Kiethevez

General information about the band | English

The Swedish electropop act Kiethevez was formed in 1991 and consists of Jesper Palmqvist (vocals), Per-Henrik Petersson, Jörgen Falmer and Tomas Amneskog. Inspiration comes from bands like Ultravox, U2, The Cure, A-ha, New Order, Depeche Mode but also from totally different genres. The music can be described as serious melancholic pop, always with real melodies. During the years, Kiethevez have developed from a synthesizer based band into a hybrid of synthpop and alternative pop/rock.

The debut album, “Three Empty Words”, was released in 1994 and it became their breakthrough on the Swedish alternative scene. The second single from the album, “Anything Higher”, was played a lot on the radio – and the video was shown on Z-TV. After some touring in Sweden, Kiethevez worked with the film music for the motion picture “Öden”. Now they started to receive attention even from abroad, for instance from Germany, Brazil, Spain and USA.

The US label “A Different Drum” released an American version of “Three Empty Words” in February 1997 at the same time as the band were finishing their new album back home in Sweden. In October of 1997 the first single, “Can’t See This”, was released and shortly thereafter their second album, “Opium”. The interest in the US started growing and also “Opium” was released there in the end of 1997.

In 1998, “Opium” was awarded as the third best album of the year at SAMA (Swedish Alternative Music Awards) and in September that year, the single “Erina” was released and it received a lot of air time on European radio. The same month, “One Roman Choir” was released as an American single and it became an underground hit and was played a lot on radio and on dance floors.

After some Swedish gigs, the band went to New York for two shows that were very successful. Back home again Kiethevez performed together with the band “Yvonne” at Kåren, Gothenburg and they also worked on a new album. But, after some time the band decided to take a break, the new songs didn’t feel strong enough, something was missing. Parts of the band worked with film music and other projects for a while.

In August of 2001, Kiethevez were talked into performing at “Göteborgs-kalaset”, a big festival in Gothenburg. After a successful performance the band decided to start working together again.

Between 2002 and 2005 about thirty new songs were composed, Kiethevez had at last found a more developed sound. In early 2005 thirteen songs were picked out to be completed in the studio. Due to the amount of time needed to find that special album sound, everything got delayed. By the end of 2006 the new material entered the mixing phase, but the mixing sessions had to be postponed a couple of months because the sound still wasn’t right. During the spring of 2007 the mixing sessions were renewed, and at the end of the year all pieces were finally right, the new album was mixed and ready for mastering.

In March 2008 Kiethevez signed a deal with the American independent record label A Different Drum for the release of the new album “Non-binary”. ”Non-binary” is a thoroughly worked out eleven track album that can be described as more organic, honest and acoustic compared to the earlier releases. Eleven really good songs are characterized by the melancholic melodies and the brilliant harmonies which are typical for Kiethevez. The album represents an updated, electro-acoustic and more mature sound where the songs shall be interpreted as a whole, a context with a common message.


DISCOGRAPHY
1993 ”Replenish My Mind” – CDM
1994 “Three Empty Words” – CD Album
1995 ”Anything Higher/Nothing I Can Do” – CDM
1995 “Destinies” – CDM
1997 ”Three Empty Words US Version” - CD Album (US)
1997 “År som blad” – CDS
1997 ”Can’t See This” – CDM
1997 “Opium” – CD Album
1998 ”One Roman Choir” – CDM (US)
1998 “Erina” – CDM
2008 “Non-binary” – CD Album


<< Back