Biography
The story of The National Anthems begins in early 2000 in Karlstad,
Sweden as Robert Stålbro (vocals/guitar) alone records a
two song demo. A full year passed before Stålbro played
the tracks for Joakim Johansson (guitar) and the two saw great
potential laying within this mere demo; something more had to
be done with these songs. The idea was planted and they knew it
was time to form a band. Having been in contact with two extremely
talented musicians, Christian Jernbro (drums) and Fredrik Nilsson
(bass), the two didn't have to think very long over who would
fill in the gaps in their emerging ensemble. With that, The National
Anthems was born in August 2001.
After a couple of shows in Karlstad, The National Anthems in May
2002 recorded their first demo as a band. This demo resulted in
a show at one of Sweden's most popular music festivals, the Arvika
festival, which draws about 15 000 visitors. Overwhelming reviews
poured in and in September 2002 Deep Elm records (USA) contacted
The National Anthems to offer the four-piece a chance to contribute
a song to their Emo Diaries Compilation series. Without hesitation
The Anthems accepted and the song "My Picture" was featured
on "Sad Songs Remind Me" (Emo Diaries #9).
A couple of months later the band signed a record deal with the
German label Defiance records and in September 2003 the debut
album “Before the storm” saw the light of day. Right
after the release Christian Jernbro chose to leave the band but
he was quickly replaced by the also very talanted Henrik Gillgren,
a long time friend of the band and former drummer of other local
bands.
Since “Before the storm” a lot of water has passed
under the bridges of Karlstad. The National Anthems have during
the past two years made five European tours (nearly 100 shows)
together with bands like Embrace, The Weakerthans, Miracle of
86 and the successful German band Sportfreunde Stiller. It was
Sportfreunde Stiller’s own wish that The National Anthems
should come with them on tour and other bands who have opened
for the Germans are Franz Ferdinand, The Crash and Nada Surf.
The live experience from these tours is of course something that
has affected the material on the new album “Paradoxical”.
The band is tighter and the sound is more intense and alive. Inspiration
comes from everything from Deep Purple and Pink Floyd to modern
pop music like U2 and Radiohead. To sum up one can say the character
of the songs are more varying on this album. Four of the songs
also are co-written by an old friend of the band, Bo Thörnqvist
from the band Stoned. The fans who liked “Before the storm”
will of course recognize The National Anthems on “Paradoxical”
as well.
When it comes to the recording of “Paradoxical” the
band chose to do almost everything on their own, something that
gave them more time and a bigger space to work with the songs
in the studio. The vocal recording and the mixing is made by Robin
Larsson-Asp and Rikard Löfgren from Tigra Music.
With “Before the storm” The National Anthems showed
that they carry a lot of potential, now it’s time to take
a step to the next level.
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