Bleecker

The first release from Bleecker starts out with a predominantly acoustic sound. In more ways than one it is ‘basic’ and a lot about five young men getting to know each other musically… and behind the music, personally. The five-piece band evolved from an acoustic trio playing cover songs and the odd original number at bars and pubs in the small town of Halmstad, by the coast in the south of Sweden.

First to join the original trio, was the accomplished bass player and all around good guy Petter Dolk. And with bass there had to be drums. And when there were drums, there was no turning back. By the second album, Subject to Change, the mood and style is slightly more confident. The acoustic tone is more often replaced or accompanied by electric guitars, and there is more room for the signature drum sound of Anders Fredriksson.

Guitarist Markus Lundberg, once a scholar but soon a professor of Rock Esthetics, found new ways to carry fellow guitarist and main songwriter/singer Tobbe Månsson, leading to a more extrovert sound. The fact that piano and organ always play an important part in the Bleecker music, is explained by the brilliance of Mattias Thisen Hjelm.

Coming up in a time when musicians were expected to have the attitude of the Gallagher brothers and claim world domination like Howlin’ Pelle, Bleecker never really found its way through the noise to the wider audience. But man it was fun!