Third Wave of Acts for Where's the Music?

Wheres the music announces 20 new additions to the 2015 lineup, including some of the hottest names right now and those set to erupt.

Third Wave of Acts for Where's the Music? Photo by FKP Scorpio

Wheres the music? announce 20 new additions to the 2015 lineup, including some of the hottest names right now and those set to erupt. Acts announced today include rockers Crucified Barbara, hyped Alaska and the super cool Joy. These new additions join Nadya, Sabina Ddumba and another 150 artists playing at the festival in Norrköping.

About the artists
Alaska

Johan ”Movits” Reinhardt and Zacke have been friends for almost 10 years. During that time they helped each other out on different music projects but now it’s time to start a real collaboration. The idea was born in a loge before a gig in Berlin. That’s also were they started freestyle, that eventually would turn in to their first single “Bomberjacka”. Back in Stockholm again they completed the single and the trio Alaska was born. The sound is straight forward and raw with lyrics that comments on the society today.

Besserbitch
Besserbitch are a Swedish band formed 2008 in Stockholm. They are well known for delivering fast, furious and emotional punk/rock with catchy melodies. The band consists of singer/guitarrist Elin Andree, guitarist Sanna Fuchs, bassist Klara Persson and drummer Elsa Fogelström. The band recently released the album Moments of Grey and are now back from a successful European tour. The singles Who cut the Wire and My Resignation are all being played on radio channels like P3, P4 and Bandit Rock.

Crucified Barbara
Formed in Stockholm in 1998 by bassist Ida Evileye and guitarist Klara Force, Crucified Barbara is Sweden’s hardest rocking quartet, playing a fiery brand of rock ‘n’ roll tinged with metal and lashings of punk, pop, thrash, and whatever else dares to cross their path.

No strangers to hard work or success, Crucified Barbara’s debut single from their 2005 debut In Distortion We Trust climbed to #8 on the Swedish pop charts. They played Australia, toured across Europe opening for Motörhead, Sepultura, In Flames, and Doro, and earned a prestigious slot alongside Black Sabbath, Velvet Revolver, and System Of A Down at the U.K. Download Festival. With all that touring, it would be four years before the band got around to recording their second album, 2009’s ‘Til Death Do Us Party. Next thing you know, there they were on national television performing in Eurovision’s 2010 Song Contest and made it to the semi-finals. If ever you cross their path, bring some brass knuckles to better protect yourself.

Deals Death
The story of melodic death metallers Deals Death began in a music college called Boomtown. The band released their self-financed debut “Internal Demons” in 2009 to raving reviews. Now, after five years of hard work and dedication, Deals Death has earned their name in the world of metal with tours in Sweden, Finland, Japan and the UK and making appearances at numerous festivals such as House of Metal, Rockstad Falun & Sweden Rock.

The band’s third album “Point Zero Solution” was released via Spinefarm/Universal in 2013 showed a new, harder yet more melodic and majestic side to the Swedish death troopers’ music. Having introduced themselves to a wider audience with their second album “Elite”, “Point Zero Solution” shows Deals Death’s staying power and musical evolution with lush arrangements, deadlier output through and through and melodic hooks catchier than ever before.

Dotter
With influences extending from modern indie to Jefferson Airplane, the music and lyrics join together with Johanna’s personal environment and nature values. From these worldviews the name Dotter, daughter in English, was born. Johanna started producing and composing her own songs at a very young age. She moved from the beautiful scenery in Värmland to the capital to pursue her dreams, and she started of good! Her debut single have already gotten international attention and Popjustice chose the track to be the “Big song of the day”. Later this year she will release an EP with 4 songs produced by Dino Medanhodzic.

Hanna Järver
Hanna Järver has previously been a part of the Swedish acts Reversin and Gazebo Gathering but just launched her self-titled solo project. Hanna and co-producer Norbert Lucas spent a few months in Budapest and recorded the brilliant EP Smutsen. The brittle, soft voice guides us through lyrics about heartbreak, relationships and personal experiences. Hanna herself describes her music as “minimalistic electronica with an edge of dirt”.

During this spring she supported Jennie Abrahamsson at the venue Södra Teatern and many record labels and blogs have already become aware of this jewel. It’s only a matter of time before Hanna Järver make it big.

