Bulgarian

NEWS

Clawfinger becomes part of the assault forces of Sofia Rocks 2012 festival


21.02.2012

PREPARE FOR MOSH AND STAGE DIVING SWEDISH STYLE BECAUSE

CLAWFINGER

BECAME PART OF THE ASSAULT FORCES AT THE SOFIA ROCKS 2012 ROCK FESTIVAL

AT THE INVITATION OF BALKAN ENTERTAINMENT


July 7 and 8, 2012 (Saturday and Sunday)
National Stadium Vasil Levski


Special treat for the fans of unorthodox metal. On July 7, 2012, in the first day of Sofia Rocks festival, on the National Stadium Vasil Levski , the stage will be taken over by one of the most unique and indefinable bands, with a great deal of long-term and loyal fans in Europe as well as in Bulgaria.

They are labeled as a rap-metal band. Their personal opinion is that they’ve played this very style long before knowing what it is, and long before being labeled in such a convenient way. Although their music fits the description, they are still one of-a-kind band, above and beyond any labels and standards – raw, pure and uncontrollable sound wave.

In each festival’s line-up, the name Clawfinger is a guarantee for massive entertainment, the best mosh and stage diving in the good old Swedish way – surprising and straight forward.

Clawfinger according to Wikipedia

Clawfinger is a rap metal band from Sweden and was one of the earliest bands to adopt this sound. Clawfinger is known for aggressive but melodic music and tackling political and anti-racist themes in their songs.

The band's origin dates back to the summer of 1989 when Zak Tell and Jocke Skog met while working together at the Rosenlund Hospital somewhere in the vicinity of Stockholm. In 1990 they were joined by the Norwegian guitarists Bård Torstensen and Erlend Ottem who were also working at the same hospital. Soon the four realized their similar interests in music. Bård and Erlend previously played in a band called Theo in their hometown Arendal back in Norway. Their free time was invested in exploring the musical world, composing and writing songs while evolving into a band.

Their original demo comprising three tracks (Waste of Time, Nigger and Profit Preacher) quickly secured them local radio airplay and consequently brought them to the attention of the MVG label. "Nigger" is an anti-racism statement that caused quite a stir and was a massive success; it was also released as a single. By the beginning of the 1990s, Clawfinger self-released their debut Deaf Dumb Blind. This sold in over 600,000 copies worldwide and was critically acclaimed in Swedish press. With the addition of André Skaug and drummer Morten Skaug, Clawfinger went on tour and played at countless European festivals including major support slots with Anthrax and Alice in Chains.


Current members:
Bard Torstensen : Guitar
Zak Tell : Vocals
Andre Skaug : Bass
Jocke Skog : Keyboards, vocals
Henka Johansson : Drums

Clawfinger according to Zak Tell

Another year, another biography, you add some lines, change some numbers of records sold, put some little lies here and there for your career so far, and you describe yourself as the perfect guy. I’m asked once again to update the band’s bio, but what more, the hell I can say, that hasn’t be already said? I mean, you know very well that we’ve been around for many years, you all know we are better and cooler than ever, that we played rap-metal-crossover-neo metal long before even knowing what this is, and long before this term has even been invented. You all are perfectly aware that this term does not mean shit, ‘cause our sound does not bear any resemblance to those MTV bands, we’ve been constantly compared to. This has always been our biggest strength and our greatest weakness – the fact that we just do not fit the mould. We’ve never been so decent as to dress properly according to street fashion, to make the right tattoos or to say the right things in the right moments, just for the sake of scoring points and making evening news headlines. In other words, according to the business standards we do not have any commercial potential, zero. For me though, this is the reason why we shoul sell much more than all these bastards around. We are something real. For better or worse, we offer you what we can, and if you don’t like it, who cares! We do not kiss any corporate asses, we do not offer trendy shit. We do what we like to do and we believe this is something unique. Weather you like it or not, we say exactly what we want – right or wrong, honest or fake, serious or fun.

