Biography

Part I – The early ages

It all started some years ago. Let me take you back to the beginning…

I was born in Sweden (Burning Heart, Millencolin, No Fun At All) on a very sunny day june 1st, 1979. This was the year when Voyager I passed Jupiter and Greenland got home rule. Some reliable sources say I was going to be given the name “Robert” but obviously that never happened. Instead I was named Daniel, which according to the bible means “God is my judge “. Ironically though I grew up to be an annoyingly rebellious teenager that accepted no authority.  I don’t believe very much hope was put in such an overactive kid as me. People tell me I used to burn other kids clothes in kindergarten and beat them senseless, but I don’t believe in any of that.

Part II – Teenage Rebellion

My hometown used to be a pretty decent place to grow up in I guess, but every since I moved out of there and got a different perspective on things I’ve come to realize that the place was not exactly about creating opportunities for people. It’s more or less an area where to gather the less fortunate. It wasn’t really a boring place. I can’t remember being bored. Personally I made it just fine, besides from a period of adolescent rebellion which I guess is kind of normal. I was more mischievous and always on the lookout for kicks, rather than evil and destructive.

School was nothing more then waste of time for me. I was aching to get out of there since the first day I set my foot in Widefield Elementary to the day I more or less got kicked out of high school. My grades were terrible all through my hazy school days but I still managed to make it through without becoming a total dumb ass. Mtv and Vanilla Ice thought me english and culture, Jeopardy and Trivia Pursuit got me a good all around education and during later years I developed an addictive interest in history.

Like any other 19 year old kid my life depended on friends, parties and cheap alcohol. I thought life was gonna be like that forever, but I soon had to get myself a job as my parents unfortunately didn’t feel like supporting me financially all my life. So I became a security guard (or at least someone who was supposed to come across as one). It’s not that bad really. I’m allergic to any sort of physical work so it suited me well to stare at a monitor (occasionally a door) for thirteen hours. Now days I work at a police station, which is not all that bad because I have a real chance of helping people in trouble and need. But I still have dreams and lame hopes, a full time job cannot smother that.

It was some time during this period that I bought myself a 1989 Volvo 340 and also met my future wife, which brings us to…

Part III – Family

 

My family, God bless ‘em, are really cool people. We stick up for each other like any family should, through stick and stone. My father is a hard working man. He’s very intelligent and knows his shit even though he never had much of an education to lean back on. This all comes from his restlessness and thirst for knowledge. He left his country as a young man to work as a mechanic at Volkswagen in another country. He didn’t come looking for job, the company more or less invited workers over to come work for them. As I stated earlier he was and always has been a hard working man. Most of his life he even had two jobs, as a taxi and bus driver. As the only real source of income in the family he was absent much of my young years. I can’t say it affected me in a negative way really because I always knew it was for a good cause and for the love of the family. As I grew even older I came to realize what a true sacrifice it was.

My dad never got anything for free. Being an immigrant, is not an easy thing. You gotta learn the language, you gotta be prepared to take the jobs no one else wants, you gotta take shit from people who think you are stupid just because you come from another place and just as you start to accept things the way they are any sense of belonging is shattered to pieces by a patronizing expression or condescending comment. In many ways my dad is bitter and disappointed with this country. He did his best, always been an honest man and still he was just “another one of those”. It made me bitter as well.

I live together with my girlfriend Marina and our two kids. They are my life, my joy, my everything. Much love to my family.

Part V – The Music

Music has been a part of my life as long as I can remember. The first record I bought was Twisted Sisters “Stay Hungry” which must have been in 1986-87 or something. I don’t know what happened but I suddenly shifted from rock to rap and started to listen to music like Vanilla Ice and Kriss Kross, not very sophisticated I know. Even though their music had a pretty big impact on me it never got me into actually playing music myself. It wasn’t until 1994, when I was introduced to pop-punk, that I picked up an instrument. To me that was real music with real lyrics that actually meant something. From that moment on, I started to develop into a who I was supposed to be. You can very well say that the music formed my life and my personality. I started to dress differently, I took on another attitude, I changed opinions…in my own way I became a punk. That’s how important music is to me. It totally changed my life.

I love music, I love writing songs. I have been writing music for well over 10 years. I still love listening to my old recordings, I’m really proud of them even though the quality of the recordings really doesn’t do them justice. I am very much influenced by bands such as Clash, Sex Pistols, Bad Religion, Green Day and Rancid.

Besides my solo project I also play in a band called “Born Frustrated”. Check us out at www.bornfrustrated.com.

The number one reason to why I write music and record albums is because I enjoy it and enjoy listening to my own music (yes they say musicians are a self centered bunch). The second reason is that there is no greater feeling, well at least almost no greater feeling, than hearing someone say they liked your song and wants to hear more. Some guy once wrote the following words to me: “Daniel, you managed to fit everything I think about this world in one little song”, and those words made my day. He understood me…music can truly bring people together.

Thank you