Swedish rockers Streetlight have announced the upcoming release of their debut album, Ignition, on August 11, 2023. The first single and video from the album, “Hit The Ground,” are out today. Preoder/pre-save here.

Frontiers Music Srl has welcomed Streetlight to the label family for the release of Ignition. An AOR/melodic rock band from Jonkoping, Sweden, Streetlight stays true to the genre, delivering distinctive melodies, punchy choruses and strong hooks. Influenced heavily by bands like Journey, Toto, Kansas and Def Leppard, Streetlight creates music that is fun to listen to, melodic and guitar driven, with a sound that reminds you of the times when AOR was at its peak. But Streetlight does not see melodic rock as just a relic from the past. It’s more than nostalgia and music for the here and now.

The band's story began in 2021, when Erik Tilling, a guitar player and good friend of singer Johannes Häger, saw that his childhood heroes Journey were recording a new album. He got this crazy idea to send a demo to the band and subsequently wrote the song, “Overjoyed.” He asked Johannes to sing on the demo, and also to mix the track. Erik was able to get in touch with Journey’s vocalist Arnel Pineda, who had only good things to say about the song, though it was not used by the band at the end of the day. Due to lack of availability to dedicate himself fully to the band, Erik chose to leave the band soon after, but the rest of the band decided they wanted to produce more songs. They started sending the songs to different labels. Several companies expressed interest, but they decided on working with Frontiers Music s.r.l., not only because Journey is on the same label, but also because, stylistically, Frontiers is a perfect fit for Streetlight’s music.

Streetlight consists of vocalist and guitarist Johannes, guitarist Filip Stenlund, keyboardist John Svensson, drummer Erik Nilsson, and bassist Johan Tjernström. All the members have musical backgrounds as members and/or session musicians in different bands, including Bullock Hearts, Harmony, Ole Börud, and Narnia, among others. Johannes Häger is the primary songwriter who also recorded and produced Ignition.

A full-time music producer in Sweden, Johannes has been a fan of melodic and hard rock through the years, and spent his teenage years playing in different rock bands in Jakobstad, Finland, where he originally is from. Since that time, he hasn’t had the chance to release any music of his own in the genre he loves until now with Streetlight.

Tracklisting:

“Hit The Ground”
“Chutes And Ladders”
“Stay”
“Love Riot”
“Closer”
“Caught Up In A Dream”
“Awake”
“Fire Burnin’”
“Overjoyed”
“Words For Mending Hearts”
“Malibu Pier”

“Hit The Ground” video:

Lineup:
Johannes Häger - Lead vocals, guitars
Filip Stenlund - Guitars
John Svensson - Keys
Johan Tjernström - Bass
Erik Nilsson - Drums