Mikael is from Gothenburg Sweden, says he began playing guitar at the age of
10. His "first idols were guitar players like Mike Stern, Al DiMeola,
Pat Martino and Swedish guitarist Janne Schaffer" ABBA's guitarist. He
attended a music high school where he was taught music theory and
where he strove to improve his skills.
In pursuit of his musical goal he says "I started to practice a lot
and tried to get things together on my guitar, like scales and strange
chords. In high school I started my first band, we played on different
parties and pubs in my home town Gothenburg in Sweden, mostly we played
instrumental music".
In 1988, at the age of 20, Mikael moved to Los Angeles
(Hollywood) to study music at the Guitar Institute of Technology where he
was taught by Scott Henderson, Frank Gambale, Joe Diorio and a number of
other musicians. Referring to his year spent studying in L.A., he say "I learned a lot this year I think".
He moved back
to Sweden and began playing with different bands. During his musical
career, Mikael has performed with his own band Mikael Bjorck's Back Seat Betty (Jazz,
Funk and Blues), the Janne Ersson Big Band (http://janneersson.com/) playing the music of Buddy Rich
and Gospel.Comp (Gospel music), and Soulbox. He has also
played with Svante Thuresson, Hayati Kafe, Roger Pontare and Annkristin
Hedmark.
Mikael has recorded two CD's - The return of "Tant" Benson (1998) and Holy Cow (2001) -
and is working on his third now.
|