– 2009 was our first year as Riddarna – a very exciting year. We showed our face to the world, started spreading our music on the internet and received our first comments and reviews. We were given attention in Swedish media surprisingly fast by the music magazine Groove and local newspapers amongst others, and people from other countries also showed their interest: we were featured on a French music blog shortly after we released our songs and we have been getting some nice words from English, Brazilian and German people. In fact we were contacted by a small German booking agency in November and were hoping to do a German tour in 2010.

Our Swedish lyrics doesnt seem to stop us from reaching out to the rest of the world – in fact they might even help.

Some memories from 2009:

The first gig

– We did our first show ever on the island where two thirds of the band grew up – Gotland – a small idyll east of Sweden in the middle of the Baltic sea. The gig took place on the only rock club on the island, lots of wonderful people were there and it was summer – it was a good night. The show was a success and both young and old people were lyrical afterwards. "The best band to have played here ever!" was one of the comments.

You call. We come.

– The day after the premiere gig we realized an idea of ours: we stuffed instruments and amplifiers in a car and spread the word around the island: "well come and play for you, wherever you are – outdoors, at a party, in a hospital, it doesnt matter.”

In the car we also had a fuel-powered electric aggregate witch made us power socket independent. We even managed to fit in a photographer, a dedicated driver and tons of beer. The car was loaded to say the least.

It was a fantastic day full of fun. We look back with smiles on our faces, remembering how we played in pouring rain in a tiny party tent, by the coast of Gotland, with our amps in the trunk, in front of fifteen wild people. Thirty minutes later were in a living room, warmer and sweatier, playing at a preparty. It was all documented by our photographer and the result became the music video for the song "Lyssna, rocknrollen är död" (English: "Listen, rocknroll is dead"). It’s a mix between a music video without a script, a road movie and a documentary (with a very small amount of facts and education).

Radio History

– We were told by the Swedish Radio that we probably wrote radio history when we performed a song live, playing and singing from different parts of Sweden. Edward was in a radio studio in Gothenburg and Patrik sat in another studio on Gotland. It worked just fine and well definitely do it again and let Mattias join the party in a third studio in another city. Long distance relationships can be a good thing.

And what about 2010?

– We’ll record our debut album, well do a tour in Sweden, we’ll play outside Sweden and well continue to put our unconventional ideas into action.

And: well search for people who wants to work with us. So far we’ve been doing all the work ourselves. As any other band we want to spread our music and reach people all over the world.

http://www.myspace.com/riddarna