Stonefunkers
Encyclopedia
Stonefunkers is a Swedish funk
Funk
Funk is a music genre that originated in the mid-late 1960s when African American musicians blended soul music, jazz and R&B into a rhythmic, danceable new form of music. Funk de-emphasizes melody and harmony and brings a strong rhythmic groove of electric bass and drums to the foreground...

, go-go and live hip hop
Hip hop music
Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...

 band started by brothers Emrik and Torsten Larsson that was one of the first Swedish bands to play "urban"-style music.

Career

Both Larssons spent a year in the USA studying American culture and also picking up on the Soul and funk scene.

Emrik went to high school in Rochester, New York
Rochester, New York
Rochester is a city in Monroe County, New York, south of Lake Ontario in the United States. Known as The World's Image Centre, it was also once known as The Flour City, and more recently as The Flower City...

 and soon found out that a lot of the hot bands usually stopped to play in Rochester. During his year he got to see artists ranging from George Clinton
George Clinton (musician)
George Clinton is an American singer, songwriter, bandleader, and music producer and the principal architect of P-Funk. He was the mastermind of the bands Parliament and Funkadelic during the 1970s and early 1980s, and launched a solo career in 1981. He has been cited as one of the foremost...

 with Parliament
Parliament
A parliament is a legislature, especially in those countries whose system of government is based on the Westminster system modeled after that of the United Kingdom. The name is derived from the French , the action of parler : a parlement is a discussion. The term came to mean a meeting at which...

, D-Train, Tyrone Brunson
Tyrone Brunson (musician)
Tyrone Brunson is an American male singer/musician, who played the bass guitar. One of his most successful singles was an electro instrumental titled "The Smurf", which reached #14 on the R&B charts in 1983 and led to further dance records about The Smurfs...

, to Slave
Slave (band)
Slave was an Ohio funk band popular in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Trumpeter Steve Washington and Mark Hicks formed the group in Dayton, Ohio in 1975.-Career:Trombonist Floyd Miller teamed with Tom Lockett Jr...

 and Steve Arrington
Steve Arrington
Steve Arrington , is an American singer, songwriter, drummer, record producer, engineer and minister, who grew up in Dayton, Ohio.-Biography:...

 and also witnessed his first hip hop performance by Double Trouble
Double Trouble (band)
Double Trouble was the backing rhythm section for Texas blues rock guitarist and lead vocalist Stevie Ray Vaughan. Originally consisting of drummer Chris Layton and bassist Tommy Shannon, Reese Wynans would later join the outfit on keyboards.-History:...

 (known through the hip hop movie Wild Style
Wild Style
Wild Style is a 1983 hip hop film produced by Charlie Ahearn. Released theatrically in 1983 by First Run Features and later re-released for home video by Rhino Home Video, it is regarded as the first hip hop motion picture...

).

Torsten went to Minneapolis and soon got into the rock scene but couldn’t get away from that cities movement powerful funk movement
Minneapolis sound
The Minneapolis sound is a hybrid mixture of funk, rock, pop, R&B and New Wave that was pioneered by Prince in the late 1970s. Its popularity was given a boost throughout the 1980s, thanks to his musical adherents, including The Time, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, Morris Day, Vanity 6, Apollonia 6, Ta...

 led by Prince
Prince (musician)
Prince Rogers Nelson , often known simply as Prince, is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. Prince has produced ten platinum albums and thirty Top 40 singles during his career. Prince founded his own recording studio and label; writing, self-producing and playing most, or all, of...

, The Time
The Time (band)
The Time is a funk and dance-pop ensemble formed in 1981. They are close Prince associates and arguably the most successful artists who have worked with him.-Prince, Formation and Success:...

, André Cymone
André Cymone
André Cymone is an American bassist, songwriter and record producer. Cymone was a bass guitarist for recording artist Prince's touring band, pre-Revolution. Cymone began a solo career in 1981. His song, "The Dance Electric" , reached number ten on the R&B charts...

 and others.

Back in Sweden they both felt the urge to start a funk band. Torsten had previously played the bass in various punk
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...

/rock bands, and Emrik had done some singing in different choirs and also had a leading part in a musical.

They recruited their old skateboard
Skateboard
A skateboard is typically a specially designed plywood board combined with a polyurethane coating used for making smoother slides and stronger durability, used primarily for the activity of skateboarding. The first skateboards to reach public notice came out of the surfing craze of the early 1960s,...

 pal Christian on drums, a neighbour on bass, Emrik’s friend David on Moog and Prophet synthesizers, and Torsten switched to guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...

