Madrugada is a Norwegian band with an unique, dark, grungy
sound. Think The Doors meets Nick Cave meets Alice in Chains meets R.E.M.
meets Eagles.. Ah screw this comparison.. Dig out your favorite illegal
music downloading program, get a few mp3s, and then go buy the albums!
:)
The History
Frode Jacobsen and Lon Lauvland Pettersen - the two people who later became
the core of Madrugada - met each other on the same Folkehøgskole as I went
to, namely Buskerud Folkehøgskole in Darbu, near Kongsberg
in the south-east of Norway, back in 1993. (according to Marianne Jacobsen,
whom I went to school with).
Initially, the band was called Abbey's Adoption, and featured Marius Johansen
on guitars and Jan Erik Svendsen on the vocals. The latter was replaced by
Sivert Høyem. The former was replaced by Robert Burås. All of
this resulted in the following lineup:
In 1995, the band decided to put their stakes on their musical careers,
and they all moved from up north in Norway (Trondheim) to the capital, Oslo.
The band briefly changed its name to Six Generations, and finally to Madrugada.
Fame and big fortune (well.. not really, but at least some attention to their
music) started appearing early in 1998. In July 1998 they signed to the
Norwegian Virgin Music with a contract for four albums.
Towards the end of 1998, Madrugada released their first EP, called (you
guessed it): EP! It was only released in 750 copies. These copies sold out
within a week. Madrugada declined the offer to reprint the EP, which has resulted
in EP being the primary collector's item for fans.
Their next album, Industrial Silence became a massive hit in Norway
and in Germany. The album was also released in the UK, but sales failed
despite of the album receiving great critics
February 27th, 2000, Madrugada won the Spellemannsprisen (Norway's answer
to the Grammy Awards) for Best Rock band of the year.
Discography (Full LP CD's only)