January 31, 2024 • 70 mins
Swedish hardcore in the house! I am proud to welcome on the man behind the mic of an incredibly overlooked but important Swedish hardcore band, Abhinanda! Jose Saxlund was not only the vocalist for the band, but was responsible for starting the awesome label Desperate Fight Records that was responsible for bringing attention to the scene happening in their tiny town of Umea. Jose and I speak about the bands legacy, the Swedish music industry and how big did that scene get in the 90's (spoiler alert, very big). Pre-order their new vinyl boxset now!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
If you're listening to one hundred words or less with
Ray Harkins, Greetings one, Greetings all. Hopefully you're doing great today.
I am excited to bring you a conversation with people
who are involved in punk, hardcore, indie, rock, emo, metal,
whatever you want to call it. That is what we document.
It's of the independent variety, and that's what we care
(00:40):
about here. So if it's your first time here, welcome.
If it's your five hundredth time here, you're insane. I've
only done five hundred and ninety of these things, and
if you've spent five hundred hours with me, that's like
almost as much time as my wife. Oh my gosh,
it's crazy to think about that. But anyways, I am
going across the pond for this particular episode today. I
(01:02):
am thrilled to welcome Jose Saxelnd. He is the vocalist
for long running Swedish hardcore band Aba Nanda. He also
ran the very influential record label Desperate Fight Records. I
ran it with Dennis from Refused, and if you were
alive in the nineties and you cared about hardcore, you
(01:23):
absolutely bought a Desperate Fight release at some point because
basically everything coming over from Europe. Desperate Fight had some affiliation,
whether the band's toured with it or whether they released music.
How about the straight Edges Fuck compilations. That was the thing,
and they were a great introduction for young people like
(01:44):
me in the nineties, as I was like just drinking
from the fire hose of being like, Wow, there's all
these bands from over here. They're on the opposite side
of the world, and I was just excited to know
about it. But this conversation came up because an amazing
friend of the podcast this record label called end Hits Records.
They've done stuff from you know, Don't Sleep and Be
(02:08):
Well and Shelter re releases and a bunch of cool stuff.
But they are doing a really really cool Abananda box
set where they're bringing all of the Abananda releases together
and making sure that they get appropriately documented. So that's
why this conversation is happening. You can absolutely find in
Hits Records on all of the social media platforms, but
(02:31):
more specifically, I will leave a link in the show
notes to where you will be able to just click
through pre order the box set whenever that goes live.
I think even the next day or so, just you know,
follow along there. But that's why this conversation happened. I
myself loved Abananda because they were just like emotional hardcore.
(02:52):
It was definitely not yelling, it was shouting. It just
it hit all the things that I cared about at
that particular time. And then as Jose and I discuss
at the top of the show, we actually played a
show together in twenty eleven or something like that. It
was really special for me to watch Aubnana and be like, wow,
we're on the stage together in Japan, Like this is
(03:15):
so weird, but it's so cool. So anyways, Jose was
a great chat. He actually did this discussion when he
was in Berlin. And sometimes the audio drops out just
a little bit, nothing that like really impacts the conversation,
but you know, just there were some connectivity issues, but
nothing that we'll throw off your listening experience. I'm going
(03:35):
to continue to plug things on a weekly basis, but
before I do that, you can always write the show.
One under Words podcast at gmail dot com is the
best way to reach out and connect. You can also
leave a rating and review. This costs zero dollars and
it helps out the show tremendously. You can do that
on the Apple podcast page and you can also do
(03:55):
that on the Spotify page. Just a rating. And I
think I was reading some sit that I think three
percent of people when these you know, these please got
on podcasts where that is, you know, because most people
are like leaving reviews because they're angry at something, and
you know, it would be nice to like counterbalance any
(04:16):
voices of negativity that exist on the internet. So if
you feel positively about the show, just be that, you know,
lone voice that's saying, hey, you know what, if there's
a dissenter, someone that says this show sucks or whatever,
how about I say this show is cool and worth
your time. So anyways, just a little PSA and it
(04:36):
costs you, like I said, zero dollars and takes you
maybe thirty seconds, maybe a minute. So anyways, please do that.
And uh, let's keep on rolling with the recommendations. I
on a weekly basis, I will make sure to plug
something that I've been listening to, and then I have
a link in the show notes that you will be
able to follow along with the recommendations as I compile
(04:59):
them over the cour the whole year, and then you know,
hopefully you'll have some new music that you can check out.
This one is I would say a selfish plug, but
I'm actually just a friend of this person and a
friend of the person who produced this. But this is
a band called mil Dura, Oh, mil Dura, Mildura. I've
actually never said that out loud, which is crazy, But anyways,
(05:21):
this is a band from southern California along the lines
of like, you know, sort of power pop, like if
you're a fan of Super Crush or you know anything
of that ILK or maybe just some like classic mid
nineties emo. That is what this band does. And they
just released an EP called June and July. It's five songs,
it's like twelve minutes. Man, it is catchy as hell.
(05:44):
And the my friend Bo Braschelle he produced this and
my friend Nick sings for the band. But put those
professional relationships and personal relationships aside. This EP is an
absolute banger, So please listen to it if you were
into anything of what I just meant. And like I said,
I will toss that into the recommendation playlist. That will
(06:05):
be a link in the show notes and you can
listen to all the stuff that I've recommended this week
in all the previous weeks, so check it out for
some new music. I don't know I decided to put
on that little accent therap. But anyways, speaking of accents,
Jose was a champ because I mean, he speaks English,
but he also speaks Spanish, also speaks Swedish, and you know,
(06:26):
I only know one language. So the fact that he was,
you know, courageous enough to be like, oh, yes, I
will do this full hour long conversation in English. And
you know, he was not apologetic, but he was like,
you know, English is in my first language. I was like, dude,
you're killing it. So you did great. But anyways, follow
along with d Hits Records as they released the Abananda
(06:49):
discography and let's talk to Jose from Abnando.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
Right.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
I'm from southern California and I'm in my early forties,
so I definitely got hit by the wave of you know,
Umea hardcore that was coming from your scene, and it
always it's still to this day, is very confusing for
me because you know, Umea is obviously a very small town.
(07:52):
It's located very far away from everything else. And I
know that much has been said about the scene exploding
and obviously you guys and refused being a part of that,
and you know, your group of friends basically helping build
it up from nothing. But a question that I was
(08:13):
curious about, like when did you personally kind of notice
your scene reaching outside of your own city, like, you know,
was it when you know, Victory Records started to you know,
sign bands from your area and stuff like that, what
did you notice people paying attention.
Speaker 3 (08:30):
Actually already, like back in ninety three with it or first,
I mean our first or ever was in Norway, to
be honest, and people knew about us over there, and
it was like a combination because we had just like
a couple of songs released, but people got ahold of
(08:51):
it in some way, and then we did like all
the bands too. At the beginn we played a lot
of covers that people knew, I mean with some mouth songs,
We did some I don't know, a great bit kids
and all that stuff. So and our second tour was
actually like a European tour with like Belgium, Holland or
(09:15):
the Netherlands with Germany and people over there. I don't
know how, but they also like had or we had
like released a rep and people had it over there
and they knew the songs. So so I don't know.
I mean, our two first tours were like outside of
(09:36):
Sweden and people knew I mean, we went big, but
if there were like fixtures so many people at the shows,
half of them knew some.
Speaker 4 (09:47):
Of our songs.
Speaker 3 (09:50):
So so I don't know. I don't have a good
question a good answer to that question. I think like yeah, uh,
and then it were like growing from from to from
to tour, but people knew a little bit about us
at the beginning.
Speaker 4 (10:07):
Yeah, yeah, I'll.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
Take the thing going, so yeah and.
Speaker 4 (10:16):
Whatever, yeah, no and there.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
Yeah, I was just asking for your experience, and I
just think, like I said, for me in particular, I
mean I was paying attention to everything that you know,
victory and new Age and revelation and all that stuff,
and I just found it, like, you know, once you
started to What's Desperate Fight obviously started to put out records,
and you know, it seemed like there was something happening
(10:42):
over there, and I'm like, you know, pre internet, southern California,
I'm like, how why is this happening over here? Like
I understand it's friends playing at bands, but I'm like, why,
why is all of a sudden everybody paying attention to this,
you know, small town in Sweden, Like it's okay, okay,
I guess that's what we're doing now.
Speaker 4 (11:00):
We did good stuff, I don't know.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
Yeah no, And I think you're right about that because
I what always struck me about scenes in general, whether
it's you know, Umea, or whether it's like Louisville, Kentucky.
You have these bands that start and you see the
influence that these bands have, but then everybody participates. And
(11:25):
I think that's what helped with your scene, where it's
like you guys all like everybody either started a band,
started a record label, did a scene, Like everybody participated.
Speaker 4 (11:36):
Yeah exactly.
Speaker 3 (11:37):
I mean, as you said, it missed like a quite
small town, so everybody knew everybody, I mean, and everyone
wanted to do something if you want to do like
a band, you were doing like a rec label or
a fancy or whatever, because like, yeah, we all wanted
to take part or that scene.
Speaker 4 (11:59):
Yeah yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
And putting a focus on you as a person. I
know you moved around a lot as a kid with
your family, but you were actually born and raised in Umea,
right and then you went to other places with your family.
Speaker 3 (12:16):
Well, actually not I'm born in a town called Vecra,
but with like in south of Stockholm, actually Parigo. We
lived there for like one week and then we moved
to Gothenburg and no, then we moved to Umil, and
then we moved to Gothenburg and then we started like
moving around and I got back to Umil like when
(12:39):
I was around fifteen sixteen and spent like the whole
like my important years when it comes to hardcore in there,
because I stayed there until I was like twenty four,
when thed I move to Stockholm. Yeah, twenty four, So
those like five six years were really really important for me.
Speaker 4 (13:01):
And they like, yeah, right, that's what I mean.
Speaker 3 (13:07):
Harkers is like a lifestyle like like something that I
have done forever. But to be honest, we have those
like five six seven years back in the nineties and
that's that's what like it.
Speaker 1 (13:21):
But yeah, yeah, well, especially too, like what you're talking
about when everybody is contributing and starting bands, like it
feels like such a long period of time, but then
you look back at it and you're like, oh my gosh,
like that was only a couple of years. And everybody
put out like all the records and yeah. Yeah, So
(13:45):
when you were traveling around like you do you have
brothers and sisters, what was your family structuring?
Speaker 4 (13:50):
Yeah, I have, I have like tons on them.
Speaker 3 (13:52):
I have like eight brothers and sisters and like.
Speaker 4 (13:57):
Like three sisters and brothers.
Speaker 3 (14:00):
Actually yeah yeah, I know, I know, uh, but they
weren't with me like all the time because there's like
a big age difference. I think the one that comes
(14:20):
after me, it's like nine years younger than me. And
then we had like a lot of them in a
short period. Mm hmm. So when the last the last
one came, I already like moved out from my parents'
home and stuff like that.
Speaker 4 (14:40):
So but yeah, we're tom.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
Yeah, and what what were your because you were doing
so much traveling and moving around as a family, what
were your parents doing for you know, a living? Were
they were they moving because of their jobs or was
it were they just moving because there was new opportunities.
Speaker 4 (15:01):
I don't really know.
Speaker 3 (15:02):
Actually it was my my father, my stepfather, to be honest,
and he couldn't actually adjust to any place, so he
was just like moving all the time trying to find
his place that he actually never find I never found,
so so I don't know, he was like a vagabond
(15:25):
or something like that.
Speaker 4 (15:26):
He just couldn't adjust to any place in the world.
Speaker 3 (15:29):
And some people are like that, I guess, so, yeah,
that may be kind of rootless. So those years in
email meant a lot to me because of that, because
that was like the first time I found like, I
don't know, that could be a part of something. So
(15:51):
I guess that's why those years mean a lot to me.
Speaker 4 (15:55):
And it was important to me.
Speaker 1 (15:58):
Well, you had you had stability at that point, you know,
because you were moving. Yeah, and you had a community
outside of your family unit that you.