.
Torsten came up with the name during a skate session.

In 1987 they became the first Swedish bad to be interviewed on the Swedish radio show Soul Corner, a radio program covering African-American music.

The early Stonefunk sound was guitar-driven rock funk influenced by Jimi Hendrix
Jimi Hendrix
James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix was an American guitarist and singer-songwriter...

, Rose Royce
Rose Royce
Rose Royce is an American soul and R&B band. The group is best known for several hit singles including "Car Wash," "I Wanna Get Next to You," "Wishing on a Star", "Love Don't Live Here Anymore" and "I'm Going Down".-Career:...

 and Sly Stone
Sly Stone
Sly Stone is an American musician, songwriter, and record producer, most famous for his role as frontman for Sly & the Family Stone, a band which played a critical role in the development of soul, funk and psychedelia in the 1960s and 1970s. In 1993, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of...

. In 1987 they were considered one of Gothenburg
Gothenburg
Gothenburg is the second-largest city in Sweden and the fifth-largest in the Nordic countries. Situated on the west coast of Sweden, the city proper has a population of 519,399, with 549,839 in the urban area and total of 937,015 inhabitants in the metropolitan area...

’s most energetic and exciting live bands and they recorded their first single, "Turn it Up", released in May 1988 on small indie label Radium.

In autumn 1989 they started to work on their first full-length album, Hard as Kryptonite, with producer Christian Falk
Christian Falk
Christian Falk is a Swedish record producer and musician.Falk released the hit single, "Make It Right", in 2000. In 2008, he released a new version of "Calling You" with Jevetta Steele's vocals...

  (later known for his work with Neneh Cherry
Neneh Cherry
Neneh Mariann Cherry is a Swedish singer-songwriter, rapper, and occasional DJ and broadcaster...

, Blacknuss all-stars and Robyn
Robyn
Robin Miriam Carlsson , better known by her stage name Robyn, is a Swedish recording artist, singer, and songwriter. Robyn became known in the late nineties for her worldwide dance-pop hit "Do You Know " from her debut album Robyn Is Here . She co-wrote the song "Du gör mig hel igen" for...

). During the recording of the album, the group was joined by tostingstyle-rapper Papa Dee
Papa Dee
David Christopher Daniel Wahlgren , better known by the stage name Papa Dee, is a Swedish rap, ragga and dancehall musician...

, who brought in more evident hip hop
Hip hop music
Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...

 influences than there were on the two previous singles. Drummer & percussion player Jean-Louis Huhta
Jean-Louis Huhta
Jean-Louis Huhta Patrik born 30 April 1965 in Gothenburg is a Swedish musician, drummer, producer and DJ.Huhta has a history in various Swedish bands going back through the mid 80s, ranging from punk and art-music to grindcore and funk....

 also joined the band at this time, which resulted in more inspirations from the go-go of Washington D.C. (groups like Trouble Funk
Trouble Funk
Trouble Funk is an American R&B and funk band from Washington, DC. It helped to popularize that area's local funk subgenre known as go-go. Among the band's well-known songs are the go-go anthem "Hey, Fellas." They released several studio albums including Drop the Bomb, In Times of Trouble, Live,...

 and E.U.
Experience Unlimited
Experience Unlimited is a Washington, D.C.-based go-go band that enjoyed its height of popularity in the 1980s and early 1990s. Fronted by lead singer/bassist Gregory "Sugarbear" Eliot, the group has had a fluctuating membership over the years, but they have maintained a fairly loyal following...

).

Stonefunkers lineup 1989:
  • Vocals - Emrik (M-rock) Larsson,
  • Guitar - Torsten (Topsteen) Larsson,
  • Moog - David (Davono) Selvert
  • Drums - Christian (Cheeze) Ekerfors
  • Percussion - Jean-Louis Huhta
    Jean-Louis Huhta
    Jean-Louis Huhta Patrik born 30 April 1965 in Gothenburg is a Swedish musician, drummer, producer and DJ.Huhta has a history in various Swedish bands going back through the mid 80s, ranging from punk and art-music to grindcore and funk....

  • Rap - Daniel (Papa Dee
    Papa Dee
    David Christopher Daniel Wahlgren , better known by the stage name Papa Dee, is a Swedish rap, ragga and dancehall musician...

