Eskobar
| Eskobar | |
|---|---|
| Origin | Åkersberga, Sweden |
| Genres | Indie, alternative, rock |
| Years active | 1995–present |
| Labels | V2, Gibulchi |
| Members | Daniel Bellqvist Frederik Zäll Robert Birming |
Eskobar is the name of a Swedish indie/pop band that was founded in 1996 some 30 kilometres north of , in the small town of Åkersberga. The band features Daniel Bellqvist as its lead singer, Frederik Zäll on guitars, and Robert Birming on drums.
Eskobar has its roots in the early 1990s when Daniel Bellqvist left his band to join Frederik Zäll’s band called FOF (an acronym for "Fish Or Fantasy?") in 1994. The two musicians had previously met in their high school band class. In their incarnation as FOF, Daniel played bass while Frederik played guitar, and since Grunge was the popular musical style of the time, the band settled on this genre as their signature style. During this time the band also changed its name to Cripplefish.
In less than a year, Cripplefish's sound began to evolve from Grunge into Pop, prompting the lead singer, Staffan Atling, to leave the band. This shift in genre style led to a significant reformulation of the band. Cripplefish was renamed, this time taking the name The Bugs, but without a lead singer, Daniel was forced to pick up the slack on vocals while playing bass. Another reshuffling of the band's lineup brought in Robert Birming as drummer and Jojjo, the band’s only female member, was brought on as The Bugs' acoustic guitarist and backup vocalist.
By 1996, the newly revised 4-piece band had continued to make inroads with their upbeat pop style, but another shakeup was looming on the horizon. As they booked their first Stockholm gig, Jojjo decided to leave The Bugs, citing the stresses associated with daily rehearsals as her main motivation for leaving the band. The three remaining band members decided to stay on and continue making music, however, and used Jojjo’s departure and their ever-evolving style to change the band’s name yet again. The Bugs' shift from mainstream pop to Brit-Pop came about as they changed their name to Browneyed Susan.
After a year floundering with Swedish record label MNW, the band recorded a three track demo in 1998 that was shuffled from EMI to Sony Publishing, where Sony eventually agreed to finance a ten song demo. This critical demo ultimately became a watershed moment for the band: one of the ten songs, "Tumbling Down", had a sound that set it apart from the other nine. Instead of being of a derived style like all of the band's previous songs, for the first time in Eskobar's history, this song demonstrated the band was capable of originality. The other nine songs were discarded, and a newer more free-flowing set of songs was recorded. This demo saw the band signed with V2 Music where they took the name Small Change.
...
Wikipedia