About

Mats and Christoffer Nermark
Mats and Christoffer Nermark relaxing at Fenix Recording during a break when tracking drums for the CD "My Other Love".

Thanks for visiting my web site!

Here is a rather longish abstract of my life and work.

I started playing guitar at the age of 13. Right away, I felt there was something special about the guitar and it soon became a passion. My parents supported me wholeheartedly and I got to study with Kent Lampa who was a very good teacher and classical player. At the same time I was turned on to the electric guitar by listening to John Fogerty of Creedence Clearwater Revival and I started playing in bands. After a while Santana cought my attention and lead playing was where it was at. During a year as an foreign exchange student in Wayland, NY i the USA my musical horizon was hugely expanded by my teacher James Houser and my drummer friend Roger Wolfanger.

My first real job was teaching music in grades 3-6 and I enjoyed it so much I applied to the Royal Academy of Music where I was accepted and graduated in 1984 with a Masters of Music with a major in music education. During those years I was exposed to a large number of influences like Larry Carlton, Robben Ford, Michael Landau, Lee Ritenour, Steve Lukather, Jay Graydon, Buzz Feiten, Mike Stern and other too numerous to mention. During this period I also started writing my own tunes and recorded them in my home studio. Recording made me realize that I needed to learn more instruments than guitar to make decent sounding arrangements so I started getting into technology and got a synthesizer and a drum machine. Soon I had a reputation as a guy who could program the Yamaha DX-7 FM synthesizer. I started freelancing as a synth programmer and did some national acts as well as consulted at Yamaha. I also got into writing and recording commercial music for corporate videos and TV advertising with clients like Saab and Volvo. This is work I still do and enjoy.

When I realized I was very much interested in music technology, I applied for a job in a music store selling both synthesizers and studio equipment and got it. One day after an evening event where I presented the news from the Frankfurt Music Messe, a person came up to me and wanted me to put this presentation in writing so he could put it in a music magazine. I did this and that started me on my path as a musical instrument and technology journalist. Since then I have written a lot for MM and have been a steady contributor in FUZZ magazine since the start in 1996.

After a stint in the music store I was approached by a distribution company and was hired as their High Tech product specialist for Akai and some other brands. I was still at heart a guitar player so I told my boss we should expand our guitar dept. So I called Rocktron and Paul Reed Smith and this secured the distribution rights for Sweden as well as marked the start of long personal relationships with the people of these companies. During this time I was called in as a product liason person for a number of international tours, most notable being Michael Jackson's Bad tour.

In 1990, I was hired as a product specialist by the largest musical instrument distributor in Scandinavia where I got in contact with Fender, Gibson, Alesis, E-mu, Blade and others. In 1991 I was asked by Zoom Corporation to fly over to Tokyo to help develop and or/voice some new products which I did and very much enjoyed. I stayed with this company until 1993 when I was asked to join Fender Musical Instruments Corporation in Scottsdale, AZ as their Director of European Marketing Services. I stayed with Fender until 1994 when my expanding family prevented so much traveling.

I then got back to education but in multimedia where my work with composing for film led me. I first worked at a smaller education company and then worked at Nordea, a large bank, in their multimedia dept. In 2000, I took over as Infomaster in the IT-department and expanded my field to include the Internet.

Today I work in my home town of Kungsbacka, Sweden, developing and teaching courses in Music Production and Computer for a local music school and I also travel around the world teaching other teachers how to use music technology in their work to teach children music and help companies demonstrate products.

I also run my own company where I still compose music for commercial purposes and write articles for magazines. I have the honor of being Senior Scandinavian Correspondent for Harmony-Central where I work for one of my musical instrument industry heroes, Craig Anderton. Every year I visit either or both the winter NAMM show in Anaheim, CA or the Frankfurt Music Messe in Germany where I keep in touch with friends and former collegues as well as meet new people and make new friends. I also have loads of fun trying out new products. I love the musical instrument business and am very proud to be part of it in the way I am.

The CD, My Other Love has a kind of cool story attached to it. The tunes were never intended for a CD but rather just my own way of enjoying life. In 2011, when I was beta testing the Kemper Profiling Amplifier (KPA), I was asked by Lars Hallbäck at Fenix Recording Studio to visit and demo the KPA. I did this and we made some nice profiles (see Kemper Profile page). My son Christoffer, who plays drums, was at that time studying sound engineering and asked to come with me to Fenix and we made the trip together. During the visit Lars got to hear Christoffer play the drums and told me, in no uncertain terms, that since I write music and have a talented drummer in the family, I really should do a CD with Christoffer on the drums. I thought he was joking, but when we met in May at the FUZZ Guitar Show he asked me when I was going to do it. I started thinking about it as a possibility and asked Christoffer if he was interested in being a part of this project. He was and we tracked the drums in July 2012 at Fenix and then I did the guitars, bass, keyboards and neccesary programming in my own (very small) studio. Late October we mixed the album at Fenix and a week later Dragan at Bohus Sound mastered the CD and it was done. Distribution was set which included CD Baby, Amazon, iTunes, Spotify, etc. Review CDs have been sent out. Radio interviews set and other activities were planned and done.

This has been a journey and I thank you for being a part of it.


Best regards,

Mats Nermark
March, 2020