Speaker 4 (16:09):
Could exactly trust.
Speaker 3 (16:11):
Yeah, yeah, because because I mean we wire moving like
every year, because I could as soon as I startlight
knowing people, we moved. So when I came back to
you for a second time and I got into this
hard thing, I found like my community.
Speaker 4 (16:27):
I found like my people, my brothers and sisters.
Speaker 3 (16:32):
Outside my own family, and that was like really really
important to me. And yeah, it meant a lot to me.
And I guess that's why all those years, Like, yeah,
I think about them in a really good way and
they mean a lot to me.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
Yeah, Well, and I think it's apparent to anybody who
pays attention to you know, you and your musical output.
I think the fact that so many people from your
scene in particular, like you know, I always hate when
you see people who you know, grow out of punk
(17:12):
or hardcore or whatever and then kind of talk about
it and make fun of it. You know, it's like, oh,
that's kid stuff or whatever. Yeah, and it's like it's like, no,
that's the like, yeah, you don't need to listen to
you know, hardcore twenty four to seven, like as you
grow older, but.
Speaker 4 (17:30):
You can.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
That's fine.
Speaker 4 (17:31):
I just gid.
Speaker 3 (17:33):
I mean, I don't do that, but I hate it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
Just that idea that yeah, exactly exactly. And so what
was your I mean, because you are, you know, speaking
different languages, like you know, how many languages do you
actually speak? Is it? You know a little bit of English.
Speaker 3 (17:53):
You know, Swedish and Spanish, and then I'm trying to
to learn English the way I guess I'll get there someday.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
Hey, you're you're you're much better than most people in America. Obviously,
I can make fun of it. I can make fun
of Americans all day long because I am one. But
it's a yeah, most of us know, most of us
barely know English, so it's okay, I'm doing great.
Speaker 4 (18:18):
The difference is that I'm trying.
Speaker 1 (18:23):
No, that's very true.
Speaker 4 (18:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
They download an app and use it for a week
and then move on.
Speaker 4 (18:29):
Yeah yeah yeah yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:34):
So I I know you getting into punk and hardcore
kind of came through metal, because that was like what
you first got into. How did you even, like, I
guess get exposed to metal and then punk and hardcore
a little bit later.
Speaker 3 (18:54):
I mean, as you said, I was like into Metallica
and Slayer and Sepultur and all that kind of stuff.
So I went to a show with a band called
My Sugar. I don't know if you know about them,
uh oh yeah, like a Swedish metal band. They are
actually from Mail as well, and they played like a
(19:15):
local youth center in uh in Email. And this band
Stepped Forward. They were opening for My Sugar and Step Forward.
It's actually demis from from Refuse band, that's the band
that turned into Refuse later. So when I saw them,
and when I saw the energy, I just got like, yeah, wow,
(19:35):
what is this?
Speaker 4 (19:37):
I was hooked.
Speaker 3 (19:38):
I mean when I yeah, that was like something else.
So the day after that show, I went to Denis
apartment actually, and he started like teaching me, teaching me everything,
like showing me all his records, like all the seven
Second stuff, the Youth of Today's stuff, Guria Biscuits, well,
all the classics. And I was hooked, and I'm still hooked.
(20:00):
I'm still there, right, so that's my wife.
Speaker 4 (20:07):
Yeah, sorry, right, no, it's okay.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
I was gonna say, so, you knew Dennis and the
rest of the guys just because of kind of going
to shows together.
Speaker 4 (20:18):
Actually, yes, I didn't know Dennis.
Speaker 3 (20:20):
I knew Darvid or David because he was like a
metal head as well. He played in a metal bump
and Darvid is the guy that started to play drums
and refused, so I knew him and he he and
(20:41):
he knew Dennis. So he put us together the day
after this this hardcore show, and and then I got
to learn Dennis and to learn out everything about the
heart core scene. And that's how I discovered straighted and
I just like, yeah, well the whole culture that's checking
(21:02):
out Dennis Vinyls right.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
I was gonna say, Dennis is a very good teacher
because he can just walk you through the entire history.
Speaker 4 (21:12):
He did.
Speaker 3 (21:13):
He did, actually, and I remember were like it's stage
diving is bad and listening to like yeah, well everything.
And then we started to order records together, from Victory,
from Uage to Revelation. So every time we got like
a new package from the stage, it was like Christmas
for us.
Speaker 4 (21:33):
Yeah I love that.
Speaker 1 (21:35):
Yeah, I mean and that's.
Speaker 3 (21:38):
Yes, no, no, no, I mean because I remember like getting
I don't know, I can't. I mean, well, we got
the Outspoken, the Current EP, the the vinyl, the seven
inch and just opening that and like put it on.
I mean a lot of that stuff. Well, the Outspoken
is a really good one, but a lot of other
(21:59):
stuff they kind of sucked. But we like them anyways
because it was like, oh, this is hardcore from California.
We have to we have to like it. We're gonna
listen to this song, say it, We'll like it.
Speaker 1 (22:13):
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(23:42):
you could return to record. You're like, okay, looks like
I have Yeah, I have to really get into this
course to disapproval record or whatever exactly.
Speaker 4 (23:51):
I mean, I was actually thinking about course of disapproval.
I don't want to say anything but.
Speaker 3 (23:58):
Chorus and and that's it, right, You're right on point.
Speaker 1 (24:03):
I well, I I so remember myself where I remember
ordering from Network Sound. I remember ordering, you know, the
Ignite call in my brother's record, and then the you know,
course to disapproval firm standing law and you can't compare.
You can't compare those records. The Ignite record will win
every time.
Speaker 4 (24:22):
And I was like why.
Speaker 1 (24:24):
I was like, I don't like.
Speaker 4 (24:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:25):
I was like, I don't like this course to disapproval record.
But for you across the world, you're like, well, I
got no choice. I gotta like this.
Speaker 3 (24:32):
Yeah, I mean total same stuff with like like I
don't know end point or whatever kind of bands from
the States that we just got the records to Sweden.
We have been waiting for those for like three four weeks,
and when you get them, oh this sounds kind of shitty,
but hey, I'm gonna listen to it like twenty five times.
Speaker 4 (24:55):
Then I got still liking it.
Speaker 1 (24:57):
Yep, exactly. You you the time into it for sure?
Speaker 4 (25:01):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:04):
And so how did you even get into metal in general?
Was that because of you know, I mean obviously a
lot of people connect metal in Sweden and it's a
popular scene. Was that just because of like your friends
being into metal? Were you exposed to it via you know,
TV or not?
Speaker 3 (25:24):
I had just like because we lived in Argentina before
I moved back to Email and I have been like
a broad for like almost five years, so.
Speaker 4 (25:37):
I got it. Was yeah yeah.
Speaker 3 (25:39):
And when moved back and I didn't know anybody, and
I couldn't almost not speak Swedish. I mean, it came
back quite fast, but if you haven't spoken a language
for like five years, to kind of forget it, I mean,
you don't forget it, but it's it's still there, but
it takes some time to get used to it again
and start using it. So I I was quite alone,
(26:02):
and I didn't listen to music, to be honest, but
someday I just walked in into a record store, and
back in the days, you could, like if you saw
a record, you could like go to the desk and
ask them to put it on so you could listen
to it before you bought it. And actually I saw
the Metallica one twelve inch with that pastia the cover
(26:28):
like a skull or something. I don't even remember, but
I did like the cover, so I told them to
put that song on and I just loved it and
I bought it. And after that, I just started buying
Metallica records and that got me to Slayer and so
I'm self made. Just found it for myself. I saw
(26:48):
like a record cover one day and that got me
to the music. But I mean that got me to
the metal scene and I start I met some people there.
I met David, I a lot of other kids like
playing metal music, and yeah, that's so yeahing started. No.
Speaker 1 (27:09):
I love when people talk about exactly what you said,
where it's like the artwork pulls you in because you
know when obviously this makes us sound like we're two
hundred years old when we're talking about just yeah, we
are just looking at a record cover and being like, oh,
there's something interesting about that. You can't describe it at
(27:29):
as an eleven or twelve year old, but it just
makes you feel something. And then, like you said, you
bring it up to the counter and then they play
it for you and you're like, oh my gosh, I
need this. It's so beautiful.
Speaker 5 (27:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (27:39):
Yeah, yeah, I mean that that's that's how Actually that
was one way, and then the second thing, this is
like a couple of years later, but.
Speaker 4 (27:51):
We started to I mean I'm going somewhere else not,
but it through like gate Move skateboarder movies. Oh yeah.
Speaker 3 (28:02):
There were like a lot of undreleased songs and when
you're like, well like a Federally Jones, yeah, m no,
Operation Ivy sorry the one before it and all that
kind of stuff, the skate pund stuff will learn through
like like thrash and movies and stuff like that.
Speaker 4 (28:25):
Yeah, it's that's that's yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:29):
Yeah, oh no, it's a huge. I mean I think
the amount of impact those videos and magazines had across
the world were I mean, it's so difficult to put
into words because it's like anybody that watched any of
those segments, it's like, oh wait, the skater picked this
you know, bad Religion song or whatever, like I have
(28:51):
to listen to this, and every kid was doing that.
It's so cool.
Speaker 3 (28:54):
Yeah, I mean it's like Originer Hl's TikTok exactly.
Speaker 1 (28:58):
That's totally the case because you knew, right, because you
knew that that particular skater or magazine put that in
front of you for reasons, You're like, okay, I have
to pay attention to it.
Speaker 4 (29:11):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:14):
And so as you were getting into you know, punk
and hardcore after that, you know, m Sugar Show, and
you started to bring that stuff home to your parents
and your siblings. Were you always the weird one where
it's like, what is Jose into all these weird bands?
Like how are they reacting to you?
Speaker 4 (29:33):
I still am actually okay? Perfect thing is.
Speaker 3 (29:39):
That asaid totally. My stepfather was not my favorite. So
when I started listening to Metallica, I actually bought a
Metallica shot and he didn't like that because it was
like a skull on it, so he wouldn't allow me
to wear that. So I always had it like in
(30:01):
my backpack and put it on when I left home
going to school. Right. Yeah, But then like around that time,
I like moved I was like almost seventeen and I
moved out from my parents actually and then yeah, so
(30:21):
so they didn't have that my connection to all that
kind of stuff because I had to hide it when
when I lived at home, and then when I moved
out it was okay to like live out my heartcore
dream and right, so that they kind of missed all
that stuff.
Speaker 1 (30:42):
Right, And when you were going to you know, school
and you know, just figuring out who you were and
maybe what you were going to do with your life,
was there any focus for you besides music it was
based like that's all you paid attention to, or did
(31:02):
you have an idea that you were going to, you know,
do something else for a job.
Speaker 3 (31:10):
I kind of have like an idea that that started
like to fade the more I got into hardcore. Like,
my last two years in school were not that good because.
Speaker 4 (31:22):
I was just like started to get into music.
Speaker 3 (31:27):
We started the record label, and my last year I
was on tour a lot, so I skipped school quite
a lot. So so I have an ambition, but it
kind of like, I don't know, hardcore came in the
way the last two years, I guess right right there, Well, yeah,
(31:48):
and I.
Speaker 4 (31:48):
Haven't stopped since that, so I don't know.
Speaker 1 (31:52):
Yeah, you just keep keep doing it, keep following your passion.
Speaker 4 (31:56):
Yeah, yeah, was.
Speaker 1 (32:01):
Do you feel like, you know when you were I know,
you've spoken about starting Albernonda where you guys had no
idea what you were doing and you could barely play
your instruments right, And he was that just because you
basically are like, Okay, I have to start a band,
like I know that, this.
Speaker 4 (32:22):
Is just what I have to do exactly, Okay, got it.
Speaker 3 (32:27):
That's basically because because I mean, we didn't know how
to play editing, uh, and we're just I actually tried
to clear bass, but I really sucked, so I couldn't
do that. I mean, I didn't know how to sing
at all. But we just we just started like doing
covers another rehearsal room, and like we play some bad
(32:49):
religion song.
