Joakim Berg, Sami Sirviö and Martin Sköld met at school in Eskilstuna, Sweden and formed the band in 1990 after a visit to London made them realise how boring their hometown really was. Markus Mustonen was soon recruited as a drummer from Beds Of Flowers, and the original line-up named Jones & Giftet was completed by Thomas Bergqvist on synths.
They entered a talent competition in 1991, resulting in early interest from EMI. They continued with some low-key gigs, changing their name again to Havsänglar ('sea-angels'). By 1993, this changed again to Kent, and the band had relocated in Stockholm. A year later they recorded a ten-track demo which found it's way to BMG records, who signed the band and released their first single in February 1995, followed by an eponymous album a month later.
1996 saw the band win a Swedish Grammy for best rock band, and their second album, 'Verkligen' hit no.1 in the Swedish charts. After much touring, the first single from the album was released in Japan in both Swedish and English versions, with the Swedish version proving more popular with the Japanese public. More Grammys followed and in May 1997 fresh recordings saw 'Om du var här' ('If you were here') preceding a new album by lingering in the Swedish top 10. A month later the album achieved instant 'gold' status after topping the album charts, and a Scandinavian tour consolidated their success.
In 1998, their third album 'Isola' was released in a re-recorded English version, and more extensive tours of Europe followed. By November their international profile had been elevated enough to open in New York for The Cardigans, and in early 1999 recordings for a new album started, whilst previous releases were promoted overseas. A UK television performance of '747' on TFI Friday (Channel 4) helped the band gain a small, but valuable fanbase for their English speaking releases, and when 'Hagnesta Hill' was released in 1999 they finally began to make inroads into the UK market. The Melody Maker described the band as 'a glass of freshly squeezed melancholy, served on crushed ice with a perfectly cut slice of melody floating on top'. Loaded magazine said 'Kent are a big, bold brilliant rock band in the way that My Bloody Valentine and Radiohead would be if they swapped members for a week and went pop'. (Neither description is likely to cause argument!)
Since 'Hagnesta Hill's release in the UK (a year late, in 2000), a few exciting festival appearances and a brief UK headlining tour, the band have kept a low profile (in the UK at least).
That Kent remain virtually unnoticed in the UK despite having much in common with Radiohead, Suede and Coldplay, is truly a sign of journalistic prejudice based on geography - something that many bands outside of London have often cited as a stumbling block, even within the British Isles.
IF YOU LIKE THESE, YOU'LL LIKE KENT: Coldplay, Muse, Doves, Travis, Manic Street Preachers, Radiohead.