Janne Christoffersson

Janne Christoffersson
Background information
Birth Name	Janne Christoffersson
Alias	JB, Grand Beggar
Occupation	Musician
Genres	Heavy Metal, Doom Metal, Stoner Rock, Stoner Metal
Instrument(s)	Guitar, Vocals
Years active	1997 - Present
Labels	Rise Above Records, The Music Cartel, Roadrunner, Nuclear Blast, Music For Nations, InsideOut Music
Associated acts	Grand Magus, Spiritual Beggars

Janne Christoffersson, often simply known as JB, is a guitarist and vocalist based out of Sweden. Active since the late 1990s, Christoffersson is best known as the guitar, vocalist and chief songwriter of the Swedish heavy metal band Grand Magus. Along with his main band, Chistoffersson was also a vocalist for Spiritual Beggars, active with the band from 2002 - 2010.

In his career, he has released nine albums with Grand Magus and performed on two with Spiritual Beggars, all the while touring all over the world performing with a wide range of musical acts.

Biography

Grand Magus

For more details, feel free to visit the Riffipedia page on Grand Magus.

Grand Magus' history starts in Stockholm, Sweden circa 1996, when guitarist/singer Janne, bassist Fox and drummer Iggy formed a heavy rock band called Smack. In an interview with Guitar Mania, JB stated that he started playing guitar when he was thirteen. Smack gigged extensively in Stockholm and gained some local recognition. In 1999 Iggy left to pursue other things in life, and Janne and Fox decided to find a new drummer to match a heavier approach to the music.

With Trisse in the fold, Smack recorded the three-song eponymous demotape in the spring of 1999. The demo contained the songs "Summer Solstice", "Coat of Arms" and "A Game of Tarot". After a couple of gigs (in Åland and Stockholm) in front of a very enthusiastic audience, Smack sent their demo to various record labels and fanzines. A few contacts were made with respected labels, but nothing really panned out. The band started feeling the name Smack didn’t really suit the musical and lyrical content of the songs, and decided to change it into something more powerful and magic that could fit well with their heavy-blues musical approach. Thus the band would re-christen themselves as Grand Magus. The occasion came in the fall of 1999, when a record label asked for more songs to listen to, and a new demo was swiftly recorded.

In that moment it was clear that Smack was something belonging to the past and thus the band changed their name to Grand Magus. The new demo-CD, Demo Two Thousand, features three brand new compositions, "Stonecircle", "Twilight Train" and "Glow", which testify Grand Magus' ability in writing heavy-blues music with a strong melodic component that reminds of ´70s ´monsters´ like Black Sabbath, Mountain, Deep Purple, Lynyrd Skynyrd... The demo got great reviews from various e-zines and tremendous response from all kinds of people and rock listeners, with the band playing sporadic local gigs, earliest known being 5 August 2000 at STÅLVÄRK festival in Hagfors Sweden. Grand Magus would release a split 7" with Spiritual Beggars in September 2000 via Southern Lord Records and begin work on their debut album.

On 14 February 2001 the band would sign a worldwide deal with Rise Above Records. Recording in March and releasing on 5 November 2001, the eponymous debut of Grand Magus was released on CD through Rise Above and later The Music Cartel in the United States to positive reviews along with becoming "Album of the Month" that month in Metal Hammer Germany. Supporting the record the trio would embark on their first tour of Europe alongside Roadsaw and Orange Goblin. By the fall of 2002 the band had mostly completed work on their second studio album. With sporadic shows and JB touring with Spiritual Beggars through 2003 the band would eventually finish and release their second studio album Monument on 20 October 2003 to heavy praise. The band would make appearances at Sweden Rock Festival and Roadburn Festival along with touring with Orange Goblin and Witchcraft in the summer of 2004.

In early 2005 Grand Magus would begin work on their third album. Shifting towards more of a heavy metal style but maintaining a lot of lyrical themes and melodic vocals, Wolf's Return was released on 14 June 2005 to even higher critical praise. The band's first music video was also unleashed for the song "Kingslayer".

After a tour of Europe in February 2006 in support of this new album Trisse would depart from the group on 23 March 2006, joining Abramis Brama. The band would find a replacement in Sebastian Sippola aka "Seb", his earliest known performance with the band being on the Sweden Rock cruise on 6 October. With a mini-tour of Scandinavia in 2007 the band concentrated on writing new material for their fourth studio album. Iron Will saw release on 9 June 2008 via Rise Above in their final release with the label, following with tours throughout Europe and festival appearances in support. Iron Will was also named "album of the year" in Sweden Rock Magazine and through the Manifest award.

On 4 December 2009 Grand Magus would sign with mainstream label Roadrunner Records for a worldwide deal along with announcing their forthcoming fifth album Hammer of the North in the works, ultimately seeing release on 18 June 2010 with music videos for the title track and "At Midnight They'll Get Wise". The band followed suit with a host of festival appearances throughout Europe that year including With Full Force, Masters of Rock and Headbangers Open Air among two short winter tours of Europe. A planned European tour with Grave Digger was canceled due to Seb suffering from illness by way of blood clots. The band would recover for a short tour with Accept and a host of festival appearances. Grand Magus would begin 2012 with a headlining European tour and a short mini-tour supporting Amon Amarth, the final tour with drummer Seb involved.

