Kamchatka (band)
Encyclopedia
Kamchatka are a Swedish power trio
highly influenced by late 1960s and early 1970s blues-rock bands. Their sound combines elements of blues-rock
, stoner rock
and psychedelic rock
.
Kamchatka took their name from the volcanically
active Russia
n Kamchatka Peninsula
that divides the Okhotsk
and the Bering Sea
.
, a 14 track album containing 3 covers: "I Love Everybody" originally written by blues-rocker Johnny Winter
. The 2 other songs, "Auto Mowdown" and "Spacegirl Blues" were written by Gerald V. Casale
of New Wave
band Devo
(from compilation Hardcore Devo: Volume One
). The album was recorded at Shrimpmonkey studios by Nicolas Elgstrand.
In 2007, Before Kamchatka's second album Volume II
was released, guitarist Thomas Andersson collaborated on a project called King Hobo
with Opeth
keyboardist Per Wiberg
and Clutch
drummer Jean-Paul Gaster
, amongst others.
Kamchatka's third album Volume III
was released in March 2009. An 11 track album containing a cover of The Allman Brothers' song Whipping Post featuring Clutch
drummer Jean Paul Gaster.
The fourth album Bury Your Roots, an album of 12 original tracks, was released on GMR September 5th 2011.
, progressive rock
, stoner rock
and jazz
and by artists such as Devo
, Ali Farka Touré
, Cactus
, King Crimson
, Kyuss
, Sarah Vaughan
and Chet Baker
.
Thomas Andersson’s guitar playing is mainly riff
based and is considered highly inspired by Jimi Hendrix
and Robin Trower
, therefore Kamchatka are often compared to heavy blues-rock bands active in the late 1960s and early 1970s like The Jimi Hendrix Experience
, Led Zeppelin
and Cream
. The band has been labeled hard rock, stoner rock, jam band
, power trio
and blues-rock.
influenced band Clutch
on three occasions.
In April/May 2008 Kamchatka did a US Tour opening for Clutch
on 21 occasions. In 2009, they continued this affiliation with Clutch by joining them on a November tour of the EU
Power trio
A power trio is a rock and roll band format where the traditional power trio has a lineup of guitar, bass and drums, leaving out the rhythm guitar or keyboard that are used in other rock music to fill out the sound with chords...
highly influenced by late 1960s and early 1970s blues-rock bands. Their sound combines elements of blues-rock
Blues-rock
Blues rock is a hybrid musical genre combining bluesy improvisations over the 12-bar blues and extended boogie jams with rock and roll styles. The core of the blues rock sound is created by the electric guitar, piano, bass guitar and drum kit, with the electric guitar usually amplified through a...
, stoner rock
Stoner rock
Stoner rock or stoner metal is a subgenre of heavy metal, combining elements of psychedelic rock, blues rock, traditional heavy metal and doom metal. Stoner rock is typically slow-to-mid tempo and features a bass-heavy sound, melodic vocals, and 'retro' production...
and psychedelic rock
Psychedelic rock
Psychedelic rock is a style of rock music that is inspired or influenced by psychedelic culture and attempts to replicate and enhance the mind-altering experiences of psychedelic drugs. It emerged during the mid 1960s among folk rock and blues rock bands in United States and the United Kingdom...
.
Kamchatka took their name from the volcanically
Volcano
2. Bedrock3. Conduit 4. Base5. Sill6. Dike7. Layers of ash emitted by the volcano8. Flank| 9. Layers of lava emitted by the volcano10. Throat11. Parasitic cone12. Lava flow13. Vent14. Crater15...
active Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n Kamchatka Peninsula
Kamchatka Peninsula
The Kamchatka Peninsula is a peninsula in the Russian Far East, with an area of . It lies between the Pacific Ocean to the east and the Sea of Okhotsk to the west...
that divides the Okhotsk
Okhotsk
Okhotsk is an urban locality and a seaport at the mouth of the Okhota River on the Sea of Okhotsk, in Okhotsky District, Khabarovsk Krai, Russia. Population: 4,470 ;...
and the Bering Sea
Bering Sea
The Bering Sea is a marginal sea of the Pacific Ocean. It comprises a deep water basin, which then rises through a narrow slope into the shallower water above the continental shelves....
.
Biography
In 2005 Kamchatka released their self titled debut KamchatkaKamchatka (album)
Kamchatka is the debut album of Swedish Kamchatka, a 14 track album containing 3 covers: "I Love Everybody" originally written by Johnny Winter, Auto Modown and Spacegirl Blues by Gerald V Casale...
, a 14 track album containing 3 covers: "I Love Everybody" originally written by blues-rocker Johnny Winter
Johnny Winter
John Dawson "Johnny" Winter III is an American blues guitarist, singer, and producer. Best known for his late 1960s and 1970s high-energy blues-rock albums and live performances, Winter also produced three Grammy Award-winning albums for blues legend Muddy Waters...
