Lunar Tantrum
Swedish/Australian rock band (1991-present)
Lunar Tantrum are a Swedish/Australian rock band foundedin Gothenburg, Sweden in late 1991. Richard Reynolds (vocals & rhythm guitar) and Christer Lindbladh (drums) met and started writing and playing songs in Gothenburg, Sweden in the summer of 1991. By winter the same year the groupexpanded to include Peter Clarin on lead guitar and Torbjörn Antonsson on bass. This line up has remained constant untilnow although keyboardists Charlie Storm and Matti Ollikainen have both contributed to the band's recordings. Musically the band fuses elements of sixties pop and psychedelia, folk rock, seventies hard rock, progressive rock, garage rock, punk and new wave. The band worked extensively on songwriting, recording and playing live between 1992 and 1998 when they took a lengthy hiatus until2016.
History
1991-1998 (Pre Hiatus)
Christer , Peter and Torbjörn had a history dating back to the early ‘80s when they started playing together united by a common love for British, American and Canadian progressive rock, folk rock, hard rock and fusion. The swedish trio’s formative years were spent in the company of various lead singers and several other musicians.
In the summer of 1992 the band had wrote and rehearsedapproximately 20 original compositions. This was when plans were made to record what would become the band's first demo. The bands drummer Christer had a reasonable home recording setup centring around a half-inch Tascam 8-track reel to reel recorder, a very simple mixerboard, a Yamaha QY10 sequencer, a handful of rudimentary microphones and outboard effects. This setup would provide the mainstay of the majority of the band’s recordings between 1992-1998 with the exception 8 songs recorded at Gothenburg’s renowned Music-A-Matic Studios in 1996 & 2 songs recorded in 1997 atArtisten Studios at the Gothenburg Academy Of Music And Drama . The 22 song demo was produced as cassette featuringcover art by Wera Hasanen. During a live show atGothenburgs then premier rock club Magasinet in 1993 Christers car was broken into and more than a hundred tapes were stolen.
During the next couple of years the band continued recordingusing Christers 8-track set up at their rehearsal studio in Nääs Fabrik bordering on Lake Sävelången in Tollered.
In mid 1996 at Music-A-Matic Studios the band worked with keyboardist/producer Charlie Storm for 15 days to produce 8 songs. This recording was intended for release as an album but due to a poor mix bad engineering decisions it has beenshelved until now although there were tentative plans at the time to put out a single on Stockholms Planet Of Sound label.
The following year in 1997 the band recorded 2 songs at the in house studio at Gothenburg Academy Of Music And Drama. At the same time the band continued to record at theirrehearsal studio.
In 1998, 8 songs were recorded live to 8-track on Christer’smobile studio in Restaurant Sävelången. Keyboardist Matti Ollikainen (Franska Trion) played Fender Rhodes on 2 tracks. Some backing vocals were provided by Iris Esell. This recording marked the end of the bands 90s era as they enteredinto a long hiatus that would last 18 years.
Lunar Tantrum performed frequently live in and aroundGothenburg between 1993-98 at venues such as Magasinet, Underground, Oceanen, Dojan, Hagabion, Sticky Fingers, Gothenburg City Festival, London Arms, Jamesons Bar and 7:ans Ölhall.
2016-present (Post Hiatus)
New rehearsals start in 2016 where the band starts where theyleft off in 1998. In 2023 the self titled album Lunar Tantrum will be released. Two EP has been released in 2022.
