HEAVY PARADISE, THE PARADISE OF MELODIC ROCK!: Crazy Lixx, the biography!

Crazy Lixx is a Swedish hard rock band formed in 2002 in Malmφ, Sweden. The core line-up up until the first album consisted of vocalist Danny Rexon, guitarist Vic Zino, drummer Joιl Cirera and bass player Loke Rivano. The current line-up features guitarist Andy Dawson in Vic Zino's place. They were among the first bands to emerge in what has been known as "The New Wave of Swedish Sleaze" along with bands such as Crashdiet, Hardcore Superstar, Babylon Bombs and Vains of Jenna but just like their fellow genre-mates, Crazy Lixx have formed their own style and are now considered to be more of an 80's influenced hard rock band. The name is said to be inspired by a japanese plastic toy-guitar that Danny Rexon had as a child.
Danny Rexon, Vic Zino and Joιl Cirera all played in a heavy metal band called Blindead prior to the formation of Crazy Lixx and when Danny decided to form his new, more rock oriented band he asked Vic and Joιl to join and the core of the band was set.

At this time Danny Rexon was the rhythm guitaris of the band so Crazy Lixx set out to find both a vocalist and a bass player. The later position was filled a couple of weeks later by a childhood friend of Vic's, Max Flamer, who had previously played in a metal cover band with Vic and Joιl but they had a much harder time finding a vocalist. Though without a lead singer, the band set out to record their first demo in the summer of 2003 in hopes of attracting a vocalist and the band decided that Danny would do the lead vocals on the recording.

The first demo (recorded by Robert Ahrling at Flat Pig Studio in Malmφ) containing three now classical Crazy Lixx tracks; Death Row, Love on the Run and Bad in a Good way, all written by Rexon and Zino, was a huge leap forward for the band. The fact that the vocals came out as good as they did convinced the band that Danny should handle that part from now on and that they should instead find themselves a new rhythm guitarrist. The demo itself was printed in hundreds of copies and began circulating in the underground sleaze rock scene in Sweden.

A second demo was recorded in 2004 in a studio that Krizzy worked in. It was an over ambitious project where the band decided to record six tracks and the entire recording was spread out during a long period of time. The second demo (known as the Do or Die-demo) didn't come out quite as good as the band had expected but still contained some good tracks that have survived up to this date. The full tracklist was: Rock n' Roller Coaster, Over You, Do or Die, Daddy's Little Girl, Love is a Drug and Get on Your Knees and yet again Rexon and Zino stood for all the songwriting.

The line-up of Rexon / Zino / Cirera / Field / Flamer lasted a little over a year and ended abruptly when Krizzy and Max got into a drunk fist fight after a show in Kalmar, Sweden. Tensions had been growing between the two since the day Krizzy joined the band and it was really only a matter of time until it got messy. The rest of the band knew what they had to do and a short time later both the members were fired.

During the first months of 2006 Crazy Lixx entered and won a local music competition in Helsingborg and among the prices were gigs at summer festivals and a recording in the Palace of Noise (PON) studio outside of Helsingborg. The band used this to record the track No More Foolin' but up to date the song has never been printed. The summer of 2006 saw a lot of shows for Crazy Lixx including playing as opening act for Hardcore Superstar on Helsingborgsfestivalen and the band grew more popular for each new show.

The date was set to 1:st of July 2007 and the band decided to record their debut album with producer Chris Laney at Polar Studios in Stockholm. In the meantime the band continued to write songs for the album that they came to call Loud Minority and played various gigs including a 3-day mini tour in the UK and it all culminated with their appearence on Sweden Rock Festival 07. The band temporarly relocated to Stockholm and spent almost a month in the studio recording 13 tracks for the album.

The complete track list is: Hell or High Water (Zino / Rivano), Dr Hollywood (Rexon), Want It (Rexon), Love on the Run (Rexon / Zino), Make Ends Meet (Rexon), Death Row (Rexon / Zino), Heroes are Forever (Rexon), Do or Die (Rexon / Zino), Pure Desire (Rexon), Boneyard (Rexon / Zino), The Gamble (Rexon), Bad in a Good Way (Rexon / Zino) and No Guts, No Glory (Rexon / Zino). (The last two tracks were excluded from the first release of Loud Minority but can be found as bonus tracks on the Japan release of 2008.) The album mas mixed and ready in the fall and the album was finally released in November 2007, recieving great reviews from both media and fans and a second place on the national Swedish hard rock chart.

Just as with the single release, the official release party for the album was held at Club Crazy Nights in Stockholm and during the last few weeks of the year the band played a couple more shows before setting of to the UK as a support act for Hardcore Superstar in the middle of January 2008.

Crazy Lixx supports Hardcore Superstar on a couple of more gigs in Sweden and Zino plays two shifts, appearing as the guitarrist for both bands. The last gig with Vic is played in Hultsfred, Sweden on the 26:th of april 2008 and with the departure of Zino, touring for Crazy Lixx stops and the band announces that they are officially searching for a new permanent guitar player for the band.

Danny and his new found co-writing partner Andy spend the first 8 months of 2009 writing and demo-recording some 20 new songs that will lay the foundation of the follow up to 2007's Loud Minority. Out of the bunch, 12 songs are picked out and recorded in Polar Studios with producer Chris Laney during October of that year. By this time the band has already signed with the Italian record label Frontiers (Journey, TOTO, Winger) for their next release and in November the new album is finished and mastered.

The complete track list of the album, which goes under the name New Religion is: Rock and a Hard Place (Rexon / Dawson), My Medicine (Rexon / Dawson), 21 'Til I Die (Rexon), Blame it on Love (Rexon), Road to Babylon (Dawson / Rexon), Children of the Cross (Rexon), The Witching Hour (Rexon / Dawson), Lock up Your Daughter (Rexon), She's Mine (Rexon), What of Our Love (Rexon / Dawson), Desert Bloom (instrumental) (Conny Blom of Electric Boys), Voodoo Woman (Rexon / Dawson) and Lights Out! (Rexon). (The last track was excluded from the first European and US releases of New Religion but can be found as bonus tracks on the Japan release.)