Nad Sylvan
Biography Nad Sylvan
Nad Sylvan
was born on June 4, 1959 in West Covina, California to American tennis star, Hugh Stewart, and Swedish beauty, the Gothenburg girl Agnete Sylvan. The family moved to Sweden in November of that year but the marriage didn't last very long. Nad was raised in Malmo, Sweden, by his grandparents for the first ten years of his life. Then came a move to Stockholm with his mother, where he remained until he purchased his own home in Uttran, a small rural community some 30 k south west of the capital, in 2007.A self-taught musician, Nad began playing the piano at the age of four and started composing almost immediately. His first performance at age eight ended very suddenly with Nad fainting over the keys from sheer nervousness – a very dramatic finale.Nad was already a great singer and performer by the age of 15, and was asked to front the band, Envoys, in 1975. The other band members were 10 years and more older than Nad.Then one fateful day when Nad was 16 years old, he heard the music that was to change his life. "I was working in a record shop at the time and one of my coworkers put on an album that had just arrived. It was "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway". “It was mind blowing... I couldn't believe what I was hearing. It was the music that hooked me, had me under its spell if you like, from the very start. It was a massive soundscape... complex yet accessible. A huge musical world just seemed to open up right there and then in the shop. It really made me sit up and listen. It was like nothing I'd ever heard before. Even though I didn't get the lyrics because my English wasn't good enough then, that was when I fell in love with the music of Genesis." Nad’s English improved, and his love of Genesis grew.Then came Attacus, a Prog Rock band with a Genesis feel, that Nad joined when he was 17 as lead singer and keyboard player. The band was re-named Avenue and in 1979 they cut a single. Nad was writing a lot of music by that time, and wrote the song, “Mr. Marmaduke and the Minister”, a song which would later appear on the Unifaun album.Nad worked with various musicians and bands over the next several years, including ABBA's Michael B.Tretow and Rednex, and continued to write songs, hoping to come up with a “hit”, but never quite being in sync with the genre of the era. Nad started hitting the Genesis forum site on the internet in 2003. The site was full of interesting people, and it became apparent that there were thousands of people around the world who were disillusioned with the current music scene, and who were looking for something more musically fulfilling. Nad made contact with Bonamici, and they began chatting over the net. Bonamici also lived in Sweden, and they soon came up with the Unifaun project. This project took over four years to complete, and was released in 2008 as a tribute to Genesis.The Unifaun project caught the attention of Roine Stolt, of the Flower Kings and Transatlantic, and he joined with Nad to form Agents of Mercy. Roine knew Steve Hackett very well, but it was Steve’s tour manager, Brian Coles, that first made contact with Nad. Shortly after, an email arrived in Nad’s inbox: “Hi Nad, this is Steve Hackett.” He soon found himself working on the Genesis Revisited II project.Nad's first chance to sing with Steve came at two big festivals, first in the Isle of Wight and then Germany. What followed from those two gigs was an invitation to the album’s launch in London and then the world tour.Nad says the response from his fans has been overwhelming in the nicest possible sense, but very humbling, too. “I feel that they've taken me to their hearts in some respects and so in turn that's how I sing. I guess that's why I've been singing the way that I have. It comes from the heart, I can assure you of that. I don't want them thinking that it doesn't matter to me, as nothing could be farther from the truth. I genuinely want to give my all for them, the fans who've been so very kind to me. It's the least I can do."
