GREENLEAF have inked a deal with Magnetic Eye Records. The veteran desert rockers will finally be returning to detonate stages around Europe this year, and have already started to gather hot ideas for their next full-length to be released via the label.
GREENLEAF comment: “Signing a new record deal with Magnetic Eye was a pretty easy decision for us”, writes vocalist Arvid Hällagård, who can be seen while signing the contract together with his band mates below. “We already knew them to be good people who do this for the love of heavy music, which is exactly the only kind of people that we want to work with. With them by our side, we feel that we can continue to do what we do in harmony with our label. This is something you won’t find every day.”
Jadd Shickler welcomes GREENLEAF: “I almost don’t know where to begin in expressing my incredible pleasure at this signing”, tells the Magnetic Eye director.“I’ve known guitarist and founder Tommi for more than 20 years, and I’ve been a fan of every band and project he’s been part of. Yes, I liked GREENLEAF when they were his low-pressure side project, but when they transformed into a proper band with the ‘Trails and Passes’ album, it was a ‘holy crap’ moment, because they instantly became one of my absolute favorite heavy rock outfits on earth, and have remained so ever since. Saying how pleased we are to welcome GREENLEAF to the Magnetic Eye roster is a supreme understatement!”
GREENLEAF have already announced a set of live dates in Europe including Hellfest. Please see below for a list of currently confirmed shows.
GREENLEAF LIVE 2022
17 JUN 2022 Clisson (FR) Hellfest
02 JUL 2022 Gera (DE) Graveyard Summer Fest
08 JUL 2022 Borlänge (SE) Alive Festival
11 AUG 2022 Bagnes (CH) Palp Festival
01 OCT 2022 Göteborg (SE) Musikenshus
8-9 DEC 2022 Stockholm (SE) Fuzz Festival
Hard rock afficionados GREENLEAF were initially formed as an informal project by friends that were already playing in a number of other bands including DOZER, LOWRIDER, and DEMON CLEANER. The Swedes simply wanted to have an outlet for their mutual love of ’70s-era hard rock and proto-metal while being free from the expectations and pressures that were hanging over their main bands.
Despite all their best intentions to have GREENLEAF just for fun, their undiluted joy of creating catchy songs led to everyone telling them to record their material. This led eventually to the release of a self-titled debut EP in 2000, which was quickly followed by their debut full-length “Revolution Rock” only a year later.
With guitarist and sole remaining founding-member Tommi Holappa firmly at the helm, the sound of GREENLEAF has remained remarkably consistent throughout the releases that followed, even though the band experienced several personnel changes over the years. Inspired by their growing popularity and the success of “Secret Alphabets” (2003) and “Agents of Ahriman” (2007), they decided to shift gears in 2010 and transformed from “the side project that refused to die” into a full-time band with the release of their fourth album, 2012’s “Nest of Vipers”.
Having turned from an on and off fling to a full-time love affair, the years of rotating line-ups were over, and GREENLEAF‘s newfound focus and stability was crowned by their fifth album “Trails & Passes” (2014), which also featured new permanent vocalist Arvid Hällagård. Their next two full-lengths, 2016’s “Rise Above the Meadow” and 2018’s “Hear the Rivers”, won the band prime performing slots on European festival stages, while “Echoes from a Mass” (2021) reached the global streaming and European album charts – reflecting the quartet’s ever-growing popularity.
Weaving together psychedelia, hard rock, and metallic blues in a warm, serpentine mélange that leaves behind none of the punishing immediacy of their earlier recordings, today’s GREENLEAF merge road-tested tightness, swirling guitar-driven soundscapes, and captivating blues-laden vocals into one of the most reliably mesmerizing acts pushing the sonic horizons of desert rock to new frontiers.
Line-up
Hans Fröhlich – bass
Arvid Hällagård – vocals
Tommi Holappa – guitars
Sebastian Olsson – drums
Style: Desert Rock
Links
www.facebook.com/greenleafrocks
www.instagram.com/greenleafband
