Mattias Bernwall (born 18 March 1978), better known by his stage name Dr. Matt Destruction, is a Swedish former

bassist A bassist (also known as a bass player or bass guitarist) is a musician who plays a bass instrument such as a double bass (upright bass, contrabass, wood bass), bass guitar (electric bass, acoustic bass), keyboard bass (synth bass) or a low br ...

for

garage rock Garage rock (sometimes called garage punk or 60s punk) is a raw and energetic style of rock music that flourished in the mid-1960s, most notably in the United States and Canada, and has experienced a series of subsequent revivals. The style is ...

band

The Hives The Hives are a Swedish garage rock band formed in Fagersta in 1993. After gaining success in Sweden throughout the 1990s, they rose to worldwide prominence in the early 2000s during the garage rock revival. The band's line-upconsisting of H ...

Career

Bernwall was born in

Fagersta Fagersta is a locality and the seat of Fagersta Municipality in Västmanland County, Sweden, with 11,130 inhabitants in 2010. Geography The city is located at the junction of two railways between Ludvika-Västerås and Avesta (Krylbo)-Örebro ...

and began playing bass in bands while still in ''mellanstadiet'' (compulsory schooling in Sweden). The Hives were formed in 1993, when he was 15 years old, and rose to prominence in the early 2000s as a leading group of the

post-punk revival Post-punk revival (also known as indie rock revival) is a Music genre, subgenre or movement of indie rock that emerged in the early 2000s as a stripped-down and back-to-basics version of Guitar-rock, guitar rock inspired by the original sounds a ...

, playing

. Bernwall typically played a 1970s Fender Telecaster Bass which differs from the late-1960s Telecaster and 1950s Precision bass (each inspiring another) in that it has a

humbucker A humbucker, humbucking pickup, or double coil, is a guitar pickup that uses two wire coils to cancel out noisy interference from Single coil guitar pickup, coil pickups. Humbucking coils are also used in Microphone, dynamic microphones to can ...

rather than a single coil pickup. His bass was in the band's signature white/black color combo along with a white

Hiwatt Hiwatt (stylized in all caps) is a British company that manufactures amplifiers for electric guitars and electric basses. Starting in the late 1960s, together with Marshall and Vox, Hiwatt contributed to the sonic image popularly termed "B ...

amplifier An amplifier, electronic amplifier or (informally) amp is an electronic device that can increase the magnitude of a signal (a time-varying voltage or current). It is a two-port electronic circuit that uses electric power from a power su ...

; he almost always used bass

distortion In signal processing, distortion is the alteration of the original shape (or other characteristic) of a signal. In communications and electronics it means the alteration of the waveform of an information-bearing signal, such as an audio signal ...

and a pick. He also occasionally played a

Rickenbacker Rickenbacker International Corporation is a string instrument manufacturer based in Santa Ana, California. Rickenbacker is the first known maker of electric guitars, with a steel guitar in 1932, and produces a range of electric guitars and bass ...

bass, as seen in the "

Hate to Say I Told You So "Hate to Say I Told You So" is the first single from Swedish rock band the Hives' second studio album, ''Veni Vidi Vicious''. It was first released as a single on 4 December 2000 and was later re-released in several countries in 2002. It is int ...

music video A music video is a video that integrates a song or an album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device intended to ...

. Bernwall departed the Hives in 2013, for undisclosed health issues. He made a cameo appearance in the band's 2023 music video for the single "Countdown to Shutdown".

Discography

*'' Barely Legal'' (1997) *''

Veni Vidi Vicious ''Veni Vidi Vicious'' is the second studio album by Swedish rock band the Hives. The album was released on 10 April 2000 through Burning Heart and Epitaph. It was later re-released on 30 April 2002 through Sire and Gearhead. The Japanese relea ...

'' (2000) *''

Tyrannosaurus Hives ''Tyrannosaurus Hives'' is the third studio album by Swedish rock band the Hives, released on 19 July 2004 through Polydor Records internationally and Interscope Records in the United States. As of 2006 the album has sold 176,000 copies in Unit ...

'' (2004) *''

The Black and White Album ''The Black and White Album'' is the fourth studio album by Swedish rock band the Hives, released on 8 October 2007 through A&M/Octone and Polydor Records. The Hives recorded 20 to 30 songs (including seven recorded with producers the Neptune ...

'' (2007) *''

Lex Hives ''Lex Hives'' is the fifth studio album by Swedish rock band the Hives, released on 1 June 2012 through Disques Hives, Universal Music, and Columbia Records. It was self-produced by the Hives and mixed by Andrew Scheps, with two additional trac ...

'' (2012)

References

Dr. Matt Destruction Interview

External links

Official Website

Official MySpace
{{DEFAULTSORT:Destruction, Dr. Matt 1978 births Living people The Hives members People from Fagersta Municipality 21st-century Swedish bass guitarists