back

biography / portrait

Norwegian five-piece Animal Alpha began in 2002 after lead singer Agnete Kjlsrud met guitarist and songwriter Christian Wibe through musicians-wanted ads placed at the men's room at a local club in Oslo, Norway. With the addition of bass-player Lars Imre Bidtnes, guitar-player Christer Andre Cederberg and drummer Thomas Jacobsen, the quintet took to honouring their skills with intensive rehearsing, perfecting their sound and image. After spending a great deal of 2004 in a battered old van gigging around Norway, the band soon earned a growing fan-base and interest from the music industry. This, performing at Oslos prestigious ya-festival, earning them 8 of 10 points in British Metal Hammer Magazine, combined with an appearance on national TV-program 'Lydverket' created a buzz around the band and led to two successful sold-out nights at Oslo,s 500-crowd-capacity John Dee club, without any released material, quite unique for Norwegian standards. Thus, from being one of Norway's best hidden musical secrets, the band rose from relative obscurity into the musical mainstream by the end of 04. A bidding war between none less than 11 record-labels ensued, and the band chose small indie label Racing Junior, inking a record deal with them, late Winter 2005. (source: www.myspace.com/animalalpha)