David & the citizens
Encyclopedia
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
band formed in 1999 in Skåne.
History
The band was created in 1999 by the singer and songwriter David Fridlund. With a couple of already-recorded songs he moved from StockholmStockholm
Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...
to Malmö
Malmö
Malmö , in the southernmost province of Scania, is the third most populous city in Sweden, after Stockholm and Gothenburg.Malmö is the seat of Malmö Municipality and the capital of Skåne County...
. In a few weeks he had managed to form the band together with Mikael Carlsson, Jenny Wilson
Jenny Wilson (singer/songwriter)
Jenny Wilson is a Swedish singer-songwriter, born on October 20, 1975 in Blekinge, Sweden. She founded the band First Floor Power in 1997 and released two albums, There Is Hope and Nerves, before leaving the band to go solo around 2004. She studied graphic design at Konstfack for one year...
, and Karl-Jonas Winqvist, and perform with the band at the now-closed "Den blinda åsnan" (the Blind Donkey). The same year the band played at the Hultsfred festival and the Emmaboda festival. Jenny and Karl-Jonas left the band to focus whole-heartedly at their band First Floor Power
First Floor Power
First Floor Power is an indie rock band from Sweden.FFP recorded and released their debut EP "We Are the People" in 2000 on the Swedish label Silence Records. In 2001 their debut album "There is Hope" was released. The Swedish National TV produced a one hour documentary about the band which focused...
in Stockholm, which led to Alexander Madsen, Conny Fridh and later also Magnus Bjerkert joined the band.
The first, self-titled, EP was released on April 9, 2001 on Adrian Recordings. The same year another EP was released under the name I've Been Floating Upstream. The band also made their second performance at the Hultsfred festival that year. The debutalbum For all Happy Endings was released March 8, 2002, and soon after the EP Song Against Life whose titeltrack lay several weeks on MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
:s Up North
Up North (television)
Up North was an MTV television show, broadcast on MTV Europe and several national TV stations in Northern Europe. Every week the viewers could vote for their favourite song as they were presented in the show, viewers voted either by SMS or on the MTV Europe website...
. In the summer of 2002 the band played at all the major festivals in Sweden as well as the Roskilde Festival
Roskilde Festival
Roskilde Festival is a festival held south of Roskilde in Denmark and is one of the six biggest annual music festivals in Europe . It was created in 1971 by two high school students, Mogens Sandfær and Jesper Switzer Møller, and promoter Carl Fischer...
in Denmark. In 2003 the band released their second album Until the Sadness is Gone, and in 2004 the EP Big Chill
Big Chill
Big Chill can refer to:*The Big Chill *The Big Chill *The Big Chill soundtrack*The Big Chill at the Big House, a U.S...
which also Mattias Alkberg
Mattias Alkberg
Mattias Alkberg , sometimes known as Matti Alkberg, is a Swedish poet, songwriter and musician. He has released four poetry books and more than a dozen records with his two bands The Bear Quartet and Mattias Alkberg BD.-Books:...
appeared on.
In 2006 the band released the DVD Let's Not Fall Apart 1999-2005 about the band's development up until today. Ironically, the band had lost two members, Alexander Madsen and Mikael Carlsson, at the time for the release. John Bjerkert joined the band on percussion, but the band is currently consisteing of four members. The new constellation of David & the Citizens released a minialbum titled Are You In My Blood May 17, 2006. This is the first release on another label than Adrian Recordings (owned by bandmember Magnus Bjerkert). Instead the record is released on Lund
Lund
-Main sights:During the 12th and 13th centuries, when the town was the seat of the archbishop, many churches and monasteries were built. At its peak, Lund had 27 churches, but most of them were demolished as result of the Reformation in 1536. Several medieval buildings remain, including Lund...
based label Bad Taste Records
Bad Taste Records
Bad Taste Records is a record label based in Lund, Sweden.The record label was one of the first labels to establish in the Swedish punk rock and punk/hardcore scene in the early 1990s, together with Burning Heart Records. The name of the label originated from the movie Bad Taste by Peter...
.
In February 2007 David & the Citizens had yet another change of members. David Fridlund continues without John, Magnus and Conny - Parted after several years of growing apart mentally, opinionwise and musically. David continues with four new members TBA. On the 17 December 2007 David & the Citizens released an EP called I Saw My Reflection And I Didn't Recognize Myself with four new songs. The EP is free for downloading at the web page and some pictures and the lyrics are included. The listeners have the option to pay for the EP if they are willing to and instructions are included in the EP. David also assures that the band still exists and "will be around till the day I decide to quit. And that day is yet to come."
On August 10, 2008 David Fridlund announced on the David & the Citizens myspace blog that the band is taking a break. He will simply be known as David Fridlund for a while. A split vinyl single with Sara Culler is the first thing he is working on.
Albums
- For All Happy Endings (2002)
- Until the Sadness is Gone (2003)
- Stop the Tape! Stop the Tape! (2006)
EPs
- David & the Citizens (2001)
- I've Been Floating Upstream (2001)
- Song Against Life (2002)
- New Direction (2003)
- Big Chill (2004)
- Are You in My Blood (2006)
- I Saw My Reflection and I Didn't Recognize Myself (2007)
- Untitled (year unknown)
Singles
- Pink Evening (Send Me Off...) (2002)
- The End (2003)
- Graycoated Morning (2003)
Former members
- Conny Fridh - bass, background vocals
- Magnus Bjerkert - trumpet, organ, piano, guitar
- John Bjerkert - percussions, background vocals
- Alexander Madsen - guitar
- Mikael Carlsson - percussions, background vocals
- Jenny Wilson - Guitar, backing vocals
- Karl-Jonas Winqvist - Drums and percussion