07/29/2024
This is one of the most difficult things I’ve ever had to write. Death as a concept is one thing, the loss of a loved one is something else entirely.
Our beloved friend and colleague Andreas Catjar-Danielsson left this world in the very early morning of July 29, 2024. We knew that he was losing his epic struggle with cancer, but none of us was prepared for the shock we’re in right now.
As we go through life we all run into a lot of people. Most of them make little or no impression. Some do. And a precious few hit us in a way that they make us change our trajectory. Fewer still possess the gravitas to make us spin around them. Andreas was one of those extraordinary souls.
I still have a vivid memory from another time and age. In our hometown of Helsingborg, in the late 80s, there was a small venue with an open stage. We played there a few times before we were Covenant. Andreas was few years younger, just a kid really, but when we saw him play with The Raftsmen it was the coolest thing ever. This scrawny 16-year old just made everyone else seem ordinary and boring. He played his guitar with drum sticks. He made the most heavenly racket ever heard in town. And the amazing thing was the way he didn’t make a show of it. It just came natural to him. Effortless. Like it was just the way it was supposed to be.
That’s the kind of artist he was. Andreas didn’t think like anyone else. He was one of a kind, a painter of sonic worlds, truly unique. But in spite of all that talent and genius, he always stayed with his feet firmly on the ground, never lost in his ego. He listened to everything and everybody and reacted to it. Like no other musician I’ve ever met he had the ability to tune in to the core of whatever went on, pick it up and take it further than anyone else could have done. He didn’t just get it, he inhabited it. He used to say “take care and control” and that’s exactly who he was: kind and considerate and on top of the game.
For more than a decade we were proud to count him as a member of Covenant. His contributions on stage and on record are impossible to overrate. But most importantly, he was our friend.
Andreas. Wherever you may be, whatever you have become, you will never be forgotten. We will miss you dearly.
Forever yours.
/Joakim with Eskil, Daniel and Daniel
