass
 Johann

Band of Spice is a Swedish rock band from Värnamo that was founded in 2007 under the name Spice and the RJ Band .

history

The band was founded in 2006 under the name Spice and the RJ Band. The central figure of the band is the singer and guitarist Christian "Spice" Sjöstrand, who was previously active with Spiritual Beggars . The band name was composed of the first letters of the last name of the drummer Bob Ruben (actually Robert Hansson) and the first name of the bass player Johann. Hansson and Sjödstrand were also active together with Kayser and The Mushroom River Band . Johann had been active as a roadie with the latter band. The trigger for the founding was that Sjödstrand had previously written 30 songs within two months, but the music did not fit the style of the previous ones, which is why he decided to found Spice and the RJ Band as a solo project in March / April 2006 decided with Reuben. Johann joined us in May / June. In 2007 the album The Will was released on Scarlet Records . A short time later the album was re-released on Night of the Vinyl Dead as a white record with an edition of 300 pieces. The second album Shave Your Fear was also released on Scarlet Records in February 2009 , before an appearance in Tyrolen at the Muscle Rock Festival followed on June 13th . A little later the group was renamed the Band of Spice, as Anders Linusson joined the band as the new guitarist. In October 2010 Johann left the band, whereupon Peter Lundstedt joined the band in November 2010 after a performance in London . In addition, the album Feel Like Coming Home , which was recorded within seven days, was released. In 2015 the album Economic Dancers was released , which, unlike its predecessor, was recorded in the band's own studio. The pianist and organist Hulk is now a new member. Sjöstrand had written the songs in the previous period, so he had around 75 songs from which he had chosen 25 to 35 pieces that would have been eligible for the album.

style

According to the Facebook profile, the songs deal with topics such as alcoholism . Sjöstrand is influenced by blues , soul and hard rock . According to Sjöstrand on scarletrecords.it , Economic Dancers is a concept album and is about abuse, hope, hopelessness, weakness and strength. Markus Jakob from metalnews.de found that the band played a mix of retro rock , psychodelic rock and stoner rock . In an interview with him, Sjöstrand stated that when the band started he was influenced mainly by John Frusciante , especially the albums from 2004. The songs of the band would all be written by him. He said of the album The Will as follows: “" The Will "symbolizes the will to do something with his dream. To grab it, to live it. The lyrics are basically about the same things that I always write about. Lies, fakes, doubts, hope, dreams, deceit and sneaky mothers. My personal struggle with life. To be or not to be...".

Janne Stark wrote in The Heaviest Encyclopedia of Swedish Hard Rock and Heavy Metal Ever! that when the band was still called Spice and the RJ Band, they used stoner rock riffs reminiscent of Spiritual Beggars. Under a new name, the group play retro-oriented hard rock with pop- like melodies and rock-'n'-roll attitude. The music sounds like a missing connection between The Mushroom River Band and The Hellacopters .

In an interview with Detlef Dengler from Metal Hammer , Sjöstrand stated that The Will is the first album since the first Spiritual Beggars release on which he plays the electric guitar. The album would have been inspired by John Frusciante, a documentary about Bob Dylan and a live performance by The White Stripes . The lyrics he wrote would be about lies, doubts, hope, frustration and his personal struggle with his life. Dengler had reviewed the album an issue earlier and noted that the group on it sounded very much like Spiritual Beggars. However, The Will is "catchier, more catchy and more consistent". Dengler particularly emphasized the distinctive and memorable singing. The album offers timeless hard rock. In a later edition Dengler also reviewed the album Shave Your Fear and heard influences from Led Zeppelin , Thin Lizzy , Kyuss , Black Sabbath and Lynyrd Skynyrd . The album, like its predecessor, lives next to the distinctive and catchy vocals "from honest emotions, a carefree uncompromisingness, perfect technical interaction, bear grooves and soul". Thorsten Zahn found that Feel Like Coming Home sounds more traditional and optimistic than the previous albums. Classic rock of the 1970s mixes with the “driving, tonally modern sound”. On the album there are not only pumping grooves as usual, but also quieter and atmospherically dense moments.

Jan Jaedike from Rock Hard called the musicians "vintage rockers" who create a mixture of Tom Petty , Boston , Elvis Presley and Bruce Springsteen . In an interview with Jaedike, Sjöstrand stated that he listened to a lot of rock music for Economic Dancers from the late 1970s and early 1980s, citing artists such as Tom Petty, Boston and Thin Lizzy. He also tried to sound more compact, softer and more commercial on the album. With Band of Spice he also places more emphasis on melodies than on riffs. On the album, seven of the eight songs (except for The Joe ) would be about him. Michael Rensen had reviewed the album an issue earlier. Then the band plays Classic Rock, which combines “hard, fat roasting stoner riffs with late seventies hard rock grooves, a really booming portion of organ rock and Spice's usual engaging vocals”. The song On the Run is reminiscent of Dropkick Murphys and Social Distortion .

Discography

as Spice and the RJ Band
  • The Will (album, 2007, Scarlet Records )
  • Shave Your Fear (album, 2009, Scarlet Records)
as the Band of Spice
  • Feel Like Coming Home (Album, 2010, Cargo Records )
  • Economic Dancers (Album, 2015, Scarlet Records)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Biography. (No longer available online.) Rockdetector.com, archived from the original on December 8, 2015 ; accessed on December 2, 2015 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.rockdetector.com
  2. ↑ a b c Info. Facebook , accessed December 1, 2015 .
  3. ↑ a b Markus Jakob [shilrak]: .: INTERVIEWS :: Spice from Spice And The RJ Band. metalnews.de, accessed on December 4, 2015 .
  4. ↑ a b BAND OF SPICE. scarletrecords.it, accessed December 2, 2015 .
  5. ↑ a b Jan Jaedike: Band of Spice . Alone alone. In: Rock Hard . No. 337 , June 2015, p. 59 .
  6. ↑ Janne Stark: The Heaviest Encyclopedia of Swedish Hard Rock and Heavy Metal Ever! Premium Publishing, 2013, ISBN 978-91-89136-56-4 , pp. 731 .
  7. ↑ Janne Stark: The Heaviest Encyclopedia of Swedish Hard Rock and Heavy Metal Ever! Premium Publishing, 2013, ISBN 978-91-89136-56-4 , pp. 87 .
  8. ↑ Detlef Dengler: Spice and the RJ Band . Creativity boost. In: Metal Hammer . January 2008, p. 73 .
  9. ↑ Detlef Dengler: Spice and the RJ Band . The Will. In: Metal Hammer . December 2007, p. 112 .
  10. ↑ Detlef Dengler: Spice and the RJ Band . Shave your fear. In: Metal Hammer . April 2009, p. 110 .
  11. ↑ Thorsten Zahn: Band of Spice . Feel like coming home. In: Metal Hammer . January 2011, p. 96 .
  12. ↑ Michael Rensen: Band of Spice . Economic dancers. In: Rock Hard . No. 336 , May 2015, p. 102 .