GIPSY POWER (SE)
GIPSY POWER(SE)
After resuming his career a few years ago and getting none other than Jean-Claude Van Damme to play air guitar and dance ecstatically in front of the stage at the Macau International Film Festival in China the Swedish guitarist Steven Kautzky Andersson is now back in full force. The music of his new band Gipsy Power is a colorful explosion of high-energy psychedelic guitar rock, in which one can sense influences from both Led Zeppelin and Jimi Hendrix. In the summer of 2020, the band’s comeback single with an instrumental version of Jimi Hendrix’s classic Little Wing signaled the return, and in November 2021 their album Electric Threads was finally released.
In his early twenties, Steven was discovered by Guitar World Magazine’s legendary talent scout and record producer Mike Varney, who hailed his talent in the magazine. Steven was recognized for his distinct and virtuosic instrumental music, a mix of progressive rock with influences of classical music, folk and oriental music, and at the age of 22, he made his debut as a recording artist with the Swedish Grammy-nominated album Steven Anderson ́s Gipsy Power, presenting heavy, instrumental guitar music, inspired by the beauty of eastern European gipsy music. Steven was hailed as a new Swedish guitar hero and achieved substantial international success, especially in Japan where he established a loyal fanbase.
Unfortunately, in accident damage was done to Steven’s arm, with a following inflammation and after numerous lithotripsies, cortisone injections and different acupuncture techniques, the guitar was put on the shelf and more or less left untouched.
But ten years later Steven decided to give it a try and started playing again, developing a rougher way of expressing himself through the guitar. On their first tour of China his new band Electric Religions performed in front of an audience of more than 30.000 people at the Zhuhai International Beach Music Festival and also played at the rock club Yu Gong Yi Shan Music Bar in Beijing. During their tour, a documentary was produced by a Chinese film team, and the documentary The Golden Awakening Tour in China was awarded the gold prize at The Macau International Movie Festival, where the band performed their Bruce Lee-tribute, Lee Chao Long. In the crowd, the famous actor Jean-Claude Van Damme was spotted playing air guitar with the band during their performance. The award show in Macau was broadcasted in China and Asia, to an estimated audience of 1,8 billion viewers (!). Back in Sweden Electric Religions were chosen to perform a special tribute to the Polar Music Prize 2016 laureates Max Martin and Cecilia Bertoli at the Polar Music Prize VIP Party at the home of Tomas and Marie Ledin, the daughter of the prize’s founder Stikkan Anderson (ABBA:s legendary manager). The band also recorded their own versions of three especially selected songs by the former rock singer Max Martin and released them on their EP A Tribute to Max Martin.
Together with his longtime friend and music colleague Mikael Nordmark, Steven is now closing the circles and reuniting the band Gipsy Power. On their new album Electric Threads, the line-up consists of Steven Kautzky Andersson, Mikael Nordmark on bass, drummer Björn Nyberg and singer Ulrika Beijer, who in November 2021 released her own solo album The Lost Sessions (including songs by Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Willie Nelson, Steve Earle a.o.).
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