Early Years
Hans’s first stumbling steps into the music scene were at the age of 14, when he used his first ever salary from his first ever job, and bought his first electric guitar (an Ibanez Les Paul copy priced SEK 1,100). That summer he also joined his first band that used to practice in the garage at one of Hans’s friends’ house. Soon after, Hans switched the guitar to bass that also became his main instrument for many years to come. The band named “Sulitelma” eventually became one of the local bands that frequently played at various school events and dances, mostly playing covers of 70’s bands such as Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, Uriah Heep, Black Sabbath etc.
The Prog Rock and Fusion Era
In 1975, Hans was asked by his guitarist friend Mats “Limpan” Lindfors (who later became a successful Producer and Studio Engineer in his own right, working with many major names in the industry) to join the first of many incarnations of a band called “Crew” as a bass player. The band also featured the guitarist Kent Kroon (most noted as the guitar virtuoso in the band “Friendship Time” and for his work with Jan Akkerman, ex "Focus") and various drummers over time. This gig however, really commenced the next chapter in Hans’s musical career. “Crew” appeared on several festivals in the coming year performing instrumental music with dual guitars that ranged from re-arranged classical pieces by e.g. Albinoni to covers by the Dutch 70’s band “Focus” mixed with fusion, jazz and pure blues tunes. The following year he also played bass in a prog rock outfit called E.S.P.
Two years later, while also taking lessons in classical guitar, Hans von Bell and Mats “Limpan” Lindfors founded the 2nd more prog rock oriented incarnation of “Crew”. The band performed original music co-written by “Limpan” and Hans on the theme of the knights tales of “Ivanhoe” mixed with pop/rock and jazz/blues covers, mostly doing festival gigs in the Stockholm area.
Crew mk 3
Around 1980, Hans once more teamed up with some of his old friends from the “Sulitelma” period continuing
where “Crew mk 2” left off. This collaboration eventually became the 3rd and the most long lived incarnation of “Crew”. This line up, with Marcus Zwartkruis replacing “Limpan” on guitar, was a completely different animal from the previous incarnations of the band, a pop/rock outfit performing solely original music with vocals in the Swedish language. During this period Hans was seriously focused on his bass playing and thus took private lessons from the veteran bassist Martin Cerha (e.g. “Friendship Time”, Ulf Lundell and others).
In 1982, Christina “Ninni” Sellman joined “Crew” as lead vocalist and this was the start of a couple quite successful years for the band. “Crew mk 3” recorded several demos in the legendary “Soundtrade Studio” in Stockholm, particularly famous for being the recording studio of choice for the Swedish group “ABBA” prior to the establishment of their own “Polar Studio”. The band also landed a management deal resulting in frequent touring in the early 80´s and eventually also signed a record deal for one single. However, even though recorded in 1983, the record never saw the day of light as the band broke up before it got to be released.
The 90´s and the new millenium
Disjointed by the break up of “Crew”, Hans decided to shelf his musical career and get a “real” job. Graduating from the University of Stockholm in 1990, he commenced a career in Finance. Apart from some University gigs and taking the role as band leader in a play at the University, Hans’s musical career was dormant for about 10 years. But faith had a will of its own. In 1994 a horse accident forced him to take an extended sick leave of absence from his regular job, and thus Hans found himself spending the days practicing electric guitar. The same year he joined a cover band called “Cover Ups” as their lead guitarist. This was really the ignition for him to become a guitarist in a serious manner and since the mid 90’s to this day, Hans has played lead guitar in a range of cover bands.
Present day
In recent years, Hans did start to record some of his own original music, as well as some instrumental covers. In 2011, fortune allowed him to quit his job in Finance in order to focus on music on a full time basis. In the fall of 2011 he commenced an education in sound engineering as well as studio engineering. The same winter, he produced a tribute to some of his main influences consisting of a selection of cover songs performed by his present band, as a learning project. This project called “Homage to Heroes” was engineered and mixed by Hans himself in a studio in Järfälla outside Stockholm. In the following year, collaboration with the drummer Benny White allowed Hans to undertake some touring in South East Asia. This collaboration also eventually led to what was to become Hans’s latest project “The Soul Exchange”.
The studio and “The Soul Exchange” project
Encouraged by Benny White, after Benny had heard some old demos of Hans own original music, Hans decided to record some more demos featuring his own songs. In the process of recording, Hans realized that he needed somewhere to work on the songs without the limitations of studio time, and thus in the summer of 2013 he established his own full scale home recording studio. The studio allowed him to complete the work with the recording and mixing of “The Soul Exchange” project in the following year. The Soul Exchanges' debut album was released on January 20th, 2015.
Already prior to the release of the Soul Exchanges' debut, Hans began writing new songs for a follow up. In 2016 he hooked up with renowned producer Magnus Ljungvist and completed the recording of the 2nd Soul Exchange album in the state of the art XTC studio in Älvsjö outside Stockholm. In 2016 Hans also signed a record deal with Mervilton Records in U.S.A. for worldwide distribution and marketing of The soul Exchanges records, as well as publishing and licensing of Hans musical compositions. "BLOODBOUND", the follow up to 2015's debut album was released on November 29th, 2016, on the Mervilton Records label. Hans intend to take The Soul Exchange on tour in 2017. Besides playing with some friends in a cover band north of Stockholm, this project has fully occupied Hans’s time from the fall of 2013 and up to this day.
