TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Popular Reads
Top Results
No results found. Please check your search term and try again
Can't find what you're looking for?
View all search results
Popular Reads
Top Results
No results found. Please check your search term and try again
Can't find what you're looking for?
View all search resultsJTR Three: Swedish boys take Australia by storm
Having fun: The band JTR comprises (from left to right) John Andreasson, Tom Lundbäck and Robin Lundbäck
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
Having fun: The band JTR comprises (from left to right) John Andreasson, Tom Lundbäck and Robin Lundbäck.(Courtesy of Sony Music Indoesia) (from left to right) John Andreasson, Tom Lundbäck and Robin Lundbäck.(Courtesy of Sony Music Indoesia)
H
span class="caption">Having fun: The band JTR comprises (from left to right) John Andreasson, Tom Lundbäck and Robin Lundbäck.(Courtesy of Sony Music Indoesia)
Meet JTR, the Swedish boy band of brothers who got their big break on the X Factor Australia music contest.
After garnering fans in Australia and Europe, JTR ' comprising John Andreasson, Tom Lundbäck and Robin Lundbäck ' is taking its acoustic pop tunes to Asia with an Asian Edition of its album Touchdown.
In 2013, the boys impressed Ronan Keating and other X Factor Australia judges in the audition with their acoustic, rap-infused cover of Justin Bieber's 'As Long as You Love Me', which they performed only hours after a long flight from Sweden.
The brothers have been going back and forth between Sweden and Australia for years after their mother married an Australian.
In the show, JTR presented its acoustic interpretations of John Mayer's 'Waiting on the World to Change', Ed Sheeran's 'Lego House' and other songs, before being eliminated in the sixth week.
Robin, the youngest of the three at 21, said they enjoyed their time on X Factor, as they never considered it to be a competition.
'It's a weird thing to have music as a competition,' Robin said during the band's promo tour in Jakarta recently.
'We just see it as a platform where we can show our music to the people. I don't think we're ever like 'we need to win or be better than anyone else.' It is always about 'we need to show ourselves to the people',' Robin added.
JTR, a name taken from the boys' initials, proves that you don't have to be a talent show winner to have a successful career in showbiz.
Despite their early departure from X Factor, the trio has captured the hearts of many fans in Australia and took Sweden by storm. Their first single, 'Ride', topped the iTunes in Sweden, and their debut album, Touchdown, released in March 2014, ranked No. 2 on iTunes in Sweden.
'I'd like to say that our music is acoustic rhythm pop,' said the eldest brother, John. 'A bit of Ed Sheeran, John Mayer, One Direction and Justin Bieber as well.'
John, 25, enjoys being in a band with his brothers. 'You always have someone around, and when you argue, which you do, it's over quite fast, because you know each other so well.'
The boys come from a musical family. Their mother, Swedish singer-songwriter, Sarah Lundbäck-Bell, taught them about songwriting from a young age. She also helped the boys write the songs for JTR's debut album.
'She told us to just sit down for two weeks and write as many songs as we can. We wrote one song a day for two weeks; a lot of the songs made it into the album,' John said.
The three learned the ropes of music production from their stepfather, Hayden Bell, the head of A&R (artists and repertoire) Sony Music Asia Pasific, who produced albums by Celine Dion, Christina Aguilera and rising Indonesian singer Isyana Sarasvati.
The parents, however, would step back and let the boys collaborate with other artists for the second album, slated for 2016.
'It is very good [to work with the family], but now we are in the next album, where we are collaborating with other producers. Just to change it up a bit,' Robin said.
Although growing up under the same roof, the brothers have distinct musical tastes. John says he is 'a guitar guy, who listens to John Mayer and Jack Johnson', Tom loves pop music, and Robin listens to UK hip-hop.
They are united by the music of Ed Sheeran.
'We love him, because he writes songs. We have such respect for songwriters. Before we started JTR, we were all writing songs and inspired to be songwriters,' Robin said.
From November to December, JTR toured Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, Singapore and Indonesia to promote Touchdown Asian Edition.
'We have 14 songs in the original album, which was released after X Factor. That shows the young JTR. Now we want to introduce you to the full JTR package with 21 songs in the Asian edition,' John said.
The album includes the latest single 'Center of Everywhere', an upbeat song that carries cheerful lyrics.
'That song is the newest sound that is taking us into the next album for 2016,' described John.
Their Jakarta stop brings a sweet surprise for the boys, with some fans approaching them during their gigs in the country. 'It's cool and weird. Imagine going to the other side where you've never been, and someone says 'Hey it's you'.' Robin said.
The boys admitted that they still couldn't believe how popular they had become. Tom recalled how shocked he was when seeing some Australian fans fainting.
'It happened in the beginning of our [musical] journey. We had fans fainting. We're like, 'Why? It's only us',' Tom said.
Popularity will not change them, the boys insist. They will always see themselves as boys from a small town in Sweden.
'We're just three guys from a little town in Sweden, 30,000 people, so everybody knows each other. I don't think anybody can take [that] away from us; we will always be small town guys, which is good,' John said.