Speaker 4 (32:49):
We played like a sub society song if you.
Speaker 3 (32:52):
Know that from some skateboarding movie, and we played like
a minor threat song.
Speaker 4 (32:58):
And we did that, like oh, over and over and
over again.
Speaker 3 (33:01):
And after like a couple of months, we just started
writing our own songs and they kind of sucked from
the beginning, but then when we recorded, like our first album,
we got Christopher into the band and then he was
a good guitar guitarist and the guitar player so and
he knew more about songwriting and all that stuff.
Speaker 4 (33:22):
So that helped us a lot.
Speaker 3 (33:23):
So when we what we did, like our first album,
the Senseless album, we actually well, we had gotten better
because we had practiced like a couple of years and
we got a guy in the band that could actually
play and didn't know about writing songs, so that that
helped us a lot. But yeah, we didn't know. We
(33:44):
didn't have a clue what we were doing from the beginning,
I mean nothing.
Speaker 1 (33:48):
Right, which I honestly like, I mean, I remember when
I first heard Senseless and I started to pay attention
to everything that was happening over there. There was this element,
you know, the early refused stuff as well, where it
was really it was really sloppy, but in a good way,
like yeah, you know, like you could tell that everybody
(34:11):
wanted to do something and be better, but it wasn't
quite there yet, but it was still good. And like
I think that's like most bands might know that because
you've worked in the music industry for a long time,
they try to figure out the balance between those two
where it's like, Okay, it's too polished or is it
too sloppy, like we don't know.
Speaker 4 (34:32):
And for me, hardcore is what about like some special
feeling and sometimes it has to be sloppy too to
bring that feeling to I don't know how to explain this, But.
Speaker 3 (34:47):
It doesn't have to be perfect hardcore record. I mean,
you don't have to play like everything perfect too. It
doesn't have to sound like perfect and it can still
be good.
Speaker 4 (35:00):
Yep, exactly right.
Speaker 1 (35:05):
And when you started, you know, playing shows and putting
out records under desperate fight like the idea of you know,
being a business person, like no one really wants to,
you know, describe themselves like that because it's like okay,
I'm getting paid, you know, one hundred right. But but
(35:27):
but you had to learn some of that, so like
did you I guess, like learning how to you know,
put out records and be you know, a business person
or was that just like, oh I have to do
that because that's just what's expected.
Speaker 3 (35:43):
I mean, I guess it's like a little bit both,
if that makes sense. It's like sometimes one way and
sometimes the other. But I mean, we started desperate fight
to put out the first because there was no other
recordlibit who wanted to do it, so so we just
(36:05):
did ourselves. And and to be honest, I don't know
if we were supposed to start a record label, and
we just we just did and and things like just
happened and and everything like grew along the way, and
we made a lot of mistakes of course, but we'll yeah,
I did get to learn a lot of stuff as well.
Speaker 4 (36:27):
That that.
Speaker 3 (36:29):
Yeah, that that I'm still like you see today and
in my professional life since I still work with music.
Speaker 4 (36:38):
So I don't really know, I mean, what is what?
But we just we just did whatever had to be done.
Speaker 1 (36:47):
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(37:09):
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Speaker 3 (37:39):
Like?
Speaker 1 (37:39):
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promo code go do it now? The scene and what
(38:20):
you were participating in in UMEA, like you know straight edge, vegetarianism,
veganism like that was really central to who you all were.
And it was really interesting as well, coming from America,
where like yes, there were of course straight edge and
vegan bands and you know, political bands, but you guys
(38:43):
were very upfront about it, and I was that just
because of you wanted to, I guess be recognized on
different levels, like not only it's like, hey, here's our band.
You know, we might be good, but we're also straight edge.
We're also vegetarians, you know, like we're also vegan. Like
(39:05):
was there a thought process like as you are all
getting into that or were you all just like influencing
each other.
Speaker 3 (39:13):
Well that's a good question, because to be honest, when
I got like into vegetarism and straight edge and all
that stuff, I mean, of course I was.
Speaker 4 (39:24):
All those records.
Speaker 3 (39:25):
From from America were like a beg influence to us,
like reading all the lyrics in the Youth of Today
albums or earth Quaints or whatever. But I kind of
like got into that stuff. And this might sound silly,
but to be cool, to be like different consumer is
(39:47):
like a it's a town, as you said, like far
up north.
Speaker 4 (39:53):
It's like far from everything.
Speaker 3 (39:55):
Else, and the only thing people do over there is
like play ice hockey and get drunk. So when we
like realized there was something else out there that we
could like not drink and like be vegetarians, it sounds
it sounded really really cool, and we're just I did
(40:15):
it from the beginning just because oh, this sounds cool,
and then just I got into it and it's still
my real wife. But I mean we were like sixteen
seventy years old. We didn't have a clue. It just
sounded cool. Though they don't drink over there, Oh they
don't need meat. Let's try it, right, So I don't know,
(40:38):
I don't know if that answers your question. But no,
it's not like it's not like a mature decision to
take when you're grown. I mean we were just kids
and reading lyrics from albums were life and by oh
this sounds cool, let's try it. Yeah, I mean like
(41:01):
the three in to say, oh, I'm a vegetarian. I
don't even need they like look at you like a
kind of soombie or something like a.
Speaker 4 (41:08):
Ghost, right, so and and I like that. I mean, yeah, beaus,
I wanted to be different.
Speaker 1 (41:18):
Yeah, no, And I think what you're talking about, is
what I would guess. Because you had this group of friends,
you had this community. Everybody was participating in one of
those things, whether they were straight edge being vegetarian, and
you were the weirdos of the town. You just wanted
to stick out even more and be like, oh, yeah,
(41:41):
we don't do any of this, like we're playing in bands,
we're doing all this weird stuff over here, and that's fine.
You can have your you know, normal drinking or whatever.
Like I just don't need it.
Speaker 4 (41:50):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3 (41:51):
I mean when I remember that the the vegetarianism part,
because I got like spritage first and then it's vegetarianism.
And that was when we I mean we ordered like
the video cassettes from the States with like music videos,
and one day we got the Youth of Today No
More video and we kind of like stop watching it
(42:13):
because we thought it was so cool. So that that's
how it got into vegeterranism. And it was just like
for us sing that video like was everything being stuck
up there in the dark and the winter and the
snow and all that ship you get in at to
(42:34):
see like yeah, I don't know, yeah, no, for sure,
do you understand, No, I do.
Speaker 1 (42:41):
I do. And when you started to you know, tour
Europe more actively with aben Honda, the touring Europe, I
mean obviously you've you've done some stuff in America as
far as traveling over here and you know, being with
bands and stuff like that. I know, Abananda obviously never
(43:03):
made it over to the US.
Speaker 3 (43:05):
No, we were supposed to go there, but I got
this like six weeks long toward one eight in Europe instead,
So I think we were going to tour with Despair
for like a couple of weeks in the States, but
then they offered us to do to open for one
of eight for six weeks in Europe, and we kind
of yeah, let's do that instead.
Speaker 1 (43:26):
Right, And would you like when you started to tour Europe,
was it what you anticipated or was it really different
than you know, just like going up to weekend shows
in Norway or whatever.
Speaker 3 (43:41):
Uh, it kind of changed along the way because because
we uh, I mean we started like doing those really
small dude yourself shows and I yes, like when we
(44:03):
started getting the record shout and and people like got
hold them and and it kind of like everything grew
along the way for every new tour like things got
bigger and bigger in some kind of way.
Speaker 4 (44:18):
But I mean no, I mean we didn't do anything else.
We just like went along with whatever happened.
Speaker 3 (44:27):
And we started like touring in a shitty van and
we like our last tours were in a big like
bus with our beds and whatever. Then it got too
big for me, so so we just I quit the band.
But that's another question.
Speaker 1 (44:47):
Right that that no, that I was going to ask about,
because touring, touring is very difficult, even in the best
of circumstances. And yeah, so.
Speaker 3 (45:01):
And we, I mean our band was growing, but we
never had like the best of circumstances. I mean it
was still like a punk rock tour.
Speaker 1 (45:11):
Yeah, right, And you knew, like once you started to
do that, like you knew that that was really the
life you wanted to live, like constantly on the road
and everything like that. Or were there multiple reasons for
you not wanting to play the band anymore.
Speaker 3 (45:27):
Oh that's a hard question. I mean, at that young age,
you don't know much. But I loved it. But I
guess like a lot of different things came in the way.
I mean everything from like girlfriends to we went doing
the music that I was into and stuff like that,
(45:48):
and then like spending a lot of time with like
your best friends in a bus, it's not like always
the best best thing to do. You need to like
get away from each other sometimes. So I guess if
if we had, like I mean, we weren't doing the
(46:10):
band for the same reasons as we started the band.
I mean, we were just like friends who didn't know
how to play, and I wanted to have fun in
a rehearsal room.
Speaker 4 (46:19):
And at the end it was more like a business.
Speaker 3 (46:21):
And some tours we did because we had to because
oh we did we did this record. Now we have
to go out and tour and promote it because blah
blah blah. Yeah, because because that's the way you do it.
And and like maybe I didn't want to or like
guitar play, didn't want to, and but we have to
do it anyways, and it was like more.
Speaker 4 (46:44):
An obligation than just something you did for fun. And
I guess, yeah, I don't know, Yeah, I don't know.
Yeah that's to say, No, that's fine. I mean the
feeling wasn't the same since the beginning.
Speaker 1 (47:04):
Yeah, well, once you become a part of the music business,
like they're you know, people depend on you, and it's like, okay,
people have invested in our band, and you know, gave
us an advance on a record and all this stuff starting. Yeah,
you start to feel different about it, and yeah, you're
(47:24):
not touring or you're not being creative because you want to.
It's like, oh, these people have spent you know, ten
thousand euros on us, so we got to go out
and to do this tour or.
Speaker 3 (47:34):
Whatever exactly exactly, And I mean the band was like
a It wasn't like a full time job. I mean,
of course we wait, so we have to like do
the band, but then we have to go home and
I had the record label and all the other guys
are like jobs and stuff like that. So but it
wasn't that easy to combine all the time.
Speaker 4 (47:57):
Because you have to.
Speaker 3 (47:58):
I mean at that point when we were when we
actually stop playing, it was like, oh, we have to
we have to like go all in on this or
just like don't do it anymore. And I guess we
still say the second one.
Speaker 4 (48:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (48:16):
Well, and to be fair too, I think that most
band of the nineties and even going into the two thousands,
the idea of making a living off of hardcore, Like
you didn't do that, Like that was not even a
that was not even a possible thought. So the idea
of you being like, Okay, I got to balance the
(48:38):
record label, you know, I got to balance the band.
I have to balance my you know, normal life. Like
how do I do all of these together.
Speaker 3 (48:45):
That's really difficult, Yeah, because like they're hard to play
in a hard coreband.
Speaker 4 (48:49):
It's like a full time commitment. Anyways.
Speaker 3 (48:52):
I mean, if if you want to do like all
the records we wanted to do and look touring and
all that stuff, but you can't still like live out
of ARCore all the way. So so you have to
put like a lot of time. And we wanted to
do it. I mean, the time wasn't the problem, but
it's still a problem because you need to live. I mean,
(49:16):
you have to pay rent, so we have to put
like a full time job in the band. But then
sill we have to work so you can pay all
your bills. So yeah, it was like it wasn't the
easiest of combinations.
Speaker 1 (49:30):
Yeah, And on that topic, I know, I'm always fascinated
with how supportive the you know, governments are across the
world of arts and whether it's you know, grant programs
or what have you. And because America we obviously don't
(49:51):
have anything like that. It's not like a band has
ever been paid one dollar off of anything that they
have done. I know that there is an element of
that up in Sweden. Did you guys or yeah, did
you guys ever participate in that? Was there ever like, oh,
we could do this show because you know it's at
the youth hostel and you know the government is going
(50:12):
to you know, give us about thousand euros for that.
