Here's the unedited, uncensored and partially brutal history
of the four guys that these days call themselves DOGPOUND.
THE PREHISTORIC AGE
It all started somewhere around the mid - seventies when Hea,
Micke, Figge and Tuka got bored of the comfort and warmth
of their mothers bellies and decided to pop out. Some years
passed and thanks to Mickes mother throwing his dad out the
door and that she worked nights he had to be placed at a night
care family institution. The boss of this business was Heas
mother...So the two young boys (ten and eleven years old)
started to get acquainted over 628.000 games of badminton
(Which Hea won the most of...), many hours in front of video
games and guess what? A bit of music occurred! Micke went
to guitar school every Wednesday and Hea took piano lessons.
Their musical interests were heavily focused on rock even
though there’s not much metal in a nylon stringed acoustic
guitar and an upright piano but what the f...! Heas mom had
albums by Nazareth and Queen that the guys got into really
hard. Already being big fans of bands like Kiss, Iron Maiden,
Def Leppard and a lot of other bands, Nazareth and Queen came
in as a fresh breeze still being big influences on the guys.
During the same time as Micke and Hea bonded heavily over
a 3 day long game of Monopoly, something weird happened in
the deep forests 250 kilometres north of them...
A couple of years later on Micke was playing his guitar with
a drummer White Stripes style doing covers of whatever came
the two boys to mind. Songs by Gary Moore, Guns ´N Roses,
Black Sabbath, Toy Dolls and many more were executed with
enormous enthusiasm. But they needed a bass player...A friend
of Mickes had told him about a friend of his that played a
mean bass. Contestant #1: the friend’s friend. Another friend
of Mickes had told him that her brother played a mean bass.
Contestant #2: The female friend’s brother. To Mickes surprise,
the two turned out to be the same guy. Figge! And this is
back in 1991...They formed a hard rock cover band that made
the base for what later would turn out to be their first band
with a recording contract, World Of Silence. The band made
two albums between 1996 and 1998 and made quite an impact
on the symphonic metal market, but disbanded due to musical
and personal differences in 2000. During the same time they
also recorded a bunch of albums with death metal band Godgory...but
that’s another story! And what’s happening 250 km´s north
of them still no one really knows...Rumour has it that there’s
a drummer with a 28" kick drum in a band called In Mind who
is about to move to Stockholm to search for fame and fortune...But
fate will steer that boy in another direction...More about
that drummer a bit later on!
After a pause in their friendship Hea and Micke went to college
together re - acquainting themselves for the first time in
over 4 years. But...still no musical projects between the
two. It was about this time that Micke discovered that Hea
had kicked the upright piano into the nether world and was
now concentrating 100% on vocals. And man, that guy could
sing...Early 1999 Micke and Figge had got slightly disillusioned
with W.O.S. and decided to start playing some cover music
focusing on the 1970´s. A drummer came along. But someone
had to do the vocal duties...A late night at the local pub
Micke and Hea accidentally meet and had a drink together,
discussing the possibility as future band mates. Decisions
were made. A band was born. . A huge Led Zeppelin - focused
repertoire is rehearsed and a bunch of gigs played. It all
went very well...almost too well. The bands drummer had to
do military duty, Micke, Figge and Hea are unemployed and
desperately looking for jobs since the payment for the gigs
they do ain´t enough. How do you solve an unemployment situation?
You go back to school. So off the three lads went. On the
first day of school a long haired very 70´s looking guy appeared...Tuka.
It took Micke two days to find out that he was a drummer and
exactly what Micke had searched for all his life in a drummer.
A John Bonham - ish style flavoured with what has happened
in the world of drumming since Bonhams death in 1980. The
first time Micke, Figge and Tuka played together was at a
"be-careful-with-your-ears-when-you-play-rock music" kind
of seminar. The trio was asked to play as loud as possible
with merely a 60 watt Marshall and a Pearl drum kit to show
how loud and devastating to your ear playing music can be.
They got the decibel meter to puke and before it died they
were at a stunning 124 db....Two other trios that also tried
to play as loud as they could but only reached 105 db with
the same gear...Did I mention that DOGPOUND still is a lot
louder than most other bands? However, this little rendezvous
led to instant love. Hea was asked to sing and he accepted.
A will to mix the harmonies and melodies from the 70's and
80's with the heaviness and power inspired by more up to date
bands was the plan....Micke wrote some tunes and the DOGPOUND
story begins...
THE BIRTH OF THE DOG
The first unsteady steps of DOGPOUND takes place in the autumn
of ´99. Micke writes two songs, "Bleed" (officially released
on The Hellbum) and " Live my way" (never officially released),
Figge comes up with the name and the band records their first
demo. A massive bombardment of DOGPOUND demos is unleashed
upon the record industry with a very positive response. Enthusiastic
from the response, the guys’ continue to write songs and rehearse
on an almost daily basis. In the beginning of the new millennium
a second demo is recorded, this time containing the songs
"Made It Through" (never officially released), "Beast Within"
(never officially released) and "Worries Of Yesterday" (officially
released on A Night In The Gutter, these three songs being
the first tracks Micke and Hea wrote together) and the bombardment
continues. Still with positive response but it’s still not
enough.