In the meantime the band had begun work on their sixth studio album and during the sessions Seb had chosen to depart from the group to concentrate on family and playing drums as a leisure. Leaving on friendly terms the group would enlist new drummer Ludwig Witt (Spiritual Beggars, Firebird, Shining) to the fold, officially revealed as such on 4 April 2012. Recording new drum tracks and newly signed to Nuclear Blast Records, The Hunt was released on 25 May 2012 to positive reviews. The band followed with a host of festival appearances and the band's first ever appearance in North America at Noctis V Metalfest in Calgary, Alberta, Canada on 27 September.

On 17 November 2013 Grand Magus would announce their seventh studio album Triumph and Power, the band's third studio album with producer Nico Elgstrand at that time and seeing release on 31 January 2014 via Nuclear Blast (4 February for USA release) to positive reviews. Grand Magus would headline the Rock Revelation tour along with two more tours that year in one of their busiest and most conquering years as a live act. A quick follow-up came in the form of Sword Songs on 13 May 2016, followed by one of their most extensive tours sharing the stage with Viking Metal band Amon Amarth.

Grand Magus would take a year off touring throughout 2018 to begin work on a new record. On 22 February 2019 the band would announce their ninth album Wolf God, set for a 19 April release via Nuclear Blast Records. The band would also announce a string of festival appearances in support of the album throughout the summer and fall. On 15 April 2019 it would be announced that Grand Magus would support Amon Amarth on their Fall tour in what would be their first ever shows in the United States. A tour with Wolf would take place some years later due to the CO-VID19 Pandemic.

Spiritual Beggars

For more information, feel free to view the Riffipedia page on Spiritual Beggars.

2002 saw the release of the band's fifth studio recording, On Fire. This album featured a new line-up following the departure of original singer Christian "Spice" Sjöstrand. The replacements were Janne "JB" Christoffersson of Grand Magus, who had been recommended to Amott by a mutual friend, while Roger Nilsson joined to handle the bass. Unlike in Grand Magus, JB would just sing in Spiritual Beggars

On Fire album was musically and vocally more melodic and saw the band delving deeper into 70s hard rock for inspiration. A 2003 European tour featured Spiritual Beggars alongside Clutch, Spiritu and Dozer was completed in support of the album, which was followed by a tour of Japan with Clutch as the opening act.

Spiritual Beggars' sixth album, Demons, was released in Japan in March 2005 and in Europe on 20 June 2005. Demons was released in two versions – a single CD version and a two-CD version, which includes live material recorded in Japan during 2003. The touring on this record was limited to a three-date Japanese tour with Dio and a headline performance in London, UK. Carcass would also reform in 2007 with Amott on guitar, consuming a deal of free time with the group. Christofferson would depart from the band in 2010, with Apollo Papathanasio (Firewind and Evil Masquerade) as his replacement.

Other Endeavors

In early 2007, Christoffersson would be selected as one of several guest vocalists for Candlemass' 20th anniversary show, singing "The Well of Souls".

Christofferson also notably contributed several vocal tracks to the Dutch progressive band Ayreon, on their 2013 album The Theory of Everything. In and interview with Metal Obsession, Christoffersson would state the following of the project: "It was great. It was a long time coming [laughs]. We’d been talking about this for quite a while, but due to practical and logistical reasons, it never happened before. And also, I was very hesitant about it as it’s such a huge leap into something different from anything I’ve ever done. But, this time it happened and it was a great experience for me. We had a lot of fun together. He’s an amazing musician and songwriter, but he’s also a great motivator and producer. We just had a great time, and I was very happy with the whole thing when I heard the end result, and very proud."

Bands

• Smack - Guitar, Vocals (1997 - 1999)
• Grand Magus - Guitar, Vocals (1999 - Present)
• Spiritual Beggars - Vocals (2002 - 2010)
• Candlemass - Live Vocals (2007)
• Necronaut - Live Guitar, Vocals (2011)
• Cardinal Fang - Vocals (Unknown Time Period)

Discography

With Grand Magus

• Demo Two Thousand (Demo EP) (2000, Independent)
• It's Over / Twilight Train (Split with Spiritual Beggars) (2000, Southern Lord Records)
• Grand Magus (Studio Album) (2001, Rise Above Records)
• Monument (Studio Album) (2003, Rise Above Records)
• Wolf's Return (Studio Album) (2005, Rise Above Records)
• Hammer of The North (Studio Album) (2010, Roadrunner Records)
• The Hunt (Studio Album) (2012, Nuclear Blast Records)
• Triumph and Power (Studio Album) (2014, Nuclear Blast Records)
• Sword Songs (Studio Album) (2016, Nuclear Blast Records)
• Wolf God (Studio Album) (2019, Nuclear Blast Records)

Spiritual Beggars

• On Fire (Studio Album) (2002, Music For Nations)
• Demons (Studio Album) (2005, Inside Out Music)
• Live Fire (Live DVD) (2005, SPV)

Other Releases

• Rise And Shine - Ghosts of The Past (Studio Album; Backing Vocals on Tracks 1 & 2) (2006, Plugged Records)
• Candlemass - 20 Year Anniversary Party (DVD; Vocals on "The Well of Souls") (2007, Peaceville)
• Necronaut - Necronaut (Studio Album; Vocals on Track 4, Guitar on Track 8) (2010, Regain Records)
• Satan's Wrath - Galloping Blasphemy (Studio Album; Lead Guitar on Track 3) (2012, Metal Blade)
• Ayreon - The Theory of Everything (Studio Album; Vocals on Numerous Tracks as "Teacher") (2013, InsideOut Music)

External Links

• Discogs