Thorbjørn Risager & The Black Tornado
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Thorbjørn Risager & The Black Tornado
THORBJØRN RISAGER & THE BLACK TORNADO
© Risager
Thorbjørn Risager & The Black Tornado – Navigation Blues Bio
The young Thorbjørn Risager grew up in the small town of Jyllinge, about 30 km from Denmark's capital Copenhagen. The former fishing village lies on the eastern shore of the Roskilde Fjord with a bustling harbor that offers a breathtaking view when the sunset meets the horizon of the distant village. Watching the sunset as the breeze sweeps across the fjord, which holds the history of the Vikings from long ago, it's hard not to sit, think, reflect and dream of the world beyond the horizon.
He grew up in a household where both parents were music teachers. "It was natural for me to pick up an instrument and play," he says. "I started with the mandolin, then the guitar, then the saxophone, until I discovered in high school that singing was even more fun."
He got to know the sound of the rock 'n' roll greats - Elvis, Fats Domino and Little Richard - by listening to his neighbor's record collection before discovering the music of B.B. King and Ray Charles in his late teens. That changed everything.
He had been singing the blues for a long time and often played with his friend Emil Balsgaard when he enrolled to study music at the music conservatory in Copenhagen. "The most important thing about studying music was that I started writing music. For many years I had thought of myself as a singer who interpreted other people's songs. I didn't think of myself as a writer of music. It was then that I discovered for myself that it wasn't that difficult for me to write a song.
When something clicked for him, he left his fledgling career as a teacher behind and dedicated himself body and soul to music. Not even 30 years old, he took his fate into his own hands and hasn't looked back since.
He founded Thorbjørn Risager Blue 7 in 2003, before changing the name to Thorbjørn Risager & The Black Tornado in 2014, and has led them on their way to becoming Denmark's leading roots rockers over the last twenty years.
He met his future bandmates Kasper Wagner and Hans Nybo during his studies, and Peter W. Kehl is also a former student of the music conservatory.
The band consists of Thorbjørn Risager (vocals, acoustic guitar, electric guitar), Emil Balsgaard (piano, organ, Wurlitzer, Clavinet, Farfisa), Joachim Svensmark (electric guitar, acoustic guitar, synthesizer, piano, viola, drums, percussion, glockenspiel, mandolin), Kasper Wagner (alto saxophone, tenor saxophone, baritone saxophone, flutes, clarinet), Hans Nybo (tenor saxophone, bass clarinet), Peter W. Kehl (trumpet, flugelhorn, trombone, drums), Søren Bøjgaard (bass, Moog bass, baritone guitar, synthesizer, piano, drums) and Martin Seidelin (drums, percussion).
They have released twelve albums, including seven studio albums - From the Heart (2006), Here I Am (2007), Track Record (2010), Dust & Scratches (2012), the multi-award-winning Too Many Roads (2014), Change My Game (2017) and Come On In (2020) as well as last year's Best Of.
They have been nominated seven times and won the Danish Music Award twice. They were voted "Best Band" at the European Blues Awards and twice awarded the prestigious German Record Critics' Award.
Over the past twenty years, the septet has made its way through Scandinavia, Europe, Canada, the USA and Asia. With their dynamic stage presence and a sound that combines soul, Chicago blues, boogie and rock 'n' roll, they have captivated the masses. Thorbjørn's voice, in which Ray Charles, Van Morrison and Billy Gibbons meet in the middle, is the icing on the cake.
They have conquered Europe's biggest festival stages with their dancing shoes and delighted jazz clubs around the globe with their low-light noir blues.
Risager also had the honor and "surreal experience" of sharing the stage in India with Buddy Guy and Doyle Bramhall II. He played with Robben Ford and Kim Wilson (The Fabulous Thunderbirds) and opened for the legendary Bonnie Raitt and the Tedeschi Trucks Band.
In every sense they are true road warriors, touring 9-10 months a year, but it's something they've never taken for granted. "I think any job can be tough sometimes," he says. "Sure, you can get tired of traveling all the time, but on the other hand, the job is never boring because you never know what the night is going to bring. You never know what the audience will be like. Every concert is a unique experience. When you look at the smiles and reactions of the audience, you know that what you're doing makes sense."
Their extensive travels around the globe have won them fans in all corners of the world, including none other than Elwood Blues himself, Dan Aykroyd! who praised their "hot rhythm and blues" and said Risager had "a great voice and presence and he would feel the blues. The songs are original, but sound like they came from a Stax recording session circa 1965."
In June 2022, the band announced that they had signed with Provogue/Mascot Label Group - the home of Joe Bonamassa, Beth Hart, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, George Benson and others - for their brand new studio album Navigation Blues. The recordings took place once again at Heyman Studios and MillFactory NuVenue Studios in Copenhagen and were produced by Søren Bøjgaard. The album will be released on September 30th on vinyl, CD and in digital form.
The album opens with the title track, an antebellum blues in which Risager yearns, "Trucks of darkness here, and my matches are soaking wet...will this black night ever end." Contrast that with the rolling rhythms and searing guitar licks of "Watch The Sun Go Down" - a ZZ Top-style Southern rocker that punctuates a gorgeous desert sunset with a sizzling Tarantino coolness.
