Punsch

1983, at the age of 6, Punsch heard Chicory Tip’s “Son of My Father” and was immediately fascinated by the sounds of the Moog synthesizer. Shortly after this he heard Kraftwerk and felt that he was bound to electronic music for the rest of his life. After some years of active listening to groups like DAF, Skinny Puppy, Nitzer Ebb, Front 242, Klinik, etc. he wanted to create his own music. His dear mother provided him with his first drum kit.
While studying art in the early nineties – painting, photography, movie making, etc. – Punsch came across the Amiga 1200 computer and the music creation program ProTracker. Though having introduced him to making music of his own, Punsch soon deserted this basic and limited program in favour of more advanced sequencing. Later, after hard work in a factory, he bought some synthesizers, an Atari 1040ste and started using Cubase 1.0. Thanks to the upgraded gear, he was assigned to work with TV commercials at a local TV-station.
After a while, having moved to Stockholm, the capital of Sweden, to continue his art studies, Punsch discovered new genres like clicks n’ cuts and electronica etc. Two years later he moved abroad to San Sebastian, in the Basque Country, to study castillaño. At this time Punsch and his old friend Wilhem Bohman formed Gros, an electronica project (for more info visit Gros ). Revisiting Sweden after three months in the Basque Provinces, Punsch worked at Skara skolscen, a well-known acting school, as a sound engineer. He also devoted much of his time to artwork like painting and sculpting, and this lead him to being given the assignment of designing the prize statuettes for the today no longer existing SAMA (Swedish Alternative Music Awards). However, the thought of Spain never left Punsch’s mind and Barcelona became his new home in 2002. Gros was able to pick up their work and released two CD albums, “Waves” (FSONE003) 2002 and “Radio Islas” (FSONE009) 2004.
Two years ago, in 2005, Punsch switched the Atari and Cubase 1.0 to a Macintosh G5 and Logic Pro 7. Of course he couldn’t manage to get rid of his dear Atari, even though it for the moment rests in the studio. The old analogue synthesizers will however always be his companions, never fully replaceable by software. According to Punsch, the feeling of analogue sound waves will always exceed the digital: Hardware is hardware and hardware is soft!
Punsch is now back in Sweden, working with several projects. Among those, the third Gros album is in progress to be released during 2007.
About Punsch’s music
Punsch’s music mix old hardware synthesizers, acoustic guitars and new software techniques. Most of the time, the music is instrumental and based on progressive rhythms, organic sounds and melancholic melodies. The tunes often emerge when Punsch edits new sounds on his synthesizers. So to speak, melodies hidden in the sounds allow themselves to be tracked down and become foundations of songs.
Some of Punsch’s sources of inspiration are meeting new people as well as hanging with his old friends. Important influences are movies and art, both Punsch’s own and the works of others’. Also, as for any artist, mood has a constant impact on his music. Of course, other groups and genres such as To rococo rot, Tarwater, Aphex Twin, Suicide, and Miles Davis etc. provide him with inspiration and influences. But since Punsch honestly doesn’t diss any kind of music (almost), the selection of sounds and melodies is infinite…
Examples of solos and aliases:
• Gros • Planktoon • The Handyman • Jonas & P • Project Eleven Punsch is always looking for new music and film projects, so if you need soundtracks, foley acts, sound effects etc., or have some interesting ideas, don’t hesitate to contact him.