The Wannadies biography
The Wannadies were an alternative rock band formed in 1988 in Skellefteå, northern Sweden. The band's initial line-up featured Pär Wiksten (vocals, guitars), Christina Bergmark (born 1 March 1963) (keyboards, vocals), Stefan Schönfeldt (born 5 June 1965) (guitars) and his younger brother Fredrik Schönfeldt (bass) with Gunnar Karlsson (drums) and Björn Malmquist (violin).
Early influences included The Go-Betweens, The Sisters of Mercy, John Lennon, the Pixies and The Clash.
History
Early days (1988-1993)
The Wannadies played their first concert, a festival in support of the Nicaraguan Sandinistas, in October 1988 and only weeks later entered local studio KN to record the three tracks that would become their debut release - the
Smile EP.
Smile was released in February 1989 and managed to pick up several 'single of the week' accolades from national newspapers as well as airplay on indie radio shows such as 'Bommen' despite little or no marketing. Following the band's appearance at the Hultsfred Festival in August 1989, The Wannadies signed a recording contract with MNW Records, releasing their debut single, "My Hometown", in May the following year.
The band's eponymous debut album was released in August 1990 and was supported by tours of Sweden, Finland and Norway. A highlight for the group was 1991s Nordic music festival in Paris where they shared the bill with Finland's 22 Pistepirkko and Iceland's The Sugarcubes.
Second album, Aquanautic was released in October 1992 on Snap Records, MNW's indie label. Not without controversy the album saw videos for the singles "Things That I Would Love To Have Undone" and "Cherry Man" banned by MTV the former for featuring a foam animal cadaver, the latter for the allusions to paedophilia in both the songs lyrics and video which featured a middle-aged man surrounded by young girls and boys.
In the summer of 1993 Björn Malmquist moved to Stockholm and left the band (he did make a contribution to The Wannadies next album however, playing violin on the track "Dreamy Wednesdays").
Be A Girl and UK success (1993-1996)
Initial recording sessions for third album,
Be a Girl, proved unsuccessful - first choice producer Dagge Lunquist took paternity leave late in 1993 and a second attempt with producer Micke Herrström had to be abandoned after just a week and a half when, first engineer Adam Kviman, then Herrström were taken sick with hearing injuries.
"Love In June", the only song to be completed with Micke Herrström, was released as a single while the band tried again to record Be A Girl, this time with producer Nille Perned. The album was finally finished by autumn 1994 and was released along with second single, "You and Me Song", to critical acclaim in their native country. Shortly afterwards the band came to the attention of Indolent Records in the UK who signed The Wannadies in the summer of 1995.
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