Astonishing, brilliant, one-of-a-kind Mattias Eklundh

Well, you've reached a certain age and... that career is exactly a hole in one! Revisit some memories provided by Facebook, Big Bad Blog and Björn's archives!!!

A handful of awesome decades, and many more to come!

Guitar hero & renaissance man

Guitar God

Lord of Laney & his mighty sword

2009, His signature sword

Kanno-san had put together an Apple Horn Yellow with True Temperament-frets for me and to be frank, this is the most amazing guitar I have ever laid my hands on. You don’t have to do anything. It plays itself. So good, so good. I am most grateful.

Beloved lecturer

Sound engineer, producer & publicist

It's a wrap! Confusion To The Enemy, the ninth Freak Kitchen album, mixed in Copenhagen the past couple of days, is now in the can.

Stop-motion animator!

...and King of konnakol

Simply the best!

Karolina Hansen:

Skåda: en 49-årig gitarrgud med widescreen-ansikte och nytvättade byxor.

The Comedian

Greatest stand-up comedian in the metal scene

His subtle microexpressions

There's something wrong with your hair...

Swedes are well-known fashionistas & trendsetters

Do not disturb

The Guru

Guru's quest

Hunting high and low to get those moustaches growing.

2019 Camp, Linus:

I swear that Mattias IA Eklundh each year actively tries to make the Freak Guitar Camp tunes more rhythmically advanced with the sole purpose of breaking my mind as well as my notation software when I'm trying to translate his complex odd-time 16th note triplet off-beat syncopations and obscure Indian tonalities into little black dots.

I absolutely love being put through the test like this! (Also, I say this every year, but I really mean it: campers, be afraid ... be very afraid!)

Freak Guitar Camps

Freak Guitar Camp. Best time of the year.

I love doing it and the passion for the camp has only grown stronger. I don’t know what it is but there is a certain chemistry when all these dedicated musicians from all over the world get together in a fairly isolated, beautiful place.

In good company

2019 June, Dream Theater

Having an absolutely astounding time together with Dream Theater, Tesseract, Animals As Leaders and Jinjer. What a day.

Among legends

Uli Jon Roth, Peter Bursch, Victor Smolski and Mannheim omelette. Talking German bread with maestros Jon Gomm and Tom Quayle. Rehearsal with the most wonderful Stu Hamm and Bon Jovi's very own Phil X at the Mozart Saal in Mannheim. Tom Quayle has a new hairdo at the Freak Guitar Camp. And my friend from another planet Robert Ritchiesse. I like many strings. Rob likes more.

Beautiful creatures

Behold the truly most bizarre Kirby I've ever seen... (Thanks Domino Meth for the weirdness). And Hong Kong Hulk Hang. And Govin. Most lovely Nick Johnston with a strange Norseman in Frankfurt. The Beast and The Beauty: kick ass Jen Majura and a heathen in Frankfurt. Backstage with the wonderful Jeff Waters of Annihilator. I have always considered Jeff one of the very best metal players out there. Hair (Art) Metal with brother Jonas Hellborg. And Backstage Pigalle with the marvelous, astounding and simply wonderful brother Juanjo Guarnido.

2017 Memento by PIGG

Bengan Andersson, Fredrik Stenberg, Pär Edwardson: A blast from the PIGG past. This is from our first meeting ever at Dorsia Hotel & Restaurant back in 2017. Mattias IA Eklundh came up with the name PIG. We added another G to make it more fashionable. Gr8 memories indeed!

2015 Divan du Monde with Juanjo

2012 November: Zappa & Vai

Meeting Dweezil and his astounding band again was great! As if this wasn’t enough to boost your ego to beyond gigantic proportions I teamed up with the amazing Steve Vai and his amazing group only two days later. As I walked into the venue the band was sound checking and Steve yelled in the microphone “Mr. Tiptop just entered the building!” Hugs and chit chat .

Metal Guitar Gods

Myself and Mr. Mansoor did a photo shoot together plus the two Mattias Eklund(h)s wearing “Who the fuck is Mattias Eklund”-shirts. A Kodak moment. A brand new preset package that Fredrik Thordendal, Devin Townsend, Misha Mansoor and yours truly put together, entitled Metal Guitar Gods.

More Legends

Three legendary bass men: Steve Bailey, Jonas Hellborg and Lee Sklar. Tosin Abasi from Animals as Leaders — a very nice man and passionate player. At the airport, I hooked up with Dick Lövgren from Meshuggah and we spent the trip talking about jazz music and life. During my brief visit to India I had the pleasure of getting acquainted with lovely musician and human being George Brooks. In Mumbai, surrounded by stunning musicians: Ranjit Barot & Dominique Di Piazza. At Hellfest 2010, we met Lemmy! Camp veterans Guthrie Govan and brother Ron Thal, a.k.a Bumblefoot. Ron is a fabulous human being.

Clinic with Morgan

In Umeå: We fumbled (I fumbled, Morgan played) through versions of Zappa’s What New in Baltimore, The Black Page and mutual friend Fredrik Thordendal’s Sol Niger Within medley. Maybe not so pretty but good fun.

Jason Becker’s Not Dead Yet festival

With Stu Hamm, Guthrie Govan, Michael Lee Firkins, Atma Anur and Kiko Loureiro.

Cooking with Hellborg!

2010 Zappa plays Zappa

2009 In Bucharest with Govan

In Romania: a fun day of intense guitar playing together with buddy Guthrie Govan (Guthrie brought garlic. You never know… Transylvania just around the corner).

