Bio

Four drunk friends formed DATAROCK on a rainy afternoon drinking beer under a tree on top of a mountain in Bergen, Norway. It was the first summer of a brand new millennium, and the boys were getting into the groove at an outdoor festival of electronic music. Inspired by the heat of the moment, the boys made a life changing decision and came rolling down the mountainside with a tablet of stone engraved with a single word - DATAROCK.

The brand new band was signed straight away by the local indie label, Èllet / Tellé Records, pairing our drunk friends with a roster of acts such as Røyksopp, Kings Of Convenience and Annie. And so the boys went out on an endless run of shows in underground clubs and festivals across Europe - the perfect breeding ground for alternative dance music, fostering DATAROCK's mix of indie dance, new wave, pop, rock, punk & funk. As the band so modestly put it - "we are the zenith of pop evolution".

Four years later DATAROCK formed their own imprint, YAP Records, internationally distributed by VME - infamous for black metal such as Burzum. And so, in 2005 DATAROCK unveiled their debut album "DATAROCK DATAROCK" featuring tracks such as "Computer Camp Love" & "FA FA FA" – sending DATAROCK on a four year global tour.

So far DATAROCK's done more than 700 shows in 33 countries (on 4 continents). They've toured America alone 17 times, playing more than 100 clubs and festivals - Coachella (CA), CMJ (NYC), WMC (Miami), SXSW '07 & SXSW '09 (Austin), Download (San Francisco), Detour (LA), Virgin (Toronto), Montral Jazz Festival (Montreal), MX Beat (Mexico City), Planet Terra (Sao Paolo, Brasil) and Personal Fest (Buenos Aires, Argentina). The North American tours include a 42 cities run the summer of 2008, and a 26 cities craze for the release of DATAROCK's second album, "RED", September '09.

Thanks to the acclaim of their albums DATAROCK's been fortunate enough to establish a worldwide profile, including impenetrable markets like the US, where DATAROCK has appeared on a number of national mass mediated phenomena like NCB's Chuck, MTV's Jersey Shore, AOL's Spinner, Nickelodeon's Yo Gabba Gabba, ABC News and ABC's Jimmy Kimmel Live (where DATAROCK's second appearance was at the outdoor stage at the very release date of their second album).

DATAROCK's international booking is handled by The Agency Group in LA, and the band is signed exclusively to US publishing company Artwerk - a joint venture between Nettwerk One Music and gaming giant EA (Electronic Arts). This alliance has led to getting tracks featured in an unprecedented number of major video games such as Fifa '08, Fifa '09, Fifa '10, Fifa Street, Sims 2, Sims 3, Need For Speed, Madden NFL and the iPad hit Tap Tap Radiation. In total 22 of the highest grossing games on the planet features tracks by DATAROCK - reaching out to a credible estimate of 250 million gamers minimum.

DATAROCK's tracks have further on been featured in campaigns for brands like Apple, Coca Cola, Samsung, FOX and RadioShack. In addition, their tracks are featured in a vast number of ads, TV series and films across the world - including commissioned work for Disney.

Since 2007 DATAROCK's career has been very much focused on North America. Simultaneously DATAROCK's been touring the rest of the world both prior and parallel, playing hundreds of clubs and festivals all across the planet: Summer Sonic in Tokyo & Osaka in Japan, Good Vibrations, Falls, Field Day, Southbound, Sunset Sounds, Come Together, Future Music and Meridith Music Festival in Australia, Sonar and Benicassim in Spain, ArezzoWave in Italy, Sudoeste in Portugal, Stereoleto in Russia, Be2gether in Lithuania, Pohoda in Slovakia, Les Ardentes in Belgium, Transmusicales and Microcosm in France, Eurosonic and Metropolis in Netherlands, Berlin Festival, Pop Kom, Hurricane and South Side in Germany, Koneisto in Finland, Airwaves at Island, Arvika and Hultsfred in Sweden, Roskilde '05 and '07 in Danmark, Reading, Leads, O2 Wireless, Camden Crawl, The Great Escape, Loop, Latitude, Lovebox, Dot To Dot, Orange Evolution, Eurocultured, In The City and Oxygen in the UK, and numerous festivals in Norway such as Øya, Quart, BergenFest, NattJazz, Lost Weekend, +47, EKKO, NuMusic, Midnattsrocken, Bygdalarm, Utkant, Pereferi, Storås, Pstereo, UKA, Stavernfestivalen, Månefestivalen, Malakoff, Oslo Live, Ekstremsportveko, BaleJazz, MaiJazz, RaumaRock and by:Larm.