    ) Wahlgren
  • Bass - Magnus (Conan) Corneliusson.


In 1990 the group switched labels to Warner
Warner Music Group
Warner Music Group is the third largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry, making it one of the big four record companies...

, who decided to remix
Remix
A remix is an alternative version of a recorded song, made from an original version. This term is also used for any alterations of media other than song ....

 Hard as Kryptonite for an international release entitled Harder than Kryptonite. This remixed version of the album had a jazz-hip hop/Native Tongues
Native tongues
Native Tongues is a book by the linguist Charles Berlitz.It is a list of words in different languages, etymology and questions with speculations far and wide about words....

 direction and new added rap verses. Papa Dee
Papa Dee
David Christopher Daniel Wahlgren , better known by the stage name Papa Dee, is a Swedish rap, ragga and dancehall musician...

 also left the band and embarked on a solo career. The band decided to recruit rapper MC Cane (Marc Eastmond), with whom they recorded a brand new De La Soul
De La Soul
De La Soul is an American hip hop trio formed in 1987 on Long Island, New York. The band is best known for their eclectic sampling, quirky lyrics, and their contributions to the evolution of the jazz rap and alternative hip hop subgenres...

-inspired new single entitled "Can U Follow". The song became a huge dance-floor hit and the video was shown 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....

 Europe on a regular basis. The album Harder than Kryptonite was released all around Europe in 1991 and Stonefunkers also embarked on their first European tour, visiting the Nordic countries and Germany.

With MC Cane still the main rapper the band recorded the 12" singel LPC (Lucky People Center
Lucky People Center
Lucky People Center is a Swedish artistic collective, best known for their electronic music, which falls roughly in the Ambient house/Trance genres, and the movie Lucky People Center International...

)
, a celebration of percussionist Jean-Louis Huhta
Jean-Louis Huhta
Jean-Louis Huhta Patrik born 30 April 1965 in Gothenburg is a Swedish musician, drummer, producer and DJ.Huhta has a history in various Swedish bands going back through the mid 80s, ranging from punk and art-music to grindcore and funk....

 club nights of the same name. The actual club
Lucky People Center
Lucky People Center is a Swedish artistic collective, best known for their electronic music, which falls roughly in the Ambient house/Trance genres, and the movie Lucky People Center International...

 featured Ambient house
Ambient house
Ambient house, a music genre that first emerged in the late 1980s, is a sub-genre of house music, combining elements of acid house and ambient music...

/Trance
Trance music
Trance is a genre of electronic dance music that developed in the 1990s.:251 It is generally characterized by a tempo of between 125 and 150 bpm,:252 repeating melodic synthesizer phrases, and a musical form that builds up and breaks down throughout a track...

  genres of music but this single was yet another Native Tongues
Native tongues
Native Tongues is a book by the linguist Charles Berlitz.It is a list of words in different languages, etymology and questions with speculations far and wide about words....

 inspired hip hop
Hip hop music
Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...

 track. The single was a hit on Swedish radio.

In 1992 they started to work on their next album with producer Henryk Lipp. By this time MC Cane had left for a career in graphic design
Graphic design
Graphic design is a creative process – most often involving a client and a designer and usually completed in conjunction with producers of form – undertaken in order to convey a specific message to a targeted audience...

, and today works for one of Sweden’s most prestigious and award winning advertising agencies, Forsman & Bodenfors. The band got a new rapper, ADL
ADL
Adl is an Arabic word meaning justice.The abbreviation ADL may refer to:*Activities of daily living, a term used in medicine and nursing, especially in the care of the elderly...

, brother of percussionist Jean-Louis Huhta
Jean-Louis Huhta
Jean-Louis Huhta Patrik born 30 April 1965 in Gothenburg is a Swedish musician, drummer, producer and DJ.Huhta has a history in various Swedish bands going back through the mid 80s, ranging from punk and art-music to grindcore and funk....

. ADL had previously appeared in the videos for Bass Race and Can U Follow and added rap verses on two of the tracks on the Harder than Kryptonite remixes album. The album No problem ’94 (non-believers stand back!) was a huge hit in the spring of ’93 and spawned two big hit singles, "M-rock theory" and "Funkadeena".

