Interview: Interview Clas Yngström(Sky High)
Interview Clas Yngström(Sky High): Sky High was formed in 1978 by Clas Yngström. Clas Yngström interview June 2004.
 
Sky High Biography 
Sky High was formed in 1978 by Yngström as a quartet, but lost it´s organ player early on and remained a core trio, sometimes augmented with additional members for live or studio performances.

In the beginning, the lyrics was Swedish language with the music drawing on Sixties influences. Sky High originals were intermixed with coverversions of tunes by The Jimi Hendrix Experience, The Who and the Kinks. Says Yngström :

"Back in the Sixties I played in bands doing covers but then in the early Seventies, I started drifting towards jazzy sounds, like Miles Davies and John Coltrane. I thus mixed the rock sound of my own generation with modal influences and was for a few years involved in the jazz/fusion scene.

After having done that for a while, I felt a longing for a more rootsy and bluesy approach. One night in Gothenbourg our organ player stayed with a beautiful girl in the audience while the rest of us got up and played - we fired off a series of Hendrix tunes, stuff that I hadn´t played for nearly ten years at that point: the place went hog wild and we haven´t been looking back ever since!"

The band went on to record their first album in Swedish, featuring a cover version of the Hendrix classic "I Don´t Live Today" with translated lyrics. Clas Yngström became a proficient Hendrix interpreter, and has played many Hendrix memorials ever since their debut in Amsterdam 1980, where they literally stole the show, prompting the Experience´s drummer Mitch Mitchell to leap on stage to jam and play drums behind Yngström - a momentous event for Sky High.

In September 1981, Sky High went back to the studio, and recorded their second album in Gothenbourg, their first in English language. The album"Still Rockin"was produced by Lou Stonebridge, known for his work with The Blues Band, and completed at Nova Suite Studio´s in London with John"Irish"Earl - tenor sxophone and Dick Hanson - trumpet of The Climax Blues Band making a guest appearance.

 

     

In 1983 Clas left Gothenbourg to return to his backwoods in Borlänge, Northern Sweden. For a while Yngström considered running a guitar workshop and putting Sky High on hold for a while, but abandoned this activity as the band got signed and went to the studio to record the follow up"Freezin´Hot". That album contained what would be one of the seminal Sky High hits, the frenzied and frantic"I Ain´t Beggin´", that made it to Top 10 status on the chart propelling Sky High into the Big League Of Rock. That song was selected for inclusion on the weird and whacky underground movie "The American Way", starring Dennis Hopper.

Yngström expands as follows:

"It´s a film about some anarchistic Vietnam vets who run an airborne pirat-TV station on board of an old B-52 bomber over USA - we got some really nice scenes for our video! - The album itself was a favourite with our fans, and I must confess that this is the one of the old albums I also personally prefer..."

The soundtrack connection came via Sam Taylor, vice presodent of ZZ-Top´s production outfit Lone Wolf, and Yngström explains further:

"I had met with ZZ-Top in Norway, back in 1981- we were playing the same venue as them, only they drew crowds 20 times as big! Anyway, I gave some of my old albums to Billy Gibbons, ZZ-Top´s guitarist. Imagine my surprise at receiving a phone call a few days later from Billy, stating that "there´s some serious guitarplayin´goin´on here!" - we have been in touch ever since". ZZ Top asked Clas and Sky High to play support on the European leg of the"Eleminator" tour, but the idea was vetoed by the management and agencies involved, stating that ZZ-Top couldn´t play together with such a competetive guitarist as Clas Yngström .

With kind permission of Mr. Clas Yngström



 

Discography

 

Title: Sky High
Recorded: ?
Released: 1980

Title: Still Rockin
Produced and mixed: in England by Lou Stonebridge
Released: 1982

Title: Freezin Hot
Produced by: Frank Marstokk
Released: April 1985

Title: Humanizer
Produced by: Frank Marstokk
Released: March 1987

Title: Have Guitar, Will Travel
Recorded: San Francisco
Released: August 1989

Title: Safe Sex
Recorded: Live Hogfjallshotellet, Salen, Sweden, January 1990
Released: November 1990

Title: Fuzzface
Produced by: Frank Marstokk and Halfdan E.
Released: February 1995

Title: Fat Guitar
Produced by: Frank Marstokk and Halfdan E.
Released: 1996

Title: Purple Haze
Recorded: at Polar Studio in nov -96, and was mostly recorded live at the studio
Released: 1998

Title: Tracks From The Crypt
Recorded: 2 CD's, CD1 with Greatest Hits and CD2 with unreleased demo material and outtakes
Released: 1998

Title: Bluester
Recorded and mixed : at Studio Agnas, Falun Sweden. March - August 1999.
Released: 1999

Title: Freedom
Recorded: live at Norrhaga Studios 2002
Released: 2002

 
Clas Yngström at jazzclub Fasching, Stockholm, April 10 2004
 
Sky High Links 
 

Sky High Official Site