Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Thåström; A Brief Summary of A Great Musician, Internationally Infamous

In every culture there is different symbols in music, film, art that has a great recognition and status in their culture but haven’t received great recognition abroad or in the mass media of the world’s parts in their industries. One of these people that I have decided to present to you is one of the most influential and greatest musicians in the Swedish music history. The composer, guitarist and vocalist Joakim Thåström is one of those musicians that has been a part of major musical developments in Sweden and with bands like ‘Ebba Grön’, ‘Imperiet’ and ‘Peace, Love and Pitbulls’.
Thåström protesting at the Berlin Wall.

Joakim Thåström was born in 1957 in one of the suburbs called Högdalen outside and grown together with the Swedish capital Stockholm. In his early teenage years Thåström started a band called Helt Sonika and with one member of Helt Sonika he later came to create the most famous Swedish punk band of all time, Ebba Grön. The name was taken from a Swedish police code in the try to arrest a suspected kidnapper during the 1970’s and the this was kind of the start trigger for a new political movement i Sweden. The music that Ebba Grön created had strong political atmosphere it and with songs like ‘Staten och Kapitalet’,’800 Grader’, ‘Die Mauer’ and ‘Mental Istid’ they approached a very political appeal influenced by the Swedish ‘Nationalteatern’.

Ebba Grön during one of their local concerts.

As the punk came to its end and ‘so-called’ death, Thåström and the band members of Ebba Grön created The Space Imperium (a.k.a Rymdimperiet) who later changed their name to The Imperium (a.k.a Imperiet). Thåström was a party animal and was one of few who appealed to the rock’ n roll life style and through his new band they approached somewhat a rock’ n roll appeal. Imperiet didn’t last to long and the band shattered in 1983 as Thåström approached for a solo career. Imperiet had tried to create somewhat a synth/rock style that was in line with the 80’s but as he started his solo project Thåström experimented with the harder and rougher parts of his music. He released a rough, hard rock n’ roll act with his album ‘Xplodera mig 2000’ (a.k.a ‘Xplode me 2000’).

Thåström’s solo career didn’t last long, shortly after he moved to the Netherlands in order to explore new fields and parts of music and experiment with genres. The project lead to Thåström’s biggest international success Peace,Love and Pitbulls. They reached huge fame through a concert in at one of the main music festivals in Sweden, Hultsfredfestivalen in 1991. Peace, Love and Pitbulls was a very inspirational source for many upcoming artists and the most famous of these upcoming artists was Marilyn Manson who claimed that Peace, Love and Pitbulls was one of his main influences.
Thåström's Peace, Love & Pitbulls was an influential source to his music.

In 1997 the band went separate ways and this was what came to lead to one of the greatest moves in Thåström’s career as he went back to Sweden to sing in Swedish. This was a calmer and more poetic Thåström and after ‘Det är ni som är konstiga och jag som är normal’ and a live record ‘ Thåström pa Roda Kvarn’ he released a critic success with his ‘Skebokvarnsvägen 209’.  With this album released in 2005, Thåström was renewed in a sense. The calm poetic, deep, well produced singer/songwriter alternative rock was an approach which Thåström reached high recognition at new audiences and younger fans.

Thåström performing today.

In 2007, Thåström formed a new composition of band members in Sällskapet with their big hit ‘Nordlich’ but still keeps his solo career alive with an upcoming album release with ‘Kärlek För Dom’ Thåström becomes always present and a challenger of and renewal symbol of the Swedish music industry. Thåström is one of the main inspirational sources to the young musicians growing up in Sweden with hope to approach in punk and rock and his past creations and composes rely on the top as great achievements in Swedish music history as one of the main characters in the modern Swedish music industry. He has become a necessary symbol for the political, experimental and alternative rock star of modern music time and is the only true symbol for his time, unfortunately, internationally infamous.

Discography with Ebba Grön; ‘We’re Only in it For the Drugs’ (1979), Kärlek och Uppror (1981), Ebba Grön (1982), Ebba Grön 1978-1982 (1987). Imperiet; ‘Rasera’ (1984), ‘Imperiet’ (1984), ‘Blå Himlen Blues’, ‘2:a Augusti 1985’ (1985), ‘Synd’ (1986), ‘Imperiet’ (1988), ‘Tiggarens Tal’ (1988), Studio/Live (1988), ‘Kickar’ (1990). Peace, Love and Pitbulls; ‘Peace, Love & Pitbulls’ (1992), ‘Red Sonic Underwear’ (1994), ‘3’ (1997). Thåström; ‘ Thåström’ (1989), ‘Xplodera Mig’ (1991), Singoalla (1998), ‘Det är ni som e dom konstiga det är jag som e normal’ (1999), ‘Mannen Som Blev En Gris’ (2002), ‘Skebokvarnsvägen 209’ (2005) and with Sällskapet; ‘ Sällskapet’ (2007) and Thåström’s upcoming album ‘Kärlek För Dom’ (2009).

Review on  ‘Kärlek För Dom’ (Eng. Love For Those) will be posted in time with his Swedish release on March 13.

1 comment:

  1. nu orkade jag inte läsa den där stora massan med text.
    men infamous betyder ju inte okänd utan ökänd.
    men ett ö som i öl, två prickar över oet alltså.

    ReplyDelete