He played piano, guitar and drums already at the age of 7, and studied classical piano with a jazz-oriented teacher. Eventually he was oriented towards the guitar, with the blues and rock music as main sources of influence (
Jimi Hendrix,
Deep Purple and
Led Zeppelin as main models). When he discovered jazz-rock,
Weather Report,
John McLaughlin and
Allan Holdsworth among others became the new sources of inspiration.
George Benson's record
Bad Benson was a turning point, it opened up his ears for the clean, undistorted guitar sound, and guitarists like
Pat Martino was a great influence. William-Olsson was after classical piano studies at
Göteborg Musikhögskola (he is
autodidact guitarist), the replacement for
Ulf Wakenius in the Swedish fusion band
Hawk on Flight, and also collaborated with such as
Bob Berg,
Lee Konitz and
Palle Mikkelborg.
The Real Thing was established in 1992. The solo albums
Three Shades of Blue (1995) and
Smile! (1998), was bouth nominated for the
Spellemannprisen. Thereafter he has released two more albums,
Oak Road Boogaloo (2000) and
Pop! (2002). William-Olsson started the mini big band "Sharp 9" in 2005, inspired by the likes of
Art Pepper and
Miles Davis. Within "Sharp 9" he released
NO:Network (2004) and
Sudoku (2007). == Discography ==