Holograms

Swedish punk outfit Holograms formed in 2011 when four players from various bands in the Stockholm punk scene met while working together at a factory. The band was composed of guitarist/vocalist Anton Spetze, bassist/vocalist Andreas Lagerström, drummer Anton Strandberg, and synth player Filip Spetze. With synthesizer being a relative rarity in Swedish punk bands, Holograms' sound was something of an anomaly. Melding the influence of early British punk bands and the Joy Division/Factory Records sound with nods to synth-punk acts like the Units and Suicide, the band set about playing gigs and working on recordings. Their first releases came in the form of the ABC City 7", followed shortly by a self-titled full-length album. Both recordings were released by Captured Tracks in 2012. The band toured ceaselessly for the next year, regrouping on 2013's Forever with a renewed vision. On the equally energetic follow-up to their debut, Holograms sought to capture a sense of music being played in a cavernous church, no easy task for their cold, fast post-punk songs. They continued to play shows over the next few years, but seemed to become increasingly less active until 2017, when the Swedish label Push My Buttons released Holograms' third album, Surrender. ~ Fred Thomas, Rovi