THE GRAND

-I have always dreamt about being in a band, says Amund Maarud, singer and guitarist in the Norwegian power-quartet The Grand, without the slightest touch of irony.



Well, most rock musicians do just that, right? So whats up with Amund?

Thing is, Amund has actually always been in a band. More accurately; Amund has always fronted his own band. He has put out three albums, the first one when he and drummer brother Henrik were in their mid teens and still played with their father. He has travelled his native Norway for the last five-six years as a professional musician, and is actually a decorated veteran of the remarkably large Norwegian blues scene. He has headlined festivals and he has played with and alongside guitar legends, international as well as local. And yet, Amund Maarud is not even 25.



The Grands debut EP, released on The Grand Recordings/Sonet in May 2007 received excellent reviews from the Norwegian music press and the band is said to be one of the most exciting things to come out of the Norwegian music scene this year. Their dirty and razor-sharp, but still highly psychedelic and eclectic sound makes one think of creative pioneers like The Groundhogs and Cream, or garage-greats like The Sonics or 13th Floor Elevators, but in spite of their marijuana-hazed musical foundation they refuse to be just another one of those middle-of-the-road-retro-bands and remain relentlessly inventive and fresh-sounding.



Now, the great thing about The Grand, says studio-engineer Sven Olsen (Ricochets, Sivert Høyem, Dum Dum Boys), who recorded and mixed The Grands debut EP, is the fact that the quartet works as a four cylinder engine. This is not at all about Amund showing off his impeccable guitar skills, he says. Every member of the band is crucially important and they somehow seem to feed creative energy off each other on stage. Even this early in their career, these guys have gained a reputation for their mesmerizing live performances boasting multiple-personality-disorder-style guitar playing, out-of-whack Hammond organ, thundering ten-minute-long drum solos and growling bass guitar hung well below the belt buckle.



The Grands musical direction came about in a very unusual way:

-We struck up this routine of jamming at the end of our shows. After a while that was the coolest part of the evening, the one everyone in the band looked forward to, even though sometimes the audience didnt dig it. Some even got seriously mad and flipped the bird to us as a parting gesture, so thats really what sparked the whole thing, Amund confesses. -After a while some of these jams turned into full songs, and we just kinda took it from there.



Upon hearing the four songs that make up The Grands debut EP, Freeloader, Lust to win, Girl, youre a waste of time, and Traveling Bound, the latter of which has received heavy rotation on Oslos indie radio stations, it seems one is instantly transported through a strange time-warp. Has Rick Rubin travelled back in time to produce Leslie Wests Mountain? Did Cream actually secretly make a ”Disraeli Gears Part II”? Has Groundhogs teleported from the dirty backstreets of Londons early seventies to the east side of Oslo, Norway anno 2007? Perhaps their first album, due October 2007, will provide some answers?



Oh, we are living strange days indeed. The Grand is busy putting together the most remarkable soundtrack!



Band: (band@thegrand.no) Management: Vox Management (eivind@voxmanagement.no)

Booking: Atomic Soul (knut@atomicsoul.no) International Booking: Skandinavian (brian@skandianvian.org)

Promo: Anngunn Sørli(anngunns@gmail.com)



Facebook fansite: The Grand



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Photos, top to bottom: Kåre Presttun, Erik Dahl, Ronny Østnes