DATAROCK's albums are both critically acclaim across the world, and even their debut album was nominated for a Norwegian Grammy. Later on the album came in at 36 on NME's list of "best albums of 2006", and the same year (out of 660.000 registered votes) "Computer Camp Love" came in at number 12 on Australia's national radio's list of listeners favorite tracks - Triple J's Hottest 100. For the US re-release in 2007, Spin Magazine listed the track "See What I Care" as an "essential download of the summer", and "Computer Camp Love" came in at 88 on Rolling Stone Magazine's list of the best tracks of the year.

DATAROCK's second album "RED" was also nominate for a Norwegian Grammy, it was "critics choice of the week" in New York Times, the singles ended up on heavy rotation on Norwegian national radio for seven months solid (NRK P3), and stateside MTV even headhunted and put the video for "True Stories" on rotation at MTV U - bizarrely as this single never was commercially released outside of Norway.

DATAROCK is now pretty much a global name. A few indications of their worldwide fan base are the number of listenings on DATAROCK's MySpace profile (3.200.000), the number of views on DATAROCK's YouTube clips, the number of fans on on DATAROCK's Facebook profile (30.000), the number of followers on DATAROCK's Twitter account, the number of plays (4.300.000) & listeners (310.000) on Last.fm, the way DATAROCK is able to tour globally, and the nature of their world wide distribution. Despite this fact the band is still very much DIY - exclusively signed to their own imprint and pretty much handling everything themselves.

DATAROCK's first two albums were both licensed to Nettwerk Records (Canada) and Ministry Of Sound (Australia), but for the upcoming release DATAROCK is breaking new ground by teaming up with San Francisco based designer toy company - SUPER7. The new release simply named "DATAROCK - LIMITED EDITION" is an "urban vinyl" diamond character created by designer toys legend, Brian Flynn, and inside the diamond character you'll find a USB stick featuring a brand new DATAROCK EP ("Catcher In The Rye"), a brand new DATAROCK LP ("Music For Synchronization"), a brand new DATAROCK concert film ("NEVER SAY DIE") and more than 1500 private photos.

The release date? SXSW 2011!

PRESS QUOTES ON DATAROCK'S SECOND ALBUM - "RED"

"...a frothy elixir out of 1980s synth-pop, art-rock and new wave"
-New York Times

"...this band can nail any sound they want, cheekiness be damned"
-Pitchfork

"Irresistibly slinky new wave"
-NME

"...a hefty percentage of top tunes"
-BBC

"The ultimate 1980s homage"
-Uncut

"As mischievous as a Scottish terrier trained to operate a spud gun"
-Mixmag

"the opening of this album is pure science fiction cinema"
-Clash Music

"Still plundering the best of 80's pop as only they can"
-The Fly

"Robo rock"
-Artrocker

"High energy indie dance with a sense of the absurd"
-Music Week

"Smart casual really doesn't get any funkier than this"
-Metro

"Datarock are really, really good"
-Time Out

"Superb"
-Kruger

"...one of the bolder 2nd albums of recent times"
-Attitude

"Cherry-picks the era's best and emerges fresh"
-Teletext

"Great album by one of the most exciting bands around"
-Super Sweet

"Exciting romp of dance-punk mentalist"
-Glasswerks

"Red is a confident statement of self assurance from the Bergen dance due"
-Music-News

" 'Give it up' is the awesome comeback single. A brilliant slice of eighties pop"
-Female First

"Datarock's Red is no less than a masterpiece"
-Ilikemusic

"With lyrics that make you smile and dance a happy dance"
-Planet Notion

"...electro-funk superstars"
-Efestival

"Brilliant slice of eighties inspired pop"
-Spaceship for Sale

" 'Give It Up' is an irresistible slice of electro euphoria"
-Nerdy-frames

"No revenge of the nerds. They were champions from the start."
-Bergens Tidende 6/6

"This is a very clever mindfuck of an album"
-Dagbladet 5/6

"Warning! This album might lead to increased demand for red tracksuits..."
-Aftenposten 5/6

"Datarock has grown as a band and as songwriters..."
-NRK, Lydverket 5/6

"...Datarock is extremely varied, they try on a number of genres, and they master them all"
-musikknyheter.no 8/10

PRESS QUOTES ON DATAROCK'S DEBUT ALBUM - "DATAROCK DATAROCK"

"Doubting Datarock is the future of indie dance? You're taking the piss, right?"
-James Jam, NME