A review of the second demo said: "Probably the best demo
I´ve heard in many years. Someone has to unleash these dogs!"
At this time Micke, Figge and Tuka share a three room apartment
and...Well put it this way, the walls of this poor apartment
has seen more than enough to put the trio in straight jackets
for a long, long time...Though never loosing focus on their
vision of what modern melodic rock should be all about. A
third recording takes place this time the first time they
work with producer/engineer Ola Sonmark. The songs this time
were "When The World Comes Down" and "Welcome To the Mystery"
(both officially released on The Hellbum), two more songs
from the pen of Micke/Hea. This time things are starting to
happen. Two record labels show major interest and one of them
decided to release "When The World Comes Down" on the compilation
album "Rock The Nations - The Sequel" about a year later.
This would be a disastrous move by the band. The label signed
the band, promising this and that, but the only fruit of this
labour was extreme frustration when it seemed like the label
just wanted to lock the band up so no other label could get
their hands on DOGPOUND. The guys was signed to a label that
did not even answer e - mails...
" THE HELLBUM"
Not being able to get the recording of the debut album going
the Pound was inches from calling it a day. On the autumn
of 2002 a fourth demo session was carried out. Recorded with
no budget what so ever, and with borrowed recording gear DOGPOUND
laid down 4 new tracks: "Diamonds In The Sun" (never officially
released) "Loser On A Kings Throne", "Ready To Believe" and
"You Remain" (all officially released on The Hellbum) and
the demo was sent out to some special friends of the band.
One day early 2003, the guys received a phone call from producer/engineer
Ola Sonmark. He gave DOGPOUND a couple of days in the studio
he worked in for free. All because he believed in the band
and thought that that they deserved better than their latest
self produced, self recorded self engineered demo (the guys
are great musicians, but studio technicians...naahh!!) Two
songs were cut, "End of Our Days" and "...For My Sins" (both
officially released on The Hellbum) and theses two songs was
what it took to convince Lasse Mattsson on Lion Music that
DOGPOUND was worth a shot.
The debut album, The Hellbum, (with its now notorious cover
painting) was recorded and mixed in three weeks and released
in November of 2003. Reviews of the debut were overwhelming
all over the world. The cover, showing the guys in a cartoonist
fashion, standing inside a Dogpound with a particularly mean
dog waiting to take a bite out of any of the guys behinds,
was made by Heas brother Danny Boy (who has done all covers
and taken all the photos ever published on DOGPOUND) and the
entire idea was very tongue -in -cheek. But boy, was it misunderstood...
Some magazines wrote: "I thought DOGPOUND was a boring punk
band or maybe a hip hop act. This is a clear case of not judging
the book by the cover...." Another wrote: "The cover makes
me want to throw up, but the music is so good it makes up
for it...". One guy even suggested that the album should be
taken away from the market in its original form and re-released
with a new cover! This made the guys in the Pound laugh...a
lot! And of course, an idea for at the time the then forthcoming
album cover was born...."as long as it irritates someone it’s
great" got to be the album cover philosophy...
"A NIGHT IN THE GUTTER"
The next album was recorded here and there between October
2004 to May 2005 due to problems with making the 24 hours
of the day be enough...But in October 2005 the new effort
titled "A Night In The Gutter" saw the light of day. And this
time the cover featured the band in suits with Tuka holding
a glass of brandy, standing in a back alley street. This time,
just as before, raving reviews world wide, and some comments
here and there about the cover. The best one is probably "these
guys must love their looks if they’re serious about that cover".
Well then.... Let’s put it this way once and for all: "as
long as it irritates someone it’s great" IS the album cover
philosophy! But, no one knows what will happen in the cover
area in the future...Or with their music for that matter.
You just never know with these guys!
"DOGPOUND - III"
In February of 2005 Micke start to write the songs that would
become the 3rd album. A bash of 25 songs is written before
the band has even met to rehearse. Which is a hell of a lot
more than what have been written such a long time before the
recording sessions ever before. Before the recording starts
the amount of songs is cut down to 14, which all will be on
the album. Tuka starts it all off by laying down the drum
tracks in October 06 and hammers out some of the best drums
that has ever been heard on a DOGPOUND album. Micke, Figge
& Hea starts off their duties in late November 06 and the
album is sent off to Peter Tägtgren so he can start the mixing
duties in early January 07 for what becomes simply “Dogpound
– III”. And this time it all just fits like a glove. The cover
art made by Daniel Andersson (who has done both their previous
covers) is better than ever. The music is better than ever.
Everything has gone in just the right direction, don’t you
agree? And it’s without a doubt the best record the guys have
made so far. And it can only get better, eh? The future will
tell...
Biography by B.S Zkotzman
