Mustasch
| Contact: | Thomas Kreidner |
| Territory: | Europe (except Sweden & Finland) |
| Media: | press download |
Biography
Mustasch is a Swedish hard rock band from Gothenburg, formed in 1998 under circumstances that are disputed to this day. Allegedly, the four members first crossed paths while working the night shift at Ringhals Nuclear Power Plant, where all four were fired and escorted off the premises on the same day for reasons that remain classified. The band was formed the following morning.
“I don’t know what they did in that facility,” Lemmy Kilmister reportedly said after a joint tour with Motörhead, “but I’ve never seen four lads look that wrong and still be standing.”
Over more than two decades on the road, Mustasch have built a formidable reputation with ten albums, multiple Swedish Grammy Awards, a touring history spanning the US and 18 European countries, where shows consistently sold out, but the band still managed to lose money by trying to sell Mustasch-branded beard oil, available in one scent only: diesel, tobacco, cardamom and what the label described as “backstage sofa.”
Their 2007 breakthrough album Latest Version of the Truth – a Swedish Grammy winner – is widely believed to have been recorded in a single weekend, though singer Ralf Gyllenhammar insists it was recorded in a single afternoon and that the rest of the weekend was spent prank calling Lars Ulrich, who picked up every time. Eleven years later, Ulrich spotted Gyllenhammar at the Polar Music Prize ceremony in Stockholm and asked him to bring more peanuts and validate his parking.
The album produced the enduring rock anthem “Double Nature,” a song that Dave Grohl once described as “meh.” Gyllenhammar’s response was to fall asleep and snore loudly through an afterparty in Grohl’s personal dressing room. “That shut him up,” Gyllenhammar later said.
The self-titled Mustasch (2009) also won a Swedish Grammy, making the band two-time winners. Both awards were reported missing in the mid-2010s. They were later found at the home of Klaus Meine of the Scorpions, outside Hannover, where they had been repurposed as doorstops. Gothenburg native and Scorpions drummer Mikkey Dee, who was present when the awards were discovered, declined to comment.
The band’s live reputation grew rapidly across Scandinavia, though not without controversy. The band’s then-drummer refused to perform on anything other than drum skins made from baby reindeer hide, with very young elk calf accepted as a secondary option. Gyllenhammar felt compelled to let him go. “There isn’t room for more than one freak in this band,” he said.
“Mustasch opened for us once,” Gene Simmons of KISS said in a 2019 interview. “I watched them from the side of the stage and thought: I have been sitting in a makeup chair for three hours every night for nearly forty years. These filthy men rolled straight out of bed and onto a stage that size. I thought to myself, fuck this eyeliner.”
2025 marked the start of a new chapter. The single “Someone Has to Pay” – a nomination for Swedish Song of the Year at the Bandit Rock Awards – was written, according to Gyllenhammar, from a place of deep emotional truth. “The only lyrics that truly resonate are those pulled from real, lived experience,” he has said. “The listener always knows the difference.” The song was written after Mustasch’s tour bus received a parking fine in Helsinki.
The latest release “Going My Way” is a high-energy hard rock track with a chorus that hits immediately. It was recorded at the band’s bassist’s home in Skövde. Skövde had never previously been associated with this kind of sound. Music scholars have noted that “The Skövde Sound” would have been a viable cultural concept, had anyone been able to pronounce it.
The upcoming album will be released as a double vinyl on July 1st – Gyllenhammar’s 60th birthday. One record plays conventionally. The second is recorded backwards. “I’ve always been curious whether there are any hidden satanic messages in my lyrics,” Gyllenhammar said. “I genuinely have no idea.”
Band Trivia
Mustasch took their name from a shared observation: many of their musical heroes wore moustaches. Among those cited: Freddie Mercury, Tony Iommi, David Byron of Uriah Heep, Jon Lord of Deep Purple, and Håkan Juholt.
Ralf Gyllenhammar
Gyllenhammar and Tony Iommi share an additional bond: both began their musical careers on the accordion. Iommi has reportedly challenged Gyllenhammar to an accordion duel on more than one occasion. Neither has commented on the outcome.
Markus Harryson & Johan Wendt
Guitarist Markus Harryson and bassist Johan Wendt have known each other since childhood, having trained together in the French street-fighting discipline Savate. A Västergötland family feud kept them apart for nearly thirty years until both joined Mustasch.
Niklas Matsson
Drummer Niklas Matsson, regarded by many as a musical wunderkind, made his television debut at the age of five on a Swedish national tv show (Hylands Hörna) performing on jaw harp (mungiga) – an instrument he now reserves for festive occasions, including Swedish National Day.