I was born a musician.

At least that's what I think. My career started in a choir in Gothenburg at the age of about 7. The pampflet I was given before I joined promised lots of fun, and touring all over the world. I can still recall the moment I read about it, and in the next moment shouting to my mom that I wanted in on this.

I got accepted, (auditioning with a song by Carola!), toured in Germany, Switzerland, Austria and Greece, got casted for operas andmusicals at Stora Teatern in Gothenburg, all before turning 12, and finally leaving that adventure behind.

After that came a couple of years playing soccer and being a normal kid, before a neighbour introduced me to his electric guitar. I was asked to play the simple melody to Beastie Boys "Girls", and after that I was hooked. I got my mom to buy me a small Levin-amp and a Fernandes guitar. The amp had one small red button that activated the distorsion. I only pressed that button once, and then I was good to go..

I spent a couple of years in my room, borrowing my brothers ZZ Top records, playing the blues tracks based on the pentatonic scale I learned at the few guitar lessions i took.

Heading into the military service at 19, a friend of mine asked me if I wanted to play at the bar where he was working at the time. I was reluctant, but the money was not too bad. 80 euros for 4 hours/night. And by that I mean 4 hours. Not 3x30 minutes. Play an hour, have a 20 minute break, play an hour, and so on..

If anything, that was a fool-proof way of adding a huge amont of songs to your repertoir. Those nights were definitley what layed the foundation of the musician I am today. I took the first money I got and mought me a cheap microphone, and saved up to buy me a better guitar. I borrowed one from a friend the first couple of gigs. As time progressed I started getting jobs at local pizza places and other bars, before getting out of the military and starting work as a lawn mower salesman.

I was good at it, but when I found an ad for musicians wanted to a tourist boat in Greece, I walked in to the manager and quit my job. He laughed at me when I explained that I was gonna be a musician, but I guess I got the last laugh, huh?

I left Sweden in May 2001, weighing in at about 105 Kg (that's some 230 lbs, for people that don't use the metric system), and as I swam 3 times a day, drank water and played my heart out for 6 months in intense heat, I gained a lot of well-needed confidence and lost about 30 Kg, (65 lbs).

I came back to a city who suddenly offered tons of jobs, (If you didn't mind the crappy deals). One of those gigs were at a pizza place on a rainy november night. My audience were three men from France, who only requested Creedence songs the entire night, and if I didn't play "Proud Mary" or any of the other three songs I knew at the time, they threw salt and pepper shakers at me.

It all ended with me leaving without any money, because the owner claimed that he hadn't made any money that night.

That was by far the worst gig in my career, but luckily I started getting regular gigs at bigger venues in and around Gothenburg before finally getting a break in the shape of the restaurant manager at Scandic Hotel Europa who had just started an after work special at the hotel bar not too far from the store i was working in at the time. I asked if they needed entertainment and she said "Yes". I got the gig, and since hotels are pretty tough when it comes to money under the table, I simply went home and started my own company that same night.

That was 2003. More than years ago.

I was supposed to be working as an industrial designer by now. Drawing and building some chair or maybe a new version of the paper clip.

Nowadays I live and breathe music, I'm the proud CEO of LIMITER, my own company, working with stage productions, entertainment bookings and security solutions. And the times I hand out business cards at meetings and at gigs, you can always see me smile.

The title says "Musician" .

Who knew?

/M