Both Larssons spent a year in the US studying American culture and picking up on the soul and funk scene. Emrik went to high school in
Rochester, New York and soon found out that a lot of the hot bands usually stopped to play in Rochester. During his year he got to see artists ranging from
George Clinton with
Parliament,
D-Train,
Tyrone Brunson, to
Slave and
Steve Arrington and also witnessed his first hip hop performance by
Double Trouble (known through the hip hop movie
Wild Style). Torsten went to
Minneapolis and soon got into the rock scene but couldn't get away from
that cities powerful funk movement led by
Prince,
The Time,
André Cymone and others. The early Stonefunk sound was guitar-driven rock funk influenced by
Jimi Hendrix,
Rose Royce and
Sly Stone. In 1987 they were considered one of
Gothenburg’s most energetic and exciting live bands and they recorded their first single, "Turn it Up", released in May 1988 on small indie label Radium. (later known for his work with
Neneh Cherry,
Blacknuss all-stars and
Robyn). During the recording of the album, the group was joined by
toastingstyle-rapper
Papa Dee, who brought in more evident
hip hop influences than there were on the two previous singles. Drummer & percussion player
Jean-Louis Huhta also joined the band at this time, which resulted in more inspirations from the
go-go of Washington D.C. (groups like
Trouble Funk and
EU). genres of music but this single was yet another
Native Tongues inspired
hip hop track. The single was a hit on Swedish radio. In 1992 they started to work on their next album with producer
Henryk Lipp. By this time MC Cane had left for a career in
graphic design, and today works for one of Sweden's most prestigious and award-winning advertising agencies, Forsman & Bodenfors. The band got a new rapper,
ADL, brother of percussionist
Jean-Louis Huhta. ADL had previously appeared in the videos for
Bass Race and
Can U Follow and added rap verses on two of the tracks on the
Harder than Kryptonite remixes album. The album
No problem ’94 (non-believers stand back!) was a huge hit in the spring of ’93 and spawned two big hit singles, "M-rock theory" and "Funkadeena". and the band decided to continue without a rapper and instead put more focus on the vocals of lead singer Emrik "M-rock" Larsson. was finished in August 1998. After a few key members left and a disastrous argument about the lack of sales, the group broke up. The band officially disbanded in 2001, but performed live for the last time in 1999. Guitar player and leader of the group, Torsten "Topsteen" Larsson, would go on and become a successful sound engineer and producer and in following years would work with such acts as
Roxette,
Olle Ljungström,. and
The Soundtrack of our Lives. M-Rock/Emrik would record three solo albums experimenting with
punk,
soul music,
folk and singer songwriter styles of music. In 2000, he and a few other members of the stonefunk crew contribute to the compilation album
GAIS Rocks Da House in support of the football club
GAIS under the name
Stenkross.
Reformation In 2009 the band reformed and embarked on a short
Swedish tour with yet another series of concerts lined up for the summer of 2010, starting with a gig
Stockholm, 23 April. The current members are: • Vocals and rap – M-Rock(Emrik Larsson) • Guitar – Top-Steen (Torsten Larsson) • Rap – ADL • Keyboards – Davono • Keyboards -
Fredrik (Fronkpac) Jahn • Bass – Conan • Percussion – Cheezo • Percussion –
Jean-Louis Huhta • Percussion – Storm • Percussion – Gonzo ==Trivia==