Location: Bromma, SwedenThe Bend Over Band: E-Type, Dilnarin "Dee" Demirbag (dancer), Andreas Hörnsten (bass), Markus Alderbäck (keyboard)
Guest vocals: Nana Hedin, Birgitta Edoff, Anna Nordell.
Bo Martin Erik 'E-Type' Eriksson was born in Uppsala, Sweden, in 1965. His father is Bo 'Bosse' G. Eriksson, well known from the science TV program 'Vetenskapens Värld' (World of Science). His mother is called Elisabeth, and his sister Erika. In his teens he moved to Bromma, and now he lives in the middle of Stockholm. His pseudonym comes from the model of Jaguar his father owned. According to other sources, somebody once referred to Martin as "den där e-typen" (that e-fellow). One rough translation later and an artist name was born...
His musical career started early. After having been a drummer for many years (for a Hard-Rock group called Hexen House) he met up with Stakka Bo in 1991, with three singles as a result ("We Got The Atmosphere"/"The Dream" in 1991 and "Numania 1"/"Obey" in 1992 ). This lead to a work as DJ at one of the most popular TV-station in Sweden - Z-TV! The summer of 1993, his first solo single, called "I'm Falling", was released without reaching any great success.
The great breakthrough came in 1994 when the collaboration with the Cheiron producers Denniz PoP, Max Martin and Amadin was started. The work with E-Type's debut-album "Made In Sweden" begun. The first result of the hard work in the Cheiron studio came the same summer, when the single "Set The World On Fire" (with vocals by Nana Hedin) was released. It climbed the charts like a speeding bullet and sold gold in Sweden. It reached # 1 on the Swedish Dance Chart, # 2 on the Swedish sale-chart and # 4 in Israel.
The follow-up, "This Is The Way", reached No. 1 on the sale-chart and was the most sold single in Sweden for several weeks. It was # 7 in Israel. Eventually four singles were released from the album: the ballad "Do You Always (Have To Be Alone)" and "Russian Lullaby" (co-written by Jonas Berggren from Ace Of Base). The album itself was released in November 1994 and made it up to No. 2 on the album-chart. All in all, over 100 000 copies were sold in Sweden and the album was listed for 26 weeks.
E-Type's tremendous success during 1994 was heavily rewarded at Swedish Dance Music Awards in March 1995. He took a grand slam and won three of the most prestigious prizes: Best song, Best artist and Newcomer. At the same time Denniz PoP was chosen as the best producer for the second time.
Now the whole world was screaming after E-Type. 1995 meant a lot of travelling around the globe for E-Type and his Bend over Band. During the latter part of 95 E-Type was touring in Asia, here the hysteria is getting bigger for every day. Six singles where released in France, except the four released in Sweden, one of them "So Dem A Com". Also the US and UK have shown their interest. "This Is The Way" reached No. 15 on the Billboard Club Chart and No. 6 on the UK Club Chart.
During 1996 E-Type and the producer-team spent a lot of time in the studio working with the new album "The Explorer", which was released in Sweden on the 23rd of October. The album was preceded with the single "Free Like A Flying Demon" that was released in September. It was No. 1 for several weeks. and so far it has sold more than 20.000 copies (gold).
On "The Explorer", E-Type has still been working with producers Denniz PoP, Max Martin and Kristian Lundin. But the music has changed. On this record you will find more guitars and less Techno-sounds than on the previous album. Still this album is a Dance-album, including an amount of great songs. "Back In The Loop" is the wildest song since "Russian Lullaby" and the album contains a lot of more interesting material. The sales in Sweden are well above 100 000 copies. E-Type himself describes the album as heavier and more brutal than "Made In Sweden", something you certainly have to agree with.
In the middle of November the second single "Calling Your Name" was released. As usual it entered the Dance-and sale-chart at a high position. In a few weeks time it had advanced to No. 1 at the SDC. The remixes were made by Antiloop and Pierre Jerksten. The story went on. A handful of singles were released: "Back In The Loop", a song about being on tour together with the Bend over band, the great summerhit "I Just Wanna Be With You" and the fifth and last single "You Will Always Be A Part Of Me", which also contained a megamix of the most popular E-Type singles.