"I know what the songs mean to me and why I wrote them. But I don't want to deprive listeners of the opportunity to create their own images and ideas of what the songs mean to them," says Risager, allowing the mystery to flow into the album.
Two decades of touring 21 countries have given the band an incredible ability to know what moves people - both the feet and the heart. On Navigation Blues, they use this ability with absolute precision, whether it's the porch blues of "The Way You Make Me Feel", rockers like "Fire Inside" or "Headed for the Stars" or the gentle pain of "Blue Lullaby" and "Heart Crash".
But their showmanlike sense of adventure is never far away, which is evident in the rock'n'roller "Hoodoo Lover" or the boogie of "Taking the Good With the Bad".
The band has a battle cry that they shout out together before every concert - "We are the best in the world". "Let me explain," he says. "We used to have a Norwegian guitarist. He was with us for the first five years or so. The battle cry "We are the best in the world" (which we shout in Norwegian) comes from a legendary Norwegian soccer commentator who shouted this phrase in the 80s after a Norwegian win against England in a soccer match. He was ecstatic. Here is an extended version of his words: "We are the best in the world, we are the best in the world. We beat England at soccer. Margaret Thatcher, can you hear me? Winston Churchill, Lord Nelson, we beat them all, we're the best in the world".
"I think what drives us is the love of music," he continues. "It's also the fact that we're always evolving, always going in the right direction. We're always gaining more fans, always conquering new territories. And I think we're good at having fun together in the band". With a wink, he adds: "every now and then you have to have fun."
This band has come a long way. From humble beginnings in Jyllinge harbor, the bars of Copenhagen where they performed as a cover band, to today's concerts in their native Denmark, Sweden, Germany and beyond, selling out 1000-seat halls, international awards, television appearances and the praise of a Hollywood legend - Thorbjørn Risager & The Black Tornado feel like they're just getting started.
"We set up the band the old-fashioned way," he says. "We played in a very small venue with about 20 people in the room. The next time, maybe 80 people showed up. A few years later we sold out the room with 350 people, and a few years after that we sold out two nights in a row. If you want to make a living from the blues, it's not enough to just play in one country, so we started traveling the world, and we're thrilled to be able to play anywhere."
"When I decided to start my own "serious band" where I would make the decisions about the music and write the songs, the reality completely exceeded my expectations. Sometimes I still find it a little surreal to make a living with my own music."
At twenty years old, the band is in red-hot form and will be presenting their new material across Europe in 2022/2023.
"Playing live in front of an audience makes you feel alive, I think that's the best way to describe it. It's good to feel alive," he smiles.
The young Thorbjørn Risager grew up in the small town of Jyllinge, about 30 km from Denmark's capital Copenhagen. The former fishing village lies on the eastern shore of the Roskilde Fjord with a bustling harbor that offers a breathtaking view when the sunset meets the horizon of the distant village. Watching the sunset as the breeze sweeps across the fjord, which holds the history of the Vikings from long ago, it's hard not to sit, think, reflect and dream of the world beyond the horizon.
He grew up in a household where both parents were music teachers. "It was natural for me to pick up an instrument and play," he says. "I started with the mandolin, then the guitar, then the saxophone, until I discovered in high school that singing was even more fun."
He got to know the sound of the rock 'n' roll greats - Elvis, Fats Domino and Little Richard - by listening to his neighbor's record collection before discovering the music of B.B. King and Ray Charles in his late teens. That changed everything.
He had been singing the blues for a long time and often played with his friend Emil Balsgaard when he enrolled to study music at the music conservatory in Copenhagen. "The most important thing about studying music was that I started writing music. For many years I had thought of myself as a singer who interpreted other people's songs. I didn't think of myself as a writer of music. It was then that I discovered for myself that it wasn't that difficult for me to write a song.
When something clicked for him, he left his fledgling career as a teacher behind and dedicated himself body and soul to music. Not even 30 years old, he took his fate into his own hands and hasn't looked back since.
He founded Thorbjørn Risager Blue 7 in 2003, before changing the name to Thorbjørn Risager & The Black Tornado in 2014, and has led them on their way to becoming Denmark's leading roots rockers over the last twenty years.
He met his future bandmates Kasper Wagner and Hans Nybo during his studies, and Peter W. Kehl is also a former student of the music conservatory.
The band consists of Thorbjørn Risager (vocals, acoustic guitar, electric guitar), Emil Balsgaard (piano, organ, Wurlitzer, Clavinet, Farfisa), Joachim Svensmark (electric guitar, acoustic guitar, synthesizer, piano, viola, drums, percussion, glockenspiel, mandolin), Kasper Wagner (alto saxophone, tenor saxophone, baritone saxophone, flutes, clarinet), Hans Nybo (tenor saxophone, bass clarinet), Peter W. Kehl (trumpet, flugelhorn, trombone, drums), Søren Bøjgaard (bass, Moog bass, baritone guitar, synthesizer, piano, drums) and Martin Seidelin (drums, percussion).
