The short version
The man behind Mr Krax is the Swedish songwriter and producer Pierre Blom, probably one of the best songwriters that no one cares about.... He grew up and started to make music in the 60s inspired by the breakthrough of the Beatles. Combining that initial music style with lots of other styles he has created almost a genre of his own.
In 2001 the first self titled song collection was ready. At this time it was about one hour of songs on home made CDs. The idea was just to record some songs that needed to be recorded. That’s why they are called song collections and not albums.
From 2013 Mr Krax is available in the digital market. As of today there are thirty two song collections in full length out there and more to come. Not to mention a couple of singles and EP’s.
2015 saw the first digital release in Swedish, now by the name Herr Krax.
The long version (chronicle)
November 1951, Pierre Blom saw the light for the first time. This event took place at Katrineholm maternity ward in Sweden.
1958 a shy little boy went to school for the first time.
1963 the Beatles broke in Sweden. The young boy Pierre was blown away.
1964 Pierre got his first guitar and eventually wrote his first song.
1966 he joined/formed the band Jam Session Group as a bass player and vocalist. They played mostly covers and some blues.
1968 the band broke up as school ended. Pierre started to work in his father’s workshop with steel and welding and such. He paired with his future wife who was also part of the youth choir Pierre attended.
1970 cirka, the two formed a folksy vocal group, Prefix, with a friend. Three part harmony and guitar was the formula. They were also part of two choirs.
1972 they got married.
1974 Prefix released an LP called ”Brustna Illusioner" (Broken Illusions). It was recorded in the living room on an 8-track tape recorder and a home built mixer. The repertoire was all Pierres songs and nowhere near the genre they normally performed. In fact, the other two members did not contribute very much on the record.
Later that year Pierre went through a surgery due to an inborn condition with the aorta.
1975 just before Christmas the little family (they now had two kids) moved into their first own house.
1976 saw only four new songs being written. Being a family man and house owner turned out to be a trustworthy and diligent task!
1978 kid no three was born and soon plans on building a studio and reduce the day job began to form.
1980 cirka, the studio was ready in an annex to the house. It was then possible to take some clients and only work the day job for two or three days a week. Unfortunately there was not so much time for making his own music….
1984. Only one song was completed this year in January. It should prove to be fourteen years to the completion of a new song again. In autumn this year Pierre took time off from his job to start building a new home. The studio went out of service in order to reappear in the basement of the new house.
1985 they moved in to the new house. The studio, however, was not ready yet. Life went on with job, family matters, organization commitments, and so on.
1989 Pierre began to work as a train traffic controller in Stockholm. Although he now had to commute for one hour and a half in each direction instead of five minutes in the car, it was a dream job since he was a child so what? The studio was still on hold.
1994, on the exact day 20 years after the first surgery, Pierre went through an emergency operation due to a broken aortic aneurysm in the same spot as the first one in 1974. For some reason the old joint had failed.
1998 Pierres brother wanted him to write a piece for his marriage. In march he made a piece for church organ for that occasion, more than fourteen years after the preceding composition. In december he wrote a more regular song. He was on track again!
2001 is the year when Mr Krax was born! After many years of writing songs and struggling to get them accepted by the gatekeepers of the so called music industry, Pierre decided to leave them be. The technology of recording was getting both better and cheaper and the computers were coming big. So in November this year he put together a collection of songs by the name of Mr Krax. It was eleven songs on home made CDs made on demand. Why Mr Krax? one might ask. During the years Pierre was quite a good singer in the barytone/tenor range. Also he had a good voice control and it was easy for him to do imitations and such. After the surgery in 1994 everything changed. The vocal chords sometimes got stuck in a spasm, in fact one of them was paralyzed due to a damaged nerve during the operation. He easily was hoarse and the lung capacity was limited. The sound he made compared to the sound of a crow. In Swedish that sound is a ”krax”, hence the name Mr Krax.
2002 a water leakage in the basement finally sealed the studio that never became finished. The basement was rebuilt more like a traditional basement and that was it.
2013. Having seen the rise of the Internet with download and streaming services it seemed to be an inevitable step to go digital. This year the first song collection by Mr Krax went digital. The aim is now to put out all song collections prior to 2013 as well.
2014 Pierre retired from his job, only to come back to do some extra shifts now and then. The retirement raised the opportunity to devote more time into the music and everything around it. At the same time grandchildren and other family matters must have their share.
2015 the first digital song collection in Swedish was released. Except for the odd instrumental Mr Krax always sings in English, but there are songs in Swedish language. Many times these songs are slightly different in genre or feel so Pierre invented Herr Krax to sing in Swedish. And so Herr Krax has a life of his own…
2017 song 1000 was filed! The goal now is to pollute cyberspace with at least half the number of songs written.
2020. Finally the last shift on the old job was made and that part of life was complete. But still there are things to do before the Bogey Man arrives! Like making music …. Now the 1100 song mark is passed so it’s just to continue with it!
2021 November, the man turned 70! How did this happen so fast? Anyway, the music will never stop and that’s a fact…
February 2024 song no 1200 was filed! And there seems to be no bottom in the well…
May 2024 the last song collection from the huge back catalogue was finally released.