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Annika Westman

Annika is a live music addict, journalist, booking agent and semi-retired bass player

About Me

Aged 13, all of a sudden I switched from Beatles/Kinks/Stones to the jazz radio, Jimi Hendrix, John Lee Hooker, Bob Dylan, Motown and since that I’ve been following that one-way road that keeps bringing you to new musical districts. I want music that brings something new, creating new combinations of musical elements. After all these years that I spent deeply involved in music, I don’t need to go to my CD player (or vinyl - I kept it) if I want to listen to the same old stuff, I can decide what song I want to hear and it will play in my ears, it’s stored on that disc that I keep somewhere between those ears… Went from being a piano-playing child, bored with the teachers, to buying my own guitar and learning as many Leadbelly and Dylan-songs as possible. Being mostly self-taught, I had an electric guitar teacher for a while. He was electric enough to turn me on to fusion (which was then brand new) and ECM jazz (also new). Going to jam sessions with a bunch of guitarists and no bass player made me pick up the Fender bass and I didn’t put it down until many many years later when it was time for me to contribute to Sweden’s small population by giving birth to my little Alice. By then I had toured Northern Europe as the bass player of a soul/bluesband for about 15 years, while being a contributor to the world’s oldest blues magazine, Jefferson. I have also been running clubs, booking and arranging concerts – got my feet warm when I (age: 20) organized a two-day festival with a small group of (younger) friends, featuring some of the most popular Swedish groups at the time. Today I’m a free-lance journalist and booking agent, living in the very south of Sweden, but catching the one-hour train ride to Copenhagen almost every week to enjoy the great live music scene there. To have my soul saved. I’m a live music addict!