We love Sweden here on the Rockulus Maximus balcony, and imagine
our surprise when we heard of another Swedish band who play excellent
Melodic Rock. They're called Colorstone and their guitarist Fredrik
Bergengren took some time out to let us get an insight into their world.
GARY: When I began looking into
your band, I noticed that you individually have all been around for a
while. Which members won Swedish grammy awards and what were the
awards for?
FREDRIK: It was Jonas Sandquist back in the late 90's for best dance (!) music!
GARY: Oh...
GARY:
After playing on more than 50 different albums, you're all obviously
experienced and prolific musicians. How did you meet each other and form
the band Colorstone?
FREDRIK: Me and Olle have known each other for over 30
years and played on and off since the 80's. We teamed up with singer
Johan Dahlström in the mid 90's and wrote 15 songs and then I had some
other things going on. About 2005 we decided to pick up the pieces from
10 years earlier and started to write songs together again. This time
we had nothing else in the background and felt that this is what we
want to do! Around 2009 Jonas joined in and we started to record and
rehearse. We felt we had something good going on and decided to record
for real.
GARY: What is the reason for calling your band "Colorstone"?
FREDRIK:Two reasons: 1. It's a cool name visually with so many O's. 2.
Colorstone reflects that we have different backgrounds musically and
that mirrors in our music I think.
GARY: Your debut studio album is called "Into The Garden", what can newcomers to your music expect from the album?
FREDRIK:
It's a massive 17 songs. Lots of different songs and influences.
Hopefully a newcomer can find a lot of twists to discover!?
GARY: Musically and non-musically, what would you say were the main influences on this debut album?
FREDRIK:
As I mentioned earlier this is what comes out when one has played for
about 30 years. Hendrix, Zeppelin, Robin Trower, Thin Lizzy, Sabbath, U2, to more modern stuff like Foo Fighters, 3 Days Grace and so on.
Non-musically? I really don't now... Maybe to be free, since we're not
dependent on Colorstone to be a commercial success, and play whatever we
want :)
GARY: What was it like recording the "Into The Garden" album in comparison to your previous experiences?
FREDRIK:
Since I have my own studio it is completely free!! Earlier on when you
had to pay for studio time, you had to deliver in time. Now I just go
down to my studio when I feel like it with no pressure at all. It's
like a dream come true!
GARY:
You are the guitarist for Colorstone, and you play keyboards and provide
backing vocals too. What started your journey into the world of
music?
FREDRIK: I think I was about 11 years old. My parents
wasn't at all into music and stated early that I had to get a proper
education to make a living. But never the less my mother actually gave
me an old Hofner for my 11 birthday. I then heard the Jimi Hendrix live
album, "Isle of wight" and I just knew what I was going to do....!
GARY:
When you look at your previous music experiences in recording and
playing live, what do you hope to achieve within Colorstone that you
might not have achieved before?
FREDRIK: Earlier I've been in bands that had pressure
from labels to deliver "hits" and also as a studio musician and "hired
gun" for a big Swedish artist Mikael Wiehe I had to play stuff that
first and foremost somebody else would like. Colorstone is something
else. I do exactly what I/we want to do! That's a huge difference!!
GARY: What are your plans regarding touring in support of this album?
FREDRIK:
We would love to go on tour!! That's what it really is about. To play
live and get the immediate reaction and meeting the music lovers out
there. Unfortunately it isn't so easy to get gigs anymore. There are so
many big artists out on tour nowdays since the music industry has
changed completely. So we are actually concentrating on the next album
which we are halfway through recording!! But of course if some gigs
shows up we are on!!
GARY: If newcomers
to your music want to know more about Colorstone and wish to be kept
updated, where should they go online?
Many
thanks to Susi for assisting with this, and of course an *air guitar
salute* to Fredrik Bergengren for taking the time out of his busy
schedule to answer our questions.
