“I’m getting possessed by the rock and roll devil.”

What would Mikael Persbrandt’s punk band have been called if he had one? Friends Håkan Sörle and Stefan Sjur thought about this during a flight from Slovenia, where Håkan Sörle’s former band had played a gig.

Something with K, they thought, because many playwrights have a special way of pronouncing that particular letter, with a sound that somehow gets thicker if the consonant is too far back in the mouth.

– So we finally found out he probably called it “Crossed Cocks.” And then Håkan said: “We’ll form a band and take this name, and you can sing a song and fulfill your dream.” “I was just really happy to do it,” says Stefan Sjur.

But it would be like that much more from the band than the first single. Since its founding, the group has released two albums, “Den korslagda lärarn” and “Boulder dash”, as well as opened the Sweden Rock 2025 festival. And now they will compete at Melodifestivalen – with a new name.

Last year the group decided to drop their somewhat vulgar suffix – partly out of consideration for families with children, but mostly to avoid being associated with gender rock. Now they’re just called Crossed.

– Håkan and I had talked about it for a long time. There were promoters who didn’t book us because they thought we were gender rock. But we have nothing to do with that, we are a rock’n’roll band.

This band at all became the strange consequence of an unimaginable family tragedy. In 2012, Stefan Sjur’s older brother died in a car accident. To honor him, Stefan Sjur decided to live life to the fullest, including by maximizing plans for his 40th birthday party. He took out a large bank loan and booked his favorite band, the punk band The Baboon Show.

In addition to a good performance, he also got a new best friend in the band’s guitarist, Håkan Sörle. It clicked immediately.

– It feels like my brother ran all of this and gave me a new brother. We talk to each other almost every day, me and Håkan.

Stefan Sjur then sold promotional items and records on the Baboon Show tours for over a decade. In the documentary “Check på den” Håkan Sörle says that Stefan Sjur was a real mess at work at first, he mostly ran around while long lines formed at the merch table. Over time he got the hang of it.

But the twelfth yearDuring a festival in Germany, Håkan Sörle happened to hear Stefan Sjur’s voice in a Bajamaja. In honor of the day, “I’m a rebel” by the German band Accept stuck in my mind.

– He said it was the best thing he had heard, says Stefan Sjur.

When Stefan Sjur later came up with the idea of ​​forming a band, Håkan Sörle remembered the Bajama song and in 2019 they released their first song “Korslagt”. In the same direction, Stefan Sjur brought his artist personality Urban “Ubbe” Näslund, who is actually quite similar to him, only that the alter ego is a little more extroverted and daring.

– Ubbe dares to step over the threshold and fulfills Stefan’s dreams. I’m quite an introvert myself and not exactly someone who enjoys mingling with people. But when I get into character, put on Ubbe clothes and sunglasses, everything becomes easier.

There’s still about a week left about the band’s participation in Melodifestivalen when DN calls and asks how it’s going. Stefan Sjur casually says that he is “at home in Älvdalen and takes it easy,” but then corrects himself.

– It’s more because I’m at home and that’s why I’m nervous. When you realize what you have to do, you almost collapse. I just go here and long. It will be great.

At Melodifestivalen, Korslagda will perform the song “King of Rock ‘n’ Roll”.

– It will be arena rock. And the lyrics are about how I get possessed by the rock and roll devil who helps me get on stage. Yeah, it’ll just be rock ‘n’ roll.

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