First, a true story.
When Thornside was in his mid twenties, he worked a… Read Full Bio ↴First, a true story.
When Thornside was in his mid twenties, he worked at McDonalds. Believe it or not, he came so far as to being a "white shirt", bossing around. But of course Thornside had a boss over him, a crazy but nice man from Iran. When he heard that Thornside sang and played the trumpet, he immediately insisted (or "decided" is probably the right word) that Thornside should play for the guests between four and five every Tuesday. Thornside called his old friend Burnshee, with whom he was playing in different bands, and asked him to play with him. They formed a duo, performing jazz standards and some dixie, in the corner of the McDonalds restaurant at Kungsgatan in Stockholm, Sweden. Thornside singing, playing trumpet and banjo, and Thornside playing the guitar. Two hundred Swedish kronor and a free meal was the deal. And the start of what 15 years later would be Burnshee Thornside, the funky jazzy whacky duo from Sweden. (What the guests thought at the moment is not very clear. One thing is for sure: they did not come only to hear Thornside and Burnshee.)

It started in the early 80's
Johan Nilsson and Jens Henriksson - Burnshee Thornside - met in their teens and formed many bands playing mostly funk. It was the days of the "slapping bass" so you had to get hold of a good bassplayer, who knew how to use his thumb. Compared to the rock bands, you also had to have horns, and you had to know how to arrange for horns. Trumpets, saxophones, trombones. Thornside, being also a trumpet player, knew that, so we had great horn arrangements from day one. We made a lot of our own music, played many gigs, and we listened to Earth Wind & Fire, Kool & The Gang, Steely Dan, Koinonia, Gino Vanelli, Chaka Khan, Rufus, James Brown, jazz and blues, Zappa, Weather Report... Sometimes Burnshee and Thornside would meet up in the rehearsal studio to record together, on their own. A little pleasure they had, together with the 4-track Fostex Cassette Recorder. It sounded very Motown...

The year 2003
After pursuing different careers (IT, Advertising, computers), of course neither Thornside or Burnshee made a living out of music, altough it gave some good extra money, Burnshee finally made one of his dreams come true: his own studio in the basement. Based around a Mac G4 and Logic. All of a sudden Burnshee and Thornside were back were it all started. Recording, making music, composing, arranging. They looked at each other and decided to start all over. But first they had to get rid of their Swedish sounding names - Johan Nilsson and Jens Henriksson - so they named themselves Burnshee Thornside and their first recording in the new studio was of their old song "Hey Hey Hey" (which now appears on the Burnshee Thornside Album Blues and misc.) After that they composed 14 brand new songs and invited the magic musician Tomas Bergquist in to play drums and bass (he is still with us). The releasing of "The Art Of Not Blending In" was quite successful, there being no record label behind it. We got some airtime on a small radiostation in Oregon, and Australia, and we sold some albums via magnatune.com who supported us from the start. Everybody said it sounded like Steely Dan and Michael McDonald, mostly thanks to Thornside's voice, we guess, but also due to the fact that the music is kind of Rhythm & Blues. With a jazzy feeling. And then a bit funky. And with horns. The lyrics, that's quite another story. They are not only about love. They can be about anything...

The years 2004 and 2005
In 2004 Burnshee Thornside released "Blues & misc.", as the title reveals, a whole lot of blues, but also funky jazzy stuff, 12 tracks. A bit more simple. Not as many horn arrangements. Not as many background vocals performed by great sounding female singers. But still very good. (Some regard "Blues and misc." as better than "The Art Of Not Blending In".)

And then, in 2005, came "Rock This Moon". 15 new tracks, back to more horns, more background vocals, more 70's jazzy/funky Steely Dan-ish. With fun, intriguing and whacky lyrics.

Is this only the beginning? Yes, we think so! And maybe, just maybe, one day people will come to McDonalds only because Burnshee Thornside is playing in the sound system.

Burnshee Thornside Lyrics