Gunnar Nelson (musician)
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Nelson is an American rock band founded by singer/songwriters Matthew and Gunnar Nelson (twin sons of
Ricky Nelson Eric Hilliard Nelson (May 8, 1940 – December 31, 1985) was an American musician, songwriter and actor. From age eight he starred alongside his family in the radio and television series ''The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet''. In 1957, he bega ...
and
Kristin Nelson Sharon Kristin Nelson (née Harmon; June 25, 1945 – April 27, 2018) was an American primitive painter, actress, and author. She was married to the actor and musician Ricky Nelson for nineteen years, and is the sister of actor Mark Harmon. Earl ...
). The band achieved success during the early 1990s debut album '' After the Rain'', that included " (Can't Live Without Your) Love and Affection". After the success of their first album, the band claims to have been faced with conflicts with their record label, lack of support from the media, and the shift in music towards
grunge Grunge (sometimes referred to as the Seattle sound) is an alternative rock genre and subculture that emerged during the in the American Pacific Northwest state of Washington, particularly in Seattle and nearby towns. Grunge fuses elements of p ...
and
alternative rock Alternative rock, or alt-rock, is a category of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1970s and became widely popular in the 1990s. "Alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from Popular culture, mainstre ...
. They eventually split with
Geffen Records Geffen Records is an American record label established by David Geffen and owned by Universal Music Group through its Interscope Geffen A&M Records imprint. Founded in 1980, Geffen Records has been a part of Interscope Geffen A&M since 1999 and h ...
in 1995. Despite this, the band has continued to produce and release albums independently under their own label, Stone Canyon Records. Matthew and Gunnar also perform under the name of Ricky Nelson Remembered, as a tribute to their father. They are listed in the ''
Guinness Book of World Records ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a reference book published annually, listing world ...
'' as the only family to reach number one record status in three successive
generation A generation refers to all of the people born and living at about the same time, regarded collectively. It can also be described as, "the average period, generally considered to be about 20–⁠30 years, during which children are born and gr ...
s (beginning with grandparents Ozzie and Harriet Nelson).


Band history


Early years

Matthew and Gunnar Nelson, the twin sons of
Ricky Nelson Eric Hilliard Nelson (May 8, 1940 – December 31, 1985) was an American musician, songwriter and actor. From age eight he starred alongside his family in the radio and television series ''The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet''. In 1957, he bega ...
and
Kristin Nelson Sharon Kristin Nelson (née Harmon; June 25, 1945 – April 27, 2018) was an American primitive painter, actress, and author. She was married to the actor and musician Ricky Nelson for nineteen years, and is the sister of actor Mark Harmon. Earl ...
, were involved in music from an early age. In an interview, Gunnar once said that he and Matthew had been writing songs since they were six years old. During the 1980s, Matthew and Gunnar played as Strange Agents and as The Nelsons, with which they played the Los Angeles club scene. A year after the death of their father in a plane crash,
Lorne Michaels Lorne Michaels (born Lorne David Lipowitz; November 17, 1944) is a Canadian-American producer, screenwriter, and comedian. He is best known for creating and producing ''Saturday Night Live'' (1975–1980, 1985–present) and producing the '' La ...
agreed to have the Nelsons as a musical guest on
Saturday Night Live ''Saturday Night Live'' (often abbreviated to ''SNL'') is an American late-night live television sketch comedy and variety show created by Lorne Michaels and developed by Dick Ebersol that airs on NBC and Peacock. Michaels currently serves a ...
, at the request of their manager at the time. They became the first unsigned band to play on the show. During this iteration of the band, Matthew was the lead singer and bassist, while Gunnar played the drums. As they returned home from the show, Gunnar claims he had what he called "an
epiphany Epiphany may refer to: * Epiphany (feeling), an experience of sudden and striking insight Religion * Epiphany (holiday), a Christian holiday celebrating the revelation of God the Son as a human being in Jesus Christ ** Epiphany season, or Epiph ...
", which he shared with his brother. He told him that they should break up the band as it was and start sharing the front stage together. Gunnar promised to learn to play guitar and did so in a year. As the band tried to find a record deal, they settled with
Geffen Records Geffen Records is an American record label established by David Geffen and owned by Universal Music Group through its Interscope Geffen A&M Records imprint. Founded in 1980, Geffen Records has been a part of Interscope Geffen A&M since 1999 and h ...
and began approaching A&R executive
John Kalodner John David Kalodner is a retired American A&R (artists and repertoire) executive. History John David Kalodner was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and was a writer and photographer at ''Concert'' magazine. He went on to be a photographer for v ...
. According to Gunnar, they met with Kalodner "every month for a year", during which he filtered the songs they brought him until they had enough for an album. During this time, they were also introduced to Marc Tanner, who helped them polish their songwriting skills. During this time, Nelson was also approached to contribute a song to the film ''
Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure ''Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure'' is a 1989 American science fiction film, science fiction comedy film directed by Stephen Herek and written by Chris Matheson (screenwriter), Chris Matheson and Ed Solomon. The first installment of the Bill & T ...
''. Matthew and Gunnar then co-wrote a song with
Dweezil Zappa Dweezil Zappa (born Ian Donald Calvin Euclid Zappa; September 5, 1969) is an American rock guitarist and occasional actor. He is the son of musical composer and performer Frank Zappa. Exposed to the music industry from an early age, Dweezil dev ...
called "Two Heads are Better than One". Since the band was in the process of being signed up to Geffen, Kalodner recommended them not to use their names for the song, so they were billed as Power Tool instead. The song eventually became the film's theme song.


