Press Release

New CD-EXTRA with connection to the Internet.

SVEIN FINSTAD
Born in Horten in the Vestfold district of Norway, Svein Finstad scored early success with his music when he won first prize as best musician in a local music competition, where the prize was a recording contract. In a typical ‘music biz’ story, just as Svein was set to record, the company broke the deal, and later went out of business.

It was on the hard working dance band circuit where many top Scandinavian musicians learned their craft during the 70’s and 80’s, and Svein was no exception to this. After the disappointment of the broken record contract, Svein began playing for up to five hours a night, where he developed the skills he later used to front his own band Finstad and Friends. One of these friends turned out to be Halstein Larsen, musician / producer / arranger extraordinary who recognized Svein’s vocal talents, and put them to good use as a session singer in his studio.

Using a roster of the huge number of talented musicians in the Vestfold area, Svein began to record the demos that would later lead to the recording of this album. One of those songs was written by Chris Hargrave and J.P. West. It was this song that helped Svein to decide to use the Englishman to write the English lyrics he needed for his songs. Halstein Larsen spotted the potential of this collaboration, and so began his involvement as producer and arranger, also providing his considerable skills as a guitarist and programmer.

THE ALBUM
Recording an album these days can be a long and costly process without the help of a major record company. As the demos began to take shape, Svein was able to attract financial assistance in the form of sponsorship from local businesses and friends, whose continuing belief in the project has enabled all those involved to hand the record company a strong finished product, which finally brings Svein in from the cold and the disappointment of twenty years ago. The first promotional single from the album ‘I Really Wanna Know’ was released early last year, and quickly became the number two requested song on Norwegian Radio, an encouraging start for the release of the album.

Extending Svein’s interest in computers, the album is set for release in CD-Exstra version, which will include videos, pictures, MIDI files and music programmes, in anticipation of the expected increase in world sales of CD-ROM players, and the tools to get up and running on the Internet.

CHRIS HARGRAVE
London born musician / songwriter Chris Hargrave, has been recording and touring for over 20 years in a career that has seen him work alongside the likes of legendary guitarists Albert Lee, and Charlie Whitney (ex Family), as well as a host of other musicians that begins to read like a Who’s Who of British rock.

As well as writing theme songs for B.B.C. TV, Chris has also scored UK chart success with his own band Seven Year Itch, and, during the early nineties, fronted the highly acclaimed rock and blues band The Flying Ducks, whose popularity on mainland Europe kept Chris and the band busy on the club and festival circuit.

For the past two years, Chris has stripped his music down and now prefers to work solo, releasing his own album Sweet Thursday, a collection of original acoustic songs in the summer of 1996.

Averaging between 150 and 200 live shows a year, most of Chris’ work is now in Scandinavia, an association which began back in 1980 when, whilst playing in Oslo, Chris met Norwegian singer J.P.West. The pair began writing songs together which led to J.P. introducing Chris to Svein Finstad, after Svein demo’d a song written by Chris and J.P. A strong working relationship developed between the two, resulting in the seven songs Chris has CO-written for the album.
 

Som vinner av Vestfold Mesterskapet for Rock og Pop band tre år på rad, kunne han titulere seg som Vestfold beste musiker på '70 tallet. 

Bandets medlemmer er i dag:

Svein Finstad (Horten); Vokal og piano
Morten Evjue (Eidsfoss); Vokal og gitar
Jan Bjørndal (Horten): Bass og kor
Kaare Holm (Oslo); Trommer
Tom De Lange (Congas)