Excerpts from Sven's web site www.svenzetterberg.com
Name: Sven Zetterberg
Age: 54
Instruments: Vocals, Guitar & Harmonica
Born in Skärblacka, Sweden 28th of March 1952
Influences: Vocals: Bobby"Blue"Bland, James Carr, Geater Davis, Tyrone Davis, McKinley Mitchell, Howard Tate, Otis Clay, Ann Peebles, Swan Silvertones, the Supreme Angels and many, many more
Guitar: Otis Rush, Albert King, Jimmy Johnson, BB King, Ike Turner, Magic Sam and others
Harp: Big Walter, Sonny Boy, Junior Wells and others

I describe my music as "blue eyed soul". Black music sung and played by a white man. Since I´ve always been obsessed with black music (Little Richard was my first idol) I guess I was devoted to this music from the start. I heard Little Richard at the age of six. Knew some teenage guys that had bought some records!!! If you want to be a true Blues or Soul singer you got to sing it from your heart!!!! I very often fall into a "trance" while performing. I forget where I am sometimes!!!!! I also play blues in a variety of styles, from rural to modern. The first bluesman I heard was Sonny Boy Williamson who recorded an album together with British rock group the Yardbirds in 1964. I bought it and started to practise on the harmonica after that. My second blues influence was Big Walter Horton whom I heard in 1965 on the swedish radio program"I Blueskvarter". The first bluesband that me and some other guys formed was "Telge Blues". It was maybe the first real bluesband in Sweden. That was back in 1972. I switched to guitar in 1976 at the age of 24.

My first job as a guitarist was as a support act to the great Muddy Waters when he was making an appearance in Stockholm. Second band was Blue Fire in 1977. Started blowing harp again in the norwegian band the Four Roosters. The fantastic guitarist in that band, Knut Reiersrud, was the first to play Southern Soul - lp:s to me. I thought it sounded like Country & Western and really didn't like it all first. This was in 1980 and a few years later I was singing Southern Soul material in the band I had for 15 years: Sven Zetterberg & the Chicago Express. I, of course, also played guitar and sang a lot of Blues in that band! SZ & the Chicago Express lasted from 1981 to 1996 and we made 4 albums of Blues and Soul. I played with the Four Roosters during the same period that I played with the Chicago Express and Chicago Blues Meeting between 1981-1984.

Today I work as a solo artist and with my own Sven Zetterberg BluesBand and sometimes still with "Knock Out Greg & Blue Weather", probably the most popular bluesband in Sweden in recent years. I play everything from raw blues to southern soul ballads.