Record deal and success with ''After the Rain''

After a year of meeting with Kalodner without being signed, Matthew and Gunnar met with him, against the wishes of their managers, and played an acoustic version of " (Can't Live Without Your) Love and Affection". Kalodner was impressed and the band was signed the next day. As the Nelsons prepared to go into the studio, they started assembling a band. They met drummer
Bobby Rock Nitro was an American heavy metal band from Hollywood, California. Formed in 1988, the group originally featured vocalist Jim Gillette, guitarist Michael Angelo Batio, bassist T. J. Racer and drummer Bobby Rock. Nitro released its debut album '' ...
at the MTV Music Awards, when he was still with
Vinnie Vincent Invasion Vinnie Vincent Invasion was an American glam metal band, formed in 1984 by former Kiss guitarist Vinnie Vincent. History Forming the band in 1984, Vinnie Vincent recruited bassist Dana Strum, who had served as a talent scout in L.A., recruiting ...
, and kept in touch. After that band broke up, Nelson asked him to join their band. Joey Cathcart had played guitar with the brothers in high school so they decided to approach him. They were introduced to guitarist
Brett Garsed Brett Edward Garsed (born 20 April 1963) is an Australian musician and songwriter, best known for his work as a guitarist with John Farnham and T. J. Helmerich, as well as being a former member of the American band Nelson. Garsed was feature ...
by their manager in Australia. Finally, they contacted
Paul Mirkovich Paul Mirkovich (born March 20, 1963) is an American musician from Los Angeles. He has been the band leader, keyboardist and duet singing partner for Cher for the last 16 years. He has also been the band director for Janet Jackson and Anastacia a ...
, who had worked with them during the demo sessions for the album. The full band headed to the studio where they worked with Marc Tanner. According to the Nelsons, John Kalodner "basically let us do our own thing". '' After the Rain'' was released on June 26, 1990, and became an instant success. The album ended up selling more than 3,000,000 copies, eventually being certified double platinum by
RIAA The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...
. As a result, the band began a World Tour with over 300 concerts. Their first single, " (Can't Live Without Your) Love and Affection" peaked at number 1 on ''Billboards Hot 100. Their other songs "After the Rain", "More than Ever", and "Only Time Will Tell" peaked at number 6, number 14, and number 28 respectively. The band started with a headlining club tour before heading out in April/May opening arenas for Cinderella & Lynch Mob. The brothers then finished the summer headlining their own tour with support from
Tyketto Tyketto is an American hard rock band, based out of New York City, New York, United States. The group was put together in 1987 by the former Waysted vocalist Danny Vaughn, with Brooke St. James (guitar), Jimi Kennedy ( bass), and Michael Clayton ...
&
Enuff Z'Nuff Enuff Z'Nuff (a sensational spelling of "enough's enough") is an American rock band from Blue Island, Illinois, founded by singer Donnie Vie and bassist Chip Z'Nuff. The Chicago-area band is best known for their charting singles " Fly High Michel ...
. They performed " (Can't Live Without Your) Love and Affection" on the inaugural ''Billboard'' Music Awards as it was the number 1 song on the Hot 100 the week of the show. The show's producer, Paul Flattery, and director, Jim Yukich, had also made the music video for the song.


