The Wannadies

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The Wannadies
General information
origin Skelleftea , Sweden
Genre (s) Power pop
founding 1987
resolution 2009
Founding members
Par Wiksten
Christina Bergmark
guitar
 Stefan Schönfeldt
Fredrik Schönfeldt
Gunnar Karlsson
Bjorn Malmquist
Last occupation
Vocals, guitar
 Par Wiksten
Keyboard
 Christina Bergmark
guitar
 Stefan Schönfeldt
bass
 Fredrik Schönfeldt
Drums
 Erik Dahlgren

The Wannadies were a Swedish power pop band formed in 1987 and disbanded in 2009. They owe their greatest hit You and Me song to a soundtrack .

history

In 1987 Pär Wiksten (vocals, guitar), his girlfriend Christina Bergmark (keyboard), Stefan Schönfeldt (guitar) and younger brother Fredrik Schönfeldt (bass), Gunnar Karlsson (drums) and Björn Malmquist (violin) formed a band in Skellefteå in northern Sweden . (Malmquist lost the band at some point.) They chose their name from a list of titles from horror films - some members worked as grave diggers during the summer months . But the job shouldn't have been as scary as it sounds, and stylistically, the focus was more on edgy but melodic pop sounds than on the more likely gothic rock or metal . Wiksten, who had also worked in a record store, mainly listened to The Clash , ABBA , The Cure , The Go-Betweens , Pixies and The Beatles . The band has performed live since 1988. Attempts to get a job with a record company were unsuccessful. So the musicians decided to do their own production. They published this in Sweden in February 1989. The EP is called Smile and its A-side The Beast Cures the Love was a huge hit thanks to a radio DJ who played it on his show. There are a total of three tracks on the EP. The band had only four compositions of their own to date, and the one that was not used was the godfather of the EP title.

After an appearance at the Hultsfredfestival in August 1989, the Stockholm independent label Soap Records / NMW offered the band a recording contract. In August 1990, the debut album The Wannadies was released, from which the singles My Home Town (previously in May 1990) and Heaven (with the T. Rex hit Children of the Revolution not on the album as B-side ) was released were. In 1992 the second album Aquanautic followed , from which three singles emerged, including Cherry Man . The accompanying music video was accepted by MTV , but the broadcast was stopped when it was suspected of being pedophilia . The fame now reached the rest of Europe and led to a contract with the BMG sub-label Indolent Records based in London . There album number three was released in November 1994: Be a Girl . It contains four singles, of which You and Me Song found its way into the soundtrack of William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet, which was released two years later , and was therefore re-released as a single. At the time of its theatrical release, the band was on tour supporting The Lightning Seeds . Bagsy Me was released in January 1997 . For the American market, songs from both major label albums were combined and released under the title The Wannadies on RCA Records . Might Be Stars was selected as a single. The subsequent tour also took the band to the USA. Since MNW was still responsible for the Swedish market, but The Wannadies struggled with their support, the band tried to split up. Even before the US tour, drummer Gunnar Karlsson left, whereupon Erik Dahlgren was signed. After the tour there was a certain amount of exhaustion. The nerve-wracking attempt to establish oneself in America, the dissatisfaction with any record company, the aftermath of the argument with Karlsson and the expectation of a baby from Wiksten and Bergmark made a break seem advisable. The future parents and Fredrik Schönfeldt took advantage of this by moving to London, among other things.

In the winter of 1999, the physically separated group members met in New York City to tackle the next album, Yeah . Most of it was recorded at the Electric Lady Studios under the direction of The Cars front man Ric Ocasek . The release took place in Sweden in October 1999, in the USA and the rest of Europe in April 2000. Before and after the release date, tours and festival appearances were scheduled. In England there were 15 shows with Soulwax in the opening act. There was also a mini tour in Japan. For the following album Before and After , the band members, who now lived in Stockholm, founded their own label, Int Records, and thus joined the company National in Malmö . The album was released in Sweden in 2002 and was distributed in the rest of Europe by Cooking Vinyl in 2003 . Pär Wiksten subsequently composed for other artists and, for example, helped Amanda Jenssen to top the album chart in May 2008. In the interview, he stated that he had never had solo thoughts himself because he no longer wanted to hear his own voice. The new field of activity had pushed the activities for The Wannadies so far into the background that the band announced their breakup at the end of April 2009.

style

The term “ power pop ” is applied to the Wannadie style . Another name is "Alternative Pop". Not entirely accurate, but close, is an assignment to Britpop .

The main influences were the Go-Betweens, but also the Violent Femmes , Buzzcocks , Undertones , Ramones and Pixies. Set pieces from other areas such as " Herb-Alpert Trumpets" can also be found. In relation to the later works, blink-182 , Supergrass , Third Eye Blind , Super Furry Animals and Ash are comparable.

The use of Ric Ocasek as a Yeah producer elicited various reviews. Laura Hightower wrote in her biography for the Musician Guide that Ocasek had seduced the band with his punk instinct, so that they took the path of Iggy Pop and ensured an album that met with broad approval. Steffen Krautzig from plattentests.de also found the level of punk input to be higher, but thought it was an ingratiation to the “American fun punk wave with Blink 182 and the like”. Much of it sounds artificial, only the ballads reveal old qualities. Wolfgang Doebeling was able to share the statement about the ballads in Rolling Stone . Otherwise he didn't find the album punky, but on the contrary, smooth, plastic-like and clichéd. As for the opening song I Love Myself , he said it was a "bad joke". The structure, structure and melody are identical to Nirvana's Smells Like Teen Spirit . Wiksten had announced in an interview that he liked to write Smells Like Teen Spirit . Laut.de located Yeah "somewhere between glitter pop and bratzrock".