Ironbird
Ironbird is a completely new constellation with its roots in the seventies retro genre. It all started when guitarist and songwriter Magnus Jernstr?m decided to record some new songs that he has created during the last years. To be able to finish and go further with the recording he needed some help from some good old friends so he recruited vocalist Rasmus Jansson, bass player Fredrik Sch?nbeck and drummer Magnus Arndtzen. It all worked out really well, the sound is heavy but also in a cool way quite clean. What started as a musical project is now a energetic and spiritful band.

Jape
Jape is the solo project of Richie Egan, bass player with Irish instrumental rock group the Redneck Manifesto. Very much the band’s musical alter ego, Jape has little in common with the Redneck Manifesto, excepting perhaps the left-field but accessible approach both take to their styles of music. Jape’s music is primarily of the folky singer/songwriter mold, with alternative rock and electronic overtones, and comparisons have been made between Jape and both Beck (a noted influence) and David Kitt, with whom Jape collaborated to produce the 2004 single “Floating.”

His debut album Cosmosphere was released in a limited run of 5,000 copies. Jape’s second album, The Monkeys in the Zoo Have More Fun Than Me, widely acknowledged as a superior effort to his debut, The Monkeys in the Zoo gave rise to the minor hit “Floating”.

Jeremy Irons & The Ratgang Malibus
Swedish four-piece Jeremy Irons & The Ratgang Malibus was originally formed around 2004, with a core line-up of Karl Apelmo (vocals, guitars) and Mikael Pettersson (guitars). Their music can be described as a throwback to 70s psychedelic krautrock with stoner influences. EP was made and released in 2009 and the band got in touch with Swedish label Transubstans Records, subsequently hitting the studio to record an LP. The end result was issued as Bloom in May 2011, to a positive reception.

Bloom was followed by their sophomore Spirit Knife released in April 2014. The result is, by its lion’s share an overgrown and large album where the quartet certainly isn’t making any further compromising of the epic. The album’s center tank with the working title Alcohol sounds like a definitive settlement with the higher powers on a dramatic cliff, the title track reaches a quivering crescendo with its war cries and before mentioned Point Growth has its languorous, molasses thick darkness.

Joy
Joy music is a combination between Malmö, South Africa and Stehag. Infuenced by Azelia banks, Eminem and Die Antwoord her music is hard, sexy and deep but with a glimce of playfulness. Joy discovered her love for rap when she learned the lyrics to Kayne West hitsingle ‘Monster’.

Her first single Kattliv, produced by Mats Norman, is a rap about all the things she lost in life and her struggles. But she won’t let anything stop her and with a debut EP on the way – the future is JOYs.

Last Lynx
Acclaimed Load Lynx waited neither the record deal nor music industry’s approval to reach out with their music. After releasing the EP “Alaska EP” on their own, the superlatives from Swedish and international music blogs didn’t take long. Last Lynx describes their music like “An organic sound with strong electromagnetic pulse”. This year they released new EP “Rifts”, made together with recognized Lasse Marten (Lykke Li, Nikki & The Dove and Peter, Bjorn & John).

Maja Francis
Glitter pavements. Neon raindrops. Songs written in space. Her debut single will be out on Universal Music in January 2015.

Nadya
With a mix of electronic music and hip hop, Nadya is ready to take on the music scene. In September she released her debut single “Refugee”, where she collaborates with Swedish producer Duvchi.

Nadya, was born in Jönköping where she started her first punk band at the age of 12 years. That summer she also opened for The Sounds. She was also a member of the electro/hip-hop group Compadre, which preformed at the Roskilde Festival last summer. From punk to electronic hip hop with an Eastern-influenced sound – Nadya have found a creative outlet to explore her artistic side.

Naomi Pilgrim
If you’re still sore and missing Lauryn Hill circa 98, meet newcomer Naomi Pilgrim. Born to a Barbadian father and Swedish mother and raised in Sweden, Naomi Pilgrim has been making music her entire life. More recently, Pilgrim has sung backups for fellow Swede’s Lykke Li and Agnes Carlsson, and she’s just released her debut EP this fall. Plus two magic singles called “House of Dreams” and “It’s All Good”.

Ólöf Arnalds
Ólöf Arnalds is an Icelandic singer and multi-instrumentalist. Classically educated on the violin, viola and self-taught on guitar and charango, Ólöf’s most distinctive asset is, nonetheless, her voice. A voice of instantly captivating, spring water chasteness possessed of a magical, otherworldly quality that is simultaneously innocent yet ancient (“somewhere between a child and an old woman” according to no less an authority than Björk).

