KVLR Artist Bio

Drummer Magnus Öberg and singer Johan Sellman met in a supermarket in 1990. Despite their young age, they were trying to buy beer. They didn’t manage to get the beer, but they ended up playing in different bands together for over ten years. Shredhead and later Starmarket kept them constantly touring and recording albums.

In 1996 they teamed up with Toft Stade, a magnificent bass player, and recorded Kevlar’s first seven-inch single. In 1998 the members had quit their other bands and started to focus on Kevlar alone. New guitar player Jonas Mannberg joined the band. By this time they had four seven inches out and were ready to find a label that would release their forthcoming debut “Let Me Worry Some More”. Detroit-based label “First Time Records” bought the winning ticket. Kevlar recorded the album at Second Home studios and the record went really well in the states, even climbing various indie-charts. At the same time the debut was released, the spanish label “Bcore Records” released their instant follow-up, “The Deadly Dozen”, a six-track-long mini-album of epic noise.

What made Kevlar different from most bands was and still is (besides the frantic energy), the skill to mix beautiful, warm tones with dissonance and distorted sounds. The two new records were reason enough to get on the road for the first time. They toured Spain, Holland, Denmark and Sweden for over a month plus random tours in Sweden. In the summer of 2001 they kept the pace and toured Germany, Spain, Holland, Denmark and Switzerland with swiss band Brazen.

2002 saw the release of “The Great Collapse” on Sticksister Records, followed by two tours in Europe, one with labelmates Favez. “The Great Collapse” was recorded at Tonteknik, a studio based in Umeå, Sweden. For a period of six months they worked their asses off to give you this fine recording.

2002 also brought about a threatened lawsuit from the corporation DuPont, manufacturers of Kevlar™, causing the band to change their name to KVLR.

2003 was a bit quieter for KVLR. Alot of touring was done, but the “only” release was a compilation of older material on CD, titled “On Planted Streets”.

Losing members is not a fun thing for a band that wants to be a strong unit of friends. Thus, the band is really pleased that they now have an intact core, featuring new recruit Joel Borg on bass. With new-found motivation, they went on to record their latest, self-titled album, which was released in early 2004.

KVLR is:

Johan Sellman – guitar, vocals
Magnus Öberg – drums
Joel Borg – bass
Ludwig Franzen – guitar, vocals

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Weblinks
http://www.myspace.com/KVLR
http://nomethod.se/kvlr/
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