BiografieIt all began in 1990 when three youngsters from Sundsvall, Sweden - Gotte Ringqvist, Stefan Brisland-Ferner and Rickard Westman - went to see a performance of Shakespeare´s Hamlet. Struck by the music (performed by a.o. Olov Johansson, nowadays in Väsen) as much as the play, the three decided to start a band the very next day. Later they stumbled upon the name Garmarna while searching for something fitting for their first gig at Matfors Folkets Hus.



Two years later, 1992, the trio had gained some local reputation and decided to have a go at a first gig outside of Sundsvall at the Umeå Folkmusik Festival (where they would end up playing several years in a row). Luckily, a radioreporter saw the enthusiastic youngsters and interviewed them, which lead to a gig at the biggest of all festivals in Sweden, Hultsfred.



Feeling the need to add something appropriate for a rockfestival, drummer Jens Höglin joined for what was meant to be just one gig. In the audience that late, legendary august night stood Emma Härdelin, later-to-be vocalissa of the band, and not to forget Mats Hammerman, president of one of Sundsvall´s many small recordlabels Massproduktion. Hammerman was so impressed with what he heard that he offered the band a deal the very same night.



Released early 1993, the debut-EP entitled Garmarna included both the drums of now full-time member Höglin as well as the guestvocals of Emma Härdelin, who was later officially announced a member of the band during an interview with a newspaper, without even being asked by the others if she wanted to join. The EP received some great press and made it possible to start touring the country.



Late 1993 Garmarna started working on their first full-length album. Released on the 18th of April 1994 the album, Vittrad, became an immediate success with the press: "Probably the best folkmusic band in Scandinavia", "Folkmusic for the -90´s ...fantastic!". The album was later nominated for a Swedish Grammy for best folkmusic album 1994. The rest of the year our favorite dogs from hell spent on the roads, including another gig at Hultsfred as well as several in Germany.



In the US, Drew Miller - Boiled in Lead bassplayer and owner of the small but great label Omnium - hear Vittrad for the first time sometime during the summer of ´94 and decides to release the album in the US and Canada. Following up the release of the album, entitled Crumbling Away in English, the band makes it first trip to the US in March 1995 and after that continue to tour Sweden as well as Finland, Germany and Norway.



Before entering the studio to record the follow-up to Vittrad they play at Stockholm Water Festival in front of a crowd of some 10.000 people. The rumour of the band has now spread and Massproduktion signs deals for Germany, Austria Switzerland and the Benelux as well as for several Asian countries.



With the band back from a 14 gig long tour in Germany, the album Guds Spelemän was released in late February 1996. Produced by Sank (Paradise Lost, Drain,Thåström) the album points to a whole new direction in Garmarna´s music based on samples, strong beats and loops. Focusing on Emma Härdelins voice it received extremely good press and later won a Swedish Grammy for best folkalbum of 1996.



The interest from outside Sweden was even bigger this time and the album was released entitled Fiddlers of God in most countries of the western world as well as in Taiwan, Korea and Japan a.o. The release of the album was followed by a hellish tour through the summer and fall, including dates in Germany, Switzerland, USA and Denmark and totaling nearly 70 gigs. If not earlier, Garmarna had by now earned a reputation as a dazzling live act.



In January 1997 Garmarna returned briefly to Germany to receive the jury´s prize for their appearance in the autumn 1996 at the Malzhaus Festival in Germany, the so called "Iron Gustav Award". In the US Garmarna entered the College radio stations special "CMJ New World Music" chart, as well as placing on the Top Ten playlist of the French National radio. Joining the only previous Swedish groups ABBA, Roxette and Ace of Base on the Top Ten playlist it is worth noting that Garmarna is the first group ever on the playlist to perform in a non-French or English language.



Also in January The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation/Société Radio-Canada published "The Fall 1996 Top 25 Albums List" for the Roots & Wings program. Representing what´s been played on Roots & Wings and what listeners have enjoyed and responded to, we found Garmarna prominently featured in the 5th position of the list.



The year continued in the same great fashion as it begun; at the gala presentation of The Swedish Grammy Awards, held in Stockholm on February 17th, Garmarna was presented with a Grammy for the best folk music record of 1996 for Guds Spelemän. The mandatory speech held at the gala was short but vigorous and said it all: "We want to thank two people; Mats Hammerman without whom this would never have happened, and Sank, our producer."