Speaker 3 (50:16):
Definitely we have I mean, our first tours in Sweden,
we're actually paid and I don't remember if like they paid
like fifty percent of everything, because if we have like
a if if a place booked es and gave us
like a guarantee of like fifteen hundred euros, the government
(50:42):
they put in as much as they guarantee, so so
we get double what the club paid us, and that
of course helped. Okay, but this is like midnight, so
I don't even know if that system is around anymore,
but we.
Speaker 4 (50:59):
Definite definitely got some help from the States.
Speaker 1 (51:06):
Yeah. Yeah, it's just like I said, it's just so
fascinating because you know, it never, never in America would
a hardcore band get any support whatsoever. And so I
just love the fact that, you know, it's like I
still remember watching you know, documentaries of you know, Fenras
(51:27):
from Dark Throne or whatever, where it's like, oh, yeah,
I just like live off of Dark Throne. It's like,
what what do you mean, Like I understand Dark Thrones
of you know, yes, it's an important black metal band,
but it's like, what this is crazy?
Speaker 3 (51:40):
Yeah, and you could yeah, I mean you could get
a lot of other stuff as well, because we didn't
know it back then, but there was a lot of
money to get from the stay. I mean that situation
is not as good as back then. Everything is going
to the worst, like the whole world is. Yeah, but
that's another question. But there still aren't there's at least
(52:03):
like some help to get out there. Not in some
extent as before, but but there is there is some
some money. I mean, you kept like you can get
money to to do a record, you can get money
to to tour, you can actually get money to go
over to the States, and and and there's some sessions
over there, and there's there's still some help to get
(52:24):
over there.
Speaker 4 (52:26):
Totally it's staying worse. It's yeah, less and.
Speaker 1 (52:30):
Less, totally understand. And when you decided to, you know,
stop putting out records and like obviously you weren't playing
in Abanonda, and was there you know, difficulty just because
you were probably known for many years as like oh
yeah Jose from Desperate Fight or Abanonda, Like, was there
(52:53):
a difficulty sort of transitioning into you know, a life
without those things or did you just kind of you
it as like, oh, here's the next chapter.
Speaker 3 (53:05):
I just moved from me. I moved to Stockholm. I
just like left everything behind. I mean it not that easy.
I mean it wasn't as simple as I'm saying now.
It took like a year or something, but but yeah,
I just got like set up of everything. I needed
a break from it. And I mean, you missed a
(53:26):
small town and that's good sometimes, but it can be
bad as well, because like everybody knew who I was
and whatever I did or.
Speaker 4 (53:36):
Yeah, so I just I just wanted to.
Speaker 3 (53:38):
Leave, and my my girlfriend at that time wanted to
move as well to Stockholm to study.
Speaker 4 (53:46):
So I just say, yeah, whatever, left go and I
just left everything behind, right kind of right? Yeah, So no,
it was funny.
Speaker 3 (53:58):
I mean, I did like to move to Stockholm. It
is like a beta city at place, and I did
like to be like.
Speaker 4 (54:10):
Just the regular guy right.
Speaker 1 (54:15):
Absolutely the last few things I wanted to hit on.
I know that the Abananda record, the Rumble record that
you guys put out, you know, many years later, when
you obviously weren't really you know, touring or you know,
playing shows here and there. I I love that record.
(54:36):
I know a lot of people, especially especially in the States,
we're just looking at it being like, oh, yeah, so
they're just trying to put out their refused record or whatever,
you know they want to right off the.
Speaker 3 (54:47):
We actually recorded that album before I Refuse Dad the
Ship of Punk to come.
Speaker 5 (54:52):
So right, just right, Yeah, all the strings and all
that stuff was recorded before Refuse did There's the album
came out later than the Refused one, right, just for
the record exactly for the record.
Speaker 1 (55:10):
Was that really fun for you to play that particular style.
Speaker 3 (55:16):
That's like the kind of kind of the the start
of the end of the band, because I didn't like
that at all. I was just like a hard coo
kid and they wanted to play more like rough music. Ah,
And I actually I hated that album.
Speaker 4 (55:34):
We just didn't. Actually we did a tour after that,
but we haven't read like broken up.
Speaker 3 (55:41):
I mean I think we broke up during the recording
of that album, okay, but since since people were putting,
as you said, like a lot of money into that,
we actually did a tour after the album. Anyways, I
didn't know like the record at all, but now, like
twenty years later or whatever, or twenty five or I.
Speaker 4 (56:06):
I kind of changed my mind. I mean it's good.
It's kind of good. I mean, whether it's something like different.
Speaker 3 (56:15):
But my problem back then was I just wanted to
like strive mouthpiece songs and play just playing hardcore right,
But the rest got it too good at their instruments,
so they just wanted to develop and they just wanted
to do something else, and that whole Helicopterter's scene was
getting big in Sweden and the ja let's do more
(56:36):
rock and see what happens.
Speaker 4 (56:40):
Now.
Speaker 3 (56:40):
I hated that album when we recorded it, but I
kind of love it now.
Speaker 4 (56:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (56:46):
Well, and I just because of where I was paying
attention to everything that was going on in Sweden, not
only in the hardcore scene, but it's like, you know,
got into bands like Kenton obviously, Helicopters, New Bomb Turks,
all that stuff. So it's like I could see where
you know, you guys would want to progress musically, But
(57:08):
I do understand what you're talking about where it's like
I just want to sound like Strife. I don't want to.
I don't want to tell like.
Speaker 4 (57:15):
Exactly exactly. I don't want to.
Speaker 3 (57:16):
I don't want to be like like a helicopscopy kata.
I mean, I got into dismiss like ordering Outspoken records
from Mike Cartsfield or whatever, Strife albums from Tony Victory.
I don't want to do like some shitty, shicy rock
and roll music. But yeah, I guess it changed my
(57:40):
mind like some years later. But back then I could
not understand that. I mean, I didn't want to do it,
and it was like me against the rest. I was
I was the one like trying to just do hardcore
and the rest just wanted to do something else.
Speaker 4 (58:00):
Yeah, I don't know. It wasn't like my best time,
but came out quite a good. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (58:09):
Absolutely, And speaking of that, like, it seems like the
music scene in general, and I know that you obviously
we have worked in the music industry for a long
time at Bad Taste, it seems like everybody kind of
knows each other in Sweden, like the music industry. Uh.
And so it's like because I just love I just
(58:30):
love the idea where it's like, you know, Nina from
the Cardigans is dating you know, guys from the Helicopters.
I just love like that everybody's mixing it up together.
Speaker 3 (58:40):
So like, yeah, I had like, uh because Nina from
the Cardigans, he was actually dating back then in the
night she was dating a guy from a New Meal well,
a guy who lived in New Mia. He wasn't from
so she was actually in a mail quite a lot
when they just kept like really really big and I
was like completely in love with her.
Speaker 4 (59:01):
But that's another story.
Speaker 3 (59:03):
But the thing is that her brother, she he was
like really into hardcore. So whenever she came up to
to to email and she came to desperate fight, so
I could give her like a lot of hardcorekers to
bring to her brother, just so you know.
Speaker 1 (59:22):
I see and that these are the stories that I
love to hear because, like you said, it's so it's
such a small universe, especially up there in Sweden, where
it's like, oh, yes, like even though we're all playing
different styles of music, like everybody knows each other, so
it's like, yeah, even if you don't know what what
like straightge hardcore is like you know her her brother did,
(59:44):
so he needs all the desperate fight.
Speaker 3 (59:45):
Right exactly exactly, so she knows actually because of that
of her brother. And and then I mean there's a
lot of people from the hardcore see working in miss business.
I mean some of the bigger bands in Sweden work.
Speaker 4 (01:00:01):
In one way or another. When with somebody attached to
the hardcore scene.
Speaker 1 (01:00:09):
Right, it's it's beautiful.
Speaker 4 (01:00:12):
I mean who would you say, yeah, yes, of.
Speaker 1 (01:00:16):
Course, of course.
Speaker 3 (01:00:17):
Yeah, he's like he's a booking agent for Veronica Maggio
and two must Stanza, like two of the biggest biggest
Swedish artists Harry Sweden and the guitar played Oscar is
the manager for like Young Lean and all of that. Yeah,
so there is a lot of harker people still working
in the music industry, like with big big artists over here.
Speaker 1 (01:00:42):
Right, No, I love I love that. The The last
thing that I wanted to talk about was specifically your
work with big Taste or bad taste Sorry where not
big yeah, yes, not Big Taste, Bad Taste. When did
(01:01:03):
you start, I guess, wanting to work in the music
industry and how did you transition into that.
Speaker 4 (01:01:11):
I got fed up from the music industry and the
band of the labor and everything when I moved to
Stockholm and I started to work with football, was soccer
with sports, and I worked with sports for like ten
years or something like that, and then I don't even remember,
(01:01:32):
but start.
Speaker 3 (01:01:33):
I mean, I always knew the guys from Bad Taste,
and I just like started hanging out with them again
and I went to visit them, and because they have
like a house in La, I went to visit them
over there and we were talking about, yeah, we should
do like a festival here in the lay with Swedish
bands and blah blah blah, and like some crazy ideas
(01:01:55):
like sometimes you just do. And then I think like
just one thing led to another and I was working
with music again with Bad Taste. I don't even know how,
but it just happened. They're just like God brought me
back to the music scene. Yeah, I guess I just
(01:02:19):
started hanging out with them and I held one of
their artists and one of our artists slash producers. He
wanted to put out a record, and I said, like, well,
I can't step in and do something. Yeah whatever, And
up there was like the starting point of my way
(01:02:41):
back into the music scene.
Speaker 4 (01:02:44):
M hmm, yeah, got it.
Speaker 1 (01:02:48):
I know. It's it's great. And I think too exactly
what you're talking about or what we've been saying, where
all of the stuff that you learned from you know,
running a label, playing in Abernonda is stuff you still
use today. You know, it's like everything like you know
what you know what it's like playing shows, You know,
all of these different aspects of what the artists that
(01:03:12):
you work with and manage like you you're on the
same level, you understand.
Speaker 3 (01:03:17):
Yeah exactly, I mean, and I think that's really good
because I mean when I when I speak to one
of my artists after they have played the show, before
they're playing a show, they know that that I had
been there, so they're lifting to to whatever experience I
might have and and I have I have been doing
like I mean, as a manager, you work with record labels,
with the booking agents, with artists, and I had done
(01:03:40):
all that. I mean, I've been around and I have
been like doing all that stuff. I used to run
my own record label, I used to to play in
my band and et cetera. So yeah, that that helps
me a lot today. Yeah, because I mean, I I
(01:04:00):
perfectly know how you can feel after a show or
a bad show or whatever. Yeah, and I think that's
you know what it's like to have.
Speaker 4 (01:04:11):
Yeah, I know what it's like.
Speaker 1 (01:04:13):
Yeah, exactly. And when you when you actually started to
play shows back with Abananda, because I know that our
bands played together in Japan, if I'm not mistake, we
played Pump Up the Volume Fest or whatever, and I
know I was excited to see you guys. I know
it was. It was such a yeah, it was such
(01:04:34):
a great No. Well, I think if I the fest,
because I think we also played a club show together,
I could be wrong about it, and I think.
Speaker 4 (01:04:44):
You guys club the club shows.
Speaker 1 (01:04:46):
Were good, right, at least a club show.
Speaker 4 (01:04:52):
Was better.
Speaker 3 (01:04:52):
At least the festival kind of sucking mind. We hadn't
play for a long time and and we were like,
I don't know, right, yeah whatever, Sorry.
Speaker 1 (01:05:04):
Yeah, no, no, it's okay. I was just I was
going to ask where when you started to, you know,
play shows again, and you know, I mean you just
released new Abanata music. You're obviously doing the discography. What
you know, does it feel really different or does it
feel like you were back in the you know, practice
(01:05:24):
space as you were just trying to be a terrible
band and you know co do cover songs or whatever.
Like does it feel different.
