The story of The Nordic Beat centers around the wine-coloured drum kit that John Parsons brought to Luke's house in January of 2004. That January, Luke and John started to jam out some "songs" that Luke had written. After a month or so, John brought Lee, a guy he met at a party, into the mix. And thus began Luke and Lee's musical romance.
After a summer hiatus Luke and Lee reconvened in September without a committed drummer. Luckily, Luke had made friends with a handsome Norwegian by the name of Alf Christian Johansen in the winter of 2004. Alf (or Chris, as he is known on this side of the atlantic) taught himself to play on the wine-coloured kit and began jamming with the duo in the fall of 2004.
Around March of 2005 Adam Hickey joined the now-quartet as singer. Soon afterwards, Lee and Adam started to date best friends. As winter melted into spring Greg Ryan completed the band as bass player. By this time, the boys had developed a Saturday night ritual: Jam over a case of beer and head downtown. It was, however, not to be, as Greg was destined for Montreal, where he now resides.
After another summer hiatus, the band's courtship with Matthew Spence finally came to fruition. After being shown a few songs by Luke and Lee in his basement, Matt agreed to take his bass in hand and complete the band.
The boys spent the fall of 2005 rehearsing feverishly, still with the wine coloured drum kit in Luke's basement, in order to unveil The Nordic Beat to the St. John's indie rock scene. This happened first at a party at Luke's house and later at a series of gigs on either side of the Holdsworth Court deck in the nether regions of George Street.
Since those early shows, things have progressed steadily for the Nordic Beat. In mid December they made their first foray into the studio, recording a nine song demo in six hours. Over Christmas they played four gigs in two weeks, including a rather memorable house party on Cochrane Street. In mid February the band played its biggest gig to date when it opened for Fur Packed Actions first of three reunion shows.
After a two month hiatus which began in March, threatened the sanity of several band members and spawned a new batch of songs, the group reunited in May. This time, however, it was without Matthew Spence, who left the band to focus on his education degree and several solo projects. Duncan Major, Lukes younger and more intelligent brother, quickly filled the white sneakers left behind by Matthew, completing what is now the permanent lineup of The Nordic Beat. After a period of intense rehearsal and the purchase of a new wine-coloured kit, they debuted six new tunes. The Nordic Beat have been playing regularly over the summer to audiences which seem only to get larger and more randy with each show. The band is currently at work on their first commercial release, an EP which will be ready at the beginning of September.
