Bio

Amaliar consists of: Melisa Jiménez, Natalie Knutzen, Jens Nelsson, Josefine “Joie Fine” Franc and Nikko Harrison.

Jens Nelsson, born in 1984, is the composer, guitarist and lead singer of the band. When he’s not making songs, he is a writer and editor of books and screenplays. He runs a publishing company for short stories and works with writing courses for Sweden’s version of Writers Digest, “Skriva”.

Natalie Knutzen is the lead guitarist of the band. Originally a jazz guitarist from Buenos Aires that ended up in Stockholm in 2002 and is now playing rock. She runs the label and production company El Sol y la Luna music, working both in Sweden and Argentina with a variety of music. She is also the front figure of the world music band Natalie Beabella.

Melisa Jiménez, born in 1988 in Mexico City, is the bass player of Amaliar that settled down in Sweden in 2008 after studying sound engineering at SAE in Byron Bay, Australia. She has been touring as a sound technician for the legendary Swedish electronic band – The Knife. During daytime she works as an acoustic consultant.

Nikko Harrison, drummer, entered the constellation in the end of 2016. Has a steady stream of followers on his Youtube channel where he makes drum covers. He also plays in the band Chrystal Healing.

Joie Fine accompanies the band as a featured artist with her amazing soul voice and plays the keyboard and sings backing vocals. Joie first entered the group in 2016 and is an independent singer songwriter.

The band started forming back in 2009. Jens and Natalie, being a couple, had played some of the songs composed by Jens together for a while along with different musicians, trying out the constellation, playing a more acoustic set in cafés and smaller venues. But the ambition had always been to form a rock band. A late december night, Natalie had a gig with her own world music project, Natalie Beabella at an alternative club in Stockholm, that’s when she met Mel working there as a sound technician. Having quite recently moved from Mexico City via a year in Australia to Sweden, Mel was longing for Spanish speaking friends. Natalie, surprised by seeing this cool girl behind the mixing table, started talking and they soon became friends. That same night Mel mentioned she was playing the bass. A week later the band held it’s first rehearsal.