The Sideburn saga...
*1997* In the beginning there was Morgan Zocek (guitar player), and Tor Pentèn (Drummer) who met each other in a club in Stockholm. They shared the same musical vision and influences (bluesy hard rock) in bands like Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Rainbow, The Cult, and Kyuss among others. They had a bass player who had played with Morgan in his previous band Rooster, so they begun looking for a singer.
The name of the band came up when Morgan read an article in a music magazine where some band was called Flaming Sideburns (or something) Morgan edited the name to Sideburn and grew his sideburns even bigger, and that was it. Sideburn did some gigs in the Stockholm area with different singers.
*1998* Due to some personal disagreements, Morgan and Tor werent satisfied, so they placed an ad in some music stores in Stockholm for a new singer. And finally one day they got a call from Jani Kataja.
(Morgan) - "I remember talking to Jani for the first time, he had a real gentle talking voice, almost shy, but he said that friends of his had said he sung like a lion. R.J Dio, I Astbury, and G Danzig were among his early influences. So we started to jam together and it sounded great from the very beginning, Jani was really a great singer with a strong soulful voice, but he also was a great bass player so he handled that too after our previous bass player had left the band. "
The first songs they wrote together were 'Today', 'Sideburn' and 'Moongarden' that all ended up on their debut album. They started to play gigs and sending demos to some record companies.
*2000* The band got their recording contract with the Italian label 'Beard of Stars /Vinyl Magic' and recorded the debut album "Trying to burn the sun" in two weeks in the spring of 2001 and it was released late Jan/Feb 2002.
(Morgan) - "During some of our gigs we had meet a guy who played bass and owned a really old Hammond organ, we became friends, and we had thought about adding a fourth member so Jani could concentrate more on his vocals and alternate between bass and guitar on some of the songs. So all of a sudden, we had a new bass / hammond / guitarplayer / singer in Martin Karlsson."
*2003* After over 6 years together SIDEBURN have parted ways with drummer Tor Pentèn. They started looking for a new drummer and Morgan approached Fredrik Broqvist, an old friend from school. They begun rehearsals for the demo recording at Xtc productions (that they later signed a managementdeal with as well as a music publishing deal with SPM Music). After Fredrik´s brilliant playing on the recording and some great times at rehearsals they decided that they should continue together. Please welcome Fredrik Broqvist to the band as Sideburns new permanent drummer!!!
*2005* In the end of june Sideburn started the recording of their new full length album "The newborn sun", at XTC productions studio with Ulf Wahlberg as co-producer. After a long break for the summer hollidays, and some gigs during the summer, they continued the recording of the album during the autumn/winter, and we´re finished early 2006.
*2006* Sideburn are at the moment negotiating with a couple of labels about the release of the new album. So get ready for the "THE NEWBORN SUN"
*September 06* SIDEBURN have signed a new record deal with BUZZVILLE RECORDS (Belgium) and the new album "THE NEWBORN SUN"" will be released in the beginning of 2007 so stay tuned...
*March 30 2007* The new album have been released worldwide today!!
..and thats the story so far!
