Beardfish
| Beardfish | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| General information | |
| Genre (s) | Progressive rock , retro prog |
| founding | 2001 |
| resolution | 2016 |
| Website | beardfishband.com |
| Founding members | |
| Robert Hansen | |
| Magnus Östgren | |
Vocals, keyboard instruments , guitar |
Rikard Sjöblom |
Guitar , vocals |
David Zackrisson |
| former members | |
Keyboard instruments, flute , vocals |
Stefan Aronsson |
Beardfish was a Swedish progressive rock band. The band's stylistic starting point is retro-prog , with other influences from traditional and contemporary styles of music and especially humor as a stylistic element.
history
The band was founded in 2001 by David Zackrisson and songwriter Rikard Sjöblom and completed by school friends Magnus Östgren and Robert Hansen. On the debut album Från en plats du ej kan se ... (German: About a place you can't see ) Stefan Aronsson was the fifth member. The band was quickly given the opportunity to gain live experience as an accompanying act for the recognized bands Paatos and Anecdotes .
With the release of the ambitious second album The Sane Day - it was self-produced as a double album and only contained English-language lyrics and titles - the company aimed at an international market. Not without success: the German label InsideOut Music , which in turn specializes in publications in the field of progressive rock, signed the band.
More recently, there have been more and more joint tours with the Swedish-British supergroup The Tangent . After changing the line-up in the latter band, all four members of Beardfish were part of the eight-person line-up of The Tangent. Beardfish, however, continued to exist independently and was able to gain further fame through appearances such as at the renowned NEARfest. With the bankruptcy of SPV , the parent company and distributor of the InsideOut label, there was a setback in 2009: Together with Pain of Salvation , participation in the American Progressive Nation Tour with the bands Dream Theater and Zappa Plays Zappa had to be canceled.
On July 11, 2016, the band announced their breakup on their website.
style
Sounds and compositional means are based on different manifestations of progressive rock of the 70s, which suggests the classification of the band as retro-prog . Songwriter Sjöblom cites Gentle Giant and Frank Zappa as main influences. Furthermore, Swedish bands such as Kaipa and the light, jazzy sound of the Canterbury scene in particular shine through as influences. Influences outside of progressive rock are Elton John , Radiohead and Musicals .
With the exception of the debut album and Destined Solitaire , which was released in 2009, the albums have a loose concept. With the two parts of the Sleeping-in-Traffic saga, for example, one tries to depict 24 hours in a person's life. Similar to The Tangent, these concepts are sometimes provided with an ironic break.
The tendency to combine theatrics with humor and irony primarily determines the underlying concepts, texts and song titles ( In Real Life There Is No Algebra ), but occasionally also finds musical equivalents. The 35-minute title track from Sleeping in Traffic: Part Two, for example, contains an allusion to the Bee Gees global hit Stayin 'Alive .
Discography
- 2003: Fran en plats du ej kan se
- 2006: The Sane Day
- 2007: Sleeping in Traffic: Part One
- 2008: Sleeping in Traffic: Part Two
- 2009: Destined Solitaire
- 2011: Mammoth
- 2012: The Void
- 2015: + 4626 comfort zone
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ InsideOut Music: Press release on Sleeping in Traffic: Part One ( memento from January 2, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) from May 21, 2007
- ↑ Beardfish's blog ( Memento from July 7, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ) from June 24, 2009
- ↑ Beardfish: Statement by the band from July 11, 2016. Retrieved July 12, 2016 .
- ↑ InsideOut Music: Press release on Sleeping in Traffic: Part Two ( memento of November 20, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) accessed on September 9, 2009