Anyway, the thing that really matters here is that we have a new album – the best we’ve done in a long time. What makes it really special is that we didn’t have much fights in the process, there were no Sweden – Norway wars while doing it (at least not much). I suppose having a member less makes things much easier in many ways, at least because there is one opinion less to consider and one direction less to follow, when putting things together. Also there were much less “is it right or wrong” analyses. What we did came out quite naturally, with no deep cuts – some raw, unpolished emotions. Deep emotional lyrics and music, probably even more noncommercial than before. I don’t say it was an easy task, or that out previous albums were that commercial or planned. It’s just that the last few records were created under certain pressure, doubts, influence by other people and – shame on us – trying to figure what would and what wouldn’t be OK for our audience. Despite that, unlike any of those phony bands you choose to compare us with, we’ve always had full control and freedom to sound, and all the mistakes we’ve made in the process are result of our bad taste or poor judgement. What the hell, no one is born perfect!

To me, our new album contains the highest percentage of songs which I can be proud of, since “Deaf, Dumb, Blind” in 1993. This is hardly ringing any bells to anyone, but for me this is a very satisfying feeling, since I’m always the negative creep complaining about everything I don’t consider right. Damned, there’s always a struggle in a band, since the one who talks loudest, has the last word in the entire democratic process of writing and recording songs. The logical outcome of all this is having everyone in the band feeling disappointed and screwed up, rather than happy, content and proud, but I guess that’s the pure democracy and it’s like that everywhere. In a perfect world, only the songs the entire band thinks are really great, end up selected, recorded and released. The rest of the songs should be automatically deleted. Practically it is never that easy.

Yet, this time we are closer to the ideal model than ever. The new songs sound rough; there are almost no keyboards or samples, 99% of the drums are live this time, and the whole sound is just more alive, more hardcore and as good as sex ; D As for the present state of rap-metal, crossover, neometal or whatever you call it, we have no idea what it is now, or has been in the past. Honestly speaking, we do not give a shit, because we’ve never been interested in it much. We just write music we consider cracking and cool to listen to, and that’s all that matters, regardless of any current tendencies or other diseases!

Also, this album is the first one written, recorded and produced entirely by us. There is no outer intervention, no one to take decisions for us, to tell us what is right or wrong. It is pure magic to feel free to manage your own time and space; it also creates so much pressure, because there’s no one to tell you when a song is ready and it is time to move to the next one. There are always parts that could be played or sung better and the more you elaborate on a certain song, the more you are likely to be entrapped in the process. It’s pure art to determine when a song is finished and put it aside. Yet, I’d like to think that in the 15 years that we’ve been together, we’ve learned to recognize when the work is done and it’s time to move on. If nothing else, this new album is a proof that we’ve reached the level of professionalism, allowing us to be teachers to ourselves. We can capture any idea that passes through our minds and launch, it if we want, because we are free of expert’s expectations. Whatever, this is our newest offer. We did our work in the best possible way we could and we are damn proud of it. Now it’s your call – either like it or not, show some taste or not, it’s all up to you. So sit back comfortably, put the volume to at least 11 and be our guests - Hate Yourself With Style!






THE STAR LINEUP OF SOFIA ROCKS 2012 NOW LOOKS LIKE THIS:

SATURDAY, JULY 7
GODSMACK
CLAWFINGER

SUNDAY, JULY 8
GUNS N’ ROSES
IGGY AND THE STOOGES
UGLY KID JOE

July 7 and 8, 2012 (Saturday and Sunday)
National Stadium Vasil Levski


The full ticket prices for the two-day festival will be from 60 to 120 BGN depending on the category, as follows:

60 BGN – seated III category
70 BGN – seated II category
90 BGN – standing regular
100 BGN – seated I category
120 BGN – standing Front of stage


The promotional prices are for the first 1000 tickets of each price category and will have the following prices.

50 BGN – seated III category
60 BGN – seated II category
80 BGN – standing regular
90 BGN – seated I category



Tickets available through the Eventim network, including Germanos, Picadilly and Technomarket, OMV gas stations and Na Tumno stores.

Online tickets will be available at www.eventim.bg

Expect info for more bands at Sofia Rocks 2012 soon.





Other News



Sofia Rocks 2012




RSS Новини