"...the urge to cheer them from the sideline remains strong."
-Sharon O'connel, Uncut

"Finally, a band to fall madly in love with"
-The Fly Magazine

"It makes for quite a party"
-John Robinson, Q Magazine

"There's never a bottom line with bands like this, but the bottom line with Datarock is the songs shoot for instant pleasure and accidentally end up being much more than that"
-Nick Sylvester, Pitchfork (7.8)

"Note to all festival booking agents and...sod it...all other booking agents for that matter - stick Datarock to a stage and just send us a cheque for telling you to do so"
-Caz McBain, Loud & Quiet

"Datarock may be treading the disco-ball lined path already well worn by Devo, but damned if they don't drop a couple of catchy fucking tunes in the process"
-Music Week

"Norwegian duo Fredrik Saroea and Ketil Mosnes are lively digital dance-rock bunnies who know how to have fun without becoming a laughing stock."
-Daily Mirror (UK)

"Their record kills me like all good 'playing with genre stereotypes' records do--funny but not Weird Al about it, whimsical but not trivial, all the result of band leaders Fredrik having killer vox and Ketil laying down unquestionably funky low-end."
-The Village Voice

"I suppose it only makes sense that all the coolest electro-pop has been coming from our Nordic neighbours in Scandinavia."
-Montreal Mirror

DISCOGRAPHY

DATAROCK/STOCKHAUS
SPLIT EP - 10" - 500 COPIES LTD EDITION - ÉLLET RECORDS - 2001

DATAROCK: "DEMO/GREATEST HITS"
EP - CD-R - 400 COPIES LTD EDITION - KAPTEIN KALIBER RECORDS - 2002

FREDRIK SAROEA featuring ANNIE: "I WILL ALWAYS REMEMBER YOU"
7" - 1000 COPIES LTD EDITION - TELLE RECORDS - 2002

DATAROCK: "I KNOW WHAT BOYS LIKE"
7" - LTD EDITION - KAPTEIN KALIBER RECORDS - 2003

DATAROCK: "COMPUTER CAMP LOVE"
EP - CDEP/7" - ÉLLET RECORDS - 2003

FREDRIK SAROEA: "GANGURO GIRL"
7" - 500 COPIES LTD EDITION - KAPTEIN KALIBER RECORDS - 2003

FREDRIK SAROEA AND THE FREDRIK SAROEAS: "CHAMONIX ET PARIS"
EP - 500 COPIES LTD EDITION - ÉLLET RECORDS - 2004

DATAROCK: "COMPUTER CAMP LOVE"
CDEP - YAP RECORDS - 2005

DATAROCK: "DATAROCK DATAROCK"
CD - YAP RECORDS - 2005

DATAROCK: "FA-FA-FA"
CDEP/7"/12"/DIGITAL DOWNLOAD - YAP RECORDS - 2006

DATAROCK: "SEE WHAT I CARE"
CDEP - YAP RECORDS - 2007

DATAROCK: "DATAROCK DATAROCK"
CD - NETTWERK - 2007

DATAROCK: "DATAROCK DATAROCK"
CD - MINISTRY OF SOUND - 2007

DATAROCK: "FA-FA-FA"
CDEP/7"/12"/DIGITAL DOWNLOAD - NETTWERK - 2007

DATAROCK: "I USED TO DANCE WITH MY DADDY"
CDEP/7"/12"/DIGITAL DOWNLOAD - NETTWERK - 2007

DATAROCK: "PRINCESS"
CDEP/7"/12"/DIGITAL DOWNLOAD - NETTWERK - 2008

DATAROCK: "GIVE IT UP"
CDEP/DIGITAL DOWNLOAD - YAP RECORDS/ NETTWERK / MINISTRY OF SOUND - 2009

DATAROCK: "RED"
CD/DIGITAL DOWNLOAD - YAP RECORDS/ NETTWERK / MINISTRY OF SOUND - 2009

DATAROCK: "TRUE STORIES"
CDEP/DIGITAL DOWNLOAD - YAP RECORDS - 2009

DATAROCK: "AMARILLION"
DIGITAL DOWNLOAD - YAP RECORDS - 2010

DATAROCK: "THE PRETENDER"
CDEP/DIGITAL DOWNLOAD - YAP RECORDS/ NETTWERK / MINISTRY OF SOUND - 2010

DATAROCK: "DANCE!"
CDEP/DIGITAL DOWNLOAD - YAP RECORDS - 2010

DATAROCK: "MIXED UP"
DIGITAL DOWNLOAD - YAP RECORDS - 2010