Nils Landgren Funk Unit

Nils Landgren celebrates 30 years of his Funk Unit
Jubilee album "Raw" out 28 June 2024

1994 was the founding year of the Nils Landgren Funk Unit. When Siggi Loch offered me a place on his new label ACT, the first thing he did was change the band's original name from "Unit" to "Funk Unit". When I asked why, he said simply: "Because you play funk" - and he was right. The rest is history.

After 30 years, eleven albums, countless tours and everything that comes with them, I thought it would be great to record our anniversary album "Raw" (release: 28 June 2024) somewhere special. As luck would have it, my good friend Johan Lundgren - who was my trombone student many years ago - had built a fantastic recording studio in Palma de Mallorca together with another friend, Fredrik Thomander. It seemed like the perfect chance to record the new album in a relaxed setting where we could focus entirely on the music and celebrate three decades as a Swedish funk band.

I pitched the idea to my bandmates and everyone was on board straight away. So was Andreas Brandis, the current head of ACT, the label that has released all my albums since 1994. All that remained was to book the flights and the studio, sort out accommodation for everyone, and figure out how to fund the trip. Oh, and one small detail: we all had to write the music for the album. Right up until the first rehearsals just before we flew to Mallorca, nobody knew who had written which songs. I had been working hard in my spare time and had five pieces ready. We listened to the demos together and then shaped them as a group until they sounded like all of us. Everyone contributed, and it was genuinely wonderful to hear our compositions come to life.