The band that got Stefan interested in Heavy Metal in the first place was Kiss. Before this he mostly listened to pop-music but it was more like a wall of sound in the background of his ordinary life. His interest at this time were videogames and skateboarding. Music was not the big interest that it later turned out to be. Marcus introduced Stefan to Kiss back in 1992 and pretty soon he was totally absorbed by their music and image. In no time he was a hughe Kiss-fan and like so many other people the impact from Kiss made him want to start a band. He didn't have any musical training at all but that didn't stop him. Together with Marcus he formed a band called Arachnofobia sometime in 1992 and he played the bass just like his big idol, Gene Simmons.

In 1993 Stefan got to know a guy called Henrik Johansson that introduced him to bands like Queensrÿche and Dream Theater but it did not have the same impact as Kiss... at least not at first. These two bands grew on him, especially Queensrÿche. Their 1988 masterpiece Operation: Mindcrime turned out to be the single most influential album of all time for him. For about a year he was up in his brother's room everyday singing to this album so Geoff Tate very naturally became Stefan's biggest influence although, if you compare the two, their voices are not that similar. It was more the joy of singing that Stefan got from Tate. When it comes to voice smilarity Stefan is often compared with people like Ray Alder of Fates Warning and Rob Tyrant of Labÿrinth. If this is the case is up to each listener to decide.