Biography

Born Lars Johann Yngwie Lannerback

Date of birth 30 June 1963

Birthplace Stockholm, Sweden

Guitar Fender Stratocaster

Looking at the early childhood of Yngwie Malmsteen, an observer would be astonished to see his rise to fame as one of the most gifted guitar virtuosos performing today.

Born to an army captain father and a free-spirited mother - who unfortunately divorced soon after his birth - the name Yngwie (meaning 'young Viking chief') was given to him by his mother Rigmor Malmsteen, named after an old boyfriend of hers.

Yngwie was the youngest of three children, and his early childhood would show no hint of his career to come - the young boy hated music and early piano and trumpet lessons were lost on him. This was especially surprising considering that all the other members of his family bar his mother played at least one musical instrument. Rigmor bought him a Mosrite acoustic guitar from Poland when he was five but for many years it hung unused on his wall. It was the day on which the death of Jimi Hendrix was announced - 18 September 1970 - that the young seven-year old Yngwie was finally inspired to play. Footage of one of Jimi's concerts captured his imagination, the wild showmanship and incendiary playing planting a burning ambition in his mind - Yngwie claims that it was Jimi's image more than the music which captured his imagination. He often plays Hendrix's songs in concerts to this day.

Curiously, Yngwie began to play his acoustic (for which he bought a pickup from a mail order catalogue) and then a cheap Stratocaster copy, which he received from his brother when he was nine. He was inspired at first by the music of Deep Purple and admired the classically-influenced playing of Ritchie Blackmore, and through this began to listen to classical composers and players such as Bach, Vivaldi, Beethoven and Mozart. However, it was the works of the violinist Niccolo Paganini that finally unlocked the key between classical and rock music for Yngwie.

He began to practice and play almost constantly. However, he claims that he never practised in the traditional sense. Constantly improvising and creating music, Yngwie's perfect pitch allowed him to work things out just by listening. At the age of ten, he had all but finished with school - his wild personality was still prevalent and he was often getting into fights with fellow pupils "acting stupidly". He did excel in English and Art, the only two subjects that interested him, but he had by and large stopped attending, having focused most of his energies into his music.

It was the work of 19th century violinist Niccolo Paganini that provided the missing link between the flamboyant performances of Jimi Hendrix and the classical music that the young Yngwie had come to love. Watching a televised performance by Russian violinist Gideon Kremer of Paganini's 24 Caprices, he at last understood how to combine his skills as a guitarist with his charisma onstage. The fast, clean playing with broken arpeggios and chords provided the style that captured Yngwie's imagination...though he claims that it was not until later that he realised it. 24 Caprices remains Yngwie's all time favourite record.

Yngwie left school for good at the age of 15, leaving behind memories of riding his motorbike through the school hallway. He got a job in a Stockholm guitar shop, where we was able to combine his woodworking skills with his love and ability for guitars. When a 17th century lute came into the shop for repair, he was intrigued by the instrument's scalloped neck. The wood of the neck had been carved so that the peaks of the wood formed the frets. Yngwie tried this modification on an old guitar neck and ended up trying it on his better guitars. Although the scalloped necks were more difficult to play, his control over the strings was so improved that he applied it to all his future guitars.

Yngiwe began to play in a number of bands, but his explosive guitar style did not go down well with Swedish audiences, who were more used to the likes of Abba. When he was 18 he was recruited by the army who tried to turn him into an officer based on his high intelligence test scores. However, he declared that he would rather die than serve in the military and so he was sent home.

Togther with several friends, Yngwie recorded a demo of three songs and sent it to Swedish CBS, but without success. Realising that his chances of fame in Sweden would be limited, he sent further demo tapes to record companies abroad. One of these tapes arrived in the hands of Mike Varney, founder of Shrapnel Music, a label synonymous with heavy metal. Yngwie was invited to record with Shrapnel's new heavy metal band Steeler and set off for America in 1981.

