BOOT

BOOT is Nordic folk music pushed to the edge — raw, driving and unapologetically loud in spirit. Three heavyweight musicians take ancient rhythms, baroque-era instruments and Scandinavian dance tunes and turn them into something visceral, hypnotic and fiercely contemporary. This is acoustic music that hits with the force of a rock band.

At the core of BOOT’s sound is rhythm and momentum. Grinding polskas pulse like riffs, low strings throb, and melodies chase each other at full speed. What might look refined on paper — viola d’amore, mandora, hurdy-gurdy, string drum and tambourine — becomes gritty, physical and uncompromising in performance. From whispering, fragile textures to dark, pounding grooves, BOOT plays with tension, weight and release.

The trio consists of three veterans of the Scandinavian folk underground, active since the 1970s but far from nostalgic. Tradition is not a museum here — it’s raw material. Old tunes collide with original compositions, shaped into a sound that is unmistakably BOOT: stubborn, driving and alive.

Samuel “Loop-Tok” Andersson (percussion, stringdrum and tambourine) brings a muscular, experimental rhythmic language informed by his work with Cirkus Cirkör and as a solo artist using loops and extended techniques. Ola Bäckström (viola d’amore, mandola) and Hållbus Totte Mattsson (mandora, hurdy-gurdy) are pioneers of the Nordic folk scene, known from influential projects such as Groupa, Hedningarna, Hurdy-Gurdy, Den Fule, Triptyk and Swåp.

BOOT first came together working with the dance company Virvla and received a Swedish Grammy nomination in 2000. Since then, they have toured extensively across Europe and the United States, delivering high-intensity performances in clubs, concert halls and major festivals.

Their third album, Pippi (released October 2025), has received rave reviews and confirms BOOT as a band that turns tradition into something dangerous, physical and impossible to ignore.