On a summer vacation, Monastir is founded by childhood friends Marcus Olsson and Magnus Björk. Back in Sweden Fanny Wedmark and Björn Olszewski got drafted and the grain of sand from the Sahara Desert became a solid rock.
Record company A West Side Fabrication took the band under its wings and soon debut single Rendezvous was released. Strangely, it was B-side Disconnect My Speaker that propelled into the radio airplay charts in summer 2002. The A-side became a hit on college radio stations.
The papers dubbed Monastir “the future of Swedish indie-rock.” New material was recorded for the Shape Up EP which contained four new songs which were just as strong as the A-side. The EP also got heavy rotation on college radio. The fall of 2003 saw Monastir grow in public, and of course there was a new video to accompany the EP.
With the wall-of-sound the Jesus and Mary Chain-way, the 1-2-3-4 attitude of The Ramones and melodies of pure pop genius the band went on the road and toured Scandinavia. From small underground clubs to bigger festival venues Monastir became the tight unit they are today. The band got a licence deal for their debut album in Japan in november 2003.
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