Sweden United - Anti Bullying Project (ft. Scarpoint, Nightwish, Hypocrisy, Evergrey etc.)

English subtitles. Behind the scene of the recording + interviews + the whole song "Open Your Eyes".

( Buy on iTunes: http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/open-your-eyes/id393202830?i=393202843&i... )

* Jens Kidman (MESHUGGAH)
* Jimmie Strimmel (DEAD BY APRIL)
* Anette Olzon (NIGHTWISH)
* Björn "Speed" Strid (SOILWORK)
* Henrik Englund (SCARPOINT)
* Zak Tell (CLAWFINGER)
* Martin Westerstrand (LILLASYSTER)
* Tom S. Englund (EVERGREY)
* Peter Tägtgren (HYPOCRISY, PAIN)

Anette Olzon, singer of the popular finnish band Nightwish, was bullied herself when she grew up, and therefore did not hesitate to participate in the project. "I hope that what we're doing will show people that anybody can be subject to bullying and that it isn't the victims fault."

From Blabbermouth:
A number of Swedish metal musicians have come together to record and release a song as a way of raising awareness and taking action on the topic of bullying and harrassment in schools. Musicians from such renowned metal bands as MESHUGGAH, NIGHTWISH, SOILWORK, EVERGREY and CLAWFINGER have joined forces in SWEDEN UNITED, a one-off project whose new single, "Open Your Eyes", will be made available on October 11 via Supernova Records.

SWEDEN UNITED is the brainchild of SCARPOINT drummer Erik Thyselius, 33, who launched the project in response to a story he read in 2008 about a three-year-old boy who was repeatedly kicked in the head and violated while at school.

"Many of the people who listen to this kind of music are too young to go to concerts and the idea is to reach out to them by having the people they look up to singing about the subject," Erik tells the Swedish Aftonbladet newspaper.

Another musician involved in the project is 32-year-old SOILWORK singer Björn "Speed" Strid.

"I have worked as a teaching assistant and have seen what happens in our schools," Strid tells Aftonbladet. "It feels really good to put the foot down and speak our minds [on this topic], [because] kids can be cruel."

EVERGREY singer/guitarist Tom S. Englund, 36, had already touched upon this subject before on the band's album "Monday Morning Apocalypse", which was released four years ago.

"When we wrote the songs, I began to examine myself, both as someone who can be seen as a possible bully and as someone who is vulnerable," he tells Aftonbladet. "I concluded that children can be very nasty — simply because they do not understand the consequences of their actions."

Thyselius is hoping to get the message across to students in schools throughout Sweden. SCARPOINT and its management has entered into a partnership with Fryshuset in Stockholm. "We are also planning a campaign in which we will come together and Fryshuset will organize lectures and work actively to reach both the victims and the perpetrators," he says.

"Open Your Eyes" was written by SCARPOINT with Pontus Hjelm, formerly of DEAD BY APRIL, and recorded by CLAWFINGER's Jocke Skog and mixed by Jens Bogren (OPETH, AMON AMARTH, PARADISE LOST). Guest singers laid down their parts in various studios across Sweden and the United States. The cover artwork was created by Carlos Holmberg.

Commented SCARPOINT in a statement: "It all begun back in 2008 when we read an article about a young boy from Örebro, Sweden, who was repeatedly physically bullied at school, receiving hits to both his head and his face. He came up with the idea to pay other pupils with his own toys for protection. The school tried to put a stop to it but to no avail and as a result the boys suffered from difficult psychological problems. When we read this, our hearts was shattered into thousands of pieces. We could not imagine that a Swedish school would fail to this degree in regards to protecting this young boy.

"This is just one of many examples that further confirm that the lack of sufficient anti-bullying programs in schools negatively effects our future generations. Not content to just sit around and do nothing, we, SCARPOINT, decided to take action and call some of our friends and try to give something back to the kids that listening to our style of music. We also decided that every single krona/ pound/ dollar/ euro/ yen/ franc/ peso/ rupee/ ruble/ lira, whatever, that is generated by sales of this song that would normally (hopefully) find their way to us will go directly to an anti-bullying campaign for Swedish schools. This project has been fully funded by us, SCARPOINT, along with the generous assistance of all the people involved who gave their valuable time, knowledge and talents to the project, so there is no money needed to be recouped, and it all goes to the cause."

Sources:
Aftonbladet - http://www.aftonbladet.se/nojesbladet/article7757645.ab
Anette's blog - http://anette-olzon.blogspot.com/2010/09/sweden-united.html
Blabbermouth - http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&...

Subtitles by me.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Nightwish
• Anette Olzon
• Meshuggah
• Jens Kidman
• Dead By April
• Jimmie Strimell
• Soilwork
• Björn Strid
• Scarpoint
• Henrik Englund
• Clawfinger
• Zak Tell
• Lillasyster
• Martin Westerstrand
• Evergrey
• Tom Englund
• PAIN
• Hypocrisy
• Peter Tägtren
• Sweden United
• metal
• anti-bullying
• anti-mobbing
• hårdrock
• sverige

[EilennaElonen]

The song is now avaliable on iTunes

[MrStoryxa]

Tom and Peter are the only vocalists worthy of being on this song. I do so very much like the gesture though.

[EilennaElonen]

@MrStoryxa Jaså? Du menar att de två är de enda av dem du gillar? =)

[EilennaElonen]

@MrStoryxa Jag håller dock med om att Tom och Peter är de enda jag skulle räkna som "gräddan av svensk hårdrockselit" som Aftonbladet skrev. Synd att inte Johan Edlund eller Angela Gossow var med. Och synd att den enda tjejen som är med knappt får sjunga nåt. Men som sagt, viktigt ämne och en bra grej. =)

[deiividstyle]

Any download link?

[EilennaElonen]

@deiividstyle For the song, you mean? It hasn't even been released yet! There are websites and programs that can extract the sound from a video. You could try that. Of course the sound quality won't be that high, but... I'd suggest that you try it on the original video of the song (that you can find on Blabbermouth, link in description).- If you use a video from YT, you'll get lower quality because of YT's video rendering process.

[Unit48i]

Jimmie is the best ever

[luiscr18]

i love Anette you are very good!!!

[elitehunter2000]

Jimmie is the best!!!

[Iamfromswee]

Peter är nog den största av dom där banden, ränt musikmässigt stor och kvalitet(enligt mig bäst alltså)

Synd dom inte hade Angela Gossow, Anders Fridén, Mikael Stanne eller sångaren från Dark Funeral. Marduks skönsång hade inte heller varit helt fel.

Men men... Jens, Peter och Martin är mina 3 favoriter i den här låten i alla fall. Inget snack om den saken! :D

[IVIWAY99]

te amo nettie *-* xoxo

[metalmouth13]

@metalmouth13 ALSO, SONG IS MISSING........... CHRISTIAN ÄLVESTAM!! LOL

[metalmouth13]

Wow, its an Scarpoint song but it's EverGrey/Meshuggah structured, really cool. I can't tell if Speed did a verse or just the chorus with Tom and Anette. Jens was great but Peter owned this song \m/ \m/.

[Kindhorse]

@sugessad How is this gay, fag?

[Kindhorse]

@sugessad How is this gay fag?

[Chikaplouw]

@MrStoryxa I'm surprised you didn't mention Jimmie : p

[sugessad]

This is so fucking gay. What the Hell is Pete doing on here.

[XDeadByAprilUsaArmyx]

Jimmie for the win!