Gus Moberg
2 Courses • 9 StudentsBiography
Gus Moberg grew up just north of Gothenburg, Sweden, and picked up the guitar at the age of twelve after having discovered the music of Queen. He started taking guitar lessons through the culture school where he lived, and was accepted to the high school music program at Hvitfeldtska Gymnasiet in Gothenburg, the first and most renowned music program of its kind in the city. At the time, the music that was influencing Gus the most, as a person and as a musician, was heavy rock music and metal, although an interest for jazz music had been sparked.
After completing the Hvitfeldtska music program, Gus joined the reggae band Dubadown, based out of the islands of Hönö and Öckerö in the Gothenburg archipelago. With Dubadown, Gus toured Sweden and recorded an album and an EP. During the years with Dubadown, Gus also applied and was accepted to the pre-university jazz program at Sommenbygden FHSK in Tranås, Sweden.
After a year at Sommenbygden FHSK, Gus applied and was accepted to the music teacher program at the University of Örebro, Sweden. After three semesters at the University of Örebro, Gus decided it was not really the direction he wanted to go in terms of music, and moved back to Gothenburg.
As a member of Dubadown, the Swedish-Romanian reggae band The OSGC , and the Gothenburg-based hip hop band Middlesex, Gus continued to record music and play shows in Sweden, Denmark, and Spain. However, the spark of interest for jazz from several years before had ignited, and so had the lust for adventure. During a six month employment as a substitute guitar teacher at the culture school in the city of Karlstad, Gus applied and was accepted to the jazz program at Capilano University in Vancouver, Canada.
At Capilano University, Gus studied with highly regarded Canadian jazz musicians, in particular, Bill Coon, Jared Burrows, Andre Lachance, Ron Samworth, and Brad Turner. The time in Vancouver came to be one that Gus would later refer to as ground-breaking for him. “There is before Vancouver and there is after Vancouver”, is the way he thinks of it. However, life as a jazz musician wouldn’t start up for him, for real, until he left the city.
After five years in Vancouver, Gus decided it was time to get moving again. For no particular reason at all, the journey took him to Calgary and he started to work as a guitar teacher, and started looking for gigs. Nearly ten years after first arriving in Calgary, Gus has become a part of Calgary’s jazz community, and has played with many of the city’s finer players. A three-year period around the time of the pandemic saw Gus, his wife, and their two cats move to Sweden, where Gus worked as a music teacher in the public school system for grades 5-9, while his wife attended university studies. Nonetheless, even during this time, Gus has continued working on his presence as a jazz musician in Calgary. Now back in Cowtown full-time, this work is ongoing.