Over two critically lauded albums, that uncannily beautiful, acrobatic contralto, wedded to Ólöf’s liquid, finger-picked guitar or South American charango, intermittently ornamented by various degrees of chamber orchestration, has won legions of fans around the globe, abetted by a vigorous, peripatetic touring schedule.

All of which is good going for a singer who started her musical life fighting chronic stage nerves only to deliver her deeply personal songs in that most magical yet, let’s face it, hardly universally accessible mother tongue, Icelandic.

Sabina Ddumba
Sabina Ddumba is an up-and-coming singer/songwriter from Stockholm, Sweden. She found music at the age of 6 and has kept evolving her vocal style ever since. Recent professional projects include touring with the Swedish artist Jenny Wilson, and working together with various artists and bands such as Spiderdogs, Adam Tensta and Stephen Simmonds to name a few. On a weekly basis we’ll find Sabina rehearsing and relaxing with Tensta Gospel Choir, a strong contender on the gospel scene. Her personality is associated with passion, drive and bright lights. With a soulful voice and moving lyrics – she is soon to be a household name!

Solen
Solen (The Sun) is Erik Hillborg, Nils Dahlqvist, Gustav Karlsson och Olle Darmell – four guys in their lower twenties and, through their characteristic “melancholy pop” and explosive and captivating presence on stage made themselves known as “Sweden’s best unsigned band”. Nowadays they are “Sweden’s best signed band”, since Solen in December 2013 signed with Playground Music to begin the work with their new album, “Till dom som bryr sig”, with producer Stefan Brändström. The album was released in October 2014 and got overwhelming reviews from the critics. Their sound has often been compared to Sweden’s greatest rock band Kent. (Even though Solen rather would like to be compared to Slowdive or Nirvana.)

The Majority Says
The Majority Says are a six piece indie pop band from Sweden, formed in the small town Linköping 2010. The musical uniqueness of the band arises from the combination of Hanna’s special voice with both melancholic lyrics, intelligent instrumental hooks, captivating vocal arrangements as well as the rounding of a great production.

On Valentine’s Day 2012 they released their debut EP, ”Best Night Ever”. The song ”114” was featured in a TV campaign for Viasat Film broadcast in Scandinavia and Eastern Europe.

Their songs have been used in American Tv series, such as Pretty Little Liars and The Real L Word. The American clothing brand Houghton NYC also used the song ”Kings of the night” in a campaign for their spring collection 2013.

During these past years TMS have been spending a lot of time working in the studio (Kingside), deep in the Swedish forest. At the same time they’ve been touring in Scandinavia and Europe, particularly Germany. Latest shows were at Berlin Festival and Reeperbahn Festival. In Mars 2013 they performed at SXSW Music Festival (south by south west) in Austin, Texas. In 2012 they played at Bergenfest (Norway), Peace & Love (Sweden) and Berlin Music Week (Germany).

Within a near future The Majority Says will release a new EP, ”Between love and simple friends” and thereafter an album which they are working on for the moment.

Tjuvjakt
The rap collective Tjuvjakt consists of; Olle Grafström, Kid Eriksson, Fredrik Woodz, Arvid Lundquist and Jesper Sward. They all come from different (musical) backgrounds and everyone contributes to the in their own way. Whether it’s with visions, beats or texts, everyone in the collective contributes to the final product.

Tjuvjakt gets inspiration from most things in life and has always strived to bring something new to the Swedish hip hop scene. Their hit single single “Tandtråt” got radio rotation in spring 2014, and has now sold platinum. In total, Tjuvjakt’s songs has been streamed over 8 million times.

See the music video for Tjuvjakt’s new single “Va händrå?” below!

Vita Bergen
Vita Bergen, the duo of William Hellström and Robert Jallinder, was founded in 2010. They have emerged as one of Sweden’s most talked about under-the-radar bands of the past few years, and are proud to finally announce their much-awaited debut release.

After the leak of one bedroom-demo and a scattering of exclusive gigs with the likes of VICE magazine, the band received immediate attention from the big corporate players in the Scandinavian music industry, but eventually ended up signing with indie label Telegram Studios. Vita Bergen’s live performance is a truly epic experience, usually ending up with a public emotional breakdown of the two enigmatic front men.

‘Vita Bergen’ EP was released on October 22 via Kning Disk/Telegram Studios and it was produced by Vita Bergen’s William Hellström, and mixed by Grammy Award winner Simon Nordberg.

Evlear Magazine We write articles about Music, Cars, Road Rallies, Lifestyle, and Festivals.