Struggles with Geffen and ''Imaginator''

After several years of touring, the band went into the studio to record their follow-up. The result of this was a darker and harder
concept album A concept album is an album whose tracks hold a larger purpose or meaning collectively than they do individually. This is typically achieved through a single central narrative or theme, which can be instrumental, compositional, or lyrical. Som ...
titled '' Imaginator''. According to Gunnar "it was about the machine that is the media. That same machine that built us up and was also so ready to tear us down." According to the band, producer John Kalodner was not involved with the recording process because he "was too busy making Aerosmith records". When they presented the album to the executives at Geffen Records, they were not pleased and gave the band the choice to either produce and record another album, more according to what they were expecting, or they would be released from their contract. Gunnar has said that they left "frustrated and helpless", but decided to return to the studio. They began working on a more acoustic-oriented album, which was, according to Gunnar, "180 degrees in the opposite direction of ''Imaginator''". The result was the album '' Because They Can'', which ended up being released in 1995, five years after their first album. Kalodner left Geffen a week before the release of the album, and the label decided to give the album limited promotion. Shortly after, Geffen released Nelson from their contract. Gunnar refers to this as "one of the best days of my life." Shortly after leaving Geffen, Nelson finally released '' Imaginator'' through
Victor Entertainment , also known as in Japan, is a subsidiary of JVCKenwood that produces and distributes music, movies and other entertainment products such as anime and television shows in Japan. It is known as JVC Entertainment in countries where Sony Music Ent ...
. The band considers the album a representation of their live sound at that time.


Independent releases

The band then established their own record label, Stone Canyon Records, though they continued to license their albums in Japan through Victor. In 1997, they released their first album under their own label, titled ''The Silence is Broken''. The Nelsons consider it an "experiment" and a "transitional" album. In 1998, Matthew and Gunnar started compiling a collection of
demos Demos may refer to: Computing * DEMOS, a Soviet Unix-like operating system * DEMOS (ISP), the first internet service provider in the USSR * Demos Commander, an Orthodox File Manager for Unix-like systems * plural for Demo (computer programming) ...
with the purpose of doing a joint venture deal in
Nashville Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and the ...
. The result became a country album, ''Brother Harmony'', in which they are billed as The Nelsons, which was later released in 2000. The next year, they released ''Life'', which was their final album with Victor. Gunnar has referred to this album in interviews as a "take no prisoners pop/rock album". Matthew and Gunnar followed this with a tribute album to their father,
Ricky Nelson Eric Hilliard Nelson (May 8, 1940 – December 31, 1985) was an American musician, songwriter and actor. From age eight he starred alongside his family in the radio and television series ''The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet''. In 1957, he bega ...
. The album, titled ''Like Father, Like Sons'', was released in 2000. In 2003, Gunnar Nelson composed and performed "Team Chaotix", the main theme of the Chaotix team, along with
Crush 40 Crush 40 is a Japanese-American hard rock band. The group consists of guitarist and composer Jun Senoue and vocalist Johnny Gioeli, although Senoue has featured other lead vocalists on a Crush 40 album. Crush 40 is best known for their contribu ...
's guitarist
Jun Senoue is a Japanese composer and guitarist who works for Sega, known for his various contributions in the ''Sonic the Hedgehog'' video game series. He is also the songwriter for the band Crush 40, which has also contributed to many ''Sonic'' games. B ...
, in the video game ''
Sonic Heroes is a 2003 3D platform game developed by Sonic Team USA and published by Sega as part of the ''Sonic the Hedgehog'' series. The player races a team of series characters through levels to amass rings, defeat robots, and collect the seven Chaos ...
''. In 2004, the brothers went out on the road for the summer opening for
Styx In Greek mythology, Styx (; grc, Στύξ ) is a river that forms the boundary between Earth (Gaia) and the Underworld. The rivers Acheron, Cocytus, Lethe, Phlegethon, and Styx all converge at the centre of the underworld on a great marsh, whic ...
and
Peter Frampton Peter Kenneth Frampton (born 22 April 1950) is an English musician and songwriter who was a member of the rock bands Humble Pie and the Herd. As a solo artist, he has released several albums, including his major breakthrough album, the live ...
in arenas.


