Some of my absolute favourite artists!

When I was 7 years old my grandma
bought me a Elvis Presley-record called The Rockin' Days. In
some strange way, it went straight into my bones and has stayed there ever since.
I don't recall any other artist that has affected me like Elvis. He's been with me
all my life, through joy and sorrow, as a comfort - SO IF ANYONE OUT THERE TALKS BADLY
ABOUT THE KING I'LL SLIT YOUR THROATS! ALRIGHT?!
Back
in 1988 many of my friends and people we met out on tour told me my vocals sounded
like Elvis Costello and my music was influenced by him. The thing was - I hadn't
even heard him! Except Watching The Detectives that I had on a compilation
LP. The talk got me to look into Mr Costellos music and what I found was GREAT! And
nowdays I must admit that he's a big influence on my music...
The
same goes for The Beach Boys. When we (Psychotic Youth) recorded the album
Some Fun back in '89, we brought in Chips Kiesbye from the well known swedish
combo Sator as a co-ordinator/producer. He got us hooked on the choir-thing. We found
our personal touch through using complexed choirs to fast power-pop. I got the taste
for it and started to investigate deeper and found the kings of choir-vocalists The
Beach Boys. Brian Wilsons work is state of the art!
One
of the bands that got me started in the fanzine-business is the New York combo
The Fuzztones. I did my own fanzine called Straight From The Grooveyard
(or S.F.T.G) betwen 1985-87 where I wrote about the ”garage-wave” that was sweping
the world. I released some flexi-discs and cassettes that came along with the fanzine
and one of the (supposed to be) flexis was by The Fuzztones. The mastertape was lost
in the mail on its way to the printing factory in London. But through this I got to
know Rudi Protrudi (singer/songwriter) and met them when they visited sweden. Lot’s
of funny storys to be told, like when we (Fuzztones and me) was kidnapped (actally
we was invited, but to these guys you don’t say no...) by the bike-gang Chyenne Riders
and much frolic took place... Anyway - I still love those guys and their music. They
stick to their believes and I admire that. Just like The Nomads! (Love them too!)

I
don’t know one person that haven’t been a Kiss-fan when they’re around 10 years
old. I wasn’t no exception. I had my entire room filled with poster (from the swedish
poster-magazine called Poster), even had the cealing filled with those lovely
cartoon-like posters! Kiss will definitilly (how the hell do you spell that word?)
go down to the history book.
When
I was a kid my best friend was Anders Nordstrand (also our former bassplayer) and
his brother Sven was a big record collector. We lived way out on the countryside where
there was no record shops to be found. And everytime he had a package delivered by
mail with records we sneaked in to his room and checked it out. One day there was
a Ramones album called Rocket To Russia and I guess that was the first
time I got a hard-on from music! After that I started to check out the original recordings
of the covers Joey and the lads did. I found Tommy James & The Hondells, Four
Baggys... Thanks Joey! Without you wouldn’t sit here doing this.
I
guess I could be sitting listing up hundreds of bands but I won't. Just a few that
has been important to me, like - Paul Collins Beat, Plimsouls, Stooges and tons of
New Wave bands...
I hope this gave you some picture about the background to
my songs with Psychotic Youth, and HEY! - Be careful out there!
Jörgen Westman.
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