Speaker 3 (01:05:33):
If it's different, because cause I mean we're like way
much older and we can look at things in another
I mean, we know because back then in Japan, there's
like it must be like twelve thirty years ago. We
did a lot of practice before. We were like really suck.
Really we really wanted to do that and see what happened.
And it was and it was like, I mean, it
(01:05:57):
didn't turn out as good as say I wanted to.
I was kind of disappointed because I didn't enjoy it.
It was it wasn't. Yeah, I was expecting it to
be fun, but it wasn't. Uh So that kind of sucked.
That wasn't like a good experience. But when we play
now with like a show in Stockholm, we did a
(01:06:20):
couple of shows in Belgium and stuff, it.
Speaker 4 (01:06:24):
Was really fun. We didn't rehearse at all, We just rehearsed.
Speaker 3 (01:06:27):
Yeah, we did one rehearsal one day the day before
the show, we just went up on stage and played
and had such a good time.
Speaker 4 (01:06:35):
It was just fun. We didn't I mean, we weren't
planning for anything bigger.
Speaker 3 (01:06:40):
We weren't thinking about, oh, we might do this forever
with this is just only. We just went up on
stage and decided to just have fun. And it was
fun and and the show, the show stand up really
good and we really did enjoy it. And I think
the difference is that we just take take it as
(01:07:01):
it comes. I would like to take just one show
at a time, and what happens happens. We don't make
any big fans for anything, or we just we don't
say in the business the last show. We just yeah,
if everyone is up for it, but just do it.
And and if we enjoy it, we might do it
again or with or not, you never know. And I
(01:07:26):
think like not not not not feeling any pressure is
what what makes it fun. I mean, we're just doing
it because we actually love the music and we love
the songs, and and well I don't even love the songs,
but I love the whole idea of the hard core scene,
and I and and I love everything that hardcore gave me.
(01:07:52):
So when I go on stage now, I can just
like remember back and and try to like all those
years for one night, just once and just see to
what it is like some old men having fun. And
as long as we have fun and the people in
the audience audience have fun, I mean, why not, let's
(01:08:15):
do it.
Speaker 4 (01:08:16):
But but I think that.
Speaker 1 (01:08:18):
Ye, pressure everybody went.
Speaker 4 (01:08:20):
The pressure is gone.
Speaker 3 (01:08:21):
Yeah, everybody wins, and and not feeling that this is
like it has to be perfect or whatever. I mean,
we can be sloppy and and we don't care and
we don't even have to practice.
Speaker 4 (01:08:34):
We just do it because it's fun.
Speaker 1 (01:08:38):
Yeah yeah, right, And so in a way it actually
is like what it was at the beginning, where it's
like there was no expectations, you know exactly. Yeah, you
sort of prepared, but you were like, well, whatever, we
don't have to impress anybody. So here we go, here's
our girl busts.
Speaker 4 (01:08:57):
Cover exactly, and we do actually realistance cover.
Speaker 1 (01:09:03):
There you have it. Hopefully that gets you a little
bit closer to the Swedish hardcore scene and just it
was such an interesting thing for me to observe as
a person in Southern California, but then also to have
these discussions with people who were on the ground there,
whether it was Johannes from Colt to Luna. Dennis refused.
You can dive into those conversations in the archives, but
(01:09:25):
I just find it so fascinating that this really, really
small town in Sweden was like the epicenter of hardcore
for you know, a good couple of years.
Speaker 4 (01:09:34):
It is just so cool.
Speaker 1 (01:09:35):
So thank you very much Assie from End Hits Records
for bringing the idea to the table, and Jose for
being a great chat. Like I said, check out the
Abananda box set that is coming soon on end Hits Records.
Next week, I have another fun discussion. This one is
with Connor mccaliffe. I have never said his last name
(01:09:56):
out loud, so you know that's neither here nor there.
But he plays in Magnitude. He also plays in One
Step Closer and yeah, both are great bands. I love them.
I had to pursue him to come on the podcast,
and not like a stalker way, but you know, just
in a way that I was like, hey, you gotta
ask some friends, you know, in the in the scene,
(01:10:16):
so to speak. And I don't know Connor I want
to reach out to him, and then Yeah, hooked us
up on text and then there we go.
Speaker 4 (01:10:24):
We did it.
Speaker 1 (01:10:24):
So that is what we have next week and until then,
please be safe, everybody,
If you're listening to one hundred words or less with
Ray Harkins, Greetings one, Greetings all. Hopefully you're doing great today.
I am excited to bring you a conversation with people
who are involved in punk, hardcore, indie, rock, emo, metal,
whatever you want to call it. That is what we document.
It's of the independent variety, and that's what we care
(00:40):
about here. So if it's your first time here, welcome.
If it's your five hundredth time here, you're insane. I've
only done five hundred and ninety of these things, and
if you've spent five hundred hours with me, that's like
almost as much time as my wife. Oh my gosh,
it's crazy to think about that. But anyways, I am
going across the pond for this particular episode today. I
(01:02):
am thrilled to welcome Jose Saxelnd. He is the vocalist
for long running Swedish hardcore band Aba Nanda. He also
ran the very influential record label Desperate Fight Records. I
ran it with Dennis from Refused, and if you were
alive in the nineties and you cared about hardcore, you
(01:23):
absolutely bought a Desperate Fight release at some point because
basically everything coming over from Europe. Desperate Fight had some affiliation,
whether the band's toured with it or whether they released music.
How about the straight Edges Fuck compilations. That was the thing,
and they were a great introduction for young people like
(01:44):
me in the nineties, as I was like just drinking
from the fire hose of being like, Wow, there's all
these bands from over here. They're on the opposite side
of the world, and I was just excited to know
about it. But this conversation came up because an amazing
friend of the podcast this record label called end Hits Records.
They've done stuff from you know, Don't Sleep and Be
(02:08):
Well and Shelter re releases and a bunch of cool stuff.
But they are doing a really really cool Abananda box
set where they're bringing all of the Abananda releases together
and making sure that they get appropriately documented. So that's
why this conversation is happening. You can absolutely find in
Hits Records on all of the social media platforms, but
(02:31):
more specifically, I will leave a link in the show
notes to where you will be able to just click
through pre order the box set whenever that goes live.
I think even the next day or so, just you know,
follow along there. But that's why this conversation happened. I
myself loved Abananda because they were just like emotional hardcore.
(02:52):
It was definitely not yelling, it was shouting. It just
it hit all the things that I cared about at
that particular time. And then as Jose and I discuss
at the top of the show, we actually played a
show together in twenty eleven or something like that. It
was really special for me to watch Aubnana and be like, wow,
we're on the stage together in Japan, Like this is
(03:15):
so weird, but it's so cool. So anyways, Jose was
a great chat. He actually did this discussion when he
was in Berlin. And sometimes the audio drops out just
a little bit, nothing that like really impacts the conversation,
but you know, just there were some connectivity issues, but
nothing that we'll throw off your listening experience. I'm going
(03:35):
to continue to plug things on a weekly basis, but
before I do that, you can always write the show.
One under Words podcast at gmail dot com is the
best way to reach out and connect. You can also
leave a rating and review. This costs zero dollars and
it helps out the show tremendously. You can do that
on the Apple podcast page and you can also do
(03:55):
that on the Spotify page. Just a rating. And I
think I was reading some sit that I think three
percent of people when these you know, these please got
on podcasts where that is, you know, because most people
are like leaving reviews because they're angry at something, and
you know, it would be nice to like counterbalance any
(04:16):
voices of negativity that exist on the internet. So if
you feel positively about the show, just be that, you know,
lone voice that's saying, hey, you know what, if there's
a dissenter, someone that says this show sucks or whatever,
how about I say this show is cool and worth
your time. So anyways, just a little PSA and it
(04:36):
costs you, like I said, zero dollars and takes you
maybe thirty seconds, maybe a minute. So anyways, please do that.
And uh, let's keep on rolling with the recommendations. I
on a weekly basis, I will make sure to plug
something that I've been listening to, and then I have
a link in the show notes that you will be
able to follow along with the recommendations as I compile
(04:59):
them over the cour the whole year, and then you know,
hopefully you'll have some new music that you can check out.
This one is I would say a selfish plug, but
I'm actually just a friend of this person and a
friend of the person who produced this. But this is
a band called mil Dura, Oh, mil Dura, Mildura. I've
actually never said that out loud, which is crazy, But anyways,
(05:21):
this is a band from southern California along the lines
of like, you know, sort of power pop, like if
you're a fan of Super Crush or you know anything
of that ILK or maybe just some like classic mid
nineties emo. That is what this band does. And they
just released an EP called June and July. It's five songs,
it's like twelve minutes. Man, it is catchy as hell.
(05:44):
And the my friend Bo Braschelle he produced this and
my friend Nick sings for the band. But put those
professional relationships and personal relationships aside. This EP is an
absolute banger, So please listen to it if you were
into anything of what I just meant. And like I said,
I will toss that into the recommendation playlist. That will
(06:05):
be a link in the show notes and you can
listen to all the stuff that I've recommended this week
in all the previous weeks, so check it out for
some new music. I don't know I decided to put
on that little accent therap. But anyways, speaking of accents,
Jose was a champ because I mean, he speaks English,
but he also speaks Spanish, also speaks Swedish, and you know,
(06:26):
I only know one language. So the fact that he was,
you know, courageous enough to be like, oh, yes, I
will do this full hour long conversation in English. And
you know, he was not apologetic, but he was like,
you know, English is in my first language. I was like, dude,
you're killing it. So you did great. But anyways, follow
along with d Hits Records as they released the Abananda
(06:49):
discography and let's talk to Jose from Abnando.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
Right.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
I'm from southern California and I'm in my early forties,
so I definitely got hit by the wave of you know,
Umea hardcore that was coming from your scene, and it
always it's still to this day, is very confusing for
me because you know, Umea is obviously a very small town.
(07:52):
It's located very far away from everything else. And I
know that much has been said about the scene exploding
and obviously you guys and refused being a part of that,
and you know, your group of friends basically helping build
it up from nothing. But a question that I was
(08:13):
curious about, like when did you personally kind of notice
your scene reaching outside of your own city, like, you know,
was it when you know, Victory Records started to you know,
sign bands from your area and stuff like that, what
did you notice people paying attention.
Speaker 3 (08:30):
Actually already, like back in ninety three with it or first,
I mean our first or ever was in Norway, to
be honest, and people knew about us over there, and
it was like a combination because we had just like
a couple of songs released, but people got ahold of
(08:51):
it in some way, and then we did like all
the bands too. At the beginn we played a lot
of covers that people knew, I mean with some mouth songs,
We did some I don't know, a great bit kids
and all that stuff. So and our second tour was
actually like a European tour with like Belgium, Holland or
(09:15):
the Netherlands with Germany and people over there. I don't
know how, but they also like had or we had
like released a rep and people had it over there
and they knew the songs. So so I don't know.
I mean, our two first tours were like outside of
(09:36):
Sweden and people knew I mean, we went big, but
if there were like fixtures so many people at the shows,
half of them knew some.
Speaker 4 (09:47):
Of our songs.
Speaker 3 (09:50):
So so I don't know. I don't have a good
question a good answer to that question. I think like yeah, uh,
and then it were like growing from from to from
to tour, but people knew a little bit about us
at the beginning.
Speaker 4 (10:07):
Yeah, yeah, I'll.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
Take the thing going, so yeah and.
Speaker 4 (10:16):
Whatever, yeah, no and there.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
Yeah, I was just asking for your experience, and I
just think, like I said, for me in particular, I
mean I was paying attention to everything that you know,
victory and new Age and revelation and all that stuff,
and I just found it, like, you know, once you
started to What's Desperate Fight obviously started to put out records,
and you know, it seemed like there was something happening
(10:42):
over there, and I'm like, you know, pre internet, southern California,
I'm like, how why is this happening over here? Like
I understand it's friends playing at bands, but I'm like, why,
why is all of a sudden everybody paying attention to this,
you know, small town in Sweden, Like it's okay, okay,
I guess that's what we're doing now.
