PEDER EXEM

Peder Exem was the first band I played in. I was the drummer, with Nils Johansen on bass and vocals and Hans Olav Grøttheim on guitar.

We met at school when me and Nils were 14 and Hans was 15, and spent a year or two jamming in a basement before playing our first gig at the occupied old police station in Tromsø in 1982.

The band never got to release any music, but we did a recording session in the local NRK (Norwegian Broadcasting) studio in Tromsø, with only one track released on a compilation four decades later (see link below).

We also did a couple of gigs that were filmed and broadcasted on national TV (see below), and played a couple of festivals in the region and a handful of gigs in town.

As we incorporated more and more synthesizers in the band, we eventually lost interest in playing in a band, and rather embarked on other adventures.

Nils later went on to form Bel Canto with Geir Jenssen and Anneli Drecker, and Hans had success with his YBU project through SSR Records in Belgium before setting up a studio in Oslo and producing some very successful pop artists.