25 Years Later: Grunge Hero Re-emerges as a Solo Artist with Songs from the Deepest Darkness of Marriage
“Wow! Where did you get that?” he asked, pointing to my shirt, a white tee with their album cover emblazoned on the front.
“I.. I uh.. I made it myself,” I responded.
I was just a shy, long-haired, 14-year-old kid, backstage with Boghandle — Denmark’s coolest grunge band.
Ever since I heard their second album, Step on It, I was hooked. I was a big fan of Pearl Jam and Alice in Chains at the time, but most Danish grunge was too soft. Too pop. Too Danish.
Boghandle was different.
Raw, edgy and real, it was a breath of fresh air. I didn’t know it at the time, but that night in 1993 at a dingy Copenhagen nightclub, head-banging, slam-dancing, and stage-diving was the beginning of a story, but that story isn’t mine.
MEETING MARTIN LIND
Martin Lind was Boghandle’s lead guitarist. He also ended up becoming my guitar teacher.
Inspired by the show, I decided that he would become my guitar teacher, he just didn’t know it yet. So I did what any ‘90s kid would do… I picked up the phone book and started dialing all the Martin Linds until I found him.
To my surprise…he said yes!
You can imagine how cool I felt, learning guitar from the lead guitarist of Denmark’s coolest grunge band.
Martin was kind and helpful (but often late — rock ‘n roll I suppose) and we spent most of the lessons learning Boghandle songs. He always put me and my friends on the door list at their shows and my fondest memory was at the Roskilde Festival in 1995, where Boghandle played on the Orange Scene, followed by Radiohead and Neil Young with Pearl Jam as a backing band.
It was a great time. But soon after that show, Boghandle broke up. Martin stopped giving guitar lessons and we went our different ways. For me, that direction was learning jazz in London, for Martin, it was becoming a session guitarist for Danish rock legends Sort Sol, and the new Queen of Danish pop, Caroline Henderson.
He also went on to found Denmark’s first trip-hop band, Deep-fried Toguma, and studied as a recording engineer at the Royal Danish Academy of Music.
In the many years since then, I have to say, I didn’t think much about Martin or Boghandle.
Earlier this year, that all changed.
A DARK TIME — A BRIGHT FUTURE
I don’t know why, but in early 2019, I started thinking about Boghandle again. I started searching for live videos on YouTube, but couldn’t find any.
I figured I’d reach out to Martin, offering to start them a YouTube page.
This time, I found him on LinkedIn (no phone books needed). I said ‘Hi,’ we texted, spoke on the phone, and soon met face-to-face at a cafe in Copenhagen.
As he walked through the doors, I quickly noticed something very different about him.
One of his eyes was a strange, clear, dark-blue colour, very different to the deep brown of his other eye.
I asked what happened and he explained.
Ten years earlier, Martin had a fight with his wife. In a heated moment, she threatened him with a vase. The vase cracked, and a piece of it slashed his eye — badly. He was lucky not to lose his eye completely.
He now has severe difficulty seeing with that eye, and it’s a constant reminder of a troubling time.
After that incident, Martin went into a deep crisis. He and his (now ex-) wife stayed together, trying to heal the wounds, but things between them were never the same.
He searched his soul for answers. Struggling to forgive, but also blaming himself, he found solace in writing. It became an outlet to express his anguish and he wrote pages and pages of lyrics and poems.
Those lyrics sat unaccompanied until a year ago when he began composing music for them. Now, recently divorced, at 51-years-old, those lyrics and music have become Martin Lind’s debut album Metanoia.
RELEASE AND MOVE FORWARD
When I first heard early recordings of the track, I was pleasantly surprised. It was good. Very good. Better than I thought it would be.
Deeply personal, raw and honest, Metanoia is entirely self-composed and performed by Martin himself. It’s a rare and powerful exploration into his soul, set against a haunting, ethereal soundscape. His voice is brilliant and the songs are powerful (especially when you know the back story).
Martin tells me that this first release is a catharsis; a way to release the dark energy of those years. But, this is just the beginning.
“I have 20 good years left, and I want to do a new project every year. So, 20 projects. Something completely new every time — either solo or collaborations or whatever. I feel and I know that I have some really good songwriting left in me.”
And as I reflect on this story, it’s hard not to think about how a few small decisions can change our lives; how such small moments have a big impact.
I think about reaching out to Martin, and how it led me to this moment.
Below you can listen to Martin Lind’s new album Metanoia.