The next big thing to happen was the participation in the Swedish part of the Eurovision Song Contest, by far the biggest yearly mediahappening in Sweden. Garmarna appeared with a song written by Mats Wester and Py Bäckman, which also is the team behind the multi-platinum-selling group Nordman. Although Garmarnas appearance in this kind of commercial pseudoevent was widely questioned by certain branches of the media, the benefit of being in focus of Sweden´s entire population can not. Furthermore Garmarna presented the song with their own special touch, without reducing their patented heavy sound.



During the summer they did some fantastic gigs at European Festivals (Denmark, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium) and then headed to Jens´ parents summerhouse along with instruments as well as food, beer and liquor to calm down from the hectic tours and to write new material.



1998 was characterized by the work on the new album, originally scheduled for release late spring the same year. Yet again with Sank as producer, the band strived to take their music another step further, to do what not yet had been done. Still, April and May was spent touring in Portugal, Spain, Germany, Switzerland and Belgium and the summer included gigs at the Falun Folk Festival in Sweden and at festivals in Finland. They also managed to squeeze in a tour with a set of songs based on the medieval works of Hildegard von Bingen between the recordingsessions.



Finally however, the final mixes of the album was made on New Years Day 1999. Released in Scandinavia on the 5:th of March 1999 , the new album - Vedergällningen (Vengeance) - became the foundation for Garmarna for many years to come as it took them yet ahead of anything within the genre and beyond.



The first months of 1999 was spent promoting the album, doing two new videos and singles, TV shows and also some gigs. Among them headlining the National Radio P3 event PopStad 99, Midem in Cannes, France, Umeå Folkmusik Festival and The Nordic Roots Festival in Minneapolis.
The video to the first single - Gamen - spent three weeks on the Swedish National TV show Voxpop receiving close to 10 000 votes each program. During April a compilation of Vittrad and Guds Spelemän was released in Taiwan under the name of Garmgny and received quite a lot of airplay and attention. On the 5:th of May their second single from the album, Euchari, was released together with an impressive video filmed in Sardinia, Italy and in Stockholm.



The same month Vedergällningen reached number 8 on the European World Music Chart, Garmarnas highest position ever. The Euchari video also got rotation on MTV and in late May they embarked on a quite impressive summertour of Sweden. Great gigs was a packed tent at Hultfredsfestivalen, the late late gig at Storjöyran and a sold out show at Gröna Lund just to mention a few. In September the band crossed the ocean for the second time this year to play six successful US gigs. Garmarna also recorded one track for Massproduktions 20 years celebration-CD - We´re only in it for the money - 20 years of Massproduktion.



The millennium was closed with the beautiful voice of Emma Härdelin. Emma sang a tune by Benny Andersson from ABBA in the mastodont-transmission that took place on new years eve. It was broadcasted by 50 TV-stations all over the world, with an audience of one billion!



2001 was started with the release of Massproduktions celebration-CD with Garmarnas version of legendary punk-reggaeband Rasta Hunden song - Rastlös. The reviews were great and the general view was that this band can do wonders with any material. If you want yo hear Garmarna play reggae - this is a must!



On the 14 of January the band was nominated for the third time for a Swedish Grammy but did not win it this time.



The spring was spend doing demos for the new album as well as touring all over Sweden and USA, Germany and Holland. As if it wasn´t enough Emma was touring a lot with Triakel and Gotte and Jens was out playing with The $1000 Playboys as well.



During the summer the recordings finally started for the Hildegard von Bingen album. But this time it was different. In the producer-chair was not Sank, but Eric S - somewhat of a houseking in Sweden with several songs on high rotation on the national radio playlists. This means that the new album will head into a new and interesting direction.



The year started with more work on the Hildegard album and also the first Garmarna gig in UK. The new album was release in Scandinavia in late April and received everything from the best Scandinavian reviews ever to the worst ever. But on the whole it got a great reception. It was released in Europe on the 7:th of June and have been enthusiastically received and also reached no 8 on the European World Music Chart.



The summer have been spent on the road all over Europe with a really great reception everywhere with a fantastic concert at Roskilde festival as the best one so far this summer.


Apart from the first gig in UK, Garmarna also played for the first time in Hungary and Italy.



In September Hildegard von Bingen is released in US.


Quelle: http://www.garmarna.com/ www