Attax is a punk rock band from Karlstad, Sweden.
JON AMMON - Vocals, Guitar
BASTIAN KARLSSON - Guitar
XANDER KARLSSON - Bass
MICKE BERG - Drums (1998-2012) Resting in peace and never to be replaced
PONTUS ZACHARIASSON - Live Drums
KALLE BERG - Bass (1998-2000) He's still alive don't worry
Attax is not currently on tour.
NOT SO HAPPY ANNIVERSARY
- 19 October
Today marks two years since you left us and it never gets easier to process. You were always there for us until you weren’t. The guilt still hangs on our shoulders every damn day. We would do anything to take back the words exchanged at our last encounter, anything to have you back in the world. Our world will never be the same without your brilliance. You are forever our brother and we will never get over your loss.
Rest in peace, Micke
SAY IT BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE
- 05 September
Jon Ammon’s new art exhibition Say It Before It’s Too Late will host a vernissage at his gallery, Heaven, on October 20th with a special acoustic performance of songs from his upcoming solo album. The event is invite-only, but Attax fans who subscribe to the mailing list can enter the drawing to win a chance to attend. As usual, we will donate a portion of the proceeds from the sale of his art to mental health charities.
NEW SHOWS ADDED
- 02 May
We have announced the last dates on the Alienation Tour with shows added in Germany, Norway and Denmark. Tickets go on sale on May 18th at 10 am CET but we will hold a fan presale the previous day with a special link sent to mailing list subscribers. Don’t forget to check your email!
The founding members of Attax, Jon, Sebastian, Alexander, Micke and Kalle were childhood friends who grew up in the same neighborhood, drawn to each other by a shared love of music and a horrible sense of fashion. At 12, Jon got a guitar for Christmas. Having little else to do, they taught themselves to play, all of them sharing the same guitar one day a week like it was the fucking public library until they convinced their parents to get them their own individual instruments so they could at last form a proper band. It sounded shit, but at least one might argue that they improved over time. No, for real. It was an improvement. You should have heard them before.
The band was an anomaly with two sets of identical twins in the original lineup. This prompted them to initially name the band Jon & the Clones. Later, because an asshole at school called them Jon & the Clowns, they eventually changed their name to Attax. Nobody remembers who came up with the name because they were all drinking at the time, but it really doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things.
Later, Kalle departed to study at university and Alexander moved from guitar to bass to fill the gap. They then recorded their first demo and began selling tapes at their sporadic shows, yes tapes, because we did it first, ya fucking hipsters. Sadly, Attax missed the hey-day of punk in Karlstad by a decade or so, and eventually they moved to Stockholm where the scene was more promising. It was there they caught the interest of the owner of Ruin Records and went into the studio to record their first album, Storm.
Shortly after moving to Stockholm, Attax also met their sister band, Nauru. The two bands were a package deal for the following years, touring together and playing on each others respective records. Things even got a bit incestuous when Micke ran off with their singer, but you already know that story. After a while, however, Nauru sold out, while Attax maintained their integrity. The only thing Attax did that could feasibly be considered selling out was to switch from singing in Swedish to English. And it worked, didn’t it?
The band has remained prolific throughout their career, releasing regular albums and EPs. The band finally broke to an international audience when their song “Self-Destruct” was featured in the 2009 runaway hit indie film Out of Options. From there on out, the touring and recording were nearly nonstop, for which the band played a hefty price. In 2011, following the loss of his daughter Elisabeth in a freak accident, Jon, who was overcome with grief that he was away on tour when it happened, would shortly thereafter suffer an accidental overdose. Given the fact that Micke also played in his husband’s band, it was no surprise when, because of burnout, he subsequently suffered a serious breakdown. Both incidents led the band to seriously reconsider their pace. Unfortunately, this dark time would only get darker, with infighting and other mental health issues resulting in delays in the release of their 2011 record, Dregs.
A year later, in winter of 2012, Micke left us. Heartbroken and grief-stricken, the band was forced to take a year-long hiatus. Finally, after much deliberation, the surviving members returned to the studio to record their first album without Micke, Alienation, released in fall of 2014. The band used a different drummer on each song, so that no one percussionist would have an air of permanence. Shortly after the record’s release, the band made a reluctant return to the road, with live drummer Pontus Zachariasson.
On their return, singer Jon Ammon remarked, “We don’t want to be remembered as this tragic band that broke up when the going got extremely tough. We are fighters, we always have been. Returning to music is one way we can honor Micke’s memory, and we make a point of remembering him with the fans at every single show. We will never replace him; nobody could possibly fill that void.”
During the year that the band was on hiatus, Jon focused heavily upon his passion for graphic art, opening his own gallery to feature underground artists, Heaven. Procedes from the gallery are donated in part to mental health charities. He currently has an exhibition of his own, Say It Before It’s Too Late at the gallery through December.