Speaker 4 (11:00):
We did good stuff, I don't know.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
Yeah no, And I think you're right about that because
I what always struck me about scenes in general, whether
it's you know, Umea, or whether it's like Louisville, Kentucky.
You have these bands that start and you see the
influence that these bands have, but then everybody participates. And
(11:25):
I think that's what helped with your scene, where it's
like you guys all like everybody either started a band,
started a record label, did a scene, Like everybody participated.
Speaker 4 (11:36):
Yeah exactly.
Speaker 3 (11:37):
I mean, as you said, it missed like a quite
small town, so everybody knew everybody, I mean, and everyone
wanted to do something if you want to do like
a band, you were doing like a rec label or
a fancy or whatever, because like, yeah, we all wanted
to take part or that scene.
Speaker 4 (11:59):
Yeah yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
And putting a focus on you as a person. I
know you moved around a lot as a kid with
your family, but you were actually born and raised in Umea,
right and then you went to other places with your family.
Speaker 3 (12:16):
Well, actually not I'm born in a town called Vecra,
but with like in south of Stockholm, actually Parigo. We
lived there for like one week and then we moved
to Gothenburg and no, then we moved to Umil, and
then we moved to Gothenburg and then we started like
moving around and I got back to Umil like when
(12:39):
I was around fifteen sixteen and spent like the whole
like my important years when it comes to hardcore in there,
because I stayed there until I was like twenty four,
when thed I move to Stockholm. Yeah, twenty four, So
those like five six years were really really important for me.
Speaker 4 (13:01):
And they like, yeah, right, that's what I mean.
Speaker 3 (13:07):
Harkers is like a lifestyle like like something that I
have done forever. But to be honest, we have those
like five six seven years back in the nineties and
that's that's what like it.
Speaker 1 (13:21):
But yeah, yeah, well, especially too, like what you're talking
about when everybody is contributing and starting bands, like it
feels like such a long period of time, but then
you look back at it and you're like, oh my gosh,
like that was only a couple of years. And everybody
put out like all the records and yeah. Yeah, So
(13:45):
when you were traveling around like you do you have
brothers and sisters, what was your family structuring?
Speaker 4 (13:50):
Yeah, I have, I have like tons on them.
Speaker 3 (13:52):
I have like eight brothers and sisters and like.
Speaker 4 (13:57):
Like three sisters and brothers.
Speaker 3 (14:00):
Actually yeah yeah, I know, I know, uh, but they
weren't with me like all the time because there's like
a big age difference. I think the one that comes
(14:20):
after me, it's like nine years younger than me. And
then we had like a lot of them in a
short period. Mm hmm. So when the last the last
one came, I already like moved out from my parents'
home and stuff like that.
Speaker 4 (14:40):
So but yeah, we're tom.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
Yeah, and what what were your because you were doing
so much traveling and moving around as a family, what
were your parents doing for you know, a living? Were
they were they moving because of their jobs or was
it were they just moving because there was new opportunities.
Speaker 4 (15:01):
I don't really know.
Speaker 3 (15:02):
Actually it was my my father, my stepfather, to be honest,
and he couldn't actually adjust to any place, so he
was just like moving all the time trying to find
his place that he actually never find I never found,
so so I don't know, he was like a vagabond
(15:25):
or something like that.
Speaker 4 (15:26):
He just couldn't adjust to any place in the world.
Speaker 3 (15:29):
And some people are like that, I guess, so, yeah,
that may be kind of rootless. So those years in
email meant a lot to me because of that, because
that was like the first time I found like, I
don't know, that could be a part of something. So
(15:51):
I guess that's why those years mean a lot to me.
Speaker 4 (15:55):
And it was important to me.
Speaker 1 (15:58):
Well, you had you had stability at that point, you know,
because you were moving. Yeah, and you had a community
outside of your family unit that you.
Speaker 4 (16:09):
Could exactly trust.
Speaker 3 (16:11):
Yeah, yeah, because because I mean we wire moving like
every year, because I could as soon as I startlight
knowing people, we moved. So when I came back to
you for a second time and I got into this
hard thing, I found like my community.
Speaker 4 (16:27):
I found like my people, my brothers and sisters.
Speaker 3 (16:32):
Outside my own family, and that was like really really
important to me. And yeah, it meant a lot to me.
And I guess that's why all those years, Like, yeah,
I think about them in a really good way and
they mean a lot to me.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
Yeah, Well, and I think it's apparent to anybody who
pays attention to you know, you and your musical output.
I think the fact that so many people from your
scene in particular, like you know, I always hate when
you see people who you know, grow out of punk
(17:12):
or hardcore or whatever and then kind of talk about
it and make fun of it. You know, it's like, oh,
that's kid stuff or whatever. Yeah, and it's like it's like, no,
that's the like, yeah, you don't need to listen to
you know, hardcore twenty four to seven, like as you
grow older, but.
Speaker 4 (17:30):
You can.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
That's fine.
Speaker 4 (17:31):
I just gid.
Speaker 3 (17:33):
I mean, I don't do that, but I hate it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
Just that idea that yeah, exactly exactly. And so what
was your I mean, because you are, you know, speaking
different languages, like you know, how many languages do you
actually speak? Is it? You know a little bit of English.
Speaker 3 (17:53):
You know, Swedish and Spanish, and then I'm trying to
to learn English the way I guess I'll get there someday.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
Hey, you're you're you're much better than most people in America. Obviously,
I can make fun of it. I can make fun
of Americans all day long because I am one. But
it's a yeah, most of us know, most of us
barely know English, so it's okay, I'm doing great.
Speaker 4 (18:18):
The difference is that I'm trying.
Speaker 1 (18:23):
No, that's very true.
Speaker 4 (18:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
They download an app and use it for a week
and then move on.
Speaker 4 (18:29):
Yeah yeah yeah yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:34):
So I I know you getting into punk and hardcore
kind of came through metal, because that was like what
you first got into. How did you even, like, I
guess get exposed to metal and then punk and hardcore
a little bit later.
Speaker 3 (18:54):
I mean, as you said, I was like into Metallica
and Slayer and Sepultur and all that kind of stuff.
So I went to a show with a band called
My Sugar. I don't know if you know about them,
uh oh yeah, like a Swedish metal band. They are
actually from Mail as well, and they played like a
(19:15):
local youth center in uh in Email. And this band
Stepped Forward. They were opening for My Sugar and Step Forward.
It's actually demis from from Refuse band, that's the band
that turned into Refuse later. So when I saw them,
and when I saw the energy, I just got like, yeah, wow,
(19:35):
what is this?
Speaker 4 (19:37):
I was hooked.
Speaker 3 (19:38):
I mean when I yeah, that was like something else.
So the day after that show, I went to Denis
apartment actually, and he started like teaching me, teaching me everything,
like showing me all his records, like all the seven
Second stuff, the Youth of Today's stuff, Guria Biscuits, well,
all the classics. And I was hooked, and I'm still hooked.
(20:00):
I'm still there, right, so that's my wife.
Speaker 4 (20:07):
Yeah, sorry, right, no, it's okay.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
I was gonna say, so, you knew Dennis and the
rest of the guys just because of kind of going
to shows together.
Speaker 4 (20:18):
Actually, yes, I didn't know Dennis.
Speaker 3 (20:20):
I knew Darvid or David because he was like a
metal head as well. He played in a metal bump
and Darvid is the guy that started to play drums
and refused, so I knew him and he he and
(20:41):
he knew Dennis. So he put us together the day
after this this hardcore show, and and then I got
to learn Dennis and to learn out everything about the
heart core scene. And that's how I discovered straighted and
I just like, yeah, well the whole culture that's checking
(21:02):
out Dennis Vinyls right.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
I was gonna say, Dennis is a very good teacher
because he can just walk you through the entire history.
Speaker 4 (21:12):
He did.
Speaker 3 (21:13):
He did, actually, and I remember were like it's stage
diving is bad and listening to like yeah, well everything.
And then we started to order records together, from Victory,
from Uage to Revelation. So every time we got like
a new package from the stage, it was like Christmas
for us.
Speaker 4 (21:33):
Yeah I love that.
Speaker 1 (21:35):
Yeah, I mean and that's.
Speaker 3 (21:38):
Yes, no, no, no, I mean because I remember like getting
I don't know, I can't. I mean, well, we got
the Outspoken, the Current EP, the the vinyl, the seven
inch and just opening that and like put it on.
I mean a lot of that stuff. Well, the Outspoken
is a really good one, but a lot of other
(21:59):
stuff they kind of sucked. But we like them anyways
because it was like, oh, this is hardcore from California.
We have to we have to like it. We're gonna
listen to this song, say it, We'll like it.
Speaker 1 (22:13):
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(23:17):
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(23:42):
you could return to record. You're like, okay, looks like
I have Yeah, I have to really get into this
course to disapproval record or whatever exactly.
Speaker 4 (23:51):
I mean, I was actually thinking about course of disapproval.
I don't want to say anything but.
Speaker 3 (23:58):
Chorus and and that's it, right, You're right on point.
Speaker 1 (24:03):
I well, I I so remember myself where I remember
ordering from Network Sound. I remember ordering, you know, the
Ignite call in my brother's record, and then the you know,
course to disapproval firm standing law and you can't compare.
You can't compare those records. The Ignite record will win
every time.
Speaker 4 (24:22):
And I was like why.
Speaker 1 (24:24):
I was like, I don't like.
Speaker 4 (24:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:25):
I was like, I don't like this course to disapproval record.
But for you across the world, you're like, well, I
got no choice. I gotta like this.
Speaker 3 (24:32):
Yeah, I mean total same stuff with like like I
don't know end point or whatever kind of bands from
the States that we just got the records to Sweden.
We have been waiting for those for like three four weeks,
and when you get them, oh this sounds kind of shitty,
but hey, I'm gonna listen to it like twenty five times.
Speaker 4 (24:55):
Then I got still liking it.
Speaker 1 (24:57):
Yep, exactly. You you the time into it for sure?
Speaker 4 (25:01):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:04):
And so how did you even get into metal in general?
Was that because of you know, I mean obviously a
lot of people connect metal in Sweden and it's a
popular scene. Was that just because of like your friends
being into metal? Were you exposed to it via you know,
TV or not?
Speaker 3 (25:24):
I had just like because we lived in Argentina before
I moved back to Email and I have been like
a broad for like almost five years, so.
Speaker 4 (25:37):
I got it. Was yeah yeah.
Speaker 3 (25:39):
And when moved back and I didn't know anybody, and
I couldn't almost not speak Swedish. I mean, it came
back quite fast, but if you haven't spoken a language
for like five years, to kind of forget it, I mean,
you don't forget it, but it's it's still there, but
it takes some time to get used to it again
and start using it. So I I was quite alone,
(26:02):
and I didn't listen to music, to be honest, but
someday I just walked in into a record store, and
back in the days, you could, like if you saw
a record, you could like go to the desk and
ask them to put it on so you could listen
to it before you bought it. And actually I saw
the Metallica one twelve inch with that pastia the cover
(26:28):
like a skull or something. I don't even remember, but
I did like the cover, so I told them to
put that song on and I just loved it and
I bought it. And after that, I just started buying
Metallica records and that got me to Slayer and so
I'm self made. Just found it for myself. I saw
(26:48):
like a record cover one day and that got me
to the music. But I mean that got me to
the metal scene and I start I met some people there.
I met David, I a lot of other kids like
playing metal music, and yeah, that's so yeahing started. No.
Speaker 1 (27:09):
I love when people talk about exactly what you said,
where it's like the artwork pulls you in because you
know when obviously this makes us sound like we're two
hundred years old when we're talking about just yeah, we
are just looking at a record cover and being like, oh,
there's something interesting about that. You can't describe it at
(27:29):
as an eleven or twelve year old, but it just
makes you feel something. And then, like you said, you
bring it up to the counter and then they play
it for you and you're like, oh my gosh, I
need this. It's so beautiful.
