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The Motorhomes Biography

From The Motorhomes official site:

In a town (Jönköping) where the choice stood between joining the Pentecostal Movement, becoming a floor hockey player or employee at the local white goods factory, these guys chose to concentrate on music. The rehearsal studio became an alternative oasis where the band spent almost all their free time. And shame on him that gives up. And a demo-tape soon found its way to Swedish National Radio P3's "Demo Show", where it was named "Demo Of The Month". Since then, time has passed by quickly.....

Songs for me (and my baby)

Ever changing, at one moment ugly and uncompromising, the next fragile and beautiful, a catchy ripping guitar exploding in a cool crescendo in the end. That was the sound of The Motorhomes debut single released this june. The same week the band hooked up with director Filip Engström to make the video, where the band is cruising in a real shark of an emerald green New Mexico-registered Buick Skylark '71, through a recreational neighbourhood wrecking pretty "home-sweet-home" mailboxes with a baseball bat. Homerun!

Now the time has come to write the second chapter in the story of The Motorhomes. But let us first rewind a couple of years...The story of The Motorhomes began long before the release of "It's Alright". In a town where the only rock venue - Noiseclub - was located in a pizza restaurant, where the choice stood between joining the Pentecostal Movement, becoming a floor hockey player or employee at the local white goods factory, these guys chose to concentrate on music.

It would take a while though before all their powers were united. The Motorhomes members-to-be were struggling in various local bands, each one on their own. They were acquainted with one another without being best friends. It would take until 1997 before they all ended up in the same rehearsal studio and formed the band to which they give their all - The Motorhomes. Peder and Petur went to music school together, Daniel and Adam have practised in their boyhood rooms. Mattias however is without practical training. I've only been singing in the shower - but I've been showering a lot!

Peder writes most of the music and makes all the arrangements. Petur writes the lyrics and Mattias is the charismatic star giving it all a face.

The Motorhomes had to earn their success in the rehearsal studio as well as on stage, all the time with the ambition to make an album. A demo-tape soon found its way to the Swedish National Radio P3 Demo show, where it was named Demo Of The Month. And before they knew it, they were watching the ink of their own signatures dry on their first record deal.

The second single was Into The Night, a dream-like ballad with Mattias' voice climbing the upper registers. Into The Night has made many people fall. Having been on National Radio P3's Most Played Song List for weeks, climbing P3's "Tracks Chart", the video on high rotation on ZTV as well as on MTV and not to forget 3 weeks on Swedish National Television's very important "Voxpop Chart", Into The Night has become somewhat the breakthrough single.

In the video, directed by Adam Berg (The Cardigans, Kent, Gay Dad, DeUS), we are brought back to the late 50's and get to follow the sad farewell between spacedog Laika and its master. Starring as Laika none less than the Border Collie "Turbo" - known from TV (Snoken) - and starring as its master Mattias Edlund, leadsinger in The Motorhomes.

Into The Night is one of the songs we're most proud of, it's kind of magic, cool but warming. It's a pretty desolate and fateful song, it's about loneliness in general, something you're a bit afraid of, says Petur who wrote the lyrics. But the message throughout the song is that everything's gonna be alright. There's hope in all of the lyrics, even if they're dark we haven't laid ourselves down to die.

In London, The Motorhomes mixed the album together with Ian Grimble (Manic Street Preachers, Everything But The Girl, St Etienne etc.) and ran into their childhood hero Simon Le Bon of Duran Duran each and every day. In the tough music climate of England the band's success continued without even a single released, and they soon found themselves booked for the Reading Festival, after a booking agent spotted them performing at The Monarch i Camden. -Yes, it was kind of hard to understand at first, but it was really wow! This is big! says Mattias. And it is big for sure - how many Swedish bands have played at the Reading Festival, with only one single released in Sweden?

