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Biography |
Millencolin was founded in October '92 by Nikola, Erik, and Mathias just as a side band.
MC was introduced into the skating scene sometime in '87 and got into punk from the skatevideos they watched. They decided to start their own skatepunk band and got the MC name from the trick "Melancholy" a.k.a. Sad Air. They changed the spelling around to make it sound more like a band name.
The "Goofy" demo-tape was 10 songs long and was released in early '93. MC only played one live show before Larzon joined the band. Two guitars were needed live and Mathias was more of a guitarist at heart, Larzon took over at drums. Kung Pung and Seigmenn, Larzon's, Nikola's, and Mathias' former bands finally broke up in '93. Erik was the last to leave his band and become devoted to MC.
In the summer of '93, the 10 song demo-tape "Melack" was released. Dan Swanö produced it at Unisound Studios.
MC sent in the tape into Burning Heart Records. Burning Heart contacted MC and they wanted to release a c.d. single.
The first c.d. single "Use Your Nose" was released in Nov. of '93 which included new versions of "Pain" and "Melack". The single was 6 songs long. The single was well received and MC ended up playing alot of shows outside of Örebro.
Burning Heart was so pleased with "Use Your Nose" that they wanted to release a full-fledged album. This was a big step up from before because MC didn't have to pay for the album like in their previous bands. "Skauch" was released five months later at Unisound Studios with Dan Swanö producing it. Skauch was supposed to be a sample of the new upcoming album. It was 6 songs long, with 2 original songs and 4 cover songs.
In August '94, MC was back again in Unisound Studios to record "Tiny Tunes". Mixing and recording was only 2 weeks long. The album had such classic hits like "Mr. Clean", "Chiquita Chaser", "Da Strike", and "Dance Craze". Da Strike became a small hit in Sweden and MC played over 100 Swedish shows that year.
In '95, Burning Heart and Unisond moved to Örebro. The second album "Life On A Plate" was recorded in Aug. '95 and released in October the same year. It contained hits such as "Bullion", "Move Your Car", "Story Of My Life", and "Dr. Jackal and Mr. Hyde". The album was 14 songs long.
MC played 24 festivals in Scandinavia in countries like Norway, Sweden and Denmark. Meanwhile, Life On A Plate climbed to the #4 spot in the Swedish charts. Move Your Car and Story Of My Life were really successful and they were made into music videos.
In Sept. '95, MC went out on their first European tour with Pennywise in Germany. Soon after MC was all over Europe for a second tour in countries like England, France, Switzerland, and Germany.
Nearing the end of '95, Epitaph Records contacted MC requesting they sign a contract for U.S. release. Thankfully MC accepted and Life On A Plate was released in March '96. MC toured much of '96 with 150 shows in countries like the U.S./Canada, Japan, Australia. MC also played European festivals and a Southern European tour.
Burning Heart got sued by Warner Bros. because of the Tiny Tunes cover claiming it plaguerized their Tiny Tunes product. Erik redid the cover, switching the back to the front, front to back and alternating the colors. The name was also changed to "Same Old Tunes" because all the original songs remained on the album.
The single for the third album "For Monkeys" was released in late March with "Lozin' Must", "Vixen", and a cover of "Israelites". For Monkeys was released the next month in April. For Monkeys was the last album that Dan Swanö produced and it was the last album to be recorded in Unisound Studios. Dan sold Unisound to Mathias and his partner Miezsko. It was first named "The Punk Palace" then later named to "Sound Lab Studios".
The For Monkeys tour was over a year and a half long. MC played Europe three times, the U.S./Canada three times, Japan, Australia, Argentina, and Brazil. MC ended up with 500 shows under their belts. A definate break was needed. Nikola also moved to Göteborg from Örebro with his girlfriend.
During the break, ideas were thrown around for the new album. The first MC videotape was released, "Millencolin and the Hi-8 Adventures", which was over 75 minutes and 23 songs long. Erik made the video with tour footage, videos, and some skating. It was edited in about 6 months. A limited edition live soundtrack single was released with a longer version of Buzzer and 5 other songs. Only 3000 copies were put out.
"The Melancholy Collection" was also released during the break. It had singles from the first two singes, b-side tracks, covers, and compilation only songs on it. It was made because the c.d. stores would charge more for the single than the album. Since The Melancholy Collection was released, Burning Heart stopped putting out these singles.
By early '99, Brett Gurewitz from Bad Religion wanted to record and produce the new MC album. MC recorded in the legendary Westbeach Studios in Hollywood. MC left for Hollywood in July and the album was recorded in 6 weeks. The album, "Pennybridge Pioneers", was released in Feb. 21st, 2000. The Pennybridge Pioneers Worldwide Tour began in Feb. in Wellington, NZ.
MC came back home to Sweden a day before the album was officially released. Burning Heart threw a party at the Örebro castle in honor of the new album.
A very busy tour awaited for MC. They played the Warped Tour and Punk-O-Rama in the U.S., two European tours/festivals, and a second Australian tour. MC played over a whopping 600 shows since the band first started touring. The tour itself was 115 shows long.
MC went to L.A. twice to record to videos of "Penguins & Polarbears". Home From Home, Millencolin's latest album, was released in March of 2002.