Discography

Studio albums

year title Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements
(Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes) 		Remarks
SE SE UK UK
1990 The Wannadies SE26 (6 weeks)
SE 		-
Soap Records / NMW
1992 Aquanautic SE39 (1 week)
SE 		-
Soap Records / NMW
1994 Be a girl SE34 (2 weeks)
SE 		-
NMW, Indolent Records
1996 Bagsy Me SE7 (8 weeks)
SE 		UK37 (4 weeks)
UK
NMW, Indolent Records
1999 Yeah SE13 (4 weeks)
SE 		UK73 (1 week)
UK
RCA Records
2002 Before & After SE30 (5 weeks)
SE 		-
Int Records / National, Cooking Vinyl

Compilations

year title Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements
(Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes) 		Remarks
SE SE UK UK
1998 Skellefteå 1989-94 SE31 (5 weeks)
SE 		-

More compilations

  • 1997: The Wannadies
  • 2008: Girlfriend (Love Stories AE)

EPs

  • 1989: Smile (A West Side Fabrication)
  • 1993: Cherry Man (Soap Records / MNW)
  • 1996: You and Me Song EP (Japan only; Soap Records / MNW)
  • 1999: Don't Like You (What the Hell are We Supposed to Do) (RCA Records)
  • 2000: Big Fan (RCA Records)

Singles

year Title
album 		Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements
(Year, title, album , rankings, weeks, awards, notes) 		Remarks
SE SE UK UK
1994 Love In June
Be a Girl 		SE38 (1 week)
SE 		-
1995 Might Be Stars
Be a Girl 		- UK51 (2 weeks)
UK
How does it feel?
Be a girl 		- UK53 (2 weeks)
UK
You & Me song
Be a Girl 		- UK18th
silver
silver

(4 weeks)UK
Republication in a different notation
1996 Someone Somewhere
Bagsy Me 		- UK38 (2 weeks)
UK
1997 Hit
Bagsy Me 		- UK20 (2 weeks)
UK
Shorty
Bagsy Me 		- UK41 (2 weeks)
UK
1999 Yeah
yeah 		- UK56 (2 weeks)
UK

More singles

  • 1990: My Home Town (MNW)
  • 1990: Heaven (MNW)
  • 1992: Things that I Would Love to Have Undone (Soap Records / MNW)
  • 1992: So Happy Now (Soap Records / MNW)
  • 1994: You and Me Song (Soap Records / MNW)
  • 1996: Friends (Soap Records / MNW, Indolent Records)
  • 1997: What's the Fuss (single supplement to the LP edition of Bagsy Me ; UK only; Indolent Records)
  • 2002: Little by Little (National, Cooking Vinyl)
  • 2002: Skin (National, Cooking Vinyl)
  • 2003: Before and After (promo sampler with four tracks from the album of the same name; Cooking Vinyl)
  • 2003: Disko (Cooking Vinyl)
  • 2003: Piss on You (Cooking Vinyl)
  • 2005: Love to Hate You (as Optimus vs. The Wannadies; 12 "single; Suicide Recordings)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h Laura Hightower: The Wannadies Biography. In: musicianguide.com. Retrieved July 24, 2016 .
  2. ↑ a b c Intervju: Pär Wiksten - fortfarande sångare i The Wannadies. In: songsforwhoever.com. February 17, 2014, accessed July 24, 2016 (Swedish).
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g h The Wannadies. Laut.de biography. In: laut.de. Retrieved July 24, 2016 .
  4. ↑ a b W [anna] d [ie] s: The Wannadies. The story. In: thewannadiescom.blogspot.de. January 29, 2009, accessed July 24, 2016 .
  5. ↑ a b c d MacKenzie Wilson: The Wannadies. Biography by MacKenzie Wilson. In: allmusic.com. Retrieved July 24, 2016 .
  6. ↑ a b c Steffen Krautzig: The Wannadies - Yeah. In: plattentests.de. Retrieved July 24, 2016 .
  7. ↑ News archive. Period: February 3-13, 2000. Soulwax on the Road. In: houbi.com. The Belgian Pop & Rock Archive, February 13, 2000, accessed July 24, 2016 .
  8. ↑ Christoph Dallach: The picture book Scandivier. She was number two for the Swedish “Superstar”, now Amanda Jenssen wants to top the chart . In: Kulturspiegel . June 2010, Pop & Jazz, p. 30th f . ( spiegel.de [PDF; accessed on July 24, 2016]).
  9. ↑ Wannadie's Wanna Split. In: completemusicupdate.com. April 29, 2009, accessed July 24, 2016 .
  10. ↑ a b c d The Wannadies: Kraftpop from Ikealand . In: Rolling Stone . No. 33 , Jul 1997, New Voices. The CD in Rolling Stone. Heard by the editors and approved, p. 35 .
  11. ↑ a b c d (rj): The Wannadies. Bagsy Me . In: Musikexpress / Sounds . No. 494 , March 1997, panels from A - Z, p. 62 .
  12. ↑ a b Wolfgang Doebeling: The Wannadies. Yeah . In: Rolling Stone . No. 66 , April 2000, sound carrier, p. 106 .
  13. ↑ a b c Chart sources: SE UK
  14. ↑ Music Sales Awards: UK

Web links