Driven by their common love for music, their friendship and the massive inspiration it was to see Pink Floyd live in 1994, these high school friends just had to start a band. They started playing songs by other artists, but the need to create something themselves was clear from the beginning. After a few changes in line-up, Airbag emerged in its present form in 1999. Three of the founding members are still in the band.
The musical inspiration comes from a huge variety of artists, Pink Floyd, Marillion, Radiohead, David Sylvian, Talk Talk, U2, Porcupine Tree, Chroma Key and A-ha to name a few. Most people will hear familiar things in the music, but the band has still managed to create something unique. The Airbag sound can best be described as scenic, it drives the listener to create their own images and float away on their own feelings. It touches you!
Today, in addition to being a band with five musicians, Airbag can be seen as a creative community. The band, and friends who work close to the band, does it all. They work on the music, lyrics, the production/mix, design artwork, create films/images for future stage shows and videos. It’s an environment that is based on friendship, love of music and art, where everyone inspires each other.
In 2004 Airbag released the demo “Come On In”, which was very well received indeed, but it was clear that it was only a step on the way to something even better. So in October 2006 “Sounds That I Hear” was released for downloading through the bands website. The response was incredible and after just two months the complete album had been downloaded more than 1200 times.
The feedback has been good, people from all over the world have given very positive feedback. The album has been reviewed on several websites, on radiostations and in magazines. The music magazine Classic Rock wrote this in their August 2007 issue: "This Norwegian five-piece specialise in prog at it most chilled, honeyed and soothing. Much of this is reminiscent of Coldplay doing Pink Floyd covers. Believe us it's a recommendation"
After a year and a half people are still discovering “Sounds That I Hear” and the complete EP has been downloaded over 11.000 times (Feb. 08).
In September 2007 Airbag held what can be called their debut concert (they have performed live as Airbag before but this was the first performance with this lineup). It was a great success and the feedback from the audience was incredible.
A few weeks later the band was invited to support the Polish progrockers Riverside for their show in Oslo. No doubt that Airbag managed to supply Riverside with new fans and gain new fans from the Riverside crew.
In November Airbag released the new EP “Safetree” for downloading on their website. The feedback has once again been marvelous. The complete EP has been downloaded almost 4000 times in two months.
In totalt there has been downloaded more than 110.000 songs from airbagsound.com since launch in October 2006.
January 08 started great with a double bill with another Norwegian band called Gazpacho, and what an evening that was. Two bands on fire, a more or less full house, great crowd and great music. Everybody enjoyed it very much.
Hopefully there will be more nights like this…
Now the EP “Safetree” has been delivered from the factory and will be put up for sale on the bands website before the end of February 2008.
What the future brings you never know, but that there will be more music, more recordings and more live shows we can guarantee you all!
