In the beginning nobody thought the band would last, not even the members...they only did it for fun! However as time went on, they improved their skills and started to take the band more seriously, which resulted in a demo tape in 1990.
In fact there were two demo tapes, but the band won't recognize the first one which was recorded live and consists of rather bad song material.
But even though they joined forces the different members continued top play in other bands: Sverre played in the grunge-inspired PULSION (which split-up in April '93) and Alex, using the alias Durex, played with THE ANAL BABES (a great hardcore/grunge/whatever-band from Oslo, Norway).
In 1991 they changed name to SEIGMEN (notice: they also omitted the last N) and Øystein decided to become their manager. This was a smart move because Øystein had moved from being the local rock club to be in charge of NRF (Norwegian Rock Union), which have a lot of money and influence.
In March 1992 they made their studio-debut with the 5 track, CD only, Pluto. It was released on Ikon, a newly started local label, not to be confused with the british video-label. Music papers in Norway gave them great critics for the CD and it sold pretty well for an unpromoted debut album.
In the fall they received financial support from Rikskonsertene to do a Norwegian tour together with a now defunct Oslo band called O-MEN, this tour took them to the Northern parts of Norway.
1:70, a division of Sony Music Entertainment (Norway) that deals entirely with indie bands, bought the mastertape for the 2nd SEIGMEN album for 100,000 NKr (15,000 US Dollars) in February 1993. At this point the album was ready for release, it was planned to be IKON 002. But after some serious thinking, and an eager Øystein Ronander, the band decided to join 1:70.
After some delay, due to the new contract, the album Ameneon was released on 1:70 in April 1993, togheter with the Monsun Single. The album received good critics in the major newspapers in Norway and Rock Furore rated it as the second best Norwegian album of the year (behind MOTORPSYCHO's Demon Box)
In an interview with Sigbjørn Nedland, the Norwegian equvivalent to John Peel, the band described their musiv as MASSIVE PLUTONIC GOTH-CORE which is a good name for their dark, gothic hardcore music with the massive wall of guitars.
SEIGMEN played at several festivals in Norway during the summer 1993:
"Kanalrock" in Horten June 5.th
"The Quart Festival" in Kristansand July 9.th
"Oslo Rock Festival" at Sentrum Scene August 13.th
Late in October 1993 they had an accident with their tour-bus: After a doublebilled concert with Vampire State Building, in Finnsnes, the band was heading towards Trondheim when their bus caught fire on the Korgen-mountain. They all managed to get out safe, but their equipment was left inside until the fire was put out, so the concert in Trondheim had to be cancelled. They didn't have any insurance, but luckily they managed to restore most of their instruments. But this took some time, so for 6 months they were unable to practice...much less play a gig. So Kim made a trip to Asia to find new inspiration while the others worked on their own.
In August 1994 the band finally released the new EP Hjernen Er Alene, where the title track is a cover version of a song by the well-known Norwegian pop/rock band De Lillos. The EP was due for release in the spring, but had been delayed a couple of months.
The band spent three weeks in August, in Studio Nova (Østfold, Norway), to record and produce material for a new album, togheter with producer Sylvia Massy. She has earlier worked with artists ranging from Prince and Barbara Streisland to Green Jelly and Tool!
The album Total was scheduled for release on October 17. However 1:17 (Sony Music) made a blunder with the master-disc:
The plan was to press the album at two different locations to avoid delays if one of them had troubles. The problem was that both locations, one in Norway and one in Holland, received a master-disc with an error! The bad thing was that the plant in Norway pressed 8000 copies of the new CD before Sony discovered that the sound wasn't ok...all 8000 copies had to be dumped! The good thing was that the plant in Holland was notified about the faulty master before they had time to start the production. But the best thing is that SEIGMEN will not siffer economically from this incident.
The album was finally released on October 21, at least here in Norway. It sold 6000 copies even before it hit the streets
The single called Døderlein was released on November 21, a week delayed. In connection with that, Sony in Denmark and Sweden put pressure on Sony Norway to shoot a video for the song. This was the 2nd SEIGMEN video. BTW, rumors also say that Sony Sweden is pissed at Sony Norway for keeping SEIGMEN "secret" for so long ;)
The Hjernen Er Alene EP was released in Germany, and because of that, the band contacted Einsturzende Neubauten about the EN-sample they've used on "Manifest". EN gave them permission to use this sample for free, even on the German release. Cool done!
I don't know so much about these following releases:
In 1995 Metropolis was released.
A little bit later, the 2 CD single Slaver Av Solen was released.
Metropolis was released on English later. It's name was Metropolis - The Grandmaster Recordings 1995.
In September 1997 the single The First Wave was released. It contains a secret music video!!(Give)
Finaly, the new CD Radiowaves was released in September 1997.
On Wednesday April 5 1995 the leading tabloid newspaper in Norway, Verdens Gang (VG), had a one page story on SEIGMEN.The reason for printing this story was that VG just handed over a gift of 25,000Kr (approx 4000 USD) to help SEIGMEN finance their Metropolis tour.
SEIGMEN played at the Roskilde Festival 1995.
The Single The Next Wave was released September 1997
