Steffan Hundstad |
Bass Steffan was born in Bodø one Wednesday morning on 21st of March 1979. Nine years later he started taking piano lessons at some nice old lady’s house, and he played polkas and waltzes the following year. At the age of ten he discovered that a lot of things and activities, such as football, braking stuff, running away from parents, eating candy on weekdays etc, where much more intriguing than the polkas, so he gave up the piano. Although he loved music right form the start (constantly singing and humming from the age of four), he didn’t involve himself in any musical activities for the next three or four years. Around the age of 13 something happened. There may be several theories around the series of events that went down, but I think it can best be described as Metallica, and his soul was forever lost in rock’n roll. His hair grew longer, he started smoking, stopped smoking (got caught), started playing the guitar, had to switch to bass in order to join a band, and had a few beers. His first band played exclusively Metallica covers, and they had a very silly name. I believe it was called “Metallica jrs”... |
|
He started the music class at high school, where he played a large variety of songs and genres;
at school he played jazz-standards, funk, pop and mainstream, and after school he played rock. At
this period he joined several bands, left some of them, and usually had two or three projects going
on at the same time. His most important bands from this period are probably the two noisy rock bands
Amphora and Hubro, which was partly the same band. They where both formed by Hallstein Sandvin, a person
that Steffan owe a lot in terms of musical inspiration, especially when it comes to prog. Hallstein introduced
Steffan to practically every underground rock, prog and psychedelia band that later would have great influence
on his musical preferences and choices.
After high school, Steffan went down to Inderoya to learn jazz at Sund Folkehogskole. Musically speaking, this year was without any doubt the most instructing and enlightening time of his life. He jammed with first class jazz-musicians almost every day, and during the first two months he learned more theory than he had done all the three previous years at musical high school. He played mainly jazz-standards, but also funk, dub, pop and even some rock. At the end of the school year he auditioned for the “Conservatory of rhythmical music” in Kristiansand, but didn’t quite make it. After Sund Folkehogskole he would play jazz only on occasions, as rock, prog and psychedelia were the genres he really felt committed to. |
 |
|
A year later, Hallstein called Steffan one night and asked him if he wanted to come down
to the studio with him and some friends to do some recordings. At the studio he got a couple
of drumsticks placed in his hands and without even a sneak sample of what they had recorded
earlier he was placed behind the drums. And much of these recording sessions were done this
way; experimenting with “non-instruments” (coins, thermos, glass of water etc), switching
instruments (for instance, drummer playing the piano) and jamming with absolutely no restrictions
or rules whatsoever. This was the birth of "Space o’hoi", a psychedelia band that would give Steffan
a lot of musical joy and big laughs for the next three years.
At some point during the last period of "Space o’hoi" he met Ole Ivar for the first time. Space o’hoi was falling apart, and Steffan had just been chilling and tumbling around for some time. They connected quickly, as they shared a passion for the 70’s prog and funk. They talked numerous times about forming a proper prog band in the proper prog spirit, but, as we know, proper spirits(as in liquor) does affect the brain, and the band was probably formed 10 times while smashed on booze before they actually got to the part where you create and play music. With Ole as the composer and driving engine, they all (Ole, Stig, Steffan) got together to jam on a few guitar riffs a few months later. They instantly got a good a feeling with the music; there was something very real and profound about it. Vibes from the 70’s filled the atmosphere, and MetroGnom was born (although under a different name then). This band has been a great opportunity to play and enjoy a genre that very few young people perform these days. Prog bands are hard to come by in a small town like Bodø, so MetroGnom fit the prog-gap in the city’s musical wholeness nicely. In the beginning they rehearsed once a week to get the complexity of the songs right and tight; they could be jamming on two or three riffs for three whole hours. This was well rewarded on their 15 minute long debut concert at Sinus, easter 03, where they got very good feedback. MetroGnom would do two concerts the following year. |
 |