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biography / portrait

Johannes Gammelby a.k.a. I Am Bones likes skulls, heavy metal, thinks blood is cool and his motto is “Eat, Fuck, Sleep, Repeat.” But he’s really the nicest guy around and his music is not a true testimony of his darker sides. Shifting back and forth between the aggressive and the mellow in his songwriting, a terrific sense of melody – not the dark side of the force – is the common denominator. During his teen years Johannes’ golfing talents were promising but in an outburst of youthful bad judgement, he chose music over sports; Girls over money. The old story. But he chose right. The influential Danish music magazine Soundvenue put it this way: “Beats by Beck, care-free guitar Stephen Malkmus-style and punk fury from Frank Black drop a hint now and again, but the brilliant melodies are the ones that truly make your bones rattle." Newspaper Politiken put it this way: ”(....) with freaky leaps of thought and flamboyant pop flashes, I Am Bones lurches dynamically from one side to the other. 'Replica' is virtually a cheerful machine storm, while 'Backpackers' all of a sudden begins to seethe like ill-tempered heavyrock, before Bones on the next track delivers rich, wolly beats and serves a mutilated brass soup. With a 1.001 imposing ideas in the melting pot, I Am Bones wales in a raving mood. Most of the time, the result is inspiring and highly entertaining." Let me introduce; I Am Bones. Since 2001, he has written countless songs in his bedroom and recorded them, playing all the instruments himself. However, this is not your typical bedroom-DIY-lo-fi package, the intention was to write aggressive pop. Anti-indie, if you will. (Define 'indie'?! ed.) It is all about seeing how far it is possible to go, in one given direction, with a short attention span. Thus, the debutalbum succeedes in combining hard-core, folk, hip-hop, new wave and just plain ol' rock 'n' roll. In order for the album to be realized, Gammelby recruited fellow morningsider and long-time friend Torsten Larsen (Larsen & Furious Jane) as producer on the album. additionally, long-time drummer-icon Piet Breinholm Bendtsen (18th Dye, Test, Rhonda Harris) and bassplayer Gaute Niemann from your future-favoriteband, Spleen United, were recruited. The ad hoc band recorded the basic tracks for Wrong Numbers Are Never Busy and Torsten and Gammelby finished the recordings themselves over the course of the summer 2005, adding vocals and more guitars and so forth. The live setup is: Johannes Gammelby on vocals and guitar, Mads Mortensen on bass, Mads Hansen on guitar and vocals, Kasper Ravlo on guitar/piano, and Mr. Q temporarily playing drums. Touring begins october 2005. (source: www.morningsiderecords.dk)