TRYCKVÅG

Tryckvåg is a Swedish heavy metal band. They released a few great demo tapes back in the day which should have led to a record deal, there were some interest in their music but it didn't lead to a record deal. However, In 1985 they released the Stay the Night 7'' single but by then the band had moved away from that hard heavy metal sound and into more of a melodic hard rock or AOR sound like so many other bands at the time. They soon disbanded after the release of the single and in 1999 they put out a CD with their old demo material called Demolition.

Tryckvåg is quite an anonymous band, Can you do a brief introduction of yourself and the band?

Well…my name is Micke Höglund and I’m the bass player in Tryckvåg.

Thomas Broman is the drummer in the band and Mats Attaque is the guitarplayer and vocalist. When we’re playing live we’ve got a second guitarplayer as well, his name is Larsan Wilkensson. He was a member of the band for a couple of years.

Officially the band does not exist anymore, but we’ve done a couple of gigs in our hometown Mora over the last few years…just for a laugh really.

When was Tryckvåg founded and when did you disband?

I think Tryckvag was founded in 1979. It was just before we were asked to be in a Tv-show called “Discotaket” we changed the name Trash to Tryckvag…why I do not know.

We went separate ways in 87 after have been working with Björn Lodin in a project called Ready Steady.

I've heard that you have been playing a few gigs live again but most of the live material was covers, why?

For that simple reason that we enjoy playing music from the early eighties.

I think it’s more like 50/50 when it comes to the setlist.

Are there more gigs coming up?

Not at the moment…but I’m sure we’ll do it again if anyone wants to listen.

How did you end up with the name Tryckvåg (Swedish for Blastwave), especially when most of your songs were written in English?

At that time, the late 70’s, the record companies in Sweden wanted all the bands to sing in Swedish and have a Swedish band name, we actually wrote a song with Swedish lyrics “Tiden Är Knapp”. Anyway, we thought that if we get a Swedish bandname we were at least halfway there…hmmm.

What plans do you have for the future?

That was meant to be a secret…

At the moment we are recording some material that was written quite late in our career. We found some demos that sounded like shit but we thought the songs were too good to just leave them in a box never to be heard again. It’s hard to say when they will be available for the public but I’ll let you know. We are all very excited because it sounds really good…probably because we know how handle our instruments now.

Does there exist more material than the DEMOlition CD and the 7"?

Yes it does!

What kind of material?, is it only demos or are there any official recordings?

Only demos!

What material do you prefer, the 7" or any of your demos?

I prefer the demos, it’s more what Tryckvag was all about. Energetic heavy metal.

Are you receiving us?

What bands where you influenced by?

Wow…a lot of bands I guess. Judas Priest, Saxon, Van Halen, Ozzy and many more.

What's the highlight of your career?

I would say there was two moments I never forget.

1. Tryckvag was the first band on stage at the first Dala Rocken Festival in Hedemora.

2. We were in the final in a music competition held by the local newspaper Dala Demokraten in Borlänge called “Kapprocken”. We didn’t win but it was a great gig.

Why was the 7" softer in style than your earlier work?

The 7” was an attempt to get commercial…say no more.

What happened with the CBS deal?

CBS just loved a demo they had from us and they wanted us to rerecord the songs with a producer, Tomas Witt. They were very happy with the result but thought that the singer we had at the time was not good enough. We failed trying to find another singer and the rest is history…

Did you hang out with/play gigs with Zone Zero, who also were from Dalarna?

I’m sure we did, the name sounds familiar…are they from Leksand? If so I remember they sounded and looked like Mötley Crüe.

We did a lot of gigs with our good friends from Vansbro, Keen Hue.

Did much of your early material reach other countries, and if so, what kind of response did you get?

As far as I know it never reached other countries.

That’s not true…when we did that TV-show I mentioned earlier we were asked to represent Sweden in a radio show called “EuropaToppen”. The song was White Wizard. You can hear the result from the jury on the last track on the DEMOlition album…he he he.

Does there exist any Tryckvåg merchandise like t-shirts, posters etc?

Not at the moment. It used to, we had T-shirts, stickers, posters…everything.

Any last words to our readers?

Heavy Metal Rules…no matter how old you are.

By/Ruthless

(2004)