Steeler's debut album was a typical work of the genre and memorable only for Yngwie's unaccompanied solo for Hot On Your Heels. The album became a cult favourite, but Yngwie had already moved on to Alcatrazz, dissatisfied with Steeler's generic style. Founded by singer Graham Bonnett, Alcatrazz was a Rainbow-style band in which Yngwie would perform some of his finest early guitar solos, but also proved too limiting.

His new band's self-titled debut Rising Force made it to #60 in the Billboard charts. A mostly instrumental work with no commercial airplay, it is nontheless considered the bible of neoclassical rock and won Yngwie a Grammy for Best Rock Instrumental Performance. This award was followed by Best New Talent in many readers' polls and Best Rock Guitarist the year after. Rising Force became Album Of The Year.

Yngwie released his next album Trilogy in 1986, and to this day it remains one of his very favourites. As a mark of his influence, several Yngwie clones and wannabes appeared. However, they did not understand his musical vision and their workss sounded like poor relations to his. Sadly, this movement was to cast a negative light on the neoclassical genre.

Bad times were unfortunately to follow for Yngwie in 1987. Eight days before his 24th birthday, he suffered a concussion in a near fatal car crash when he crashed his speeding Jaguar into a tree. While he lay unconscious in a coma for a week, the concussion, caused by his head breaking the steering wheel in the impact, had caused a blood clot in his brain, damaging the nerves running to his right hand. He awoke to discover in horror that his picking hand was now useless. Determined not to let the incident end his career in music, he began therapy to regain the use of his hand, waiting impatiently for the nerves to regenerate. It was soon after his accident that he learnt that his mother Rigmor had died of cancer in Sweden. As well as this, mounting debts, aggrevated by his manager swindling him of his earnings, left him struggling to pay his medical bills. However, rather than give up, Yngwie turned again to music.

Odyssey was not one of Yngwie's favourites, but its radio-friendly accessibility and wider audience appeal won it critical acclaim. The video for Heaven Tonight was his first to gain a large amount of airplay and sales stopped just short of gold in America. The Odyssey tour featured ex-Rainbow vocalist Joe Lynn Turner, and for the first time the audiences were not made up of just aspiring guitarists. In 1989, Rising Force performed in sellout concerts in the Soviet Union, in both Moscow and Leningrad. After this performance, the band members went their separate ways and the name Rising Force was retired.

Undeterred, Yngwie recruited a new band made up of fellow Swedes; musicians of great ability but relatively unknown outside their native Sweden. Ex-John Norum singer Goran Edman was joined by symphony orchestra bassist Svante Henryson, keyboardist and arranger Mats Olausson and drummer Michael von Knorring. The new band's first album Eclipse showed that Yngwie was able to write radio-accessible material without having to compromise his neoclassical style, but poor promotion by Polygram stunted the album's sale in America, though sales in Japan and Europe were highly encouraging, achieving gold and platinum status respectively.

Yngwie took the decision to leave Polygram at this point. Once the far-from-amicable split was over and done with, things began to look brighter. With hard work from his new manager Nigel Thomas, Yngwie signed with Elektra Records in March 1991. His debut album on their label, Fire & Ice, was a herald back to the days of his far less commercial but best compositions. Combining his powerful emotive spirit with the influences of his baroque heroes, the album enabled Yngwie to achieve his dream to record with an orchestra, on a performance of Bach's Badinerie. Fire & Ice sold well in Japan, selling 100,000 copies on the day of its release alone. Yngwie began to tour the world again.

However, the next two years would bring more bad times. Hurricane Andrew destroyed Yngwie's Miami property, Nigel Thomas died of a heart attack, and he was to suffer from a broken hand in a freak accident. He was already suffering from tendinitis which had been caused by his fast playing. In August 1993, his mother-in-law falsely accused Yngwie of holding her daughter hostage with a gun, opposed to their wedding. However, the charges were soon dropped and things began to look up. When his hand had completely healed, Yngwie secured a deal with Japanese label Pony Canyon and released The Seventh Sign in 1994.

Yngwie has toured and performed since. While his popularity in America has waned due to the backlash against the excesses of 1980s heavy metal guitarists, he has no problems finding audiences in Europe and Japan.

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