sven
Sven was born under the sign of the Sacred Goat, in Luleå, Norbotten, Sweden, north of the Arctic Circle, to his quarter-Vietnamese, quarter-Laplander, half-Swedish mother Brunhilde.
Aged three, he start travelling around Scandinavia with his foster-father Sval who was both a lorry driver and a Hell’s Angel. From Brunhilde he inherited his fine features and from Sval he inherited his love of rock and death metal.
When he was on summer holidays or between schools (after incidents with matches, kerosene, chainsaws, snowmobiles and headmaster’s daughters), Sven would continue to travel around with Sval and listen to his comprehensive collection of 70’s thrash metal and Abba hits.
Aged fifteen, he struck out on his own, spending nine months in Oslo working in a reindeer butchers while spending his evenings learning to play the guitar. Eventually he met enough like-minded souls to form his first band “Faces Full of Metal”, He left Faces before they recorded their first album due to artistic difference and his lack of facial piercings.
Scavenging enough money together, he thought that he would try and find his fortune in the US of A. Lacking enough money for the airfare, he caught a ride on a fishing trawler to Aberdeen. The first thing he did on landing was get hideously drunk to blot out the memory of the smell of fish. At some point in the twelve hour vodka and whisky marathon binge he met another Swedish ex-pat called Borg.
Waking up the next day, Borg and Sven found themselves asleep on a platform in the London Underground. And that was how one of the finest musical collaborations in death metal was formed. Unable to afford to eat kebabs, let alone drink vodka, the two of them pooled their musical talents to earn a crust. Thus, the first incarnation of Smorgasbord - “Feed Us or We Starve” was born. Eventually Borg and Sven recruited Heidi and Smorg to their cause, Currently Sven is nursing a hand injury where his pet rat and band mascot; Purgatory, bit him. While he has been unable to play, he has been experimenting with new forms of poetry. This has led him to start considering taking a couple of years out to further his solo musical career and maybe write a letter to his mum.