Janove Ottesen

Janove Ottesen
Janove Ottesen performing in Bremen with his band Kaizers Orchestra in 2005.
Background information
Also known as	Janove "The Jackal" Kaizer
Born	(1975-08-27) 27 August 1975 (age 41) Stord, Norway
Genres	Rock, Pop, Folk music
Instruments	Vocals, Guitar, Oil barrel, Drums, Piano, Hammond, Glockenspiel, Percussion, Accordion, Horn
Associated acts	Kaizers Orchestra

Vocals, Guitar, Oil barrel, Drums, Piano, Hammond,

Janove Ottesen (born Jan Ove Ottesen, 1975) is a Norwegian musician, born in Stord, Hordaland, Norway. He specializes in vocals, guitar and barrels, and is a leading member of the Norwegian band Kaizers Orchestra.

Bryne, where Ottesen grew up, had few activities available at the time other than football, so he was given a guitar by his grandmother when he was a child. Ottesen and his friend Geir Zahl began writing music in his cellar, recording their music on a cheap tape recorder.

The partnership between Ottesen and Zahl eventually evolved into the band Blod, Snått og Juling. In 1994 they produced their first studio album En glad tunnel, which only sold 50 copies. They made a more serious attempt with better studio equipment for their second album, but this still only managed to sell around 100 copies.

Ottesen moved to Bergen in 1995 to study. In 1996 he joined the army, but soon after moved back to Bergen and became a music teacher. Upon his return Ottesen and Geir formed a new band gnom. They released the album Mys in 1998, but it sold poorly. After gnom's dissolution, the pair finally found critical success in forming the band Kaizers Orchestra.

After two albums had been released by Kaizers Orchestra, Janove decided to launch a parallel solo career while working on a third album Maestro (released in 2005). His 2004 solo album, Francis' Lonely Nights is entirely in English and contains 12 songs, two of which had their music videos filmed in Scandinavia.