by:Larm

Grande Roses play loud and proud classic rock but without falling into the age old trap of making something generic and stale. Think Gun Club, Union Carbide, National, early Springsteen, Madrugada and er, Sisters of Mercy. Grande Roses began life in 2003 as the brainchild of Göran. Because he wasn’t a good enough musician to be able to master anyone else’s songs he wrote his own, which in time turned out to be some cracking tunes. Later that same Summer Göran was supposed to play a festival and needed someone to play pedal steel. He got the number for a guy in Östersund but it turned out that the chap had never played pedal steel. Göran tried to give him a bass but he took a guitar instead. This was the first time Göran and Johan has met. In the aftermath of the festival show they recorded a demo of post-apocalyptic rock and were subsequently signed, split up and got back together, then took a long break before getting back together a second time. Just the usual band stuff. As to how Grande Roses started for real; Johan had played with Erik and Magnus. Johan hinted to Göran that these could be smart choices for drums and bass for the band. And that’s how it was for the first few years, until Emil came along and took over on drums and Magnus moved up to play guitar alongside Johan.