biography
1989 hedge hog as a band is grounded. starting out as a punk/garage band. the big music is yet to come...
1992 releasing their first cd erase in late september on their own label; hog music. it is recorded at brygga studio by lars lien. the cd is distributed by voices of wonder, and receives good reviews in norwegian newspapers and magazines, some of them suggesting hedge hog to be the second band to be part of the new breed of modern norwegian rock (following motorpsycho). the cd sells more than expected (a total of 1000 copies), due to more attention from foreign distributors, mainly in italy and germany. this cd will never be reprinted.
line up: terje f. berg - bass, sverre fossen - guitar and backing vocals, morten kristiansen - lead vocals and guitar, steffen isak telstad - drums.
1993 touring norway in february as a result of buying their first car, a red toyota hiace soon to be called märtha, named after the norwegian princess who is looked upon as quite pretty...got signed by voices of wonder, the biggest norwegian independent label for three cd’s. recorded a song, surprise, for a split single with motorpsycho released by the italian based label helter skelter. change of drummer, steffen is replaced by arve gulbrandsen, a drummer who originally is situated in the trondheim jazz scene, but appears to be a sepultura fan as well. went to brygga studio to record their second album primal gutter under the hands of filip dahl. the album is out in the autumn, followed by another row of gigs in norway, where one of the highlights were a support job for legendary bevis frond in oslo. good reviews in norway as well as a couple of good ones in german, british and italian magazines as well. the only review they got in denmark was poor, but it wasn’t a very good magazine anyway...
line up: terje f. berg - bass, sverre fossen - guitar and backing vocals, arve gulbrandsen - drums and percussion, morten kristiansen - lead vocals and guitar.
1994 february - releasing the ep mercury red, recorded and mixed by the band in what is trondheims cheapest music studio. the lack of sound quality is replaced with songs of high quality and a lot of good moods.
a video is made for the song dinosaur patrol by two of trondheims leading independent film-makers; thomas flor and håvard jensen. the video is being showed on several norwegian tv-channels.
contributes a song for the cd flaming youth - a norwegian tribute to kiss, where different norwegian bands play their versions of kiss-songs.
september - first european tour. two weeks of r.o.c.k. together with german/american band prime sinister. released a split-single together in front of the tour. the tour was not that good regarding money - it was set up by prime sinister bass player and now head of stickman records germany jeanette gustavus - but the band made a lot of good connections throughout europe and got a few good friends within the german people as well. during the tour they’re also playing with amrep band surgery and archers of loaf, among other.
after the tour svein høier joins the band with his sampler, synth and guitar. (he was originally the drummer of local favorites closet queens) as a result hedge hog becomes more epic, but at the same time more playful because the amount of skill that svein adds is not small.
finishing the year with the recording of what is to be the new album thorn cord wonder and the healing ep in brygga studio under the guidance of lars lien and helge sten. helge is maybe more known as deathprod. - motorpsychos tasty noise traveler, and his influence on this - and later recordings - cannot be overestimated, not with the noise, but with his attitude in recording and making music.
line up: terje f. berg - bass, sverre fossen - guitars and backing vocals, arve gulbrandsen - drums and backing vocals and high testosterone levels, svein høier - sampler, keyboard and guitar, morten kristiansen - vocals and guitar.
1995 january - the healing ep is released as a pre-taste of the cd which is to come. the cover creates some anger among norwegian music journalists with its picture of a woman torn in two pieces. the band claims it has to be that way, and blame video-violence...
they go on a six week long european tour that covers germany, switzerland and austria, set up by german punk/hardcore promoter zippy for the kiesel core tours agency. the tour is a success in all matters, except for the length of it.
in march they release their 3rd full-length album thorn cord wonder. doing a lot of concerts in norway, including several festivals. recording a video for the song heal, produced by the bands own sampler man svein. the video is nowhere to be seen, because it never got distributed...
later svein has to quit the band because he has to move to Lillehammer to finish his movie-making degree - he is currently living in oslo trying to make a living out of it. the band decides to continue without him, and a short period of confusion follows.
1996 this year starts in april when drummer arve decides to quit due to personal problems. bjørn jensen from opium inc. replaces arve and has his debut concert after three weeks of intense rehearsing at the tmv festival, a big multicultural festival in trondheim. not a gig to remember to be perfectly honest. in june they start recording their new ep at skansen studio in trondheim. recorded by their live sound-engineer arnfinn van rockne, but mixed by helge sten in oslo. arnfinn`s original name is arnfinn rokne, but he is called van rockne together with hedge hog , named after the rollins band’s sound-engineer theo van rock.
the ep brstl.com, named after the bands favorite afternoon hang-out.
1997 hedge hog spends first half of the year doing gigs in norway, and writing new material for the next album. their newly found pop-sense is used to compose songs in the vein of classical pop/rock-heroes like...like...kiss for example!
anyway they are spending most of the sunny summer indoors. running between brygga and skansen studios in trondheim to complete what is to become their 4th longplayer.
most of it are recorded and mixed in brygga studios, where the sound-guru lars lien brings the material to new and undefined heights. on one song, he even used
the mixing-desk as a real noisy instrument.
angelite/cloudbuster is finished in the end of july.
a video is made for the first track; "riot shields". produced by some film-students from trondheim university, it shows the band in one of their
finest moments.
consisting of flashy suits and shades, a transvestite and a mad, barking dog, the video is a showcase of r’n’r-lifestyle. the video is shown several times on
norwegian television.
some weeks after completing the album, the band recruits a new bass-player. terje, the previous one, is moving to another part of norway due to studying.
the new guy in town goes by the name of eirik, and also used to play in the band opium inc. together with bjørn.
angelite/cloudbuster is released on the 7th of october.
receiving good critics in most of the norwegian music-press, plus landing an a-list priority with riot shields on norway's biggest radio-channel.