I have always dreamed of having a band and touring. When I was young, around 5 or 6 years old, I played in a “band” with a couple of boys in the miniclub. We used shovels and buckets as instruments and charged other kids a few stones to see our concerts.
My first real band was formed in high school with a friend from class who played guitar. I ended up as the singer and we played about 5-10 gigs, mostly covering songs by Kashmir, Green Day, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Guns n’ Roses. That’s where I first experienced the rush of performing on stage and being the center of attention. It was scary, but incredibly rewarding.

When I heard Malene sing, I knew we just had to start a band and conquer the world. That’s probably why I was so driven (dominant) and always pushing forward, sometimes without considering if everyone was on board. I loved thinking about the band and how to improve – what songs would define our style, what posters, flyers, or websites to design next, how to break into the industry and book more gigs. No challenge was too big. For example, our first gig at Lades Kælder – Dennis had only been in the band for a few months, but I went in with a demo and a flyer and convinced the owner to book us for three 45-minute sets, even though I knew we only had about an hour’s worth of material. We pulled it off with great success.

Another time, I walked into the offices of P3 radio station, bypassing the security guard, and found the chairman of the playlist committee. I made my pitch and he listened to our CD, but it wasn’t strong enough yet and he gave me feedback on our songs and hit potential. He asked me to come back when we had more and we eventually got a little bit of airplay with our cover of Madonna’s “Power of Goodbye”. However, we never had a breakthrough.

I was always so focused on the goal that I forgot about the journey. It sometimes required a firm hand to be a band leader, but it wasn’t always fun, especially when it came to letting go of band members. It’s never easy to tell someone you value, who has given their time, creativity, and shared the dream, that you’ve chosen to continue the dream without them. It has given me a lot of anxious thoughts.

Although we’ve been making our own music from the start and I’ve been proud of it all, it wasn’t until “Plug in Baby” and our final lineup of Malene, Dennis, Frans, and me that I still feel a deep connection to the songs. In the end, we had incredible teamwork and I think we just needed the right set of ears to shape the final professional sound without losing our soul.

After the band dissolved, I said that I felt like I had made the music inside me. That’s partly true, but now I still feel like there are songs we never got to complete. 

There are still a lot of sketches on the drawing board that could really have become fantastic songs. Without Frans it is a bit of a sad thought, but we should do it for his sake too.

I do think that the three of us can still write more chapters together.