Taikes

The Band

History of Taikes

Taikes was founded on the fall of 2002 by Johan, Alex and their previous drummer Axel, who was later replaced by present drummer Oskar just a week before their first gig in spring 2003. They started off as a true grunge-band in best Nirvana spirit. Although their early "hits" My Thoughts, Reflections and Could It Be Love had a good melody and a heart of its own, it almost sounded as a duplication of Nirvana, which they got to hear a lot after their first gigs. This had different impacts on the audience. Some loved it because they saw it as the revival of the grunge and starting of a new era, while others hated it and claimed it was being a complete rip-off. Although Taikes has never abandoned the genre, singer/songwriter Johan and the band itself has gotten more influences from bands as Placebo and Muse. Combining those two slightly different genres makes up for a quite original sound, which they've slightly ironically named "Emo Grunge". Which stands for "emotional grunge-rock". But there's also quite a lot of pop in it as well.
Today Taikes is making real progress. They have won several music contests and had over 60 gigs in different parts of Sweden and made two tours in Mexico. Their repertoire consists of over 30 original songs, recorded on five EPs and one studio album. Songs by Taikes have been played on radio stations in Mexico and Sweden and are available for download worldwide through iTunes and their website, taikes.com.

Johan

- vocals and guitar

I wasn't really interested in music until I started listening to Nirvana, a band that was about to have (and still has) a huge impact on the music, the lyrics and the spirit of Taikes.

I don't like making music too obvious. If you found out about the message in the very beginning of a song, it wouldn't be as intriguing. It would turn out sort of face-less. But if you hide it and make it less obvious, the audience will make their own aspect of it and reflect to what they think it's about. And that I think makes the song itself live longer.

I also like to make fun of my own writing. I make a few ambitious lines and then I add sarcasm to it so that I can save it from becoming sleazy and kind of "pointless poetry".

You probably won't find much pure rough, as well as soft music in Taikes. Instead the songs are pretty much both. Because of this, pretty much all of the songs work acoustic as well as distorted. And that is very satisfying for me as a composer to have that wide aspect to it. Of course there are exceptions though.

There aren't many heavy solos or rock-riffs. Instead of complicity I/we concentrate on making the melody itself as god as possible.

Hope you like it...

Contact: johan [at] taikes.com

Alex	- bass

Alex plays the bass.

Contact: alex [at] taikes.com

Oskar

- drums

Oskar Landgren is the drummer of the band.

For him, besides of all the hours with his drum kit, Taikes means also a lot of time by the computer, as he is the webmaster of taikes.com and also does all the layout for their CD productions.

Contact: oskar [at] taikes.com