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How's the tour been going so far?
"Like really, really, really well. We had a lot of people at the
shows, we had a lot of good shows. It's been great."
With only two albums out, you don't have that much songs yet,
especially timewise, since most songs are quite short. How do you fill your
shows?
"We pretty much play all the songs we have. That way we keep the show
going for about an hour and that's about as long as you want to watch a
punk rock band. We've been trying to play some new stuff too, but don't
have much of it."
You don't get bored playing the same songs over and over again?
"No, because they're all great songs. Good songs just won't do, you
have to make great songs to be able to play them over and over again. We've
been trying to tour this record to death now for over one and a half years,
but it seems to be impossible; everyone wants more."
The new record 'Veni, Vidi, Vicious' is slower than your debut
'Barely Legal'. Is that something you really aimed for or did it just come
naturally?
"The album is a little bit slower, but I think we haven't lost any
energy. That's the most important thing. Not speed, but energy. We try to
keep it energetic rather than fast now. That's something we both aimed at
for this record, but also came naturally."
Compared to the average garage punk record, including 'Barely Legal',
'Veni, Vidi, Vicious' is also a lot better produced and played. You didn't
want the raw, messy garage sound?
"We wanted this to be more of a studio album, unlike the first one,
which was pretty much recorded live. And for the playing thing: we started
out when we were only 14 or 15 years old, so we've been playing together
for almost 8 years now. So we pretty much know where we have each other. In
fact, we didn't allow ourselves to play a song more than 10 times once it
was finished, so wouldn't play the song that fast and that thight, because
that way it doesn't sound as energetic. I think the album turned out
really, really well."
Did you get more budget from the record company too?
"Yes, we did. Actually we did run a bit short on money when recorded
the album the first time."
So you recorded it more than one time?
"Yes. For the first time in May '99, but then it didn't turn out as
good as we wanted. So then we waited for half a year and recorded the album
again during christmas time. In the mean time we made some new songs and
changed some of the others."
The Hives seem have a sort of fascination with French 60's style.
"I don't think it's just French sixties style, it's a sort of mod
style, French-Italian maybe."
But you do have a song called 'The Hives declare guerre nucleaire'
and the prints on the CD are always in French.
"Oh yeah, that too. That's just a coincidence really, I mean, I kind
of like the French language. It looks really good in writing."
So we don't necessarily have to expect a remix of a Hives song by
Daft Punk or Air soon?
"I don't know. I couldn't see how you could remix any of our songs.
Well, I see how you could, but I don't think that it would be... I mean, it
might be fun hearing it, but there wouldn't be any point in releasing it.
The way that the songs are one the record, that's how they are supposed to
sound. We don't record songs and then think "this might be good for a
remix"."
A lot of Hives songs', like 'Hate To Say I Told You So', 'Outsmarted'
and 'Hives Are Law, You Are Crime' seem to reflect a grudge against a
certain person or persons. Who is or are they?
"The people who don't get what we're doing. They think that we're just
like an ordinary rockband and so on. Like... wrong! There are a lot of
people who don't appreciate good music. There are a lot of people who don't
appreciate other people as well, people who just don't get what other
people are doing. We know a lot of great bands and stuff like that and
people don't always know a good band when they see one. They might have
other interests, like money. Big record companies might be more interested
in releasing money making artists than really good bands. That's where they
are wrong, I guess."
So you've got bad experiences with bad record companies?
"We've never been on a big record company."
How can you be sure then?
"I just know that sometimes big record companies don't sign good
bands, but it's just an example. Sometimes small record companies don't
sign good bands, I mean just..."
Who actually writes the lyrics?
"We have this mystery man called Randy FitzSimmons. He writes all the
songs and lyrics."
I don't think anybody is going to believe this. Why would someone
looking for a band to play his songs pick 5 14 year old kids from a town in
the middle of nowhere in Sweden?
"Because we're a great band. He wanted a great band and it is just
like a freak occurance that he met all of the 5 talented young men in
Fagersta. I don't have a really good explanation for it either. Why
does this really good band happen to come from Fagersta? I have no
idea. We could've lived anywhere."
Does it feel good all those people you are pissed off at have to
watch you on MTV, now that you have a hit with 'Hate To Say I Told You
So'?
"I don't think it makes any difference, but I rather see the Hives on
MTV than any other crap that they might play, like Limp Bizkit or Papa
Roach. I never felt any vendetta-type thing towards big companies, it's
just that they're crap sometimes."
You are pretty convinced of yourselves.
"We're just very truthful, honest and modest people."
You've never been accused of megalomania?
"Sometimes. We don't care enough about those people to let it get to
us. We just care about ourselves. We're purely egoistic."
And you can live with being egoistic?
"We play more shows every day, so it seems to be getting things better
for us every day, being egoistic. Egoistic and generous at the same time,
because we play for purely egoistic reasons. We only play the music that we
really like and we try to be the band that we would like to see live on
stage. And apparently other people like it too. We go around the world and
play for people who otherwise wouldn't see a band like this. That's pretty
generous, I think."
There's a lot of good bands coming from Sweden, a lot of them with a
60's/70's fascination. Have you got an explanation for that?
"I don't know. There's just a lot of good bands, playing all kind of
music. A couple of years ago everyone thought Sweden just had skaterock
bands, but there were bands like the Hellacopters and the Hives even back
then. Now people tend to say there's a lot of 60's bands, but there's just
tons of bands playing and making good music. I don't know why they come
from Sweden. It just seems there's a lot of people that are interested in
good music, buying the records and coming to shows."
I understood you are planning to play the summer festivals?
"Yes, we are scheduled to play some, like Roskilde. The summer
festivals and touring the US and Australia are the 3 big things for us,
apart from getting some songs together for a new album."
And you're not afraid you might be put on a small stage early in the
morning on the festivals?
"I don't really care what stage they put us on. We'll do a great show
anyway. They can put us on any stage, we'll do a great show and the people
who like us will be there watching us."
http://www.kindamuzik.net/interview/the-hives/the-hives/424/
Meer The Hives op KindaMuzik: http://www.kindamuzik.net/artiest/the-hives
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