Millencolin

Erik, Mathias and Nikola started the band in october -92 in Orebro Sweden, back then we were playing in other punkbands and singin' in swedish. Erik played guitar in Charles Hårfager. Nikola and Mathias had their band called Seigmenn.

We all started skating around -87 and we got in to punkbands like Operation Ivy, Mc Rad, Descendents & Odd Man Out from skatevideos. So we decided to start a skaterock band. We got the name from the skate trick ”melancholy” (also known as sad air), but we changed the spelling a bit so it sounds more like a name. We recorded a ten song demotape called ”Goofy” early -93, played one show, then Larzon joined the band. Larzon played in a band called Kung Pung at that time. We needed two guitars live and Mathias who did the drums before was more of a guitarplayer.

These three bands we were playing in before all released one 7" each. Which we payed for our selves. Both Seigmenn and Kung Pung broke up early -93. Charles Hårfager got signed to Kamel records who put out their 7" again. Erik did one more single with Charles hårfager before he quit the band called "korpen faller", but the other guys continued and recorded two cd's before they split up.

Erik also runned a fanzine at that time called Jagular music & skate zine, he only put out one issue.

In the summer we made a new ten song tape which we named ”Melack”(the songs are now spread out on different compilations). That one was recorded with Dan Swanö in Unisound Studios where we still record our stuff. Someone sent the tape to Burning Heart who wanted to release us, at that time they only had two cd singels out.

We recorded the six song cd-single ”Use your nose” (which contain ”Pain” from Goofy and ”Melack” from Melack) early -94. Five month later we went back and made ”Skauch” which is also a single with two of our own and four cover songs. In august we went back for the third time that year and recorded our first fullength album called ”Tiny Tunes”. We played alot live that year, over 100 shows only in Sweden.

In -95 both Burning Heart and Unisound Studios moved to Orebro and the second album ”Life On A Plate” was recorded in august that year and released in October. we played more in Sweden, that summer we did 24 festivals, ”Kalvöja” in Norway, ”Roskilde” in Denmark and the rest in Sweden. September -95 was the time for our first tour outside Scandinavia. That was a ten date german tour. A couple of weeks after that we went on an other European tour this time in Switzerland, France, England and Germany. At the end of -95 Brett from Epitaph contacted us and wanted to release ”Life on a plate” and sign us for the US. They released the album in march -96.

We toured most of the time -96. Japan, Australia, two US/Canada tours, european festivals in the summer and a south European tour. It all ended up being almost 150 shows that year.

Burning Heart got sued by Warner Bros. because of the cover and the title of ”Tiny Tunes”. So we had to change the cover and the title. We decided to call it ”The same old tunes” because it still contain the same songs.

This year (-97) we released our third album ”For Monkeys”. April 21 was the release date in Europe and I think it was around the same time all over the world. A single with three songs (”Lozin' Must” from the album, ”Vixen” a unreleased new song and a cover of Desmond Dekkers ”Israelites”) came out in the end of March.

For Monkeys was one of the last recordings made in Unisound Studios. Dan Swanö threw in the towel and sold most parts of the studio to Mathias and companion Miezsko, who allready had some studio stuff together. The studio was called The Punk Palace but they changed the name to Sound Lab studios. That is where we recorded "Vixen".

The For Monkeys tour started in May -97 and ended in August -98.The Tour included: Three European trips, one trip to Australia and one to Japan, Three visits to the U.S/Canada and one to South America (Brazil/Argentina). All together close to 200 shows.

We have almost had one year off now. During this time we have released our first videotape "MILLENCOLIN & the Hi-8 Adventures" a 76 minute and 23 songs long homemade video made by Erik.

We also put together our first two cd-singles, the B-sides of our other singles and some songs recorded for compilations on one album! The 22 song album is called "THE MELANCHOLY COLLECTION".

We're in the process of writing new songs right now and we're planning on recording a new album by the end of the summer -99. The album will probably be out by the end of this year!