A year after the band signed with Sony, the time has come for their debut album "Songs For Me (And My Baby)." The Motorhomes' music has been called melancholic guitar pop, fragile pop music and more things than they can name. It's kind of hard to label them, but the common denominator spells melodies. A just compromise would be "guitarbased pop music with one foot in Jönköping and the other in classic British songwriting tradition".

"Songs For Me (And My Baby)" is just what the title claims to be - an album that contains songs for one self, "my" songs, just as it is songs for the members of The Motorhomes. And, if you want it to, also for your baby...

"Songs For Me (And My Baby)" - released in Sweden on October 6th.

The Long Distance Runner

Tired with the petty spoils of their previous outfits and always knowing that they were meant for greater purposes than playing the local pub, five young men left their respective hide-outs and joined forces to become "The Motorhomes". Their passion for soulful music and with the ambition to pursuit their dreams found them leaving everything behind and detaching from the outside world. Soon they had the raw-material for what would later become their debut album "Songs for me (and my baby)" released through Epic/Sony.

The two years that followed was pretty much spent on the road, the aftermath of what felt like jumping a speeding train left the band bewildered and disillusioned. Guitar player Daniel Skaar left the band and later on after the band had finished the recording of their second album, "The Long Distance Runner", drummer Peder Claesson decided to divorce from the band and in the same period The Motorhomes terminated their cooperation with Epic/Sony after realizing that the label didn´t share their visions.

Niklas Korssell, ex-drummer in the swedish outfit The Plan, and organist Henrik Carlsson recently teamed up with the Motorhomes and right now the band are in the midst of writing their third album.

The Motorhomes Disband

Posted on the Official Page 05/02-2004:
THE MOTORHOMES QUIT! "The Motorhomes quit due to singer Mattias Edlund leaving the band out of personal reasons. Therefor the gig at Popstad is cancelled. /The Motorhomes"

Timeline

1997
- The Motorhomes forms.
- The first demo is playlisted at radio P3 (Sweden’s biggest Public Service radio channel), which generates a concert at Hultsfred Festival.

1998
- Contract is written with Air Chrysalis (Publishing) Scandinavia.
- Tug-of-war between all major record companies leads to Motorhomes signing a record-deal with Sony/Epic.

1999
- First single “It’s all right” is released, followed by the second single ”Into the night” that becomes the most aired swedish song on radio P3 that year.
- The debutalbum “Songs for me (And my baby)” is released through Sony/Epic.
- Carry out a concert at Reading Festival, Uk, without having a commercial release out in the Uk territory.
- Act support-act for Suede (Uk) on their Scandinavian tour.
- Tour Uk together with Shed Seven & Gene.

2000
- Tour the Uk together with JJ72.
- Headline tour in the Uk.
- Concert at Glastonbury.
- Concert at Scene: Pampas at Hultsfred Festival.
- Daniel Skaar leaves the band.
- Concludes the co-operation with the manager Martin Roos ”RMC”.
- Take a break to start working on album no.2.

2001
- Writing what will become their second album.
- Recording and finishing the Album and then breaking up.
- Getting their minds together and putting the band back together.

2002
- Releasing the single "the Man" that becomes a hit-single.
- Their second album "the long distance runner" is released followed by the "I wanna make you sing"-single.
- ”Long distance runner” tour continues.
- Collaboration-difficulties and differences in musical ambitions internally between the members of the band leads to the depature of drummer Peder Claesson.

2003
- Writing what will become the third album.
- New talented members Niklas Korssell (Drums) & Henrik Carlsson (Organist) team up to join forces.
- Signs Talent Trust (Also Management for The Cardigans with more).

2004
- The Motorhomes quit due to singer Mattias Edlund leaving the band out of personal reasons.

2008
-Mattias Edlund begins his new solo act John ME and releases the single "Love is my Drug" on 20 December.

2009
-Mattias Edlund, as John ME, releases his solo album "I Am John" on 8 April after releasing the single "Run" on 6 April.
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