. The 2 other songs, "Auto Mowdown" and "Spacegirl Blues" were written by Gerald V. Casale
Gerald Casale
Gerald Vincent Casale , often known as Jerry Casale, is a vocalist, bass guitar/synthesizer player, and a founding member of the new wave band Devo...
of New Wave
New Wave music
New Wave is a subgenre of :rock music that emerged in the mid to late 1970s alongside punk rock. The term at first generally was synonymous with punk rock before being considered a genre in its own right that incorporated aspects of electronic and experimental music, mod subculture, disco and 1960s...
band Devo
Devo
Devo is an American band formed in 1973 consisting of members from Kent and Akron, Ohio. The classic line-up of the band includes two sets of brothers, the Mothersbaughs and the Casales . The band had a #14 Billboard chart hit in 1980 with the single "Whip It", and has maintained a cult...
(from compilation Hardcore Devo: Volume One
Hardcore Devo: Volume One
Hardcore Devo: Volume One is the first of two collections of demos released by the post-punk/new wave band Devo. It is currently out of print.-Overview:...
). The album was recorded at Shrimpmonkey studios by Nicolas Elgstrand.
In 2007, Before Kamchatka's second album Volume II
Volume II (Kamchatka album)
Volume II is the second album of Kamchatka, a 11 track album containing 1 cover: "Enemy Maker" originally written by Alan Haggerty. The album was recorded by Tobias Strandvik and Kamchatka, mixed by Nicholas Elgstrand and Kamchatka and mastered by Tobias Strandvik and Kamchatka at Shrimpmonkey...
was released, guitarist Thomas Andersson collaborated on a project called King Hobo
King Hobo
King Hobo is a rock band from Sweden, formed in 2005. Jean-Paul Gaster from Clutch met Opeth keyboardist Per Wiberg at the Sounds of the Underground Tour. They jammed together, and allowed other musicians to join them, with the motto of "get funky or get out"...
with Opeth
Opeth
Opeth is a Swedish heavy metal band from Stockholm, formed in 1990. Though the group has been through several personnel changes, singer, guitarist, and songwriter Mikael Åkerfeldt has remained Opeth's driving force throughout the years...
keyboardist Per Wiberg
Per Wiberg
Per Jonas Wiberg is the former keyboardist of Swedish progressive death metal band Opeth, and a member of Michael Amott's stoner metal band Spiritual Beggars. Wiberg toured with Opeth from the 2003 Deliverance/Damnation tour onward, and joined Opeth officially in 2005. Wiberg provided backing...
and Clutch
Clutch (band)
Clutch is an American rock band from Germantown, Maryland, formed in 1990. The band's first release was an EP entitled Pitchfork, which debuted in October 1990. Their first studio album, Transnational Speedway League, was released three years later in 1993. To date, Clutch has released nine studio...
drummer Jean-Paul Gaster
Jean-Paul Gaster
Jean-Paul Gaster is the American drummer for rock band Clutch.-Style and influences:Jean-Paul Gaster has learned to play drums growing up on 1960s and 1970 heavy rock bands like Jimi Hendrix, Cream and Black Sabbath. Favorite drummers of Gaster are artists such as legendary jazz drummers Elvin...
, amongst others.
Kamchatka's third album Volume III
Volume III (Kamchatka album)
Volume III is the third album of Kamchatka, an eleven track effort, containing the cover version "Whipping Post", originally recorded by The Allman Brothers Band...
was released in March 2009. An 11 track album containing a cover of The Allman Brothers' song Whipping Post featuring Clutch
Clutch (band)
Clutch is an American rock band from Germantown, Maryland, formed in 1990. The band's first release was an EP entitled Pitchfork, which debuted in October 1990. Their first studio album, Transnational Speedway League, was released three years later in 1993. To date, Clutch has released nine studio...
drummer Jean Paul Gaster.
The fourth album Bury Your Roots, an album of 12 original tracks, was released on GMR September 5th 2011.
Musical style and influences
Kamchatka have been influenced by several genres including bluesBlues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
, progressive rock
Progressive rock
Progressive rock is a subgenre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s as part of a "mostly British attempt to elevate rock music to new levels of artistic credibility." John Covach, in Contemporary Music Review, says that many thought it would not just "succeed the pop of...
, stoner rock
Stoner rock
Stoner rock or stoner metal is a subgenre of heavy metal, combining elements of psychedelic rock, blues rock, traditional heavy metal and doom metal. Stoner rock is typically slow-to-mid tempo and features a bass-heavy sound, melodic vocals, and 'retro' production...
and jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
and by artists such as Devo
Devo
Devo is an American band formed in 1973 consisting of members from Kent and Akron, Ohio. The classic line-up of the band includes two sets of brothers, the Mothersbaughs and the Casales . The band had a #14 Billboard chart hit in 1980 with the single "Whip It", and has maintained a cult...
, Ali Farka Touré
Ali Farka Touré
Ali Ibrahim “Farka” Touré was a Malian singer and guitarist, and one of the African continent’s most internationally renowned musicians. His music is widely regarded as representing a point of intersection of traditional Malian music and its North American cousin, the blues...
, Cactus
Cactus (band)
Cactus is an American hard rock supergroup, formed in 1970.-Biography:Cactus was initially conceived as early as late 1969 by the Vanilla Fudge rhythm section of bassist Tim Bogert and drummer Carmine Appice with guitarist Jeff Beck and Xylophone player Adele Smitchell acted as the counterpart and...
