Beardfish Split up

July 11, 2016

BAND STATEMENT:

After a longer hiatus and some disagreements and various difficulties within the band we have decided to call it quits. This was not an easy choice to make. Beardfish has always been our main musical outlet – a proper garage band – the kind that meet up in the rehearsal studio and try out new material together for long, massive sessions at a time. Some of the best times of our lives have been spent together on the road, in the studio and just hanging out.
Growing up, having families and all that has made that particular way of working very difficult, leading to long periods where we haven’t been able to rehearse.. And we LIKE to play.

We’ve had a very good run though; eight albums in fifteen years, nine if you include “The early years” (ten if you count “The Sane Day” double album as two!). We’ve toured with some great bands. We’ve met amazing people and found friends in places we’d never been before.
We want to thank everyone who has supported us throughout the years, you guys are fantastic and the prog community is a very special place to be a part of.

We spent our youth and our early adulthood as Beardfish and we grew up within the band.. Individually we will now venture out into other musical projects. No matter what, Beardfish has been very special and we will all hold it close to our hearts, but right now it’s time for new adventures.

“So real, it’s surreal”
A Love Story – The Sane Day (2005)

Beardfish
Rikard, David, Robert & Magnus

*****

This is seriously sad news....such a hugely talented band, with perhaps one of the best vocalists in modern prog as well. You could tell something was slightly `off' on their most recent album `+4626 Comfortzone', quite a lot of filler material creeping into that one and inspiration seemed to be running a little dry.

Still, what a superb back catalogue to keep on enjoying.

Man With Hat wrote: Never a huge fan, but still sad to read. I'm sure there will be several splinter bands to come from this.

This

Shoot. One of the modern prog bands that really stands out among the rest

This is sad.  One of few bands spinning Zappa type yarns.  They always caught me off guard with their unique quirkiness.  My wife just lost one of her 3 favorite prog bands.  Yeah, a modern prog band my wife and I could share.   I won't tell her.  I hate bearing bad news. 

bad news indeed, one of the best bands in recent years

King of Loss wrote: Real shame. They were a fine neo-progressive band!!

I don't know about that!? Never cared for them and I would definitely not call them neo-prog.

I'm wondering if things started to turn against them from `The Void' onwards? Both that and the above mentioned `Comfortzone' one were perfectly good albums (especially `The Void'), but as they started increasing the `heavier' elements into their music, it seemed to REALLY put off the retro-prog-loving fans of their music.

I still recall a constant criticism about `The Void' when it came out that there was `too much growling' on it, when actually (to those who didn't instantly dimiss it and turn the album off), the growls barely took up ten seconds on the entire album!

Despite them increasing the heavier elements in their music, all the strong melodies, superior vocals and tricky direction/style changes were still always present....but I get the feeling the damage was done and the `older' fans of the group switched off.

I definitely noticed not nearly as much buzz around their last two albums compared to the few before it.   

Really bad news, a great band.

The only redeeming fact is they have left a large body of works to savour.  They will be missed.

Very sad. Sleeping in Traffic Pt. 2 was the record that got me to love the Hammond. I was a teenager when that record came out and it really got me into progressive rock a little deeper.

Comfortzone is excellent.  Ode to the Rock'n'Roller is one of their best songs.  I would have no problem recommending that album as a starting point for new fans.