André Eriksen

André Eriksen (born 22 October 1975) is a Norwegian multi-platform artist with a career as an actor, rapper, and graffiti artist. He is best known as one of the lead vocalists in the Norwegian rap group Warlocks, which had commercial success in Scandinavia in the 1990s. He is considered a pioneer of Norwegian hip hop.

Early life Eriksen grew up in Stovner bydel, a low-income neighborhood in Oslo with a 53% immigrant population. He dropped out of school as a teenager and started making music and painting graffiti with friends in his neighborhood. Both his music and art were anti-establishment, and Eriksen was arrested several times for graffiti. In 1995 he was in police custody when his first album with the band Warlocks was released. The incident caught media attention and made Eriksen a public figure. Together with his brother Kevin Eriksen and friend Håkon Lund, they became spokesmen for the controversial Norwegian graffiti community. Eriksen won the Norwegian breakdance championships in 1997, both solo and with the crew Atomic B-Boys. Together with the rest of the members of Atomic B-Boys, Eriksen wrote, directed, and played in "Evolution of Style" at the Black Box Theatre, later picked up by the Norwegian Riksteatret, Kiasma in Helsinki and Kulturhuset in Stockholm. This was the first of many theatre shows he did with Atomic B-Boys. Eriksen performed in several contemporary dance performances with the Swedish ensemble Moves Per Minute, and toured with the National Swedish Touring Theatre several times.

Acting career Eriksen debuted his acting career in the film Nokas (2010), directed by Erik Skjoldbjaerg, about a real bank robbery that happened in downtown Stavanger in 2004. Skjoldbjaerg then hired Eriksen to play Aksel Hennie’s brother in the film Pionér (2013). Since then, Eriksen has appeared in a variety of American and Scandinavian television shows and movies. He has played Norse god Odin in Vikings. In 2021, he worked with Aksel Hennie and Noomi Rapace on The Trip, and in 2022, had a supporting part in Violent Night.

Music career

Andre Eriksen (stage name "Tech Rock"), his brother Kevin Eriksen ("Karma"), and their friend Håkon Lund ("Hawk") formed the hip-hop trio Warlocks in 1992, releasing their debut album Lyrical Marksmen on a local independent label (dBut Records) in 1995.

Following the success of Lyrical Marksmen, they were picked up by Norway's leading rap label Tee Productions (owned by Tommy Tee), releasing three additional studio albums and a variety of singles in collaboration with Tee Productions over the next several years, including the widely popular song "Takin Ova" (feat N-Light-N, Diaz, Warlocks, Opaque, and Father Blanco) (1998). The album Afterlife, released in 2001, won the 2002 Norwegian Alarm Prize (category: hip hop / rap). Warlocks released their final album entitled The Never Ending Story in 2005 with C+C Records. Andre has toured Europe and Scandinavia numerous times with Warlocks and has shared stages with artists like the Beastie Boys, House of Pain, Wu-Tang Clan, 50 Cent and many more.

Break dance André Eriksen was a member of the breakdance crew Atomic B-Boys, together with Lars "PayTwo" Undli and Bjørn "Sean" Hagen. The crew represented Norway in several international competitions and "jams" and held the title as Norwegian champions 1997–2000. Andre won the Scandinavian Battle Of The Year 2000 together with the group Nasty9 and represented the Nordic countries in the International Battle Of The Year 2000.

Filmography Title Role Year Nokas Thomas Tendrup 2010 Pionér Knut 2013 Trio: Odins Gull Tom 2014 Hotel Cæsar Atle Søgård 2015 Hæsjtægg Erik 2015 Julekongen – Full rustning Lut 2015 Meglerne Gerhard 2016 DC's Legends of Tomorrow Baron Krieger/Captain Nazi 2016 Vikings Odin 2016, 2017 Dragonheart: Battle for the Heartfire Thorgrim 2017 The Navigator (short) Freddy 2017 The Last Kingdom Earl Ulf 2017 Mayhem Colton "The Bull" Snyder 2017 Lethal Weapon Zovra Umarov 2018 Black Lake (Svartsjøn) Uno 2018 Norsemen (Vikingane) Ørn 2017-2020 Slightly Dead Daniel / Director 2020 The Trip Roy 2021 Violent Night Gingerbread 2022 Captain Fall Hans 2023 Love Hurts Otis 2025 Over Your Dead Body Hollywood Todd 2026

Discography Album Year Lyrical Marksmen 1995 Top Notch 1997 Mic Knights 1998 Afterlife 2001 The Neverending Story 2005