André Eriksen

André Eriksen (born 22 October 1975) is a Norwegian multi-platform artist with a career as an actor, rapper, and graffiti artist.[1] He is best known as one of the lead vocalists in the Norwegian rap group Warlocks,[2] which had commercial success in Scandinavia in the 1990s. He is considered a pioneer of Norwegian hip hop.

Eriksen performing with T.P. Allstars and guests at Quart Festival in Kristiansand on 29 June 2016

Early life

Eriksen grew up in Stovner bydel, a low income neighborhood in Oslo with a 53% immigrant population.[3] He dropped out of school as a teenager and started making music and painting graffiti with friends in his neighborhood. Both his music and art were anti-establishment and Eriksen was arrested several times for graffiti. In 1995 he was in police custody when his first album with the band Warlocks was released. The incident caught media attention and made Eriksen a public figure. Together with his brother Kevin Eriksen and friend Håkon Lund they became spokesmen for the controversial Norwegian graffiti community. Eriksen won the Norwegian break dance championships in 1997, both solo and with the crew Atomic B-Boys. Together with the rest of the members of Atomic B-Boys, Eriksen wrote, directed, and played in "Evolution of Style", at Black Box Theatre, later picked up by the Norwegian Riksteatret, Kiasma in Helsinki and Kulturhuset in Stockholm. This was the first of many theatre shows he did with Atomic B-Boys. Eriksen performed in several contemporary dance performances with the Swedish ensemble Moves Per Minute, and toured with the National Swedish Touring Theatre several times.

Film career

Eriksen debuted his acting career in the film Nokas (2010), directed by Erik Skjoldbjaerg, about a real bank robbery that happened in downtown Stavanger in 2004.[4] Skjoldbjaerg then hired Eriksen to play Aksel Hennie’s brother in the film Pionér (2013). Since then, Eriksen has appeared in a variety of American and Scandinavian television shows and movies. He has played Norse god Odin in Vikings.[5] In 2021, he worked with Aksel Hennie and Noomi Rapace on The Trip, and in 2022 had a supporting part in Violent Night.[6]

Filmography
TitleRoleYear
NokasThomas Tendrup2010
PionérKnut2013
Trio: Odins GullTom2014
Hotel CæsarAtle Søgård2015
HæsjtæggErik2015
Julekongen: Full RustningLut2015
MeglerneGerhard2016
DC's Legends of TomorrowBaron Krieger/Captain Nazi2016
Vikings[7]Odin2016, 2017
Dragonheart: Battle for the HeartfireThorgrim2017
The Navigator (short)Freddy2017
The Last KingdomEarl Ulf2017
MayhemColton "The Bull" Snyder2017
Lethal WeaponZovra Umarov2018
Black Lake (Svartsjøn)Uno2018
Norsemen (Vikingane)Ørn2017-2020
Slightly DeadDaniel / Director2020
The Trip (2021 film)Roy2021
Violent NightGingerbread2022

Music/Hip Hop Career

Andre Eriksen (stage name "Tech Rock"), his brother Kevin Eriksen ("Karma"), and their friend Håkon Lund ("Hawk") formed the hip-hop trio Warlocks (band) in 1992, releasing their debut album Lyrical Marksmen, on a local independent label (dBut Records) in 1995.[8]

Following the success of Lyrical Marksmen, they were picked up by Norway’s leading rap label Tee Productions (owned by Tommy Tee), releasing three additional studio albums and a variety of singles in collaboration with Tee Productions over the next several years, including the widely popular song "Takin Ova" (feat N-Light-N, Diaz, Warlocks, Opaque, and Father Blanco) (1998). The album Afterlife, released in 2001, won the 2002 Norwegian Alarm Prize (category: hip hop / rap). Warlocks released their final album entitled The Never Ending Story in 2005 with C+C Records.[9] Andre has toured Europe and Scandinavia numerous times with Warlocks and has shared stages with artists like The Beastie Boys, House Of Pain, Wu Tang Clan,[10] 50 Cent and many more.

Discography

AlbumYear
Lyrical Marksmen1995
Top Notch1997
Mic Knights1998
Afterlife2001
The Neverending Story2005

Break Dance

André Eriksen was a member of the break dance crew Atomic B-Boys, together with Lars "PayTwo" Undli and Bjørn "Sean" Hagen. The crew represented Norway in several international competitions and "jams" and held the title as Norwegian champions 1997–2000. Andre won Scandinavian Battle Of The Year 2000 together with the group Nasty9 and represented the Nordic countries in International Battle Of The Year 2000.

References
  1. Holen, Øyvind (18 August 2018). "Da jeg begynte som skuespiller, ville jeg bare spille beinhard groruddalsgangster" [When I started out as an actor, I just wanted to play really hard-nosed Groruddal gangsters] (in Norwegian). Retrieved 25 May 2020.
  2. "Warlocks". Retrieved 25 May 2020.
  3. Leirbakk, Maria J.; Magnus, Jeanette H.; Torper, Johan; Zeanah, Paula (28 November 2015). "Look to Norway: Serving new families and infants in a multiethnic population". Infant Mental Health Journal. 40 (5): 659–672. doi:10.1002/imhj.21804. PMC 6973293. PMID 31318444.
  4. Orange, Richard (24 September 2013). "Nokas millions used for drugs smuggling". Thelocal.no. Retrieved 25 May 2020.
  5. Mitchell, Molli (19 March 2020). "Vikings: Who is the Viking God Odin? Who plays Odin in Vikings?". Express.co.uk. Retrieved 25 May 2020.
  6. Squires, John (25 April 2022). "André Eriksen Joins David Harbour in 'Violent Night' from 'Dead Snow' Director". Bloody-disgusting.com. Retrieved 12 July 2022.
  7. Fossberg, Harald (28 November 2015). "Sang, lek, dans – det er det jeg driver med" [Sing, play, dance - this is what I do] (in Norwegian). Retrieved 25 May 2020.
  8. "En norsk hip hophistorie" [A Norwegian Hip Hop Story]. Aftenposten.no (in Norwegian). 4 June 2004. Retrieved 25 May 2020.
  9. "Warlocks: "The NeverEnding Story"" [The NeverEnding Story] (in Norwegian). 12 September 2005. Retrieved 25 May 2020.
  10. "Varmer opp for Wu-Tang Clan" [Warming up for Wu-Tang Clan] (in Norwegian). 11 May 2006. Retrieved 25 May 2020.
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