|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Ace Of Base Info |
|
|
|
Jonas Berggren |
 Ace Of Base 2010 L-R: Ulf, Julia, Clara, and Jonas. Ace Of Base |
Wheel of Fortune |
Living In Danger,Live |
|
The members of Ace of Base original line-up included three siblings: singer Jenny Berggren, singer Linn Berggren, and keyboardist Jonas "Joker" Berggren,along with their close friend Ulf "Budha" Ekberg. The Berggrens were born and raised in Gothenberg, Sweden. Their father Goran was a doctor and their mother Birgitta is a schoolteacher. Throughout their youth, the Berggren children were encouraged to study classical music. Jenny and Linn both sang in their hometown church choir before forming Ace of Base. Ekberg's interest in music also bloomed at an early age. He was born in Gothenburg, but often traveled around with his tennis coach father, Mats Ekberg and his mother Monica. Unlike many musicians who began playing piano, guitar, or some other instrument as a child, Ekberg took a more modern route. At the age of 12, he began composing music on his Commodore 20 computer-although, as he got older, he became involved in gangs and violence. Then, he met Jonas Berggren, and his life turned around completely. Ekberg played with a group that rehearsed in the same place as the Berggrens group. One night in 1990, Ekbergs band opened for the Berggrens' group at a club in Gothenburg. One of the members of the Berggrens band got stage fright just before they went on, so Ekberg volunteered to step in. From there, they decided to form a band called Tech Noir. The newly formed group aimed for a dark, aggressive style influenced by groups like Front 242 and Ministry. As Jenny and Linn became more involved in the group, the music took on a brighter, rhythmic sound. As it developed, they used reggae influences with a dance pop foundation. "All of us love to go out and dance and party," Ekberg explained to Jeff Johnson in DMA Magazine. "That's why it's very natural for us to do dance music." The group changed its name to Ace of Base and performed their first show in August of 1990. Jonas Berggren described to Melissa W. Rawlins in Entertainment Weekly how they came up with their name. "Our base is our studio, and an ace is like a master," said Jonas. "So we are the aces of our studio. " As the group took their music to the streets of Gothenburg, they aimed to create a sound that would crossover from dance clubs to the airwaves. "Some things work on the dance floor and not on the radio and vice versa, " Jenny Berggren told Kenny, "but this sound has appeal in both places." The following year, Ace of Base recorded a demo, which included the songs "All That She Wants" and "Wheel of Fortune." They sent it to ABBA's record label, Polar Records, in Stockholm, but received a rejection. Undaunted, the group sent the demo to Mega Record in Copenhagen, Denmark. The label signed them. Around the same time, producer Denniz PoP also became interested in Ace of Base. He received their demo tape and it got stuck in his cars cassette player. After having to listen to it every time he got in his car, he contacted them. He later produced their international hit, "All That She Wants." Soon, their first two singles, "Wheel of Fortune" and "All That She Wants," became number one hits in Denmark. The latter went on to take over the top spot on the charts in Sweden, Norway, and Finland. The success got the attention of Metronome Music in Hamburg, Germany, which singed the band to a distribution deal for the rest of Europe and the Far East. Not long afterwards, "All That She Wants" reached number one in Germany. In 1993, the momentum of Ace of Bases hit single kept going. London Records in the U.K. agreed to distribute the group, and the single hit number one there, too. In June of that year, Ace of Base released their European debut, Happy Nation, which quickly soared to the top of the charts throughout Europe and Scandinavia. By November, interest in Ace of Base spread to the U.S. Arista Records signed the group, and "All That She Wants" reached platinum sales and number two on the Billboard charts. As the groups notoriety spread throughout the world, Ace of Base had to compete with other bands covering their material. Rumors spread that groups like Age of Bass and Bass of Spades released singles in the U.S. before the real group had a chance to introduce themselves. In March of 1994, Ace of Base received the 1993 Echo Award for Most Successful International Band in Frankfurt, Germany. The following month, Arista released The Sign in the U.S. The album included all the songs on Happy Nation, along with a few additional tracks. The title track topped Billboards Hot 100 singles chart almost immediately. The album grabbed the top spot and was certified platinum in the U.S. before the end of 1994. Eclipsing the sensation ABBA created two decades earlier, Ace of Base became the first Swedish group to reach number one in the U.S. The year continued to bring in more awards for Ace of Base, including the Worlds Best-Selling Pop Newcomers of the Year and World's Best-Selling Scandinavian Recording Artists of the Year at the sixth annual World Music Awards in Monte Carlo, and Top New Artist and Top Pop Single at the Billboard Music Awards. Early in 1995, Ace of Base took home the American Music Awards for Best Band, Duo or Group/Pop Rock category and Best New Artist. The Guinness Book of World Records also named Ace of Bases The Sign as the best-selling debut album of all time. "We were all very surprised at how fast and how far the group has come since this whole thing began," Lasse Karlsson, Ace of Base's manager, told J.R. Reynolds in Billboard. Despite all the awards, sales, and recognition, Ace of Base didn't slow down to enjoy the accolades. They jumped right back into their studio and recorded another album. The Bridge was released in December of 1995, along with the single "Beautiful Life." Jim Farber described the album in his Entertainment Weekly review. "Ace of Base provides the musical equivalent of a Mentos commercial: They're so deeply dorky, you have to love 'em.... But for sheer candied pop, this is one pleasurable way to rot your teeth." The following month, The Bridge was certified platinum for over a million copies sold. According to their record company biography, all of the members contributed to the songwriting process, instead of just Jonas Berggren and Ulf Ekberg. "It's nice to have different tempos, different moods," said Jonas. After the