, King Crimson
King Crimson
King Crimson are a rock band founded in London, England in 1969. Often categorised as a foundational progressive rock group, the band have incorporated diverse influences and instrumentation during their history...
, Kyuss
Kyuss
Kyuss is a rock band, originally from Palm Desert, California. After forming in the late 1980s and releasing an EP under the name Sons of Kyuss in 1990, the band shortened its name to Kyuss. Over the next five years the band released four full-length albums, and one last split EP in 1997 with...
, Sarah Vaughan
Sarah Vaughan
Sarah Lois Vaughan was an American jazz singer, described by Scott Yanow as having "one of the most wondrous voices of the 20th century."...
and Chet Baker
Chet Baker
Chesney Henry "Chet" Baker, Jr. was an American jazz trumpeter, flugelhornist and singer.Though his music earned him a large following , Baker's popularity was due in part to his "matinee idol-beauty" and "well-publicized drug habit."He died in 1988 in Amsterdam, the...
.
Thomas Andersson’s guitar playing is mainly riff
RIFF
The Resource Interchange File Format is a generic file container format for storing data in tagged chunks. It is primarily used to store multimedia such as sound and video, though it may also be used to store any arbitrary data....
based and is considered highly inspired by Jimi Hendrix
Jimi Hendrix
James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix was an American guitarist and singer-songwriter...
and Robin Trower
Robin Trower
Robin Leonard Trower , known professionally as Robin Trower, is an English rock guitarist who achieved success with Procol Harum during the 1960s, and then again as the bandleader of his own power trio.-Biography:...
, therefore Kamchatka are often compared to heavy blues-rock bands active in the late 1960s and early 1970s like The Jimi Hendrix Experience
The Jimi Hendrix Experience
The Jimi Hendrix Experience were an English-American psychedelic rock band that formed in London in October 1966. Comprising eponymous singer-songwriter and guitarist Jimi Hendrix, bassist and backing vocalist Noel Redding and drummer Mitch Mitchell, the band was active until June 1969, in which...
, Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin were an English rock band, active in the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s. Formed in 1968, they consisted of guitarist Jimmy Page, singer Robert Plant, bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham...
and Cream
Cream (band)
Cream were a 1960s British rock supergroup consisting of bassist/vocalist Jack Bruce, guitarist/vocalist Eric Clapton, and drummer Ginger Baker...
. The band has been labeled hard rock, stoner rock, jam band
Jam band
-Ambiguity:By the late 1990s use of the term jam band also became ambiguous. An editorial at jamband.com suggested that any band of which a primary band such as Phish has done a cover of be included as jam band. The example was including New York post-punk band Talking Heads after Phish performed...
, power trio
Power trio
A power trio is a rock and roll band format where the traditional power trio has a lineup of guitar, bass and drums, leaving out the rhythm guitar or keyboard that are used in other rock music to fill out the sound with chords...
and blues-rock.
Touring
In early 2007, Kamchatka did a tour in Sweden opening for bluesBlues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
influenced band Clutch
Clutch (band)
Clutch is an American rock band from Germantown, Maryland, formed in 1990. The band's first release was an EP entitled Pitchfork, which debuted in October 1990. Their first studio album, Transnational Speedway League, was released three years later in 1993. To date, Clutch has released nine studio...
on three occasions.
In April/May 2008 Kamchatka did a US Tour opening for Clutch
Clutch (band)
Clutch is an American rock band from Germantown, Maryland, formed in 1990. The band's first release was an EP entitled Pitchfork, which debuted in October 1990. Their first studio album, Transnational Speedway League, was released three years later in 1993. To date, Clutch has released nine studio...
on 21 occasions. In 2009, they continued this affiliation with Clutch by joining them on a November tour of the EU
Members
- Roger Öjersson - bass & lead vocals
- Thomas "Juneor" Andersson - guitar & vocals
- Tobias Strandvik - drums
Studio albums
- KamchatkaKamchatka (album)Kamchatka is the debut album of Swedish Kamchatka, a 14 track album containing 3 covers: "I Love Everybody" originally written by Johnny Winter, Auto Modown and Spacegirl Blues by Gerald V Casale...
(2005) - CD - 14 tracks - 59 minutes - Volume IIVolume II (Kamchatka album)Volume II is the second album of Kamchatka, a 11 track album containing 1 cover: "Enemy Maker" originally written by Alan Haggerty. The album was recorded by Tobias Strandvik and Kamchatka, mixed by Nicholas Elgstrand and Kamchatka and mastered by Tobias Strandvik and Kamchatka at Shrimpmonkey...
(2007) - CD - 11 tracks - 66 minutes - Volume IIIVolume III (Kamchatka album)Volume III is the third album of Kamchatka, an eleven track effort, containing the cover version "Whipping Post", originally recorded by The Allman Brothers Band...
(2009) - CD - 11 tracks - 59 minutes - Bury Your Roots (2011) - CD - 12 tracks - 52 minutes