Later years

In 2010, Nelson reached a record deal with
Frontiers Records Frontiers Music – formerly Frontiers Records – is an Italian record label, predominantly producing hard rock. It was founded in 1996 by Serafino Perugino and is based in Naples. History In 1996, Serafino Perugino started working in the m ...
. They released three albums almost consecutively. The first, ''Before the Rain'', is a collection of demos made during the '' After the Rain'' sessions. The second one is ''Perfect Storm'', which is a compilation of live recordings from the ''After the Rain'' world tour. This is notable because, despite being such a massive world tour that covered almost 300 dates across the world, no official recording was made of it. The third album was a new studio album called ''Lightning Strikes Twice'', which features new material from the band. It is the first original studio album from the band since ''Life'' was released in 1999. The release of the three albums in 2010 coincided with the band's official anniversary. For it, they organized a 20th Anniversary Tour around several countries. Singer/guitarist
Mark Slaughter Mark Allen Slaughter (born July 4, 1964) is an American singer and musician, and one of the founders of the glam metal band Slaughter. Career Slaughter was born in Las Vegas, Nevada, on July 4, 1964. Before the formation of Slaughter, he fr ...
joined Nelson for the tour, which began at the Firefest in Nottingham, England. In addition to touring as Nelson, the twin singer-songwriters also perform a separate tribute act for their father, called Ricky Nelson Remembered. Additionally, they perform with celebrity all-star rock band Scrap Metal. In 2015, the band released their final album with Frontiers, ''Peace Out''. That same year, the brothers released a Christmas album titled ''This Christmas''; it was followed up with a deluxe edition the following year titled ''This Christmas Too''.


Discography


Albums

* '' After the Rain'' (1990) No. 17 US – RIAA: Double Platinum, AUS No. 100 * '' Because They Can'' (1995) * '' Imaginator'' (1996; recorded 1992) * ''The Silence Is Broken'' (1997) * ''Life'' (1999) * ''Lightning Strikes Twice'' (2010) * ''Peace Out'' (2015)


Other releases


as The Nelsons

* ''Brother Harmony'' (2000)


as Matthew & Gunnar Nelson

* ''Like Father, Like Sons'' (2000) * ''This Christmas'' (2015) * ''This Christmas Too'' (2016)


Compilations

* ''20th Century Masters – The Millennium Collection: The Best of Nelson'' (2004) * ''Before the Rain: The Demos 1986-1990'' (2010) * ''Greatest Hits (And Near Misses)'' (2022)


Live albums

* ''Perfect Storm – After the Rain World Tour 1991'' (2010)


Singles


Guest singles


Music videos


Band members

Current members * Matthew Nelson – lead vocals, bass guitar, guitars * Gunnar Nelson – lead vocals, guitars, drums, keyboards, piano Former members *
Brett Garsed Brett Edward Garsed (born 20 April 1963) is an Australian musician and songwriter, best known for his work as a guitarist with John Farnham and T. J. Helmerich, as well as being a former member of the American band Nelson. Garsed was feature ...
– guitars, backing vocals * Joey Cathcart – guitars, backing vocals (Died in May, 2021) *
Paul Mirkovich Paul Mirkovich (born March 20, 1963) is an American musician from Los Angeles. He has been the band leader, keyboardist and duet singing partner for Cher for the last 16 years. He has also been the band director for Janet Jackson and Anastacia a ...
– keyboards, piano, backing vocals *
Bobby Rock Nitro was an American heavy metal band from Hollywood, California. Formed in 1988, the group originally featured vocalist Jim Gillette, guitarist Michael Angelo Batio, bassist T. J. Racer and drummer Bobby Rock. Nitro released its debut album '' ...
– drums


References


External links

*
Gunnar Nelson Interview
NAMM Oral History Library (2018)
Matthew Nelson Interview
NAMM Oral History Library (2018) {{Authority control Glam metal musical groups from California Hard rock musical groups from California Identical twin males Musical groups established in 1986 American musical duos Rock music duos Twin musical duos American twins Male musical duos Frontiers Records artists Geffen Records artists Heavy metal duos