Background and career
Lars Erik Frederiksen (born Lars Erik Dapello, August 30, 1971) is an American musician and record producer best known as a guitarist and vocalist for the punk rock band Rancid, as well as the frontman of Lars Frederiksen and the Bastards and the Old Firm Casuals. In addition, he currently plays guitar in Oxley's Midnight Runners, Stomper 98, and the Last Resort. He was also briefly a member of the UK Subs in 1991. Frederiksen joined Rancid in 1993 after the band was searching for a second guitar player and was present on their second album, Let's Go. He has produced albums for bands such as Dropkick Murphys, Agnostic Front, the Business, Swingin' Utters, Marky Ramone and the Intruders, Anti-Heros, Pressure Point, and the Forgotten, among others. He mixed GBH's 2010 album entitled Perfume and Piss, as well as Cock Sparrer's 2007 album, Here We Stand, both alongside Michael Rosen.
Lars Erik Frederiksen was born and raised in San Francisco Bay Area on August 30, 1971, by his mother, Minna Dapello (née Frederiksen), after his father, John, left at age three. Minna Dapello was a Danish immigrant who, according to Frederiksen, was the only member of her family to survive the Nazi German occupation of Denmark (1940–45) during and after World War II, after her family was killed in front of her. Growing up he his older brother and mother would visit Denmark often where he was first introduced to music such as glam metal and David Bowie. Frederiksen became introduced to Oi! music during his time in middle school with much of his musical taste being influenced by his older brother. During this time he first started getting involved in skinhead culture in an interview with Vice he commented on this stating "I mean, most eleven-year-olds don’t know what a skinhead is, but my brother was bringing home music and I always looked up to him. All the music I was exposed to was because of him, so by seventh grade I was a skinhead walking around yelling “Oi! at people and wearing boots, bleached jeans and suspenders to school. They would call me “Farmer Tom” and shit like that; I I would be like, No, I’m into Oi! music!” and they would say, What the fuck is that." Frederiksen first got inspired to become a musician after going to local punk shows and thinking to himself "I can be a part of that too." By the time he was 15 he had already been to juvenile hall and dropped out school.
After dropping out school Frederiksen started to get involved with local bands and playing guitar:
I mean, I got into music to get out of my fucking shitty neighborhood. I picked up a guitar out of survival. I didn’t do it to try to be like Eddie Van Halen. I didn’t do it to be a rock star. I did it so I could make some money and get out of the projects housing that I grew up in. He first gained notoriety by playing with the U.K. Subs on their 1991 U.K. tour. Then in 1993 he joined Rancid making his debut on their 1993 Ep Radio Radio Radio. From here Rancid went on to become one of the most critically acclaimed and commercially successful punk rock bands of all time, with Frederiksen recording 9 studio albums with the band the most recent being 2023’s Tomorrow Never Comes. Frederiksen has expressed his personal dislike for signing to major record labels numerous times.
Kids come up to us all the time and say, "We're in a band and we're never going to sign to some major label. We're going to stay independent like you guys. You guys proved you don't need to sign some major label and all that bullshit [to be successful]." That's the most gratifying thing anyone can say to me or to any of us.
While still a member of Rancid Frederiksen started a side project named Lars Frederiksen & the Bastards. They released their self titled debut in 2001 where Frederiksen provided lead vocals and lead guitar Jason Woods played bass and Scott Abels tracked the drums. Overall the album was met with positive reception. The group went on to release their second album, Viking, in 2004, and their most recent release was an 2006 Ep titled Switchblade.