The recording stint with Warner came to an end in 1994 and Stonefunkers were signed to Stockholm Records
Stockholm Records
Stockholm Records is a Swedish subsidiary of Universal Music Group.The boutique label was originally launched in 1992 as an independent record company by its Swedish founders Ola Håkansson and Alexander Bard in partnership with the original distributor and investor Polygram in London.Håkansson and...

 subsidiary Breakin’ Bread. They recorded the next album in Haarlem
Haarlem
Haarlem is a municipality and a city in the Netherlands. It is the capital of the province of North Holland, the northern half of Holland, which at one time was the most powerful of the seven provinces of the Dutch Republic...

, Holland and also toured the Benelux
Benelux
The Benelux is an economic union in Western Europe comprising three neighbouring countries, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg. These countries are located in northwestern Europe between France and Germany...

 countries extensively. The effort made in Holland came out in the form of a Material-heavy P-funk
P-Funk
P-Funk is a shorthand term for the repertoire and performers associated with George Clinton and the Parliament-Funkadelic collective and the distinctive style of funk music they performed...

-influenced album. The album contained the singles "Wreck the show" and "Individuality" but never made an impact in Sweden
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....

. The response to the album was greater abroad and Stonefunkers embarked on yet another tour that took them to Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

, Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

 and other countries.

In 1996 ADL left the band to work on his solo project Absent Minded, and the band decided to continue without a rapper and instead put more focus on the vocals of lead singer Emrik ”M-rock” Larsson. In 1998 Stonefunkers signed a deal with Swedish label Independent Records and immediately began putting down tracks for the new album. Band member Torsten served as the project's producer and the album Outststanding was finished in August 1998.

Breakup and solo work

Torsten Larsson says, "The Poland tour around 95-96 have been our absolute low point, just a guitar, a bassynt, drums and tons of alcohol!" After a few key members left and a disastrous argument about the lack of sales, the group broke up. The band officially disbanded in 2001, but performed live for the last time in 1999.

Guitar player and leader of the group, Torsten "Topsteen" Larsson, would go on and become a successful sound engineer and producer and in following years would work with such acts as Roxette
Roxette
Roxette are a Swedish pop music duo, consisting of Marie Fredriksson and Per Gessle . Formed in 1986, the duo became an international act from the late 1980s, when they released their breakthrough album Look Sharp!...

, Olle Ljungström
Olle Ljungström
Olle Ljungström, born augusti 12 1961, is a Swedish musician.Ljungström grew up in Vaxholm and his work is published by Metronome, earlier by MNW...

,. The Royal Beat Conspiracy and The Soundtrack of our Lives
The Soundtrack of Our Lives
The Soundtrack of Our Lives, alternatively known as T.S.O.O.L. or Soundtrack, is a Swedish rock band that formed in 1995 after the dissolution of the punk band Union Carbide Productions....

.

M-Rock/Emrik would record three solo albums experimenting with punk
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...

, soul music
Soul music
Soul music is a music genre originating in the United States combining elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of...

, folk
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....

 and singer songwriter styles of music.
In 2000, he and a few other members of the stonefunk crew contribute to the combilation album GAIS Rocks Da House in support of the footballclub GAIS
GAIS
Göteborgs Atlet- och Idrottssällskap is a Swedish football club based in Gothenburg, currently playing in Allsvenskan. The club is commonly referred to simply as GAIS, while its fans also refers to the club as grönsvart or the mackerels because of the traditional shirt colours...

 under the name Stenkross.

Reformation

In 2009 the band reformed and embarked on a short Swedish
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....

 tour with yet another series of concerts lined up for the summer of 2010, starting with a gig Stockholm
Stockholm
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...

, April 23.
The current members are:
  • Vocals and rap - M-Rock(Emrik Larsson)
  • Guitarr - Top-Steen (Torsten Larsson)
  • Rap - ADL
  • Keyboards - Davono
  • Bass - Conan
  • Percussion - Cheezo
  • Percussion - Jean-Louis Huhta
    Jean-Louis Huhta
    Jean-Louis Huhta Patrik born 30 April 1965 in Gothenburg is a Swedish musician, drummer, producer and DJ.Huhta has a history in various Swedish bands going back through the mid 80s, ranging from punk and art-music to grindcore and funk....

  • Percussion - Storm
  • Percussion - Gonzo

Albums

  • Hard as Kryptonite (1989)
  • Harder than Kryptonite (1991)
  • No problem 94 - Non-believers stand back! (1993)
  • Material (1995)
  • Outstanding (1998)

Videos


External links

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