How we signed the bands on Progress

Here is a question i have been given quite often. How and when did you sign your bands to Progress Productions?. Well, it would be too much reading and tooooo much to write if i took them all at once. So let´s go nice and slow. Let´s do maybe one/day or something. The first band to be signed to Progress Productions was 8kHz Mono who also released the first CD we did "Monochromator", the PROCD001. I first met Krister Hessling after a show i did with my own band (Project-X) at a festival in Stockholm. He and his current girlfriend wanted to buy merchandise. I didn´t feel like selling merchandise so I gave some to him for free instead. In return Krister then sent me a copy of his "Monolog EP" which turned up in the mail. It took me some time before i listend to it since i recived a lot of CD´s at Energy Rekords where i worked. But the day i put that CD in the player i was stunned and after the first "listen through" i was already convinced that this was something i really wanted to do. So we got in contact again and i actually offered him a record deal with Energy Rekords and plans was pretty far gone with that when things suddenly changed. To be honest i had been pretty pissed of about how the Energy label was run for a long time and it was time for a change. In December 2003 it was time to move on from this slowly sinking ship. However i was far away from letting my 2 last findings Iambia and 8kHz Mono go that easy.

So I decided to start my own label. Said and done. Even behind the back of the people at Energy Rekords i had already my plans made up. Progress Productions was borned. It was pretty funny because we put out a webpage and i think we even took out an advert with the name Progress but no one at the Energy office figured out that one of their leaving co-workers was the one behind it. Hahaha... well, fun times for sure. Actually this part of the story is so long i could probably write a book about it. Like the time Krister was on the phone with the "boss" at Energy Rekords telling him he will leave and on the same time in the other room i was with Krister on ICQ and got all the information that way.

When i later in 2004 moved to Göteborg we got started. And later on in the year the "Monochromator" was released .... we were on our way ........


/ t.