THE "INDIE TAXI DRIVER"-"INDIETAXICHAUFFÖREN"

When I lived in Stockholm back in the days I had my own private taxi driver for over a year. I never payed for any rides, ever. How come?  you might ask...
Did I worked for the government? Was I a famous rockstar or just filthy rich? Actually non of that...
I was dj'ing a lot back then at lots of cool clubs such as my friend Rebecka and Césars club "Nightlife" among many others...
I used to have maybe 3 or 4 gigs a week for several years and each time I had a gig I took a taxi there since I had a lot of records to carry. One night I called my usual taxi company, but instead of the usual old gray haired man who normally came to picked me up, it was a young, kind of cute kid. He was maybe 22 years old, with a bit long curly hair, dressed as some kind of pop or rock kid, with sneakers and a knitted hat.  We started to talk and he told me he was new in the business, that he had been traveling around, lived in Berlin for a while and now had a break from his studies and had decided to make a living as a taxi driver for a year or so. He was nice and sweet and always listened to "Indie" music in the car such as The Cure, The Smiths and Swedish groups Broder Daniel and Mando Diao.
But most of all he loved swedish artist Hâkan Hellström which he played each time during the rides in his taxi.
I told him I was a dj and he thought that was kind of cool and we became friends. I thought he was the nicest taxi driver ever. I loved to discuss music with him and soon he went under the name "The indie taxidriver" My friends started to recognize him, cause he was the one who always dropped me off and picked me up from clubs. He wanted to to go to cool nightclubs such as the places where I played, but he didn't know a soul... I think I payed him the first time and then he wouldn't let me pay him again, ever. He gave me his private number and he said I could call him every time I needed a cab, which was several times a week. He worked a lot so he was almost always available and he always came when I called. In return of the free rides I fixed him up on the lists of all of the coolest clubs in Stockholm. He could show up there with a friend, double the line like a cool guy and listen to his favorite music all night long, I gave him some of my free drink tickets as well. I had a private taxi driver for free, 24/7.  It was a perfect exchange and everyone was happy. Sometimes he called me at night and told me he wanted to go out to this and that club and then I called my friend who had the club and said, "It's my driver again, the "indie driver", please put him on the list + one", they always did.
After a while the indiedriver became like a phenomena and people even knew who he was out at the clubs. I introduced him to my friend Rebecka, who was running one of the most successful nightclubs in Stockholm at that time and soon he became her private taxi driver as well. We gave him mix cd's with cool music he could listen to in his car and we made sure he had access to all clubs he wanted to go to in the city, he became a bit of a legend for a while...
After a year or so I think the indie taxi driver took up his studies again and we lost contact more and more until he completely stopped working as a taxi driver. Now it's almost 10 years ago I saw him the last time, but sometimes those nice little memories of music accompanied indie drives in the middle of the night pops up in my head while thinking of one of the loveliest cities in the world, where I had so much fun. Stockholm.
I'll never forget the good old times...
<3