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Your new album is called 'A New Morning, Changing Weather'. What made you
choose this title?
"It's a good title. Our last album was called 'Survival Sickness', which
wasn't too optimistic a title. We talked a lot about the symptoms of living
in a capitalist society on that one. On the new record we wanted to show that
even in a shit world there's still hope. It had to be a more hopeful, more
inspiring and happier record. I was just reading about The Weather
Underground (a radical leftist movement, a sort of American RAF - M.)
and how they wrote a manifesto called 'A New Morning, Changing Weather',
which was inspired by a line from Bob Dylan's 'Subterranean Homesick Blues'.
I love Bob Dylan and I thought it was a great title."
Funny you say you wanted to make a happier album, because to me 'A New
Morning, Changing Weather' sounds darker than 'Survival Sickness', more
rhythm driven.
"It is more soulful than the last record. There are definitely a couple
of songs on the new record that a very dark and gloomy, like 'Last Century
Promise', but all in all I think that in general 'A New Morning, Changing
Weather' is more optimistic than the last record. We tried to make it more
about resistance than about oppression."
The Weather Underground was a very dogmatic movement, while on the essay
in the CD booklet you make a call for a non-dogmatic, non-centralised form of
resistance, without one single vision of what the future should be.
"I am very inspired by Karl Marx, the dadaist movement and what not.
They were all very dogmatic movements, but doesn't mean that we have to be. I
think that what sets a lot of what we do as a band aside is that we think
that a radical political struggle today has to be very wide and very diverse.
And we as a band must allow everybody to fit in, from very liberal to super
radical people. That is why on our albums there will always be quotes from
and communists and anarchists and socialists etcetera. Just to show people
there are thousands of different ways of perceiving and analysing the world
and that we haven't found the one right way yet. We think that the concept of
Truth as it existed last century is outdated. We need to look at a lot of
different kinds of perspectives and ideas. That way we can never become
dogmatic, because we don't have one single dogma to follow."
So you agree with the idea that communism is one of last century's failed
promises?
"Definitely, but that's because we never had proper communism last
century. Cuba might be close, but everything that happened in the Soviet
Union and China was just state capitalism. They used money and merchandise in
the same way capitalists use it, just on another level. So communism has
never succeeded and neither have good socialism nor good anarchism. That is
exactly like we need to show all these ideas to people, so that we can
hopefully figure something out that is not dogmatic, not like a set of rules
to follow. Because that is probably also wrong with the communist structure,
that is was like "This is the way we have to do things. No other
way!" and then of course it turns out fucked up."
You also toured in not-really communist China. Did that have any impact on
ideas you might have had?
"I already hated China when I went there, so there wasn't much of a
change. Our critique of capitalism has always been a critique of communist
dictators as well. When we went to China we knew it was going to suck. Still,
somebody gave us the opportunity, so of course we went."
Would you do it again?
"Maybe. I'd rather go some place else I haven't been yet, but I met some
amazing people in places like Beijing and Hong Kong. I would like to go there
and see how much has changed in the two years since we've been there, because
I think a lot of things are changing in China right now."
Bob Dylan in the end came to another conclusion then you did: he became a
catholic. Also muslim fundamentalists share a lot of your critique on society
as it is now, but they also came to radically different conclusions.
"I wouldn't say that they have the exact same critiques. They are
critical of America, just like we are, but they come from a total different
perspective, because they base their ideas on fundamentalist religion. We
don't."
So didn't Bob Dylan originally...
"I am not defending Bob Dylan. It's kind of crazy that he became a
catholic, but he's still a great singer/songwriter. What I think it is, is
that we live in a very complex world. It's very difficult to understand and a
lot of times people want easy answers. And especialy when you go to America,
people aren't looking very hard for them, whereas I think that one of the
strengths of these times is that we know that we haven't got the answers.
Still people want them so bad that they'll pick anything that makes a little
bit of sense to them. And religions are simplistic, they say "We have an
answer, we don't have to work on things, because this is the answer."
Personally I am too much of a post-modernist thinker to believe in such
simple solutions. I am not talking about muslim fundamentalists here, because
they come from a totally different culture of which I have no understanding.
Their relationship to God and religion is something we can never
understand."
So basically you are one of those pesky 'there is no truth'
post-modernists?
"I do think there is no truth in the modernist sense that we could build
the world on one idea. I do believe there are things that we need to talk
about, things that are happening. Even though the truth is blurred, which I
think it is, because we have to talk about perspectives, we have to talk
about different cultures, different times, different places, there are still
issues that are happening. So I am not a post-modernist in the Baudrillard
kind of sense that "Nothing is real! The Gulf War didn't happen!"
