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Alexander
B. Magnus Bard was born on March 17, 1961
in Bloemfontein (South Africa)
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With
open-minded and politically active parents of
Dutch and Swedish origin, South-African born Alexander
Bard grew up in a household where tolerance
of people and their differences was embraced.
This same point of view is a key motivating force
behind Army of Lovers. Bard was always attracted
to the free-thinking art world, and while living
in Amsterdam in the early 80's, he was introduced
to Jack Moore, mentor to many of the seminal
video artists. He began working with Jack on experimental
videos and synthesized sounds. However, Alexander's
real area of interests was mixing performance
video art with pop music. "I hadn't found
anybody who was successfully doing that and I
thought it's really strange," Bard comments.
"With the few that had tried, there was always
this snobbism that I really hated. I knew if someone
got the combination right, people would love it."
Alexander
was drawn to the arts community of Berlin, and
moved there shortly afterwards. He bought himself
a set of computers and synthesizers, made his
first attempts at composing music and built
himself a studio the following year.
Working
together with both video and performance artists,
Bard was introduced to record producer Conny
Plank in Cologne, who had discovered and
worked with the likes of Eurythmics,
Ultravox, DAF and Les Rita
Mitsouko. Together they made and recorded
a series of sound experiments, extensively using
sampling, years ahead of its breakthrough in
the music industry.
The
7"-single Life In A Goldfish Bowl
(1982), released under the project name of BAARD,
marked his first musical output and at the same
time, one of the first synth-punk tunes ever.
The B-Side contained yet another classic of
the electronic genre: Saviour For The Nations.
Both tracks were composed on a My First Casio-Synthesizer,
which, by the way, didn't minimize their quality.
Two dancers by the names of Juicy Lucy
and Lola Gorgonzola, who Bard met in
a strip club, were also involved in this short-lived
project.
When
moving to Stockholm in 1984 to continue studies
in Political Science and Economics, for which
he later collected a Masters Degree, Alexander
prepared an essay about the social-economic
effects of AIDS. Therefore, he interviewed 47
people who were affected by the disease - among
them were 10 friends of him, who sadly passed
away by now. "Some things in life that
are so cruel that you can't get used to it."
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