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Hion Martell

Hion Martell Radio

General Info

  • Genre: Blues / Classic Rock / Rock

    Location Ljusdal, Sv

    Profile Views: 28249

    Last Login: 5/1/2013

    Member Since 12/4/2006

    Website hionmartell.com

    Record Label Viskningar och Vrål

    Type of Label Indie

  • Bio

    In November of 2010 HION MARTELL released the album 'Will Cure Any Disease'. The CD was released on the indie label Viskningar och Vrål and is distributed by Plugged. This is the first CD by the new line up of the band; Christer Nilsson (Guitar & Vocals), Ulf Hagberg (Guitar & Vocals), Håkan Nilsson (Drums & Backing Vocals), Stefan Larsson (Bass) and Peter Subäck (keyboards), and the seventh album released by HION MARTELL. The name - Hion Martell, is to be pronounced high on Martell and is of course a tip of the hat to the world famous cognac. The story of HION MARTELL can be divided into three eras; The Recording Project, The "Oh, are you in the band too?"-years and finally the Present Day version of the band. The Recording Project (1992-1999) It all started back in '92. It was not exactly deep down in Louisiana among the evergreens. It was a small town called Ljusdal, in the middle of Sweden, among the pines. Guitar player, singer and song writer Christer Nilsson got some friends together and recorded a few tracks. Influenced by artists and bands like JJ Cale, the Rolling Stones and Lynyrd Skynyrd the style of the music was very basic rock. There wasn't a permanent line up. There were different people singing and playing on the tracks. The songs were written to be easy to learn, with minimalistic chord progressions. Often a four bar chord pattern was repeated the whole song. Two CD's were released during this era of the band; '...for your exquisite delight' (Bombolaget, 1993) and 'Hit Ambition At The Canadian Club' (SCARILLA!, 1999). The production was very raw and lo-fi. Some tracks were recorded live, some on 4-track cassette recorders and some in a cheap demo studio. The "Oh, are you in the band too?"-years (1999-2008) With the release 'Top Of The Vision' (2000, SCARILLA!) a new, more "permanent" line up emerged. Drummer STYXX (ex 80's glam band Bess) and bass player Stefan Larsson, a.k.a. Babbaen (ex metal band Julie Laughs Nomore) entered the stage, together with keyboard wizzard and prog head Ulf Pettersson (Galleon). Apart from this core of the band there were still plenty of changes in the line up from recording session to recording session, and from gig to gig. Sometimes the band played as a trio, and sometimes there were up to eleven (!) people on stage. Even though female background vocalists was always an important part of the Hion Martell sound, this was the first time that there were any girls in the line up. Actually at a point there were four of them! By the time 'PEACE!' was released in 2002 only two of them were left;Sofia Klingefors and Tanja Hedlund. After the release of 'PEACE!' the band started writing a concept album: 'Music From The Swing Dynasty - IRON MOTEL BY HION MARTELL'. Quite a few of the tracks featured in the rock opera were co-written by STYXX, who never the less left the band to be replaced by drummer Ronnie Persson. The album was released and available as download only in 2005. In 2006 the 4 track CD 'Water' (SCARILLA!) was released. The disc features re-recorded versions of four of the tracks from the Iron Motel. Half way through the recordings Ulf Pettersson and Tanja Hedlund decided to leave. The majority of the keyboards on the CD are therefore handled by Kristofer Eng (Brighteye Brison), another prog crazed disgustingly skilled player. Present Day (2009-) In 2009 the band finally got a permanent lineup. Peter Subäck was added as keyboard player. Peter had been associated with the band for years, but as a photographer! He shot pictures for the covers of 'Top Of The Vision' and 'Water'. Ronnie left the band and Håkan Nilsson got behind the drumkit. Håkan had been playing with the band ever since 'Hit Ambition At The Canadian Club', helping out playing percussion, drums and even bass. This made him the perfect drummer for the band. The band released the full length CD 'Will Cure Any Disease', in November 2010. The album is released on the indie lable Viskningar och Vrål. This is the first Hion Martell album to have proper distribution channels, through Plugged (Scandinavia), Sonic Rendezvous (BeNeLux) and Disk Union (Japan). So even though this is the seventh album by HION MARTELL, in a way it can be considered the first .

  • Members

    Chister Nilsson (Guitar & Vocals), Ulf Hagberg (Guitar & Vocals), Håkan Nilsson (Drums & Backing Vocals), Stefan Larsson (Bass), Peter Subäck (Keyboards)

  • Influences

    JJ Cale, Rolling Stones, Deep Purple, Allman Brothers and a ton of other bands and artists. (Like Tom Petty and the Beatles and Thin Lizzy and Eagles and...)

  • Sounds Like

    You say!

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