The Poodles
Performocracy

Watch out! The unruly dog pack out of Sweden is on the move once again. The european release of the band’s forthcoming album “Performocracy” is due on April 15th 2011 and the first single off the album, “Cuts like a knife”, is headed your way as a digital release on March 7th. Heavy Metal has never been more exciting and the new album promises to be a milestone in rock n’ roll history!

The Poodles formed in the fall of 2005 and six months later they took part in the Swedish leg of the Eurovision Song Contest, which led to the band’s big breakthrough in their native country. The debut album, “Metal Will Stand Tall”, was released shortly thereafter in Sweden, Japan, and Russia. It climbed to the top of the Swedish charts and the first single, “Night of Passion”, went gold after only three weeks and achieved platinum status in addition to being the most downloaded song for three weeks straight. “Metal Will Stand Tall”, contained material written by A-list song writers such as Holly Knight (Tina Turner, Aerosmith, and KISS) and featured two more singles that went top-10 in the Swedish charts.

The band’s second effort, “Sweet Trade”, was released in September 2007 in Sweden, all of Europe and in Russia and Japan. The single, “Streets of Fire”, became the band’s biggest selling single to date, achieving double-platinum status. Shortly after the release of “Sweet Trade” The Poodles headed out on yet another tour over Europe together with Gotthard. The Poodles then did a head-line tour of their own with 17 sold-out shows throughout Europe. Several of the shows on the tour were upgraded to bigger venues, quite a feat for a band that was formed only two and a half years earlier.

Late spring 2008, after having participated a second time in the Eurovision Song Contest with the song “Line of fire”, the band proudly accepted the invitation to record and perform the Official Swedish Theme Song for the Olympic Games in Beijing 2008. The result was “Raise the Banner”, which was released on the 15th of July and was the number one hit single in Sweden for most of August 2008.

For The Poodles’ third album, legendary producer-mixer Mike Fraser (Aerosmith, AC/DC, Led Zeppelin, Whitesnake) was hired to take on mixing duties. Mats Valentin, a highly gifted Swedish producer and songwriter produced what was to become “Clash of the Elements” which was released in 2009 and featured the top-10 hit single “One out of Ten” and the all-out rocker “I Rule the Night”. The album was released in cooperation with Universal and marked a new era in the history of the band. Unsurprisingly, the release of “Clash of the Elements” was followed by extensive touring in both Sweden and mainland Europe. Highlights include Firefest 2009, Rockstad Falun 2010 and Grasspop 2010. All in all, The Poodles visited 29 European cities during the fall of 2009 and the spring of 2010.

In August 2010, The Poodles formed a partnership with Frontiers Records in preparation for the release of a Live-album and a Live-DVD as well as an upcoming studio album. The Rockumentary DVD “In the Flesh” and the live CD “No Quarter” were released on November 8th 2010 in all territories and at the same time, work started on the fourth installment of the Poodles’ saga.

“Performocracy” is the apt title of The Poodles’ fourth studio effort. The title of the album is a combination of the words “Performance” and “Democracy”, meaning “The power of Performance” or “Rule by Performance”. The album was again produced by Mats Valentin, but this time Tobias Lindell (Europe, Mustasch) mixed the 12 outstanding tracks that make up the album.

The first single off “Performocracy” is the track “Cuts like a knife”, which promises to entice both Poodles fans and anyone with a passion for rock n’ roll. A video produced by Steve Ravic, who also shot and produced “In the Flesh”, will accompany the release of the first single.

THE POODLES
Jakob Samuel - vocals
Pontus Egberg – bass
Christian Lundqvist - drums
Henrik Bergqvist – guitars

Produced by Mats Valentin