Beardfish: "Mammoth"

It´s always good to have friends. One of Rikard Sjöblom´s friends insisted, that he´d pay attention to a very special band. „He said: ,Listen to this and only this for a week.‘ And I did. At the beginning it sounded like crap but at the end I thought: Why didn´t I know that before?“, Rikard remembers. The record was King Crimson´s masterpiece „In The Court Of The Crimson King“ from 1969. After that disclosure, Rikard´s life never was the same. He discovered the music from the 70s and especially Prog Rockbands like King Crimson, Gentle Giant, Camel, Genesis, Frank Zappa and many more. „The other guys in the band got to know these groups through their fathers record collections“, noticed Sjöblom. After that discovery Rikard began to write his own songs in the wake of this grand classic style of music. „You can do songs that are ten minutes long, you don´t have to restrict yourself to verse-chorus-verse. I like the freedom, that in Prog you can do whatever you want!“, enthuses the main writer, singer, guitarist and keyboarder of Beardfish.

It´s always good to have friends. One of Rikard Sjöblom´s friends insisted, that he´d pay attention to a very special band. „He said: ,Listen to this and only this for a week.‘ And I did. At the beginning it sounded like crap but at the end I thought: Why didn´t I know that before?“, Rikard remembers. The record was King Crimson´s masterpiece „In The Court Of The Crimson King“ from 1969. After that disclosure, Rikard´s life never was the same. He discovered the music from the 70s and especially Prog Rockbands like King Crimson, Gentle Giant, Camel, Genesis, Frank Zappa and many more. „The other guys in the band got to know these groups through their fathers record collections“, noticed Sjöblom. After that discovery Rikard began to write his own songs in the wake of this grand classic style of music. „You can do songs that are ten minutes long, you don´t have to restrict yourself to verse-chorus-verse. I like the freedom, that in Prog you can do whatever you want!“, enthuses the main writer, singer, guitarist and keyboarder of Beardfish.

A prime example of the artful rock of Sweden´s Prog Champions is their new album „Mammoth“. An apt title indeed. „We were at my place watching childrens cartoons from the 80s. All of sudden there was a big wollen Mammoth on the TV screen, and our guitarplayer David Zackrisson said: ,I love Mammoths. They are probably my favorite animals.‘“ So the quartett agreed to choose „Mammoth“ as album title. „There is some stuff in the lyrics that could be connected to the ice age. Nobody knows which of our animals will survive because things get rather cold. And the Mammoth is extinct already. It´s a parallel of what people do to themselves, because people are self-destructive“, reckons Rikard.

On the whole Sjöblom thinks the new stuff is a little harder and rougher than previous records. „For the song „And The Stone Said “If I Could Speak”“ we even had a guy come in to do some metal growls. All of us like metal and have listened to it since we were kids.“ The styles of „Mammoth“ reach from riff based Hard Rock („The Platform“) to mature epics like „And The Stone Said “If I Could Speak”“ which contains a swinging saxophone. Songs with light, poppy melodies („Tightrope“) change with sophisticated Rock („Green Waves“) and even a short piano-solo („Outside/Inside“) played by Rikard Sjöblom himself. It is followed by „Akakabotu“ which is influenced by Swedish jazz from the ´60s and the anthemic Rock of „Without Saying Anything (feat. Ventriloquist)“, that actually combines two songs in one. All music and lyrics stem from Sjöblom. „It has to be said that this album is much more a band effort than previous records. All of the members contributed. I almost always start a song with a melody or a riff. Then I bring it to the guys and either they like it or they don´t. Usually they like it and we continue to work on it.“

The story of Beardfish started in 2001 when Zackrisson and Sjöblom had a Grunge band called Wooderson. Soon they got a little bored and wanted to start something fresh. Since both of them were fans of King Crimson and Gentle Giant they started a Prog Rock band. Shortly drummer Magnus Ostgren joined, followed by bassist Robert Hansen. In 2003 the band from Gävle released their first album, the self financed „Från en plats du ej kan se“ using their Swedish mother tongue. At the end of 2005 Beardfish released the double album „The Sane Day“. The next year the Swedish Progsters signed with InsideOut and recorded „Sleeping In Traffic: Part One“ being followed by „Sleeping In Taffic: Part Two“ in 2007 which was greeted by great reviews. Beardfish toured with The Tangent and Ritual in Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Holland, Belgium and England. 2009 saw the epic „Destined Solitaire“ that contained 76 minutes of highly ambitious music, again Beardfish received great critical acclaim. But of course the foursome did not rest on its laurels and started recording, with an amazing sense for detail, their brandnew epic extravaganza „Mammoth“. Looking back it all started with some great advice. As mentioned before, it´s always good to have friends.