Apoptygma Berzerk founder Stephan Groth turns 55 as ‘Kathy’s Song XXV’ marks 25 years
Apoptygma Berzerk’s Stephan Groth turns 55 on August 10, as 2026 marks 25 years of “Kathy’s Song (Come Lie Next to Me).”
Photo: Halvor Bodin
Stephan Groth, founder and vocalist of Apoptygma Berzerk, turns 55 on August 10, 2026. The Norwegian EBM and synthpop act, which Groth has led since 1989, marks the birthday alongside “Kathy’s Song XXV,” a 25th-anniversary reissue campaign built around one of the band’s best-known tracks, “Kathy’s Song (Come Lie Next to Me).”
Groth was born on August 10, 1971, in Odense, Denmark, and relocated with his family to Sarpsborg, Norway, in 1986. He founded Apoptygma Berzerk in 1989 together with Jon Erik Martinsen, taking the band’s name from a word picked at random out of a dictionary, derived from the Ancient Greek for “piece of a tunic.” Martinsen left the group early on, and Groth has remained its sole constant member and main songwriter since.
The band’s first two albums, “Soli Deo Gloria” (1993) and “7” (1996), established a darker EBM and electropop sound. “Welcome to Earth” (2000) moved toward a lighter, more experimental style and included “Kathy’s Song (Come Lie Next to Me),” built around a vocoded chorus voiced by Kathy Macintosh.
The single followed on December 11, 2000, with a remix from Ferry Corsten that became a trance-scene favorite and helped push the song beyond the EBM and futurepop audience. “Harmonizer” (2002) leaned further into synthpop, “You and Me Against the World” (2005) took the band toward an indie rock-oriented sound, “Rocket Science” followed in 2009, and “Exit Popularity Contest” (2016) returned to the band’s earlier electronic roots. Beyond Apoptygma Berzerk, Groth has recorded as H2O with Geir Bratland in the mid-1990s and is a member of Fairlight Children, a lighter, pop-oriented electronic project that issued a limited vinyl edition of its “808Bit” album in February 2025.
2026 has brought “Kathy’s Song (Come Lie Next to Me)” back into focus. The 25th-anniversary “Kathy’s Song XXV” edition arrived digitally in December 2025, first on Bandcamp and then across other platforms, with new remixes by Ferry Corsten – who reworked his original 2000 remix – alongside Per Martinsen (Mental Overdrive) and Alyxx Digre (Zone Tripper). Groth has said the track is “probably the most important song I have ever written,” and described the vocoded chorus, recorded with Fredrik Darum and Vegard Blomberg, as something that “had never been done before” at the time. A physical follow-up arrived via emmobiz with a limited vinyl reissue, released on July 10, 2026.
Stephan Groth marks 55th birthday as Apoptygma Berzerk celebrates ‘Kathy’s Song’ anniversary
The overlap of Groth’s 55th birthday with the ongoing “Kathy’s Song” anniversary campaign places two Apoptygma Berzerk milestones in the same year. Side-Line previously covered the band’s 25th anniversary of “Soli Deo Gloria” with the “SDGXXV” reissue project in 2018, a similar reworking of an early album that Groth has cited as a direct model for how the “Kathy’s Song XXV” campaign was organized.
About Apoptygma Berzerk
Apoptygma Berzerk was founded in Norway in 1989 by Stephan Groth and Jon Erik Martinsen. Martinsen departed soon after, leaving Groth as the band’s vocalist, programmer, guitarist and sole constant member. The band’s debut album, “Soli Deo Gloria,” was released in 1993 and established a dark EBM and electropop sound, followed by “7” in 1996. Geir Bratland joined on keyboards in 1995, having already worked with Groth on the ambient techno side project H2O in the mid-1990s.
“Welcome to Earth” arrived in 2000, softening the band’s earlier darker themes and including “Kathy’s Song (Come Lie Next to Me),” with vocals by Kathy Macintosh and a single release that December featuring a Ferry Corsten remix. “Harmonizer” followed in 2002 in a more synthpop-oriented direction, and “You and Me Against the World” (2005) marked a more mainstream, indie rock-influenced turn for the band, a departure the group revisited with expanded reissues in 2021. “Rocket Science” was released in 2009, and “Exit Popularity Contest” (2016) returned to the band’s earlier electronic and EBM-rooted sound.
Alongside Apoptygma Berzerk, Groth has recorded as H2O with Bratland and continues as a member of Fairlight Children, a lighter, pop-oriented electronic project. The band marked the 25th anniversary of “Soli Deo Gloria” with the “SDGXXV” reimagining released in 2018 and 2019, and has since applied the same approach to “Kathy’s Song,” releasing the “Kathy’s Song XXV” remix EP in December 2025 and a limited vinyl edition in July 2026. Stephan Groth turns 55 on August 10, 2026, with more than 35 years of Apoptygma Berzerk behind him and, by his own account, new material still in progress.
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For almost 15 years I’ve been writing about music, interviewing artists and reviewing releases for Peek-A-Boo Magazine. Recently, I also launched my own WordPress website, where I continue to share interviews, reviews and news from the underground scene. The darker side of music has been part of my life for more than 30 years, with a passion for everything from ’80s synthpop and New Wave to EBM, Futurepop and dark electronic music in general. Also Metal and Rock is part of my world. Away from the scene, I work in a public library, where books are part of my everyday life. I enjoy both fiction and non-fiction, especially books on politics, religion, health and travel. I’m also a fan of thrillers and horror films. When I’m not listening to music or reading, you’ll usually find me exploring nature, enjoying a good sauna, experimenting with vegan cooking, or travelling to my second home, Finland. I’ve always believed the underground has the best stories. My job is simply to help tell them
