Jim Protector

Jim Protector have emotion and sensuality running through their sounds like gold dust, and don't need any kind of cool posturing to hold them up further.
-Neil Jones, musicOMH.com, 22 September 2007

Since the modest instrument-fiddling and recording of odd little numbers on the family computer back in 2001, Jim Protector is now seven years down the road with stage appearances and/or recordings with Ken Stringfellow (the posies), Jad Fair (Half Japanese), Gary Olson (Ladybug Transistor), Garth Hudson (The Band), and members of Electric Soft Parade, Goldrush, and Danny And The Champions Of The World. The ever growing fan base is a brick by brick effort, due to the bands charm and at times mesmerizing concerts. Hailed as one of 15 important bands of the Oslo Underground scene, they maintain both feet on the ground, as loyal servants of their love of music.

They're an infectious and noisy indie rock four-piece all the way from Sweden's less trendy neighbour, Norway. These guys like their guitars turned up, way up. Whether they were locking into a post-punk groove or slinging out a bass-heavy dirge, the Protector guys kept it distorted and loud. Not surprisingly, the vocals often ended up buried beneath the wall of noise for most of the performance. They indulged the place in a frenzy of feedback on the finale and went over time, but, hey, they deserved the extra time.
-Chartattack, June 11, 2007

This quartet is a dive into indie-rock eclecticism, and both audience and critics have stated their inability to label the group as one thing over another. The mix of electro-rock, disco, jangle, noise and old school emo brings bands such as the Cure, Dinosaur Jr., New Order, Arab Strap and Velvet underground to mind, making it both a correct and incorrect observation. After releasing a few EP’s during the early days of this century, Jim Protector started working on their first full-length release; ”Shields Down”, in an abandoned smelting-plant in 2004, a DIY-project every step of the way, with the boys serving as musicians as well as engineers and paying for the whole thing by digging deep into student loans and life savings. When bass-player and vocalist Alex Svanberg met Ken Stringfellow before a Posies-show in Trondheim, it would be the start of a beautiful collaboration beginning with Ken laying down a guitar track and backing vocals on the album’s title track, and ending up with him mixing the whole thing in 2 different studios in 2 different corners of the world. Jim Protector chose Living Room studio in Oslo for their first leg and the legendary Soundhouse in Seattle for the second and final leg. With Stringfellow serving as a mad hatter of ideas, he and the protector boys put triple shifts and gallons of espresso into two weeks of no sleep and a lot of tweaking and turning of knobs. Another year would pass, though, before Jim Protector would release the result, with gigs and a poker-funded loan supporting the manufacturing of the CD, but in late May 2007 “Shields Down” had its official release in Norway. It was well received by the few with a leg into the Norwegian underground, and highly overlooked by the rest.

Regardless, with word of mouth serving slowly and steadily, Jim Protector’s abilities as a competent live band brought the attention of Canada’s 1 showcase for new independent music, the NXNE-festival. Of about 500 acts of 2007, only two were from Scandinavia, the other being “The Soundtrack Of Our Lives” from Sweden. After touring The North East of USA and returning home for a set of festival-gigging, one of the largest Glossy magazines in Norway did a full two page interview of Jim Protector, a rather bold move for a celebre-orientated magazine. Jim protector also appeared at the legendary indie-festival “Truck” just outside of Oxford, UK. Recently they have submitted tracks for various compilations, among them an American tribute-album for the posies, and a collection of songs by Norwegian bands targeted for the Chinese market. 2008 will see the birth of a brand new animated Jim Protector music video and the vinyl version of “Shields Down”, both supported by external sources. More touring and work on their follow-up album will prove this band to be the little engine that could…