It did happen. People died! So I definitely believe there are things that are
happening, I just don't believe in the Big Truth. Last century everybody
believed we were going to solve unemployment, we were going to solve racism,
we were going to solve sexism. Nothing happened. Well, actually things
happened. Last century a lot of things happened."
Mainly good or mainly bad? "Mainly good things. If you think look at the situation in the world as it is now and as it was a hundred years ago, definitely progress has been made. But there's other aspects of our lives. Yes, people do have more money, women can vote, homosexuals can adopt children, but we still think that happiness is a new mobile phone. So in some ways progress has been made, but many other aspects are still not so good."
And what about the new century? What promises does it bring? Or is it
still too early to say?
"It's still a bit too early, but I definitely see hope. If look at the
sort of grass roots movement and resistance, the anti-globalisation movement,
you are starting to see a lot more political activity than we have seen the
last 10 years."
You are not afraid of a backlash against that movement, because of the
increased security after september 11th?
"That something that we ought to be afraid of. Every time you talk about
political ideas there is a risk of someone not liking you for it. What
happened in America on september 11th put the political struggle in a totally
different perspective. We have to think about what we are saying and about
how we are saying it. I just don't want to be arrested for talking politics,
if you know what I mean. That is something that will happen over the next
couple of years: people will be arrested and put in jail for talking about
politics. That is a scary thing, but I also think that the things we are
witnessing, like people getting shot at at protests, which we hadn't seen in
years, are proof that the power structures are shaking. They are very scared,
because hundreds of thousands of people are protesting and they don't know
how to handle it. They are going to take desperate measures, like limiting
the freedom of speech. We are not going to be able to say what we want to
say. And we are not going to be able to go where we want to go, because there
are all these borders that have to be build against 'the other people'. Bad
things are happening and good things are happening and I think it is still
too early to see what is going to come. I do think that something will
happen, something big, but I don't know when. I don't know when."
So you still believe in revolution in the classic sense that there will be
one moment in time where everything will change?
"It will build to a momentum, first slowly, then suddenly. It will not
be like Paris '68, where in one week everything just stopped. On one hand
people need to get educated and organised and on the other one of these days
something will spark off these fucking mass demonstrations that we'll a be
waiting for. So, we'll see. "First slowly, then suddenly"
(laughs)."
Another thing that you talk a lot about on your album is about aggression
as a passionate thing, as a way of feeling real. In 'A Body Treatise' you
even go as far as self-mutilation. Where does that come from?
"The emotional spectrum that we are allowed to have is very narrow: you
are not allowed to be too happy, too sad or too angry. There's always this
cutting off of emotions. If you are just too happy, people will look at you
like you are crazy. So we all have these normalised versions of emotions. I
think extreme emotions can be very liberating, just because they are not
allowed in this culture that we live in. Things like self-mutilation and
transsexuality are a protest against the forced normality of our culture.
People are saying "I am not a man and I a not a woman, I am a
transsexual," and I think that's a very beautiful, almost poetic act of
resistance against the culture of normalicy that we live in."
Transsexuality is an act of resistance, not a biological thing?
"Biology is totally uninteresting. I don't fucking care about biology.
Transsexuality is a form of resistance. It is similar to people getting a
tattoo on their hands. If you get a tattoo on your hands you will never get a
proper job. It is a form of self-mutilation to place yourself outside of
today's society. Of course transsexuality is a very complex issue, but I can
easily see how transsexuality and gender politics are a form of
resistance."
You don't believe in biology at all?
"We are men and women and we have to make children for survival of the
species, but when in comes to sexuality, I don't believe in biology, no. When
it comes to sexuality, I believe in constructions, culturally constructed
sexuality."
And those cultural constructs don't have a biological basis?
"Not really, no. For the last couple of thousand years people have been
told how to be sexual, of course in order to make sure biological needs are
met. But if you look at how fucked up our view of sexuality is today, that is
just a total construction of how our emotions towards other people work. I
used to say "every tenth person is born a homosexual." I don't
think that anymore. Every tenth person becomes a homosexual because of
culture and various other reasons. That's a great thing. There is no
heterosexuality or homosexuality, there is just sexuality and different
scales of how you want to present yourself as an actual person."
Same subject, completely different question: in a 'Body Treatise' you sing
about mutilating yourself with plastic knives and spoons. Why, of all things,
plastic knives and spoons?
"It just sounded good. It is a bit bizar to talk about surgery with
plastic cutlery. Still, it is also about our concept of beauty and what is
real and how we can deform this by using tools. There is a great movie called
'All About My Mother' by Pedro Almodovar, a Spanish director. There is a
scene in this movie that made me write that song. In this scene a transsexual
is talking and he or she or whatever is talking "it cost me
this-and-this much to get my chin done, my tits cost me this much and my ass
that much." Bottom line: she talks about how much money it has cost to
become what she is today and then she says: "So as you can see it takes
a lot of work to become real." and to me that was so awesome! His or her
concept of beauty was to modify herself into something that was real to
her. So I just used that reference to cutlery, to spoons and knives,
to show how you can mutilate your body into something you feel you
are."
