Lars Winnerbäck, Karin Dreijer, Jill Johnson, and Per Gessle are some of the artists protesting against the study associations being forced to close rehearsal rooms across Sweden. The interest organization Studieförbunden, behind the campaign, estimates that at least 20,000 young people will lose their creative haven due to the government's cuts.
A long line of artists testify in the campaign about the importance of the first rehearsal room.
"Not all kids like sports, there must be places where you can engage in music," says Karin Dreijer from Fever Ray and The Knife, who got her rehearsal rooms in the 1990s through study circles in Gothenburg.
"Humans are nothing without culture and music, it's a bloody shame to deprive young people of it," she says in a press release.
Devastating
E-type, who found music through the municipal music school, believes that rehearsal rooms have been crucial for the Swedish music miracle.
We have a long musical history where we produce as many superhits as countries with ten times our population, and it's because all young people have had the opportunity to find music. If you miss that, it's devastating for Swedish music, he tells TT.
Tobias Forge in the Grammy-awarded hard rock band Ghost started his career with twenty years of rehearsals in rehearsal rooms driven by state funds, and says: "I dare say that almost every internationally known and now high-income artist and songwriter from Sweden has gone a similar way."
Young People Affected
E-type also thinks it's "tone-deaf" to save on young people.
It's not just about there being fewer hits and fewer new Kent groups, it's also about catching young people so they don't do bad things instead.
The state's allocation to study associations decreased by 250 million kronor in 2024 and by another 100 million in 2025. Another cut is planned for 2026, with 150 million kronor.
More than 60,000 people were involved in music activities in study associations before the cuts, according to the organization Studieförbunden, which estimates that a third of Sweden's rehearsal rooms will disappear due to the cuts.
A film about the rehearsal room crisis was shown at the Grammis gala on March 27.
