When you watch a video clip or listen to a song on your streaming devices, you only witness the finished product. When you visit a concert or a festival you witness the live music and the stage performance or your favourite artist! But before all that can be enjoyed, there are a lot of things taking place to make it all happen. Artists, musicians, bands, venue directors, they all have their own story to tell!
In this series I’m going to talk to several different people, to find out what the stories are behind it all! From a “big shot” artist, all the way to promotion and record companies. In this episode Andreas Wikander AKA Lime Wolf!
Swedish native Wikander can be known for his work as vocalist in several (Swedish) bands like Escaping Amenti and Torn Visions. Recently Andreas started a project of his own named Lime Wolf. A rock/country oriented project that recently released a brand new single! About his projects, his youth and some other things I had a very interesting talk with Lime Wolf himself, Andreas Wikander!
Hi Andreas! Thank you for your time! It’s a great honour for us, to have you here! How is everything going? Covid and all?
The honour is all mine, thank you for having me.
Well, COVID19 sure put some stuff in a whole new perspective. Some plans got derailed other plans started growing and new projects were started.
Let’s start at the beginning. How was life for you, growing up in Sweden?
Ooh aah I will try to do my best answering that one the best way I can, let’s see if I remember it right. My first years I lived with my parents in Malmö, in the South of Sweden. We moved to a small town just north of Malmö, called Lomma, when I was about 7 years old. I’ve never had problems with making friends but school has never been my cup of tea. Well, at least not literature, reading has always been a struggle for me and I got easily distracted. Music, art and everything where I got the chance to challenge my creative side, was a whole different story as it has always come naturally to me. Being a kid was easy, growing up was harder. I lost many friends and people in general that stood me close, and without going in to detail, these people held very close to my heart. Depression hit me a couple of times, life got in the way more than once as it does. And I haven’t always been the best of friends with my own body. Health hasn’t always been on my side, but I don’t give up easily so I’ve managed to pull through.
At what age did you began to make music and what inspired you to do so?
Music always has been a part of me. I started as a 4 year old child to play music that I heard on the radio on my toy instruments, particularly this one song You can call me Al on my toy saxophone.
Many great artists and bands came and come from Sweden. Swedish musicians in general have a massive influence on music worldwide. In everyday life in Sweden this must show. What role does music play in your daily life in general?
I know. There seems to be something in the water up here haha. But all kidding aside, to me it’s not so much the music or musicians in Sweden as it is music in general that has always been there for me, feeling up, down, hurt or happy, music means a lot to me.
You’re still relatively young, but already build an impressive career for yourself. To start things of, together with a friend you started the band Escaping Amenti. What can you tell me about the forming of this band and what you guys do?
Well, Escaping Amenti for me was a start of something new. It wasn’t meant to be something more than a new start with something different in comparison to what I had done before. I stepped down from my former band Holerica after a hard time struggling with ghosts of my own mind for quite a while. I decided the time had come for me to reboot. I met the drummer at work on a job we did together in showbiz. We started talking, found some people who wanted to join and started working. But it took a couple of years before we found the right people for each and every part. To make a long story a bit shorter: we decided to see what kind of response we would get, so we booked a venue and started promoting it. When the day of the show came it just so happened that people came and the venue was filled, from the front row all the way to the entrée door.
We went ahead with it and made it more than “just” music. We started creating backstories and an overall story to go by it too. When we go on stage we don’t just play a live-show, we perform more of a theatrical show with a dark and mystic atmosphere.
In the meantime you entered another band as well. Torn Visions is another Swedish band where you take a leading role in vocals. What can you tell me about that?
I don’t know if I would call it a leading role, Dragan (Vuckovic) is the bandleader and lead-vocalist. I’m just the guy who wants the same thing as all the other bandmembers. I’m trying my best to make it so, that all of us get to where we want to go and have a lot of fun doing it. I was invited to join Torn Visions a couple of years back, so I did, and intend to stay!
What kind of instruments do you play?
First of all my instrument of choice are vocals. May it be clean vocals, growls, screams or toned screams, I do it all. Other than that I play the guitar, bass, harmonica, some piano and the basics in drums.
Next to being a musician you are a family man. What can you tell me about the fact that you have to combine so many things?
I wish I could say that it’s easy, but it really is not. It’s all about taking the time for everything you need. My kids love it though! Not particularly the times I’m not home, but the best practice I can get is when I put my kids to bed and they tell me, they want me to sing them a song and play the guitar. The best time of the day is the time I get with my kids and family.
During the pandemic, you announced a solo project named Lime Wolf. In contrast to the things you do in your other bands and projects, this solo project is more rock/country oriented. How come?
Yeah, it all started with me picking up my acoustic guitar more and more. A new sound came along the way and that’s what came to be Lime Wolf. From the beginning of this new project I wanted to try and make country music, but the bluesy Rock sound came more naturally. Hands the reason I decided to stay with it and make it my new project.
Are there, next to singing and creating music, other things you like to do in your spare time?
Cooking! I love food! The more challenging the recipes are to make, the more fun it is to me.
Also I like to hit the gym every now and then to stay in shape.
If money was not an issue and you had all the resources you needed at your disposal, what would be your way of doing things?
If money was not an issue, music would still be my go to. I would travel the world with all of my projects all the time and bring my family with me. Also I would donate a lot of the money to science, help saving lives by fighting cancer, Alzheimer’s disease and other worldly problems like that
Looking towards the future, are there any upcoming things that you can share with us?
I think I’m just going leave you with this! Keep a close eye out for my projects and bands. I’m certain that you don’t want to miss out on what’s on the way.
Is there anything you wish to add?
Please take your time and share your local bands! This is about their only real chance to get heard by more people than just their friends and family. So if you scroll through your socials, and you see a band asking you to share their music, please do! It means a lot for us musicians that you share our music, it’s not yours to keep, it’s meant to be shared by many.
I couldn’t agree with you more Andreas! Thank you for your time and willingness to talk so open about all the things we discussed. On behalf of everyone at Maizter Underground I want to wish you happy holidays and all the best with all you take on in the future!
At this moment, Andreas is working hard on new material with ESCAPING AMENTI, TORN VISIONS and LIME WOLF! To make sure you wont miss anyting ESCAPING AMENTI, TORN VISIONS and LIME WOLF releases or announces, please follow them through the following links!
Escaping Amenti
Facebook
Bandcamp
Youtube
Spotify
Torn Visions
Facebook
Youtube
Spotify
Lime Wolf
Facebook
Youtube
Spotify
