Erik Jayce Landberg or Jayce Landberg, is a Swedish guitar virtuoso, composer, record producer, multi-instrumentalist, lyricist, poet, novelist, photographer, actor and film director.
Early life
Landberg was born in Switzerland in 1987 and grew up between Stockholm, Sweden, the Swedish countryside as well as Switzerland. At a very early stage he discovered art and poetry until finally picking up the guitar at his parents' request. At age 18, Landberg left his current household to move back to Stockholm where he started playing guitar in several band constellations. He attended Uppsala University as well as Stockholm University and graduated with a Master of Arts degree as well as a Bachelor of Law.
Solo deal / recording career
In 2006, Jayce Landberg met rock vocalist Göran Edman, famous for his previous work with acts such as Yngwie Malmsteen & John Norum. The two of them recorded two songs which were released as a demo EP entitled Lost Without You.
2005–2006 record deal
In the winter of 2005, Landberg decided to form his own band (which he would call Jayce Landberg) with former bandmates whom he had met while playing in previous bands, yet still looking for a vocalist. Prior to meeting Göran Edman, Landberg had written music for two songs: Lost Without You and the epic ballad Marilyn which Jayce originally wrote as a classical music piece. The lyrics to the song Lost Without You were later co-written with Edman and the recording resulted in the demo EP of the same name. It was released as a single in Japan & Europe, soon attracting the attention of record companies abroad. As a result, Landberg landed a solo record deal with Japanese label Marquee Avalon Records followed by the English label Escape Music Records to record his debut album Break The Spell also featuring Göran Edman on vocals.
2007–2008 California
After signing his first Japanese record deal, Landberg moved briefly to San Francisco where he started writing material for his upcoming album. Recording sessions took place in Sacramento and later on in Stockholm.
The release of his debut effort Break The Spell in 2008 was launched and covered by several rock magazines such as Japanese Burrn! magazine. and received very good reviews in the European & American press. Although only released as an import in the USA, prior to the international release of Break The Spell Landberg was interviewed on Alice Morning Show in California. The same year, Jayce also recorded two radio jingles for CBS in California.
2009–2010 second album "Good Sleepless Night" In 2009 Landberg hooked up with the Swedish band Europe's bassist John Levén and American vocalist Mark Boals (ex-Malmsteen, Ring Of Fire) to produce and record several new songs that were to be included on his second effort "Good Sleepless Night". The album was released in February 2010 on Escape Records featuring both musicians as guest artists.
2010 also saw Landberg collaborating with the "Norwegian Grammy"-winning video director Patric Ullaeus to shoot and direct a music video for his brand-new ballad "The Thorns".
Ullaeus has previously shot and continues to direct videos for bands such as Ace of Base, Europe, Rednex, Lutricia Mc Neal, In Flames etc.
2011–2014 experimenting era and "Boléro" After the release of his second album Good Sleepless Night, Landberg wasted no time, this time turning himself to the piano, on which he started writing material for his third effort which would eventually become The Forbidden World. The album was recorded quite quickly but took several years for Landberg to be satisfied with the final master, working with several mastering studios until finally settling down for the renowned Abbey Road Studios in London.
In 2013, prior, to the final release of the album, Landberg released a few outtakes taken from the album's recording sessions on a promotional limited edition E.P. entitled Promise of Asgaard which offered an alternative master.
A year earlier, in 2012, Landberg who had set out to record an accurate symphony rendition of French composer Maurice Ravel's Boléro using only modern instruments, released for the first time in musical history, an entire electric guitar orchestration of Ravel's famous classical piece, composed of over 100 electric guitars, basses and drums, with each electric guitar replacing a violin, cello as well as any other classical instrument present in Ravel's original work, and in which Landberg performed each instrument.