E-Type's status as a national hero in Sweden had been very big for a long time, but when E-Type went back to his roots, with a more Eurodisco-like sound, his popularity increased enormously in first of all the Nordic countries. The first taste of things to come was given to the public in June. "Angels Crying", as the single was called, rapidly walked its way up the charts and set the standard for the album and the following single "Here I Go Again", which both topped the Dance-and sales-chart and peaked # 8 in Israel. Another wall in the E-Type home was decorated with gold and platinum awards. The album everybody had been waiting for was released on November 27th. E-Type lived up to the great expectations. It was his third album, and also the third album on which he had worked together with the Cheiron-producers.
Though all the success this year has been the darkest for E-Type and the Swedish music-business in a long long time. On August 30th the famous producer and close friend to E-Type, Denniz PoP died. Since December 1997 Denniz PoP knew that he had cancer, and already in February he was too sick to be able to collect his Grammy at the Swedish awards. He was only 35 years old.
For the fourth time in five years E-Type was the most successful male artist at the prestigious 'Tracks-listan' on the radio-channel P3. E-Type and the Bend Over Band will hit the roads once again this spring, and all the Nordic countries will be able to see the show where wildness is personified.
But E-Type has also become a writer. A great Swedish publishing company has accepted his manuscript for a children's book about the period of the Vikings. It was to the editor under a false name. He also wrote some songs for the Army Of Lovers and the group Maxi.
1999: E-Type has been nominated for a Swedish Grammy in the category "Modern Dance", along with Dr. Bombay, Richi M and Black Moses. Among them, E-Type has to be considered the favourite. All the Grammy nominations are official since January 14th, but some have been public since the end of last year. The Cheiron-producers Max Martin and Kristian Lundin have also been nominated, in the classes "best producers" and "best composers". The winners are to be presented in February and the show will be broadcasted on Swedish TV.
The release of the third single from "Last Man Standing", called "Princess Of Egypt", was originally set to January 22nd, but the single was delayed. As to the sound, it had an Egyptian theme and gave some associations to "When Religion Comes To Town". The single included an extended version, a remix made by Pinocchio and the video of "Angels Crying" in Mpeg-format. The single reached position # 6 in Israel.
2000: E-Type has released a single "Campione 2000", for the football championship Euro 2000. The single was very successful, reaching # 4 in Israel. Nana Hedin is not with the band anymore. During the summer he made a song with Blümchen, "Es Ist Nie Vorbei", it will be featured on E-Type's next album which was at first planned to be released in the spring 2001. Dee left the project to start a solo carreer.
2001: E-Type released his new single "Life" in November 12th. The forthcoming album, entitled "Euro IV Ever", was postponed to the end of 2001. It was at first entitled "Eurofighter" until the day of September 11th 2001, where the title was changed. It was finally released in November, most of the tracks feature the voice of Na Na as female vocalist. E-Type gave a release-party on the 25th of November.
2002: the next single to be released was the beautiful track "Africa", in March . It peaked to position #5 in Sweden. On the 27th of April, E-Type appeared on the broadcast "Who Wants To Be A Millionnnaire" on Swedish TV 4. The follow-up was "Banca Banca", a latino track, on June 24th.
2003: E-Type did a series of concerts at the beginning of the year, called the "EuroMetal tour". With him, a team including a few new faces: Johan Dereborn (bass), Mikkey Dee (drummer for Motörhead for many many years, and a good friend to E-Type and Johan), Roger Gustafsson (guitarist, who was already a part of the previous tour), Pontus Norgren (Heavy Rockin' guitarist and a skilled sound engineer), Therese Löf and Linda Andersson (vocalists).
A new album was being prepared, but it would not be finished before February of the next year. The production of the album took a bit longer than expected and Martin had so far written about 10 songs for the album. At this time the album's name had not even been decided yet... but it should be a traditional E-Type album.
