About Earlybird Stringband

The story of how Earlybird Stringband came to be starts in the fall of 2005.
Christian and Hans Martin were classmates in music studies. Christian had recently bought and learned to play the dobro. He showed Hans Martin some licks during a recess. Hans Martin went off the wall as he realized that he'd heard this music on the radio, liked it, but never really got into what it was. Come January and the 2nd annual Norwegian student loan comes falling into his lap. Hans Martin decides that most of his money should be used to buy a banjo instead of schoolbooks, pencils and paper.
Thankfully, he didn't ask anyone for advice if he really should do this. He just went off one cold January morning and brought home with him a fine beginners banjo. Determined to learn this style of music he would practice for 12 hours a day and forget to eat and sleep.
It didn't take long 'till we were ready to jam. Being in music studies, there were enough musicians around to assemble a full piece bluegrass band. Actually, we didn't even have to look further than to our already close friends. What a blessing!

We rounded up Erlend on the fiddle, and now honorary members Juhani Silvola and Bjarne Gustavsen on the guitar and bass. Andreas Knudsrød played some mandolin, and we played all the old tunes that we could find. Cripple Creek, Foggy Mountain Breakdown, Tennessee Blues, Salt Creek, Lost Indian, Temperance Reel. The list goes on and on.
We listened for hours and hours to the music of Doc Watson, Bill Monroe, JD Crowe, Ricky Skaggs, Tony Rice and this list goes on forever too.
We roamed the Internet and record stores for recordings, rare tunes and playing tips. Every rehersal was like a six-way lesson. Everyone had something to teach and learn from each other. Some of us got into old time, others were obsessed by harmony singing. Most of us were deep into the mysteries of our instrument, and the sound. But still everyone was into everything. It was all about the music, and it still is.

As time passed our ambitions increased. The hard core of the band persisted. Thanks to Christians smooth talking, Olav Christer and Sebastian joined the band. Audun joined as the last piece to where we are at today. Six members with their own distinct contribution to the music.

We started writing our own material - which shouldn't be too surprizing since all our band members actually write tunes for themselves and in other bands.
Now we are playing our own material, almost exclusively, inspired by the music we've studied so hard to understand. It's not exactly traditional bluegrass anymore. It most certainly is made in the spirit of the bands origins. Heavy vocal harmonies, hard drive, loud instrumental brilliance and six teaspoons of soul.

Band members:

Erlend Viken -
Fiddle

Erlend is from Oppdal, in the mid-parts of Norway. He learned to play the fiddle by his father as he grew up. He learned to play by ear in the style of Norwegian Folk Music, and decided to study music through high school. He was accepted to the department of Norwegian Folk Music at the Norwegian State Academy of Music in 2003, which he graduated from in 2007. He's had a long lasting interest in american folk music, which eventually led him to bluegrass and oldtime music. After getting his bachelor, Erlend took a year of didactics, and is now working freelance as a musician and teacher. He's been playing or standing in with bands as Camilla Granlien Band, Åsmund Nordstoga and Viken/Brimi. During 2009 and 2010 he has also been touring with the norwegian dance company FRIKAR. Erlend also sings some harmony vocals every now and then with the band.

Christian Skaugen -
Dobro/Backing Vocals

Christian is our Dobro player. He grew up in Langesund, in the eastern parts of Norway, playing different instruments before he grew especially to the drums. He plays the drums in the bands X-Queen of the Astronauts and Nancy Drew. One day for some years ago, for some reason, he started picking the dobro. This will be said to be the initial beginning of Earlybird Stringband.
Christian also sings harmony in the band. He graduated from the Norwegian State Academy of Music in 2008, and has been working as a freelance musician and teacher since.

Audun Skjølberg -
Guitar/Backing Vocals

Audun is our latest addition to the band, joining us the winter of 2009. We found him when we dug amongst guitar players familiar to the folk music scene. He is an exellent lefty guitar player. (Which leaves his guitar pretty much untouched in rehersal breaks.) Audun is also a great singer with a clear tenor voice, and sings the higher harmony parts in the band. In June 2009 he won the open class of the Norwegian National Folk Music Competition in the duo Nina&Audun. Audun also holds the Norwegian record in specimen fishing, spellbounding the band on tour when telling stories of fishing in the Amazon, or perhaps New Zealand. After playing at the EWOB festival with Earlybird Stringband in 2010, Audun left directly for Pakistan where he toured in a collaboration between the group Triumvir and Pakistani musicians.

Olav Christer Rossebø -
Mandolin

Olav Christer is our mandolin player, but is also a great fiddler. He's from Tysvær in the Norwegian southwest, and learned to play the mandolin as a child through Norsk Mandolinorkester. He studied music through highschool, and was, like Erlend, accepted at the Norwegian State Academy in 2003 at the department of folk music, which he graduated from in 2007. Olav Christer plays in the bands Geitungen and Bergen Mandolinband, and has done work in the orchestra of the National Theatre and Oslo Nye Teater. In 2010, Hans and Olav travelled to the United States on a goverment stipend to study bluegrass and old time music. They travelled from New York to North Carolina and met alot of great people and musicians along the way.

Hans Martin Austestad -
Banjo/Lead Vocals

Hans Martin is our banjo player, lead singer and main engine. He also writes alot of tunes for the band. He started off on the guitar at the age of 8, but found he wanted to pursue vocals when he started music studies in high school. In 2006, he rediscovered the banjo, recalling a years brush with the guitarbanjo in midschool. He graduated from the Norwegian State Academy of Music in 2008, at the department of rhythmic music. He's been working as a freelance musician and teacher since, and participates in several bands. Amongst these are: Jono El Grande, Mattis Myrland and the Grand Trunk Road Ensemble and Norsk Kurveunion. In May 2009 he toured Norway with the renouned vocal artist Bobby McFerrin.
In just a few years he has opened the Norwegian Grammy awards, participated on several albums, and travelled on a Norwegian goverment grant to the United States, all in the name of the banjo.

Sebastian Haugen -
Double Bass/Backing Vocals

Sebastian is our bass player. He graduated from the Norwegian Academy of Music, dept. of jazz, in 2008. He grew up in Oslo, and picked up the guitar and electric bass early, but changed to the double bass as soon as his hands were large enough. (Perhaps influenced by his father who was the solo bass player of the Oslo Philharmonic.)
He's played bass in several bands over the years, in a dozen different genres. Every now and then, we let him play a solo, but we have him on a strict 1-3 leash most of the time. He also sings most of the lower harmony parts.
Sebastian graduated with a didactics degree in 2009, a school year, he says, that was one of the hardest of his life. He is now working as a freelance musician and teacher.