Speaker 5 (27:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (27:39):
Yeah, yeah, I mean that that's that's how Actually that
was one way, and then the second thing, this is
like a couple of years later, but.
Speaker 4 (27:51):
We started to I mean I'm going somewhere else not,
but it through like gate Move skateboarder movies. Oh yeah.
Speaker 3 (28:02):
There were like a lot of undreleased songs and when
you're like, well like a Federally Jones, yeah, m no,
Operation Ivy sorry the one before it and all that
kind of stuff, the skate pund stuff will learn through
like like thrash and movies and stuff like that.
Speaker 4 (28:25):
Yeah, it's that's that's yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:29):
Yeah, oh no, it's a huge. I mean I think
the amount of impact those videos and magazines had across
the world were I mean, it's so difficult to put
into words because it's like anybody that watched any of
those segments, it's like, oh wait, the skater picked this
you know, bad Religion song or whatever, like I have
(28:51):
to listen to this, and every kid was doing that.
It's so cool.
Speaker 3 (28:54):
Yeah, I mean it's like Originer Hl's TikTok exactly.
Speaker 1 (28:58):
That's totally the case because you knew, right, because you
knew that that particular skater or magazine put that in
front of you for reasons, You're like, okay, I have
to pay attention to it.
Speaker 4 (29:11):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:14):
And so as you were getting into you know, punk
and hardcore after that, you know, m Sugar Show, and
you started to bring that stuff home to your parents
and your siblings. Were you always the weird one where
it's like, what is Jose into all these weird bands?
Like how are they reacting to you?
Speaker 4 (29:33):
I still am actually okay? Perfect thing is.
Speaker 3 (29:39):
That asaid totally. My stepfather was not my favorite. So
when I started listening to Metallica, I actually bought a
Metallica shot and he didn't like that because it was
like a skull on it, so he wouldn't allow me
to wear that. So I always had it like in
(30:01):
my backpack and put it on when I left home
going to school. Right. Yeah, But then like around that time,
I like moved I was like almost seventeen and I
moved out from my parents actually and then yeah, so
(30:21):
so they didn't have that my connection to all that
kind of stuff because I had to hide it when
when I lived at home, and then when I moved
out it was okay to like live out my heartcore
dream and right, so that they kind of missed all
that stuff.
Speaker 1 (30:42):
Right, And when you were going to you know, school
and you know, just figuring out who you were and
maybe what you were going to do with your life,
was there any focus for you besides music it was
based like that's all you paid attention to, or did
(31:02):
you have an idea that you were going to, you know,
do something else for a job.
Speaker 3 (31:10):
I kind of have like an idea that that started
like to fade the more I got into hardcore. Like,
my last two years in school were not that good because.
Speaker 4 (31:22):
I was just like started to get into music.
Speaker 3 (31:27):
We started the record label, and my last year I
was on tour a lot, so I skipped school quite
a lot. So so I have an ambition, but it
kind of like, I don't know, hardcore came in the
way the last two years, I guess right right there, Well, yeah,
(31:48):
and I.
Speaker 4 (31:48):
Haven't stopped since that, so I don't know.
Speaker 1 (31:52):
Yeah, you just keep keep doing it, keep following your passion.
Speaker 4 (31:56):
Yeah, yeah, was.
Speaker 1 (32:01):
Do you feel like, you know when you were I know,
you've spoken about starting Albernonda where you guys had no
idea what you were doing and you could barely play
your instruments right, And he was that just because you
basically are like, Okay, I have to start a band,
like I know that, this.
Speaker 4 (32:22):
Is just what I have to do exactly, Okay, got it.
Speaker 3 (32:27):
That's basically because because I mean, we didn't know how
to play editing, uh, and we're just I actually tried
to clear bass, but I really sucked, so I couldn't
do that. I mean, I didn't know how to sing
at all. But we just we just started like doing
covers another rehearsal room, and like we play some bad
(32:49):
religion song.
Speaker 4 (32:49):
We played like a sub society song if you.
Speaker 3 (32:52):
Know that from some skateboarding movie, and we played like
a minor threat song.
Speaker 4 (32:58):
And we did that, like oh, over and over and
over again.
Speaker 3 (33:01):
And after like a couple of months, we just started
writing our own songs and they kind of sucked from
the beginning, but then when we recorded, like our first album,
we got Christopher into the band and then he was
a good guitar guitarist and the guitar player so and
he knew more about songwriting and all that stuff.
Speaker 4 (33:22):
So that helped us a lot.
Speaker 3 (33:23):
So when we what we did, like our first album,
the Senseless album, we actually well, we had gotten better
because we had practiced like a couple of years and
we got a guy in the band that could actually
play and didn't know about writing songs, so that that
helped us a lot. But yeah, we didn't know. We
(33:44):
didn't have a clue what we were doing from the beginning,
I mean nothing.
Speaker 1 (33:48):
Right, which I honestly like, I mean, I remember when
I first heard Senseless and I started to pay attention
to everything that was happening over there. There was this element,
you know, the early refused stuff as well, where it
was really it was really sloppy, but in a good way,
like yeah, you know, like you could tell that everybody
(34:11):
wanted to do something and be better, but it wasn't
quite there yet, but it was still good. And like
I think that's like most bands might know that because
you've worked in the music industry for a long time,
they try to figure out the balance between those two
where it's like, Okay, it's too polished or is it
too sloppy, like we don't know.
Speaker 4 (34:32):
And for me, hardcore is what about like some special
feeling and sometimes it has to be sloppy too to
bring that feeling to I don't know how to explain this, But.
Speaker 3 (34:47):
It doesn't have to be perfect hardcore record. I mean,
you don't have to play like everything perfect too. It
doesn't have to sound like perfect and it can still
be good.
Speaker 4 (35:00):
Yep, exactly right.
Speaker 1 (35:05):
And when you started, you know, playing shows and putting
out records under desperate fight like the idea of you know,
being a business person, like no one really wants to,
you know, describe themselves like that because it's like okay,
I'm getting paid, you know, one hundred right. But but
(35:27):
but you had to learn some of that, so like
did you I guess, like learning how to you know,
put out records and be you know, a business person
or was that just like, oh I have to do
that because that's just what's expected.
Speaker 3 (35:43):
I mean, I guess it's like a little bit both,
if that makes sense. It's like sometimes one way and
sometimes the other. But I mean, we started desperate fight
to put out the first because there was no other
recordlibit who wanted to do it, so so we just
(36:05):
did ourselves. And and to be honest, I don't know
if we were supposed to start a record label, and
we just we just did and and things like just
happened and and everything like grew along the way, and
we made a lot of mistakes of course, but we'll yeah,
I did get to learn a lot of stuff as well.
Speaker 4 (36:27):
That that.
Speaker 3 (36:29):
Yeah, that that I'm still like you see today and
in my professional life since I still work with music.
Speaker 4 (36:38):
So I don't really know, I mean, what is what?
But we just we just did whatever had to be done.
Speaker 1 (36:47):
Evil greed dot net is a website that you absolutely
need to go to to shop for merch shop for vinyl.
All of the bands that are featured on there are
viewed through a lens I would like to call artistic
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the door to every record label or band that wants
to use their service. They kind of act like a
(37:09):
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Speaker 3 (37:39):
Like?
Speaker 1 (37:39):
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So again, Evil Greed dot Net. Under words is the
promo code go do it now? The scene and what
(38:20):
you were participating in in UMEA, like you know straight edge, vegetarianism,
veganism like that was really central to who you all were.
And it was really interesting as well, coming from America,
where like yes, there were of course straight edge and
vegan bands and you know, political bands, but you guys
(38:43):
were very upfront about it, and I was that just
because of you wanted to, I guess be recognized on
different levels, like not only it's like, hey, here's our band.
You know, we might be good, but we're also straight edge.
We're also vegetarians, you know, like we're also vegan. Like
(39:05):
was there a thought process like as you are all
getting into that or were you all just like influencing
each other.
Speaker 3 (39:13):
Well that's a good question, because to be honest, when
I got like into vegetarism and straight edge and all
that stuff, I mean, of course I was.
Speaker 4 (39:24):
All those records.
Speaker 3 (39:25):
From from America were like a beg influence to us,
like reading all the lyrics in the Youth of Today
albums or earth Quaints or whatever. But I kind of
like got into that stuff. And this might sound silly,
but to be cool, to be like different consumer is
(39:47):
like a it's a town, as you said, like far
up north.
Speaker 4 (39:53):
It's like far from everything.
Speaker 3 (39:55):
Else, and the only thing people do over there is
like play ice hockey and get drunk. So when we
like realized there was something else out there that we
could like not drink and like be vegetarians, it sounds
it sounded really really cool, and we're just I did
(40:15):
it from the beginning just because oh, this sounds cool,
and then just I got into it and it's still
my real wife. But I mean we were like sixteen
seventy years old. We didn't have a clue. It just
sounded cool. Though they don't drink over there, Oh they
don't need meat. Let's try it, right, So I don't know,
(40:38):
I don't know if that answers your question. But no,
it's not like it's not like a mature decision to
take when you're grown. I mean we were just kids
and reading lyrics from albums were life and by oh
this sounds cool, let's try it. Yeah, I mean like
(41:01):
the three in to say, oh, I'm a vegetarian. I
don't even need they like look at you like a
kind of soombie or something like a.
Speaker 4 (41:08):
Ghost, right, so and and I like that. I mean, yeah, beaus,
I wanted to be different.
Speaker 1 (41:18):
Yeah, no, And I think what you're talking about, is
what I would guess. Because you had this group of friends,
you had this community. Everybody was participating in one of
those things, whether they were straight edge being vegetarian, and
you were the weirdos of the town. You just wanted
to stick out even more and be like, oh, yeah,
(41:41):
we don't do any of this, like we're playing in bands,
we're doing all this weird stuff over here, and that's fine.
You can have your you know, normal drinking or whatever.
Like I just don't need it.
Speaker 4 (41:50):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3 (41:51):
I mean when I remember that the the vegetarianism part,
because I got like spritage first and then it's vegetarianism.
And that was when we I mean we ordered like
the video cassettes from the States with like music videos,
and one day we got the Youth of Today No
More video and we kind of like stop watching it
(42:13):
because we thought it was so cool. So that that's
how it got into vegeterranism. And it was just like
for us sing that video like was everything being stuck
up there in the dark and the winter and the
snow and all that ship you get in at to
(42:34):
see like yeah, I don't know, yeah, no, for sure,
do you understand, No, I do.
Speaker 1 (42:41):
I do. And when you started to you know, tour
Europe more actively with aben Honda, the touring Europe, I
mean obviously you've you've done some stuff in America as
far as traveling over here and you know, being with
bands and stuff like that. I know, Abananda obviously never
(43:03):
made it over to the US.
Speaker 3 (43:05):
No, we were supposed to go there, but I got
this like six weeks long toward one eight in Europe instead,
So I think we were going to tour with Despair
for like a couple of weeks in the States, but
then they offered us to do to open for one
of eight for six weeks in Europe, and we kind
of yeah, let's do that instead.
Speaker 1 (43:26):
Right, And would you like when you started to tour Europe,
was it what you anticipated or was it really different
than you know, just like going up to weekend shows
in Norway or whatever.
Speaker 3 (43:41):
Uh, it kind of changed along the way because because
we uh, I mean we started like doing those really
small dude yourself shows and I yes, like when we
(44:03):
started getting the record shout and and people like got
hold them and and it kind of like everything grew
along the way for every new tour like things got
bigger and bigger in some kind of way.
Speaker 4 (44:18):
But I mean no, I mean we didn't do anything else.
We just like went along with whatever happened.
Speaker 3 (44:27):
And we started like touring in a shitty van and
we like our last tours were in a big like
bus with our beds and whatever. Then it got too
big for me, so so we just I quit the band.
But that's another question.
Speaker 1 (44:47):
Right that that no, that I was going to ask about,
because touring, touring is very difficult, even in the best
of circumstances. And yeah, so.
Speaker 3 (45:01):
And we, I mean our band was growing, but we
never had like the best of circumstances. I mean it
was still like a punk rock tour.
