SIGN

The Sign story begins in 1998 when Ragnar Sólberg released his first solo album at the age of eleven with his brother Egill Örn on drums, playing original pop/rock songs.

Two years later a band was formed by Ragnar and Hörður Stefánsson, the main focus being on bringing good rock music to the weak rock scene of Iceland at the time.

2001 saw Sign releasing their first album "Vindar og Breytingar" via R&R musik, an independent label owned by the brothers father Rafn Jonsson. A label at which they would remain on after his departure in 2004.

Sign took on influences from the growing nu-metal scene and mixed it up with the classics they grew up on such as: Skid Row, Kiss, Megadeth and other 80's-90's bands.

Sign's debut gained them a loyal fan base of teenagers such as them selves battling with the teen angst and the song "Cassandra" hit the top charts of Icelandic rock radio. The follow up "Fyrir Ofan Himininn" came out a year later.

"Thank God For Silence" was the first Sign album in English and came out in 2005, it was the first time they worked with a producer. New Yorkers Mark Plati (bassist of David Bowie band) and guitar legend Earl Slick (John Lennon, David Bowie) came to Iceland and worked on three tracks of the album.

While Ragnar and Egill were making the album Ragnar's childhood friend Arnar G. joined as a guitar player which brought a fiercer edge to the band,
him being a psycho maniac performing every gig like he was playing the Wembley arena.

Being tired of struggling for success in Iceland Sign decided to go to England and play there, they began with a gig at Barfly Camden and were introduced as new-comers in Kerrang! magazine with a picture sporting Ragnar's "bleeding eye" make up and Arnar's t-shirt saying "I fucked your boyfriend" which immediately caught the readers eyes.

Sign had a good success with only a few UK gigs under their belt and between 2005-2007 they toured the UK with The Answer, Wednesday 13 and The Wild-hearts. Sign grew a reputation as a thrilling live-performance act.

In between tours Sign went into their studio in Iceland and constantly recorded new material, the result was 2007 release "The Hope".
The band then included Heimir Ólafur Hjartarson on bass and backing vocals (bass player and the lead singer of the band "Nevolution") and keyboardist Aggi (also a lead singer and a guitarist in the band "Ten Steps Away")

Rock critics praised the band as the "next big thing from Scandinavia" and Sign were asked to join Kerrang! for it's tribute compilation discs "Higher Voltage" and "Maid in Heaven".
After covering "Youth Gone Wild" in 2008 for the "Higher Voltage" Kerrang album Sign got in as the main support act for Skid Row, which had been a dream of Ragnar's since he was 4.
That same year Sign played at the main stage of Download festival right after KISS, another dream realization for him.

In 2009 after finishing a 5 week long tour with Aiden and Slaves to Gravity Sign got offered a record deal in Germany, one that pleased everybody in the band except for Ragnar which refused to sign it and saw it as a limitation rather than an opportunity. But Ragnar had just picked up his solo career and released his second solo album "The Circle".
This among with other in-house issues made Egill leave the band after 9 hard rocking years and their manager Gis-von-Ice also left some months later.
The remaining members: Ragnar, Arnar, Aggi and Heimir looked at this as a new beginning and decided to make another album, only this time it would be sung in Icelandic, just like in the beginning.

Ragnar moved to Sweden with his family and met drummer Jon Skäre which was immediately asked to join forces with Sign.
Writing sessions for Sign's next album have taken place by Ragnar and Arnar in Iceland, Sweden and even through Skype and there are some songs already recorded and mixed.
"Having Jon on the drums makes us capable of going in a slightly heavier direction as he comes from a thrash-metal background, it's new to us and really interesting to work with, Heimir is also singing a lot more and Arnar is really involved in the writing process.
This will definitely be Sign's best work to date as every album has been better than the one before.
We're just taking it slower, nowhere near to call it quits." Ragnar states about the current situation of the band. ..