release of The Bridge, Ace of Base set out once again on a worldwide tour, including South America and the Far East. Both albums were also released in China, adding another first to their list�the first Scandinavian artist to release recordings in China. The group also received their second award for World's Best-Selling Scandinavian Artist/Group of the year at the 1996 World's Music Awards. By 1997, Happy Nation and The Sign had sold a cumulative 23 million copies worldwide, while The Bridge had sold five million. Finally, the group decided to take some time to enjoy their accomplishments. They began working on their next album with producer Charles Fisher late in 1997. Back in Sweden the band returned to the studio to write for the bands third album "Flowers" /"Cruel Summer"). The first single was Life Is A Flower, which was an immediate success. It got an award for the most played song on European radio in 1998. The lyric was changed in America, where the song was called Whenever You're Near Me. The Bananarama cover Cruel Summer became the title track of the American album, the single reaching the American top ten. Other hits included Travel To Romantis and Always Have, Always Will. Notable is the fact that three of the singles from Flowers reached top ten in England, where the band have performed on the famous show Top Of the Pops an astonishing 18 times! In the autumn of 1999 the greatest hits album Singles Of The 90's was released, including all the bands worldwide hits and some new songs. Every time It Rains had only been included on the Cruel Summer album and was previously unreleased in Europe. In the early autumn of 2002, the band returns with a new album, Da Capo - their first with all-new material since Flowers/Cruel Summer (1998). The new album combines the groups classic pop sound with new, more thoughtful dimensions. "Ever since our last original album was released, we've had our minds set on making this album. People may have thought that we have split up, but those things rather apply to the rest of the music business", Jenny smiles, referring to the last few years acquisitions and mergers among the major labels. Something that without a doubt has slowed down the process of finishing the album. In order to find the right balance of styles, quite a few producers have been enlisted: Swedes Jonas Von Der Burg, Harry Sommerdahl at Pile Studios and Pontus Soderqvist, Martin Hedstrom, and Nick Nice at LaCarr have produced as well as co-written with Jonas Berggren. Other producers include German producers Axel Breitung and Thorsten Brotzmann. During the four years it took to finalize this album, the band wrote more then 150 songs, of which the 11 strongest songs plus the cover song "Wonderful Life" was chosen to become the final album listing. Jonas has written a few songs himself and a few with the band. "It was a great way to rediscover each other as people and writers after a long break from writing together" says Jenny Berggren. The album showcases the bands variety within the accessible pop format. The strength of the bands song writing shows in the first single, "Beautiful Morning", a slice of pure, classic Ace Of Base pop. "Ordinary Day" is a classy, harmonious tune with a laid back quality that Jonas' wife helped him re-discover when he played her some older songs. The album titled "Da Capo" is a fun up-tempo tune and remains Jonas and Ulfs personal favourite. The album contained twelve original tracks and it was first planned to be released during the summer of 2000. But because of record company problems, the album was delayed until September of 2002.Its success was very limited. The album was never released in North America, South America, UK and Australia though Ulf said in an interview that they would release the album in USA and the songs would be more acoustic. The album is named for the musical term da capo, meaning "back to the beginning". It was intended to be a return to the bands earliest sound. A one-year break stretched to three years. Ulf and Jonas were certain that was the end of Ace of Base, until they received an invitation in 2005 to do 20 shows with Donna Summer in Antwerp, Belgium. They played with a 150-person classical orchestra for the "Night of the Proms" series, with 18,000 people in the audience every night. "We really felt like we had been missing this," says Ulf. On August 14, 2007, Lasse Karlsson announced that the band would be playing their first full-length concert since 1996 in Bangalore, India, on November 24, 2007. This was later cancelled, but several other concerts were scheduled and Jenny, Jonas and Ulf performed in Yekaterinburg, Russia on November 15, and St. Petersburg on November 17. The group also performed in Denmark, Estonia, and Lithuania, as a warm-up to a planned world tour in 2008. The setlist includes various songs from their past albums and reworked versions of old hits such as "Wheel Of Fortune", "Living In Danger" and "Don't Turn Around". On November 28, 2007, Ulf Ekberg confirmed in an interview that Malin Berggren had left the band and she would not be featured on band's new album. The group had already been performing mostly without Linn as a trio for a solid decade before her departure. Linns image has been removed from all promotional material on the band's official web-site. Band-mate Jenny confirmed Linns departure in the Danish press: "She hasn't been part of Ace of Base for several years," she stated in Se & Hor magazine. Linn Berggren reportedly left the band to dedicate more time for studies and family. As of 2008, Ace of Base are recording a new album, stating on their official website: "we are now back in the studio again, with more inspiration than ever".The bands manager Lasse Karlsson suggested that a new album would be released in Spring 2008, and could be accompanied by a world tour. In April 2007, their official MySpace page was launched, and promised updates on the progress of their new album. Throught their re-launched aceofbase.com , the group held contests for the best fan remixes of their songs and their communication was much better than in earlier times. The band also uploaded videos to their YouTube channel, and continued performing live around europe.
On the horizon there were two ominous clouds; the demise of the Mubito music service apparently
crippled the 'unsigned' bands ability to communicate, as aceofbase.com went offline.
Jonas and Ulf now had another challenge: to find two new female vocalists. |
|
Greatest Hits
[ 2008 ]