Broder Daniel with Henrik Berggren

Foto: Oskar Karlin, wiki commons.

Broder Daniel is probably the most highest ranked domestic indie group of modern Sweden. The group was formed with initiative by its bandleader Henrik Berggren in 1989 at a posh secondary school, Samskolan, in Gothenburg, Sweden. Sharing the same rehearsal room, one guy in the band Little Wing, started to play the drums. His name was Håkan Hellström and is today one of Swedens most popular artists.

1995 was the year of their first single release, the song Cadillac was recorded in the studio straight as it was played live. They were too young to know anything about adding more tracks later.

The recording sessions was complicated in the way that a lot of alcohol was involved, it was the same during the tour that followed their release of the full album and they got a bad reputation amongst bookers at the clubs and different scenes/stages in Sweden. At the same time, the record didn´t sell very good, it was hard to book gigs and a promotion tour in England didn't come out well either.

They left their record company and the band wnt on a break.

They got back together, small changes amongst the band members but Henrik Berggren was still the undoubtable frontman. Still struggling with gigs, bad reputation they got a new record deal, but neither did they sell very well this time as well. Suddenly a new swedish film director, Lucas Moodysson used three of Broder Daniels songs in his movie Show me Love, and they got their big break in Sweden and they could tour the rest of the 90´s with a big crowd following them.

After this Håkan Hellström left the band even if he did some minor come backs later.

30 november 2001 in a swedish tv-show, they performed their song Shoreline and it became the most wished song in the swedish public radio the forthcoming month. It is said to be the most spread bootleg ever in Sweden.

The perfomance:


Now they become a living cult band, reaching out to youth thanks to their direct music and lyrics. They have never sounded good in the way of instruments and song performed with perfection, but they always delivered pure teen anxiety with great feeling reaching out to their audience hearts.

In 2008 Broder Daniels guitarplayer, Anders Göthberg died by suicide and later the same year, Broder Daniel had their final consert ever in Gothenburg at the Way out West festival. It is a classic concert, the audience was crying, touched by the band hounering Anders Göthberg.

Henrik ended the concert with the words: "Farewell my children".


More info:
Memorial page to Anders Göthberg
Broder Daniel on MySpace



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