FAthers & SONS -
an introduction
How much is genes and how much is environment?
That question easily arises when listening to Fathers & Sons' debut album "The Light that Remains". As the group name suggests, the quartet consists of two fathers (Hans von Bell and Håkan Nyberg) and two sons (Thomas von Bell and Pontus Snibb). The album was released on vinyl and via streaming on June 12, 2026.
The age difference within the band is, for obvious reasons, large, with a full 44 years between Håkan and Thomas. Yet everything sounds completely natural and unforced. The family bond clearly finds its musical expression.
The seeds for the group were sown when Pontus and Hans had one of their "sessions" at Hans's house about four years ago.
- We usually see each other and eat food and drink some good wine and in connection with that we always play music to each other, says Hans. One night Pontus said, "have you heard Wichita Lineman with Glen Campbell?", I said I hadn’t. Of course, he wanted to play it to me and after this night, we used to be listening to it regularly and both of us really dug it.
One evening the idea was born to make our own stripped-down interpretation that differed from Campbell's more flamboyant version.
– We wanted to do a jazzy, stripped-down version with 12-string acoustic guitar and double bass as the main instruments. Pontus came up with the idea of bringing in his father on drums and I knew that my son Thomas could play double bass and thus, the band was born. In connection with that, it struck us that Fathers & Sons was a fitting name for this constellation.
The result was so good that the band decided to release the song on various streaming services. Inspired by the good reception, they soon began writing their own material and after a while they realized that an album was in the making. The result was six original songs and three covers.
Pontus and Hans are the main composers of the original material, while Pontus is the lyricist.
– Even though we've known each other for so long, I actually had no idea what a good lyricist Pontus is, says Hans.
Snibb's breadth as a lyricist becomes clear if you compare the sad break up narrative on e.g. "Shipwrecked" with "Problematic", whose lyrics question today's way of making pop music, with AI or the need for ten songwriters for a simple pop song.
Two songs are reworked versions from Pontus and Hans' respective solo albums. Some have been in the drawer; some have been written during alcohol infused social gatherings and some have come about quickly and uncomplicatedly during the album's development.
The band describes their debut album as "classic rock with an acoustic sound".
– We could easily have gone the path towards hard rock and let Pontus sing with full force, but then it would have sounded too much like Bonafide (Pontus' main band), we wanted Fathers & Sons to be completely different from anything else that each band member is involved in, states Hans von Bell. Here Pontus sings in a more subdued and nuanced way. Often in a lower register, but with his personality intact.
Who then are these fathers and sons?
Hans von Bell is known from his band The Soul Exchange and plays all 12-string guitars, baritone guitar, and also a lot of 6-string guitar and is behind most of the guitar solos on the album. What sounds like keyboards and strings is incidentally Hans playing a Roland GR-33 guitar synthesizer.
Pontus Snibb is a singer and guitarist, both here and in his hard rock band Bonafide, and the bluesy Wreck of Blues. He is also an incomparable drummer and channels John Bonham's drumming in his Tribute to Led Zeppelin. Pontus has a firm foot in hard rock such as Led Zeppelin and AC/DC, but adores The Beatles, and has also been influenced by his father's passion for Americana, country and roots music. And somewhere in the borderland in between, we find Fathers & Sons.
Håkan Nyberg is the father of Pontus and is a legendary drummer who has played with a long line of big-name artists, including Mikael Wiehe, Björn Afzelius and Nationalteaterns Rockorkester, of which he has been a member since 1980. He is also part of Pontus Snibb's Wreck of Blues.
Thomas Von Bell, who is the son of Hans, is a multi-instrumentalist. On this particular album he plays double bass, electric bass, mandolin and dobro, and has acted as sound and mixing engineer during the recording of the album. He also runs the metal project Cyclical Time, where he plays all instruments except drums and also does growl vocals.
With three strong songwriters and multi-instrumentalists in the band, the future looks bright. Everyone in the band is experienced musicians and knows what they want and what they are capable of. Two concerts have been performed to date, and more are in the pipeline. However, the band has not yet decided in what form and in what contexts it will take place.
In times when many bands send files to each other and are rarely or never in the same room, it is a relief to hear that Fathers & Sons have recorded their music together in Hans & Thomas' own studio (ALPstudio). Something that has resulted in a completely different presence and chemistry than if they had worked remotely. And there is clearly an almost telepathic understanding between the fathers and their respective offspring.
– Håkan and Pontus have done over 2000 gigs together, so their interaction is hardly a coincidence, laughs Hans von Bell.
– I have probably influenced my son's taste in music quite a bit. Even as a child, he got his fair share of Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, Rush, Yes and ELP! Then, of course, he developed his own taste in music.
The answer to the question of heredity or environment is thus obvious: both.
And this quietly sensational debut album is the proof.
Text by Anders Lundquist
