Swedish Sunday – Kamchatka

As originally seen on The Soda Shop

The Swedes continue to kick our ass with yet another band for Swedish Sunday, Kamchatka. This bluesy, psych stoner band hails from Varberg yet makes an impact the world ’round.

From their biography:

Growing up in Varberg, a small town on the west coast of Sweden, Roger, Thomas and Tobias were all rehearsing at the same place, though in different bands, except for the occasional weekend jam session. In their mid teens, Roger and Thomas moved to pursue their musical carreer elsewhere, Roger to the east and Thomas to the north, while Tobias continued his back home.

Some learnful years of touring and recording albums with all kinds of different acts later, they met up again in Varberg for a Jimi Hendrix tribute concert in 2001, and after a successful performance the guys simply came to the conclusion that they should start a band. This match was too good to go to waste. Kamchatka was formed.

A few years later and after saving up enough money, they decided to record an album in their own studio (which has been developing ever since) with the help of an old friend of Roger’s, Nicholas Elgstrand, who recorded, mixed and produced it together with the band. Bullen & Sillen, friends of the band, mastered it at Studio Mega in Valinge, just outside of Varberg. An old friend of Thomas’, Per Wiberg, who also designed the album cover, hooked them up with a New York based indie label called Grooveyard Records, where the first Kamchatka album was released January 1st 2005.

After about a year of an occasional gig here and there, which were all well recieved, the guys started to get restless, so they decided to record another album, subsequently known as “Volume II”, this time recording it themselves on an eight-track, Tobias bringing the technichal expertise. Once again they called in Nicholas to help mix and produce, but this time mastered it themselves, lending the gear from Jonas Eckerström, another old friend of the band, mainly with Tobias behind the controls. Per, again, standing for the artwork. It was released on Grooveyard Records in January 2007.

After yet another year of an occasional gig here and there (there is a serious lack of venues to play at in sweden), they had started recording their third album when the American rock band Clutch, whom they had opened a few gigs for in Sweden in 2007, invited Kamchatka to open for them on their US-tour, which gave the guys their first opportunity to proove themselves to the American audience. After 21 successful performances they returned back home to complete “Volume III” which was mastered by Johan Eckerblad at Mintelligence Studios and released on Swedish label, Superpuma Records, at the beginning of March, 2009.

In November 2009 Kamchatka were once again invited by Clutch to open for them, this time on a month long tour of 23 gigs throughout western Europe, and as of 2010, they are working on their 4th studio album.

Thomas – vocals, guitar

Roger – vocals, bass
Tobias – drums

Kamchatka (2005)

Grooveyard Records

01.Out of My Way
02.Seed
03.No
04.Mnemosyne Waltz
05.Mixed Emotions
06.Wrong End…
07.Eggshell
08.I Love Everybody
09.Auto Mowdown
10.Spacegirl Blues
11.Sing Along Song
12.Incognito
13.Daddy Says
14.Squirm

Buy: Amazon /CD Baby /Grooveyard Records

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Volume II (2007)

Grooveyard Records

01.Who am I
02.Breathe
03.Terminus
04.Withstand
05.From Here
06.Enemy Maker
07.Heritage
08.Sweet Relief
09.Pogonophonics
10.Feel
11.Jigsaw

Buy: Amazon /CD Baby /Grooveyard Records

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Volume III (2009)

Superpuma Records

01.681
02.Pathetic
03.Astrobucks
04.Look Over Your Shoulder
05.See
06.Wood
07.Sorg
08.Confessions
09.Outnumbered
10.Guess I’ll Be Leaving
11.Whipping Post

Buy: Amazon /CD Baby

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