Melodic Punk Style : Ape Grape

Location: Lindesberg, Sweden.

original members:
Jakob Ekeholm - vocals, bass
Daniel Widman - drums
Micke Gustafson - guitar, vocals
Martin Ekeholm - guitar

The line-up:
Jakob - vocals, bass
Micke - guitar, vocals
Pär - drums of doom

Web site:
Ape Grape myspace profile

History:
The band started in 1995 during the summer and they wrote a couple of songs. At that time the name of the band was "Retarded Crowd". The band had rehearsals in the basement of one of our friends house.First gig was autumn that year.

In 1996 they wrote more songs, changed the name to "Ape Grape" and moved to a new rehearsalroom (a new basement!). They didn´t stay there for so long. The new place was a big house in the village where Daniel lived (Grönbo).
In this year they had five gigs with different quality, "Rock For Moc" in summer 1996 was one of them. In this year they recorded first demo "Ape Tape" . It was in autumn. 13 songs, which they recorded live in rehearsalroom.

In 1997 they had alot gigs and played better too. In the spring of 97 they had one gig a week and ruled the place. One gig to remember was when they were in Örnsköldsvik and did a very good show. All their friends came up to sing the last song with the band and there were about 20 people on stage.A few days later back in Lindesberg they recorded second demotape called "Thickionary". Eight songs with much better sound quality than the earlier. Then they changed rehearsalroom again.

In 1998 they didn´t have so many gigs but instead of this they progressed as band and changed musical direction a bit. They played outside Lindesberg alot more than earlier too, for example Södertälje. Then they lost their drummer to Japan in August. He went there studying for a year in japanese. Anyway they replaced him during 1998 with Olof Mogren. It was difficult to practice without their ordinary drummer and they didn´t produce so many new songs.

In 1999 they did a recording of the song "Closer", which participated on the compilation "Best of Bergslagen". It was released during spring -99 and they played on the releaseparty (without Daniel and Martin).
In june Daniel came home from Japan.During the summer they had a few gigs and they were really good. The gig on "Augustibuller" (a year since the last time they played together) was a sucess.

In 2000 they released the 4-song demo called “twenty minutes later”. It was recorded at musikhuset by Andreas Nilsson. They put up a release party also at musikhuset with “Hardcore Superstar”. Micke was a soldier until may and it was a bit hard for them to practise that period. Martin was in skövde studying media. Later on thry played on Augustibuller for the fourth time in a row. In the autumn Daniel moved to Uppsala to study law. Jakob went to Oslo to work in a warehouse. Therefore the band activity was quite low.

2001 – The spring came and went… the situation was the same: Jakob in Norway, Daniel in Uppsala and so on. But in the autumn they thought that it was a shame letting the band die. So they asked Pär, a friend of them and drummer in Relentless, if he could stand in as a drummer. He was positive. Marko, another friend of them, also joined in on guitar. So the band was complete... In November it was time to make the first live gig with “the new” Ape Grape when “Bombshell Rocks” came to town. They had made some new songs that were a little bit different than the old songs. Pär was a great metal drummer so the drums sounded a little more metal...

In 2002 they continued to rehearse and write songs. When the spring came, they felt that it was time for them to record another demo. They narrowed their selection of songs down to four, and went in to the "studio". They have always done the recordings ourselves, and this time was no exception. Recorded in Musikhuset, Lindesberg in april-may -02, the demo "....and they might wonder who we are" was the result of the new beginning of Ape Grape. The addition of new influences from Pär and Marko, made Ape sound alot darker than before, but without going too far from the original sound. The release showed sides of Ape Grape that had never been showed before. After the recording they layed low for awhile, played a gig at "Musikdagarna" in Guldsmedshyttan, and started to prepare for "Augustibuller" in early August. From summer they had trouble with getting everybody together for the rehearsals. Pär injured his shoulder at a party. He was drunk, headbanging to Manowar, lost his balance and hit a garden-rock. Marko got a job and couldn't attend their rehearsals, so that led to him not playing with them at "Augustibuller". The gig at "Augustibuller" was really great. They got great reviews and sold all demos after the gig. A few weeks later they had a release-party for ".....and they might wonder who we are" at Musikhuset. Lots of people = Lots of demos sold.Marko was back, but that was just temporary. Two months later they gave him the boot, he just didn't fit with what they wanted to do. Autumn -02 Jakob went away to Sundsvall to study journalism. Ape Grape wrote a couple of new songs and they got a chance to try them at a gig at Musikhuset in early -03.

In 2003 they released “V” in February, which got really good reviews in a lot of punk zines. Also they embarked on a tour of Estonia. After that they played a few smaller gigs, and kept rehearsing. In the autumn of 2003 Jakob moved to Stockholm to attend another school, and Pär was studying in Uppsala. Miche kept working as a computer engineer in Örebro.

In 2004 they recorded and released sixth demo which was called “For Our Friends”. Four. After the record was released they played a couple of smaller gigs around their hometown. They also got offered a gig at Sticky Fingers in Gothenburg. That show was really cool, and they really enjoyed playing there. In September they got offered to do a show in Malmö, at 100% osignat. They gladly agreed, and went down there to rock. During autumn they continued to rehearse and write new material. In November they recorded “Point of no return” at Musikhuset, with Rickard Löfgren, a new track that really kicked ass…
During November they did a lot of gigs. Ape Grape played with Mattias Alkberg, Path Of No Return and The Change, and did a concert at their local high school with over 400 people attending the show.

In 2005 they released some rehearsal tapes in early January 2005.

Now the band is unactive but I hope we will heard about them and their songs very soon.

Discography:
- Ape Tape (1996, tape)