interview with Beside The Bridge
What made you to be baptized to just "Beside The Bridge”? Once upon a time when we first started out we were called ”Name” simply because we couldn't agree on a name. Then in 2010 Joel got rid of his guitar and wanted to put everything he had into vocals. Therefore we found a new guitarist who came from Kungsängen, two stops on the train from Bålsta. In between these stations there’s a stop called Bro which in english translates to bridge! So that’s how we decided on Beside the Bridge.
Who started the band? Joel and Charlie started the band at an early age. They had been best friends since pre-school and together started taking guitar lessons, which ultimately led to them wanting to start a band. Niklas was in the same class in school and of course their first choice for bass!
Tell us a brief introduction of who you are? Beside the Bridge consists of five young guys; musicians and dreamers. Each one of us always wanted to be an artist/musician, so we put our minds together in order to reach our common goals and dreams. These goals are pretty high but we’re hard workers and will not stop until we make it. We have so much fun together and it feels like we’re all brothers, from the same family.
Where are you from? We come from a small-town in the middle of Sweden called Bålsta, where there’s nothing to do other than playing sports and getting drunk together. We were never very good at sports and the drinking part gets a bit boring after a while. That leaves one other choice; Music.
How did you meet? Most of us met at an early age in pre-school and a some have actually known each other since birth. Ludvig (guitar) joined the band in 2012 and was at the time attending one of Swedens best high-schools for artists; Södra Latin. Rasmus (drums) was in the same class which led to them becoming close friends, eventually playing in the same band.
What is your name? / Who plays what? / How old are you?
Joel Chew - Lead Vox, 19
Charlie Karlgren - Guitar, 19
Ludvig Algovik - Guitar, 19
Niklas Wistrand - Bass, 19
Rasmus Blomquist - Drums, 19
What was the plan when you started the band? The plan has always been what it still is today. We want to give music our everything and see how far we can go.
Each was led first gig?/Where were off last gig?
Our first gig was at a school disco, for six year-old kids.
Our latest gig was at Lidingö Rock, a 27 year-old music competition.
Who writes the songs?/Who does the music? We all do. We try to help each other with all of our individual instruments and we sort of mix-and-match our influences, to put it all together.
Good and bad sides of the band? We’re extremely aware about our music and performances. We always want to look and behave professional, but it can sometimes go a little too far. There’s a tendency of things getting too serious, making us forget that we’re also doing it for fun! It can also be the complete opposite. A good balance between having fun and being aware and professional will probably prove a great strength in the future.
What are the main themes or topics for most of your songs?/What are your songs about? Our songs often come from our own experiences, as a band or as individuals. It might be a certain event or something we’ve experienced together that we use as inspiration for our lyrics. There’s not really any specific topic, but most of our songs are very “real”.
Do you own songs or covers? We started out by doing covers of popular metal/rock/punk songs, but have since moved to just playing our own material.
Have you released any album or single?/What are they called, and what years were they released? In 2011 we released our first single Dispute, as part of a compilation album, and Weigh you Down and its music video in November 2013.
What do you sell for merchandise gadgets? As of yet we don’t have any merch available, but we’re planning to launch some in conjunction with our coming EP.
Have you done any music videos? Yes, we made one recently for our 2013 single Weigh you Down. Check it out on Youtube!
How old were you when you started with music? We’ve all been doing music since a very early age, but we started playing together for the first time in 6th grade, when we all were 13.
When did you decide to focus on the music? We started to get serious with it when we noticed that people actually took an interest in us and our music, sometime around 2009. Since then music has always been our main focus.
How has your music evolved since you began playing music together? What we play now compared to what we started out with are almost two completely different genres. Beside the Bridge initially played some kind of metalcore with screams and pop/punk influences. Nowadays it’s changed into more of a hardrock/metal sound, still keeping the pop influences.
What are your dreams with the band? Our dream is simple: become the best and greatest at what we do. We all want to live of our music, play in new and foreign places, meet new people and have loads of fun while doing it. We also hope that our music reaches out as an inspiration, to people who can relate and see their own lives reflected in our songs.
What has been your biggest challenge as a band? Playing in a band and trying to make it big takes a lot of time, will and effort. This makes almost every day a challenge on its own and we’ve all had our ups and downs. One of the most pressuring experiences has to be when we and our former guitarist and original member parted ways. We did it on good terms, due to differentiating goals and influences, but it was a tough time nonetheless; and it took a while for us to regain our strength.
What record company do you work with? We are currently not part of and label or record company.
Describe your show, visual and musically When we land a gig, whether it’s big or small, we always go out of our way to make it our best show yet. Every gig takes a different approach and adapting our show to the venue, environment and crowd is something we’re putting a lot of work into. Despite what kind of show we’re talking about our goal is always to deliver a stunning, energetic show which we hope will leave the crowd asking for more!
What's places you can play on the "Bålsta"? Since the band’s start we’ve played a lot of gigs in and around our hometown Bålsta. The most notable event we’ve partaken in would be “Håbo festdag”, an annual festival of sorts with a big stage and often reknown artists. Other than that we’ve played at schools, youth centers and outside the local “Sibylla”.
How is it this time of year to get out on the gig? Regardless of season, playing shows together is always a blast. It’s always very nice playing during the summer, due to most events being held outdoors.
What are your two big favorite songs you done? Every song we write is a result of a lot of time and effort. That’s why we are equally proud and happy which every one of our works, but there are of course some which we like better than others. We are very proud of our upcoming EP and performing our old lovechild Dispute is a blast every time!
