- Active: '80s, '90s, 2000s
- Genres: Rock
- Instrument: Vocals
- Representative Albums: "Picnic on a Frozen River", "The Dice Man", "A Soft Hearted Killer Collection
Biography
Freddie Wadling's career spans over a multitude of musical styles, from punk to classic ballads, and also includes acting and writing operas. During the '70s and early '80s he played in three punk bands: Liket lever, Cortex and Straitjackets, but his importance for the Swedish punk scene has been small. Instead it is in alternative rock and experimental music he has been influential, playing both with Flesh Quartet and Blue for Two. His weird image -- half druggie, half horror maestro -- and a reputation for being a genius got him attention from even mainstream media and made him the focus of most bands he played with. This even when he wasn't a full member, like in Flesh Quartet. In the late '90s, the solo career he had long pursued gained speed.Wadling was born in Göteborg in 1951. In 1975 he joined Straitjacket, one of the first punk bands in Sweden. To little fame they played together for four years, until breaking up in 1978, when the remaining members formed Liket Lever. This band released a single for the company Sista Bussen in 1979 but Wadling was already involved in another band, the controversial Leather Nun, where he played bass. He also played guitar in Perverts, and throughout his career this would be typical for him, keeping numerous side projects running simultaneously. The Leather Nun was infamous for revolting posters and fights at their concerts. Musically they spanned over a wide and unpredictable area: from punk and garage rock to something the members themselves, but few others, described as disco. Wadling left the band in 1982 and by then he had already been playing with his own band, Cortex, for almost two years, as well as with the short-lived project Rukorna. Wadling wrote the songs for Cortex, but after the band released an LP, he quickly formed a new group, the duo Blue for Two, together with Henryk Lipp. This was first intended to be a temporary studio project, but they would play together, live and on record, throughout the entire '80s. Some of their albums were successful abroad, but in the early '90s, Lipp was struck by illness, and though the band continued to record albums, they stopped touring.
In 1988 Wadling collaborated with Flesh Quartetfor the first time, a band that, while in many aspects being experimental, enjoyed a lot of popularity. The next year he released his first solo album, Something Wicked This Way Comes, and in the '90s he pursued at least three careers at once: as a solo artist, as a member of Blue For Two and soon as a steady member of Flesh Quartet. Of course this wasn't enough, and though the list of bands Wadling played with is longer, a few from the '90s should be mentioned: The Mobile Whorehouse was formed in 1989 and broke up in 1990 after releasing an album produced by Alexander Hacke from Einstürzende Neubauten, Suzie Beats Them All was formed in the mid-'90s and the Forge players released an album in 1998, called Flow My Tears - The Songs of John Dowland.
In addition to all these projects, in the '90s Wadling wrote two operas and acted on stage and in a number of films. Late in the decade he also found the time to work on his solo career. After big critical and moderate commercial success with a number of Flesh Quartet albums, he released En Skiva Till Kaffet in 1999. This collection of songs written by classic Swedish singers like Evert Taube, as well as by comedians like Hasse å Tage, received very favorable reviews and was followed up by Skillingtryck Och Mordvisor, where Wadling interpreted 19th century ballads in the style of Nick Cave's Murder Ballads. ~ Lars Lovén, All Music Guide