It seems to me that when you talk about repression, it is almost always on
an emotional level, not an intellectual
"I think those are different sides of the same coin. Economical,
emotional and intellectual repression in our culture are all sort of
interlinked. However if you are from a country like Sweden of the Netherlands
it is easier to relate to emotional repression. You feel out of place. It is
easier to write about that than to write about slavery in Asia, because I've
never been a slave in Asia. I understand that it is horrible, but writing
about that from my perspective is just going to be weird, so I rather write
about stuff that concerns me in my everyday life, about how I feel under this
capitalist system. We do have a song like 'New Empire Blues' that does talk
about slavery on a world wide scale, but in general I think that you have to
find out how the culture that we live in effects our daily lives. It does so
mainly emotional, so that is what I write about."
What you mainly sing about is what most people know as 'teenage angst'.
Most sufferers from this prefer to listen to a band like Limp Bizkit to let
go of their emotions.
"Yes, it's horrible."
But why do you think that appeals more to them?
"I don't think it appeals more to them than we do, I think it is just
the fact that we are not a very well known band. I was lucky when I was a
teenager, because when I had that fucking teenage angst and felt out of place
I listened to punk rock bands that actually talked about why I felt like I
did and not just went "Whoah I am angry!" and then you just scream
"Yes, I am angry too!" but you never analyse why you are angry. That
is a big problem with all those Limp Bizkit and Korn type bands. They've got
nothing to be angry about anyway, because they are fucking
millionaires."
Maybe they just don't know why they are angry?
"I don't think they've thought about it. They're just like "I've
had a rough childhood" and instead of trying to analyse why their
childhood was rough, what the power structures were that made their lives
rough, they just go "Rough childhood, so now I am really fucking
angry!" It is good that they are angry, but they need to focus their
anger, otherwise it is just wasted energy. What we try to do is to give
people options to talk about these issues and to be angry in a sort of more
intelligent manner. 'Intellectually angry'! (laughs)"
Is the lack of 'intellectual anger' just laziness or something
else?
"Our culture doesn't allow people to analyse their lives properly. I
think everybody can be, do you realise we just made this term up?,
intellectually angry. It is just a matter of being exposed to the question
why you are angry. That's the whole key. Everybody can understand why they
are angry if they just look for it."
You talked about punk rock bands that inspired you. Who were they?
"Bands like The Dead Kennedys and Born Against. Bands that talked about
political issues in a smart way. We know "Fuck the police!" already.
When a band actually talks about why the police are horrible, that's much
more inspiring. Those kinds of bands are what got me really into
politics."
A lot of people will say this you are just another bunch of designer white
middle class revolutionaries. The real poor people will become gangsta
rappers.
"Maybe. First of all, that is corny, because I don't care what class
people come from. Four of the five people in this band come from hardcore
working class families, but I don't think that is really important. If I
would have picked up rapping that wouldn't be natural to me. My dad listened
to rock when I was a kid, so that is what got me into music. Today the lower
classes get into rap music, because that is what speaks to them. When I grew
up rock and heavy metal were the music that appealed to working class people.
Now working class kids are immigrant kids, they a foreigners and of course
rap music will appeal more them than rock does, but when I was a kid I was
metal. I was a total metalhead. I wish I could reach out to a crowd that
wasn't pre-dominantly white middle class though. I wish that we could
actually reach the people who experience these things every day."
Have you tried to do so?
"In Sweden we actually go out into the suburbs and play with rap acts.
Sometimes it works out, sometimes people have no clue what we are talking
about, but we try. Also a major point about why the band sounds like it does
is because we want to be able to appeal to everybody and rock music is almost
universal music. Even a lot of the rap, hip-hop and r&b acts sample rock
music. Hopefully people can understand and relate to our music in a very easy
way. We don't try to please a certain sub-group of youth culture or scene or
trend. We want to play music that everybody can understand."
Final question: where does the name Lyxzén come from? It doesn't sound
very Swedish. Is it a stage name?
"My great granddad was called something like Andersson or another
regular Swedish name and he wanted something more snassy. It's a good name,
there are very few people named like that: only our family, that's about 25
to 30 people. It's doesn't mean anything and I don't know what he was
thinking. It is a good name anyway."
http://www.kindamuzik.net/interview/the-international-noise-conspiracy/the-international-noise-conspiracy/877/
Meer The (International) Noise Conspiracy op KindaMuzik: http://www.kindamuzik.net/artiest/the-international-noise-conspiracy
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