Bjørn Riis
jørn is one of the founding members, the lead guitarist and main songwriter of the highly successful Norwegian band Airbag. Their three releases, ‘Identity’ (2009), ‘All Rights Removed’ (2011) and ‘The Greatest Show on Earth’ (2013), all on Karisma Records, have all received great reviews worldwide and all become favourites among fans all over the globe. Together with Airbag, Bjørn has acquired a substantial live experience doing gigs as headliners, double bills, festivals and support, sharing stage with bands like Marillion, Saga, Spock’s Beard, Arena, Riverside, Gazpacho among others. Bjørn and his band will do a handful exclusive shows in spring 2015, performing Lullabies in a Car Crash in its entirety. With a wide range of inspirations from artists like Pink Floyd, Porcupine Tree, NoMan to Black Sabbath, and musical styles from chill, electronica, art-rock to heavy metal, Bjørn have mixed all this into his music and have created his own style in writing and presenting music. Although Bjørn as a guitarist have developed his own sound with a unique tone and his own technique over the years, the playing and tone are reminiscent of David Gilmour, Steven Rothery and Steven Wilson. As a singer this is the first time he takes the lead, normally doing the backing vocals in Airbag. Although him doing vocals on his demos for the band is one of the reasons many people have been urging him to do this record. His singing style is in the area of the mellow vocals of Tim Bowness and Nick Drake.