They have released twelve albums, including seven studio albums - From the Heart (2006), Here I Am (2007), Track Record (2010), Dust & Scratches (2012), the multi-award-winning Too Many Roads (2014), Change My Game (2017) and Come On In (2020) as well as last year's Best Of.
They have been nominated seven times and won the Danish Music Award twice. They were voted "Best Band" at the European Blues Awards and twice awarded the prestigious German Record Critics' Award.
Over the past twenty years, the septet has made its way through Scandinavia, Europe, Canada, the USA and Asia. With their dynamic stage presence and a sound that combines soul, Chicago blues, boogie and rock 'n' roll, they have captivated the masses. Thorbjørn's voice, in which Ray Charles, Van Morrison and Billy Gibbons meet in the middle, is the icing on the cake.
They have conquered Europe's biggest festival stages with their dancing shoes and delighted jazz clubs around the globe with their low-light noir blues.
Risager also had the honor and "surreal experience" of sharing the stage in India with Buddy Guy and Doyle Bramhall II. He played with Robben Ford and Kim Wilson (The Fabulous Thunderbirds) and opened for the legendary Bonnie Raitt and the Tedeschi Trucks Band.
In every sense they are true road warriors, touring 9-10 months a year, but it's something they've never taken for granted. "I think any job can be tough sometimes," he says. "Sure, you can get tired of traveling all the time, but on the other hand, the job is never boring because you never know what the night is going to bring. You never know what the audience will be like. Every concert is a unique experience. When you look at the smiles and reactions of the audience, you know that what you're doing makes sense."
Their extensive travels around the globe have won them fans in all corners of the world, including none other than Elwood Blues himself, Dan Aykroyd! who praised their "hot rhythm and blues" and said Risager had "a great voice and presence and he would feel the blues. The songs are original, but sound like they came from a Stax recording session circa 1965."
In June 2022, the band announced that they had signed with Provogue/Mascot Label Group - the home of Joe Bonamassa, Beth Hart, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, George Benson and others - for their brand new studio album Navigation Blues. The recordings took place once again at Heyman Studios and MillFactory NuVenue Studios in Copenhagen and were produced by Søren Bøjgaard. The album will be released on September 30th on vinyl, CD and in digital form.
The album opens with the title track, an antebellum blues in which Risager yearns, "Trucks of darkness here, and my matches are soaking wet...will this black night ever end." Contrast that with the rolling rhythms and searing guitar licks of "Watch The Sun Go Down" - a ZZ Top-style Southern rocker that punctuates a gorgeous desert sunset with a sizzling Tarantino coolness.
"I know what the songs mean to me and why I wrote them. But I don't want to deprive listeners of the opportunity to create their own images and ideas of what the songs mean to them," says Risager, allowing the mystery to flow into the album.
Two decades of touring 21 countries have given the band an incredible ability to know what moves people - both the feet and the heart. On Navigation Blues, they use this ability with absolute precision, whether it's the porch blues of "The Way You Make Me Feel", rockers like "Fire Inside" or "Headed for the Stars" or the gentle pain of "Blue Lullaby" and "Heart Crash".
But their showmanlike sense of adventure is never far away, which is evident in the rock'n'roller "Hoodoo Lover" or the boogie of "Taking the Good With the Bad".
The band has a battle cry that they shout out together before every concert - "We are the best in the world". "Let me explain," he says. "We used to have a Norwegian guitarist. He was with us for the first five years or so. The battle cry "We are the best in the world" (which we shout in Norwegian) comes from a legendary Norwegian soccer commentator who shouted this phrase in the 80s after a Norwegian win against England in a soccer match. He was ecstatic. Here is an extended version of his words: "We are the best in the world, we are the best in the world. We beat England at soccer. Margaret Thatcher, can you hear me? Winston Churchill, Lord Nelson, we beat them all, we're the best in the world".
"I think what drives us is the love of music," he continues. "It's also the fact that we're always evolving, always going in the right direction. We're always gaining more fans, always conquering new territories. And I think we're good at having fun together in the band". With a wink, he adds: "every now and then you have to have fun."
This band has come a long way. From humble beginnings in Jyllinge harbor, the bars of Copenhagen where they performed as a cover band, to today's concerts in their native Denmark, Sweden, Germany and beyond, selling out 1000-seat halls, international awards, television appearances and the praise of a Hollywood legend - Thorbjørn Risager & The Black Tornado feel like they're just getting started.
"We set up the band the old-fashioned way," he says. "We played in a very small venue with about 20 people in the room. The next time, maybe 80 people showed up. A few years later we sold out the room with 350 people, and a few years after that we sold out two nights in a row. If you want to make a living from the blues, it's not enough to just play in one country, so we started traveling the world, and we're thrilled to be able to play anywhere."
"When I decided to start my own "serious band" where I would make the decisions about the music and write the songs, the reality completely exceeded my expectations. Sometimes I still find it a little surreal to make a living with my own music."
At twenty years old, the band is in red-hot form and will be presenting their new material across Europe in 2022/2023.
"Playing live in front of an audience makes you feel alive, I think that's the best way to describe it. It's good to feel alive," he smiles.
Tour Dates
Unfortunately there are no current tour dates.