2004: Max Martin, Rami and E-Type started producing the new single on Januray 1st. Called "Paradise", it was be out on the 28th of February. The new album, finally entitled "Loud Pipes Save Lives", will be released on the 24th of March.
On the release day of his new single, E-Type competed, among several Swedish artists, to be chosen as the artist who will represent Sweden for the Eurovision contest. One could see that Nana Hedin was back for good in the group. The drummer was still wearing a Motörhead T-shirt (E-Type wore a MSG-tshirt)! During his performance, the audience did not stop clapping their hands. "I admit that my participation in this contest is mainly for promoting my forthcoming album. I'd never reject an opportunity to prove my skills in front of 3 million people. I apologize to all my Eurodance-fans, but I must spread my wings and do crazy things sometimes". E-Type was selected for the big final in Stockholm in in a couple of weeks...
After all these years, E-Type really became a name in his homeland. The King of Sweden himself loves his music. He was even invited to the Emirate of Bahrain, because the Emir also was one of his fans. E-Type received from him a white stallion as a gift but... the horse is still waiting for the end of his quarantine period at the Swedish border!
At the beginning of April, "Paradise" reached #11 in Finland and entered the Finnish Dance chart at position #28.
E-Type's next single was released on hte 14th of June. Outside Sweden, it was "Camilla", second track to be taken from the brand new album. In Sweden, the lyrics were changed, and the single was called "Olympia". It will be hymn of Swedish olympic team.
2005: E-Type's new single was actually a double one. It contained "The Predator" and "Far Up In The Air".
In July, E-Type took part to a new Swedish TV-series about redesigning old swedish cottages (torp), among other things he made a loo in the form of an ancient viking-style church made of wood.
2006: E-Type is ready to conquer the American market with the help of Airus Entertainment (lead by Henri Bonan, the one behind releasing Da Buzz in the US). The album that has been officially released in the United States is a mixture of "Euro IV Ever" and "Loud Pipes Save Live", is entitled "Euro IV Ever" in America.
E-Type performed in Stockholm on a big soccer afterparty on June 10th and June 20th.
E-Type started writing new songs this Fall/Winter. He started a record company called Lulubelle records
2007: in May, E-Type finished recording his new single "True Believer" in studio with Max Martin and John Amatiello producing. The new single, written by E-Type and Savan Kotecha, featured vocals by Sanne Karlsson (no relationship with Whigfield). The future new album will be entitled "Eurotopia". In July the video for his new single "True Believer" was shot. The video was inspired from horror movies such as "Evil Dead". 4 young people go out to a cottage in the forest and party. A curse is set when they start playing musi on a tape recorder. Two off the young people were changed to demons. In one scene of the clip, E-Type even lost his head...
In August the title of E-Type's forthcoming single was revealed: it will be entitled "To The Lions". The official video for "True Believer" was released: it was finally not the gore movie that E-Type promised a few weeks ago, but a live video shot during Skellefteå 2007. "True Believer" reached gold in Sweden.
E-Type's new single will not be entitled "To The Lions" but "Eurofighter". The radio release was initially set for September 17th but was finally postponed. So was the album...
Discography
* Made In Sweden - Oct 1994
* The Explorer - 23rd Oct 1996
* Last Man Standing - 27th Nov 1998
* Last Man Standing (Japanese version) - 5th Jan 1999
* Greatest Hits (2 CDs) - 24th Nov 1999
* The Explorer - 23rd Oct 1996
* Last Man Standing - 27th Nov 1998
* Last Man Standing (Japanese version) - 5th Jan 1999
* Greatest Hits (2 CDs) - 24th Nov 1999
* Euro IV Ever - 21st Nov 2001
* Loud Pipes Save Lives - 2004
* Loud Pipes Save Lives (Sport Edition) - 2004
* Euro IV Ever In America - 2006
* 14 Hits - 1st Jan 2006
* Eurotopia - 31st Oct 2007
* Loud Pipes Save Lives - 2004
* Loud Pipes Save Lives (Sport Edition) - 2004
* Euro IV Ever In America - 2006
* 14 Hits - 1st Jan 2006
* Eurotopia - 31st Oct 2007
