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Lars Frederiksen

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Lars Frederiksen

Lars Erik Frederiksen (born August 30, 1971) is a guitarist and vocalist for the punk rock band Rancid, and the frontman of Lars Frederiksen and the Bastards, he is also notable as a producer having worked with the Dropkick Murphys, Agnostic Front, Union 13, The Gadjits, Pressure Point, and The Business. He joined Rancid in 1993 after the band was searching for a second guitar player and was present on their second album Let's Go. Lars' surname was originally Dapello after his father, who abandoned his family at a young age so he took his mother's maiden name, Frederiksen. Lars had an older brother named Robert who died in the early 2000s from an aneurysm; the song "Otherside" by Rancid was written in memory of his older brother.

Lars is also known for harmonising his own vocals in studio recordings of Rancid songs.

Personal life

Family and background

Frederiksen is half-Danish (his mother, Minna, was a Danish immigrant) and was reared in Campbell, California, a town near San Jose, California. The sixth track on his 2001 album, Lars Frederiksen and the Bastards, is titled "Campbell, CA." [1] He is a notable drop out of Westmont High School.

His mother came to the US as an immigrant, barely able to speak English and with very little money. Lars' father, John Dapello abandoned the family when Lars was just 4 years old. Life was a constant struggle for Minna and she worked two jobs to try to support her two sons, Lars and his older brother, who was four years older than him. However seeing his mother struggle gave birth to his survival instincts for later in life and surely helped to instill that working class punk rock ethic. His first introduction to music was by his brother, who introduced Lars to punk as well as cementing his early rabid fanaticism for KISS. Lars' Brother Rob died in the 2000s, and this is referenced in the songs "The Viking" (Lars Fredrickson & The Bastards) and "The Other Side" (Rancid)[citation needed]. He later learned to play guitar both by pausing fretboard close-ups in MTV rock videos and from the former guitarist of San Jose glam rock band The Shattered.

SKUNX

Lars Frederiksen has "SKUNX" tattooed on his forehead. Skunx is a crew that Lars belongs to, led by a punk who Lars got his first punk record from. SKUNX stands for skinheads punx and drunx. Skunx has active chapters in el paso, tx Las Cruces, NM, East Coast, and London, UK. The original core members from the late 80's all have the same "S" shaped brand or SKUNX tattoo. He is also a member of U.S. Thugs as it is tattooed on his belly.[citation needed]

Marriage

Lars' was previously married to long time friend Megan but in 2001 he returned home from a tour with the Bastards to find his wife of 3 years had left him. A lot of reference to Lars' heartbreak can be found in the second Lars Frederiksen & the Bastards record 'The Viking'. After the divorce Lars said in an interview he was so down he slept with various prostitutes, reference to this period of his life can be found in the Viking record "My Life To Live", also.[citation needed] He is now happily married to Stephanie, who gave birth to their son, Wolfgang Erik Anders Frederiksen on September 11 2007.

Guest appearances

The following is a list of songs that Frederiksen has appeared on where he was not a member of the band.

Guitars and amplification

  • Lars has an Alpine White Epiphone Les Paul Custom that a group of friends purchased for him for his 21st birthday. It has been embellished with several stickers; including a Danish Flag, The US Bombs, and The Nerve Agents band logos.
  • Lars has two 1964 Gibson SG Specials in Heritage Cherry. One has a U.S. Roughnecks sticker behind the bridge section, and "Bastards" stenciled over the bridge section in white; the other is plain.
  • Lars has also got a 1965 Gibson SG Special in Polaris White, which is adorned with a Charlie Manson sticker, directly under a large CMLL Sticker.
  • Lars plays these guitars through a Marshall JCM 900 100 watt amplifier head, and a Marshall 1960A 4x12 Celestion-speaker-packed cabinet.
  • Lars' Marshall head and cabinet amps have the M cut partially and the HALL removed so that they spell LARS.
  • He uses no effects pedals or processors of any kind. Just the amp's two stock channels, clean and crunch.

References

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