04 July 2013

Håkan Hellström

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Håkan Hellström (birth name: Håkan Georg Hellström; Apr. 2, 1974), was born in Göteborg, Västergötland, Sweden. He was member of the Swedish bands Broder Daniel (1989-2008), and Honey Is Cool (1994-2000). Hellström is a Swedish singer / songwriter pop / rock artist who started out in a high school band Little Wing. He then joined another high school band Broder Daniel, with whom they shared rehearsal studio. This band had been formed by high school friends Henrik Berggren (vocals) and Daniel Gilbert (bass). Hellström joined the two on drums. The band began playing concerts around 1992 with the addition of both Johan Neckvall and Anders Göthberg on guitar. The band released their first album in 1995, and Hellström then parted from the band to be drummer in Honey Is Cool in 1995, with whom he released two albums before leaving around '98 to rejoin Broder Daniel, this time playing bass (as Johan Neckvall had left the band and the current bassist, Theodor Jensen took over the guitar) and contributing with additional vocal. The band faced some success and critical acclaim for the album Broder Daniel Forever (1998), which had been helped along with the band's inclusion of 3 songs on the soundtrack album for the Swedish movie "Fucking Åmål" (1998). Hellström began to work on his own songs and had his first critically acclaimed solo release in 2000 with the homonymous single hit "Känn ingen sorg för mig Göteborg". Throughout his solo career, Hellström has met some criticism for being too inspired by others, i.e. songs by the Jam, Dexy's Midnight and Runners, and Morrissey. All the same, Hellström has had great success as a solo artist in Scandinavia with his jangle pop / rock and singer / songwriter style with both chamber pop and indie pop and most recently some synth pop elements, and all his album releases have been awarded various Swedish prizes, i.e. Rockbjörnen (2000, 2001, 2008, 2011), P3 Guld (2003, 2009), Grammis (2000, 2002, 2006, 2008, 2010), Evert Taube-stipendiet (2007), and all his studio album releases has either sold Gold or Platinum in Sweden.
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