Lars Bygdén

Born in 1973 within Sweden’s industrial hub of Sundsvall, alternative rocker Lars Bygdén has long been a fixture on the scene. His entry into music came in the mid-’90s, when he handled guitar duties for the psych-rock outfits Magic Broom and the Shades of Orange, both active across Scandinavia. He later assembled the Thousand Dollar Playboys, an alternative-country band that built a following before issuing two well-received albums and disbanding in 2002. Bygdén stepped out on his own with the 2005 solo debut Trading Happiness for Songs and continued four years afterward with the conceptual release Family Feelings.