Cargo Records

Black on Black

While waiting for the tour dates to promote the new releases of Royal Hunt, Andre decided to record a second studio album as a solo artist and take his project one step further in his continued quest for development.

When most musicians take a vacation from the consistent strain of recording and touring, the last thing on their minds is work. That was not the case for Andre Andersen, the multi-instrumentalist main-man from Royal Hunt. For him the best way to relax is creating music and the result is the second studio album titled Black On Black. For those unfamiliar with the Danish band, Royal Hunt is one of Scandinavia's most successful exports having sold over a million records worldwide. Their progressive, majestic sound is very popular in Japan where Andre was voted Best Keyboard Player in BURRN! magazine's reader's poll for three years in a row. In Europe, Royal Hunt was voted as Best New Band by both fans and critics in various publications, and at home, Royal Hunt was nominated for a Grammy as Best Rock Band. Andre has been and is on the covers of many music magazines worldwide. (Burrn! - Japan, Flash - Italy, Keyboard - Japan, Rock Time - France, Strike - Brazil among others) Born in Moscow to a Danish father and a Russian mother, Andre started his musical training when he was five, yet hated the formality of studying and conformity at such an early age. It was at the age of 12 that Andre discovered rock music with the Deep Purple classic "In Rock" album. His teen years were spent divided between studying classical music at the Moscow Music Conservatory and playing in rock bands with his schoolmates. His connection with the Conservatory gave him the opportunity to perform with orchestras during his late teens, yet Andre also knew his heart was in rock music. Andre went on to medical school for three years, but decided to study journalism (to follow in his father's footsteps) when his family returned to his dad's homeland of Denmark. It was there that Andre formed the band Trace, built his own studio and worked as a sound engineer. Trace would later become Apart (with the typical revolving door of musicians of course) and finally Royal Hunt in the early 90's. The band went on to release seven studio albums with increasing sales and successful tours across the board. Excessive touring and recording in '98 led members of Royal Hunt collectively decide that it was time to take a well-deserved break. As his band mates took it easy finally settling into their homes, Andre soon got the urge to work again. Andre started to work on some songs and soon realized he had a whole album ready to go. That's how the solo Andre Andersen project was born. The first album "Changing Skin" did great worldwide impact on the fans and critics alike and showed the true diversity of Andre's musical and technical capabilities. Now, while waiting for the tour dates to promote the new releases of Royal Hunt, Andre decided to record a second studio album as a solo artist and take his project one step further in his continued quest for development. "Black On Black" was recorded over several months at Andre's studio The North Point with several musician friends. Vocalist Ian Parry is from Elegy, guitarist Rene Realand played with Witch Cross and drummer Kaj Laege is from another band which Andre produced in the past. "All of the guys are my personal friends, so picking them out was extremely easy. They all have some kind of specialty. Some are more of a progressive player, and some are more flashy or melodic in their playing style, so I just went with the flow of the songs. We had a great time recording the album. I have explored the mix of new sounds with traditional heavy rock and I think it worked out very well."