Satriani and a broken chair

At the 2009 Frankfurt Messe, I was introduced to Joe Satriani whom I never met before. Goodie goodie to hook up!

Joe said many lovely things about my zany playing in guitar press over the years and I am truly grateful about it, coming from a monster player like him.

2008 Selvaganesh

Selvaganesh with Jonas Hellborg live in Gothenburg & Stockholm.

Francis Dunnery in a living room

A very intense and wonderful concert with Francis Dunnery. Francis was absolutely spell-binding and it was a lot of energy in the air. Funny, touching and thought-provoking. A precious evening very much worth to remember.

2006 – Mr Ecklundt and friends

Patrick Rondat & Christophe Godin.

Laney friends in Frankfurt

Devin Townsend, Bruce Gaitsch, Tommy Denander, Selvaganesh and Jeff Waters.

2008 Musik Messe

The Andy Timmons Band, Kiko Loureiro (nice to meet again, Kiko), Gus G. And got to have a quick chat with my hero John McLaughlin again.

2007 Musik Messe

Jonas, Radhakrishna, Bo Winberg from The Spotnicks, Greg Koch, Mr. Fastfinger Mika Tyyskä, Christophe Godin. And the wonderful signature distortion pedal made by Russian pedal company AMT.

Special appearances

2017 July

Åsa:

So, this is pretty amazing. I don't even know if I'm allowed to tell people which song IA and Björn performed for us, but let me tell you it's never happened before and it most likely won't happen again. The best present EHVAHR!

2012 December, O Holy Night

Two concerts together with my sister and her fabulous female choir La Cappella plus my absolutely tremendous nephew Andreas on vocals. I was scared shitless when we did Adam’s Christmas Song (a.k.a O Holy Night) and I played the first verse alone with only piano. You can not goof. You can not. Andreas’ beautiful vocals almost made me weep and I had to think of dead rabbits not to cry (and similar things).

2008 June, Beethoven Triple Concerto

I am still trying to get the stupid smile of my face from the Beethoven Triple Concerto performance in Västerås. I had such a wonderful time and learned so much from both rehearsals and the actual gig.

The sound from the orchestra on a huge stage, orchestrated and mixed well, is breathtaking in all its richness and texture. That Ludwig guy knew what he was doing, deaf and all. (It took me a while to see the brilliant architecture of the piece. You have to live with it for some time). I had goose bumps through the entire piece.

2008, Metal meets brass

Concert with Linköping Jazz Orchestra in Linköping Concert House (Konsert & Kongress), which holds about 1200 people. Full-blown Metal meets serious kick-ass Brass with a variety of FK-tunes performed together with 18 piece band!

2012 April, Presidential suite at the Sheraton

VIP clinic in the Presidential suite at the Sheraton (with tons of Champagne and snacks). It was intimate and lovely with a handful of dedicated guitarists attending.

Bros before shows

Confusion on the road

2016 November – Svenske kjøkkenmontører

2012 September , Nepal

The glamorous life on the road. We played at Silence Festival. It was absolute top notch and the kids were so kick ass and carried the band all the way.

2012, Norway and Hell

Norway was fabulous! I even got to visit… HELL! It was nothing like a expected. No infernal fires or red guy with horns and funny tail holding a fork. It was quite cosy. I guess AC/DC were right: Hell ain’t a bad place to be.

2012 JANUARY, Chennai

Got some Carnatic Healing by Vikku Vinayakram. Enjoying myself tremendously as I watch the legendary Vikku Vinayakram and his sons go nuts on stage during sound check at Chennai Global Music Festival. Had a fun time on stage with Selvaganesh, Uma Shankar and Mahesh Vinayakram. The gig was beyond loose, rarely any rehearsal at all but it turned out messy and fun. The Swedes have invaded South India as well.

2011 — US tour

Secret Corona bottle messages: Hmm… “Hi IA, Ma… (Mattias), Me (Mattias Eklundh), NY (yes, I am going to NY), 5 cents to go to MI? Nah, if you give me 10 cents I will play OK in Californa”. Washington D.C, Charlotte, Florence, Chapel Hill, Raleigh, Norfolk, Philadelphia, New York, New Jersey, Baltimore... Jamming with Consider the Source and Mörgbl.

Crazy Swede touching people in Brazil

2010 Hellfest

2010: Been there, done that

2008 In India

2008 March, Split Perspective

Express yourself!

Do I scare you? Would you like me to?

But I'm a funny guy!

2007 June: Daddy!!!!

I have become a Dad… Holy shit! I HAVE BECOME A DAD!!! Here I am, proudly (an understatement) watching my beautiful, stunning, godlike Son. The most beautiful of creatures! I am so damn proud I don’t know what to do with my Swedish self.

Gee, kids grow fast. I totally understand what I’ve been hearing from other moms and dads. The little fella is a freakin’ real person with a wonderful personality, cracking us up, filling our parent hearts with joy every day. Ahh, my son, my son.

Being a Dad is so much better than I ever expected. It fills you up completely. Every day is a new adventure. He also sings for me, in his own baby style, when I play for him. After trying out most modes I know I have come to the conclusion that he is mostly into the pentatonic major scale. That one really gets him going.

2017 April – Honorable couple

We decided we simply couldn’t live in sin anymore when a child was on its way (coming from the guy who makes a living travelling the world playing music with ass vibrators).

The 14th of April we secretly got married and became Mr. and Mrs. Eklundh. We invited a few friends and family to our house for what they thought were Camilla’s birthday party.

A day to remember, needless to say. The week before it snowed, the day after it rained like crazy, but this very day we had 21 degrees Celsius. Divine intervention…