Speaker 1 (45:11):
Yeah, right, And you knew, like once you started to
do that, like you knew that that was really the
life you wanted to live, like constantly on the road
and everything like that. Or were there multiple reasons for
you not wanting to play the band anymore.
Speaker 3 (45:27):
Oh that's a hard question. I mean, at that young age,
you don't know much. But I loved it. But I
guess like a lot of different things came in the way.
I mean everything from like girlfriends to we went doing
the music that I was into and stuff like that,
(45:48):
and then like spending a lot of time with like
your best friends in a bus, it's not like always
the best best thing to do. You need to like
get away from each other sometimes. So I guess if
if we had, like I mean, we weren't doing the
(46:10):
band for the same reasons as we started the band.
I mean, we were just like friends who didn't know
how to play, and I wanted to have fun in
a rehearsal room.
Speaker 4 (46:19):
And at the end it was more like a business.
Speaker 3 (46:21):
And some tours we did because we had to because
oh we did we did this record. Now we have
to go out and tour and promote it because blah
blah blah. Yeah, because because that's the way you do it.
And and like maybe I didn't want to or like
guitar play, didn't want to, and but we have to
do it anyways, and it was like more.
Speaker 4 (46:44):
An obligation than just something you did for fun. And
I guess, yeah, I don't know, Yeah, I don't know.
Yeah that's to say, No, that's fine. I mean the
feeling wasn't the same since the beginning.
Speaker 1 (47:04):
Yeah, well, once you become a part of the music business,
like they're you know, people depend on you, and it's like, okay,
people have invested in our band, and you know, gave
us an advance on a record and all this stuff starting. Yeah,
you start to feel different about it, and yeah, you're
(47:24):
not touring or you're not being creative because you want to.
It's like, oh, these people have spent you know, ten
thousand euros on us, so we got to go out
and to do this tour or.
Speaker 3 (47:34):
Whatever exactly exactly, And I mean the band was like
a It wasn't like a full time job. I mean,
of course we wait, so we have to like do
the band, but then we have to go home and
I had the record label and all the other guys
are like jobs and stuff like that. So but it
wasn't that easy to combine all the time.
Speaker 4 (47:57):
Because you have to.
Speaker 3 (47:58):
I mean at that point when we were when we
actually stop playing, it was like, oh, we have to
we have to like go all in on this or
just like don't do it anymore. And I guess we
still say the second one.
Speaker 4 (48:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (48:16):
Well, and to be fair too, I think that most
band of the nineties and even going into the two thousands,
the idea of making a living off of hardcore, Like
you didn't do that, Like that was not even a
that was not even a possible thought. So the idea
of you being like, Okay, I got to balance the
(48:38):
record label, you know, I got to balance the band.
I have to balance my you know, normal life. Like
how do I do all of these together.
Speaker 3 (48:45):
That's really difficult, Yeah, because like they're hard to play
in a hard coreband.
Speaker 4 (48:49):
It's like a full time commitment. Anyways.
Speaker 3 (48:52):
I mean, if if you want to do like all
the records we wanted to do and look touring and
all that stuff, but you can't still like live out
of ARCore all the way. So so you have to
put like a lot of time. And we wanted to
do it. I mean, the time wasn't the problem, but
it's still a problem because you need to live. I mean,
(49:16):
you have to pay rent, so we have to put
like a full time job in the band. But then
sill we have to work so you can pay all
your bills. So yeah, it was like it wasn't the
easiest of combinations.
Speaker 1 (49:30):
Yeah, And on that topic, I know, I'm always fascinated
with how supportive the you know, governments are across the
world of arts and whether it's you know, grant programs
or what have you. And because America we obviously don't
(49:51):
have anything like that. It's not like a band has
ever been paid one dollar off of anything that they
have done. I know that there is an element of
that up in Sweden. Did you guys or yeah, did
you guys ever participate in that? Was there ever like, oh,
we could do this show because you know it's at
the youth hostel and you know the government is going
(50:12):
to you know, give us about thousand euros for that.
Speaker 3 (50:16):
Definitely we have I mean, our first tours in Sweden,
we're actually paid and I don't remember if like they paid
like fifty percent of everything, because if we have like
a if if a place booked es and gave us
like a guarantee of like fifteen hundred euros, the government
(50:42):
they put in as much as they guarantee, so so
we get double what the club paid us, and that
of course helped. Okay, but this is like midnight, so
I don't even know if that system is around anymore,
but we.
Speaker 4 (50:59):
Definite definitely got some help from the States.
Speaker 1 (51:06):
Yeah. Yeah, it's just like I said, it's just so
fascinating because you know, it never, never in America would
a hardcore band get any support whatsoever. And so I
just love the fact that, you know, it's like I
still remember watching you know, documentaries of you know, Fenras
(51:27):
from Dark Throne or whatever, where it's like, oh, yeah,
I just like live off of Dark Throne. It's like,
what what do you mean, Like I understand Dark Thrones
of you know, yes, it's an important black metal band,
but it's like, what this is crazy?
Speaker 3 (51:40):
Yeah, and you could yeah, I mean you could get
a lot of other stuff as well, because we didn't
know it back then, but there was a lot of
money to get from the stay. I mean that situation
is not as good as back then. Everything is going
to the worst, like the whole world is. Yeah, but
that's another question. But there still aren't there's at least
(52:03):
like some help to get out there. Not in some
extent as before, but but there is there is some
some money. I mean, you kept like you can get
money to to do a record, you can get money
to to tour, you can actually get money to go
over to the States, and and and there's some sessions
over there, and there's there's still some help to get
(52:24):
over there.
Speaker 4 (52:26):
Totally it's staying worse. It's yeah, less and.
Speaker 1 (52:30):
Less, totally understand. And when you decided to, you know,
stop putting out records and like obviously you weren't playing
in Abanonda, and was there you know, difficulty just because
you were probably known for many years as like oh
yeah Jose from Desperate Fight or Abanonda, Like, was there
(52:53):
a difficulty sort of transitioning into you know, a life
without those things or did you just kind of you
it as like, oh, here's the next chapter.
Speaker 3 (53:05):
I just moved from me. I moved to Stockholm. I
just like left everything behind. I mean it not that easy.
I mean it wasn't as simple as I'm saying now.
It took like a year or something, but but yeah,
I just got like set up of everything. I needed
a break from it. And I mean, you missed a
(53:26):
small town and that's good sometimes, but it can be
bad as well, because like everybody knew who I was
and whatever I did or.
Speaker 4 (53:36):
Yeah, so I just I just wanted to.
Speaker 3 (53:38):
Leave, and my my girlfriend at that time wanted to
move as well to Stockholm to study.
Speaker 4 (53:46):
So I just say, yeah, whatever, left go and I
just left everything behind, right kind of right? Yeah, So no,
it was funny.
Speaker 3 (53:58):
I mean, I did like to move to Stockholm. It
is like a beta city at place, and I did
like to be like.
Speaker 4 (54:10):
Just the regular guy right.
Speaker 1 (54:15):
Absolutely the last few things I wanted to hit on.
I know that the Abananda record, the Rumble record that
you guys put out, you know, many years later, when
you obviously weren't really you know, touring or you know,
playing shows here and there. I I love that record.
(54:36):
I know a lot of people, especially especially in the States,
we're just looking at it being like, oh, yeah, so
they're just trying to put out their refused record or whatever,
you know they want to right off the.
Speaker 3 (54:47):
We actually recorded that album before I Refuse Dad the
Ship of Punk to come.
Speaker 5 (54:52):
So right, just right, Yeah, all the strings and all
that stuff was recorded before Refuse did There's the album
came out later than the Refused one, right, just for
the record exactly for the record.
Speaker 1 (55:10):
Was that really fun for you to play that particular style.
Speaker 3 (55:16):
That's like the kind of kind of the the start
of the end of the band, because I didn't like
that at all. I was just like a hard coo
kid and they wanted to play more like rough music. Ah,
And I actually I hated that album.
Speaker 4 (55:34):
We just didn't. Actually we did a tour after that,
but we haven't read like broken up.
Speaker 3 (55:41):
I mean I think we broke up during the recording
of that album, okay, but since since people were putting,
as you said, like a lot of money into that,
we actually did a tour after the album. Anyways, I
didn't know like the record at all, but now, like
twenty years later or whatever, or twenty five or I.
Speaker 4 (56:06):
I kind of changed my mind. I mean it's good.
It's kind of good. I mean, whether it's something like different.
Speaker 3 (56:15):
But my problem back then was I just wanted to
like strive mouthpiece songs and play just playing hardcore right,
But the rest got it too good at their instruments,
so they just wanted to develop and they just wanted
to do something else, and that whole Helicopterter's scene was
getting big in Sweden and the ja let's do more
(56:36):
rock and see what happens.
Speaker 4 (56:40):
Now.
Speaker 3 (56:40):
I hated that album when we recorded it, but I
kind of love it now.
Speaker 4 (56:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (56:46):
Well, and I just because of where I was paying
attention to everything that was going on in Sweden, not
only in the hardcore scene, but it's like, you know,
got into bands like Kenton obviously, Helicopters, New Bomb Turks,
all that stuff. So it's like I could see where
you know, you guys would want to progress musically, But
(57:08):
I do understand what you're talking about where it's like
I just want to sound like Strife. I don't want to.
I don't want to tell like.
Speaker 4 (57:15):
Exactly exactly. I don't want to.
Speaker 3 (57:16):
I don't want to be like like a helicopscopy kata.
I mean, I got into dismiss like ordering Outspoken records
from Mike Cartsfield or whatever, Strife albums from Tony Victory.
I don't want to do like some shitty, shicy rock
and roll music. But yeah, I guess it changed my
(57:40):
mind like some years later. But back then I could
not understand that. I mean, I didn't want to do it,
and it was like me against the rest. I was
I was the one like trying to just do hardcore
and the rest just wanted to do something else.
Speaker 4 (58:00):
Yeah, I don't know. It wasn't like my best time,
but came out quite a good. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (58:09):
Absolutely, And speaking of that, like, it seems like the
music scene in general, and I know that you obviously
we have worked in the music industry for a long
time at Bad Taste, it seems like everybody kind of
knows each other in Sweden, like the music industry. Uh.
And so it's like because I just love I just
(58:30):
love the idea where it's like, you know, Nina from
the Cardigans is dating you know, guys from the Helicopters.
I just love like that everybody's mixing it up together.
Speaker 3 (58:40):
So like, yeah, I had like, uh because Nina from
the Cardigans, he was actually dating back then in the
night she was dating a guy from a New Meal well,
a guy who lived in New Mia. He wasn't from
so she was actually in a mail quite a lot
when they just kept like really really big and I
was like completely in love with her.
Speaker 4 (59:01):
But that's another story.
Speaker 3 (59:03):
But the thing is that her brother, she he was
like really into hardcore. So whenever she came up to
to to email and she came to desperate fight, so
I could give her like a lot of hardcorekers to
bring to her brother, just so you know.
Speaker 1 (59:22):
I see and that these are the stories that I
love to hear because, like you said, it's so it's
such a small universe, especially up there in Sweden, where
it's like, oh, yes, like even though we're all playing
different styles of music, like everybody knows each other, so
it's like, yeah, even if you don't know what what
like straightge hardcore is like you know her her brother did,
(59:44):
so he needs all the desperate fight.
Speaker 3 (59:45):
Right exactly exactly, so she knows actually because of that
of her brother. And and then I mean there's a
lot of people from the hardcore see working in miss business.
I mean some of the bigger bands in Sweden work.
Speaker 4 (01:00:01):
In one way or another. When with somebody attached to
the hardcore scene.
Speaker 1 (01:00:09):
Right, it's it's beautiful.
Speaker 4 (01:00:12):
I mean who would you say, yeah, yes, of.
Speaker 1 (01:00:16):
Course, of course.
Speaker 3 (01:00:17):
Yeah, he's like he's a booking agent for Veronica Maggio
and two must Stanza, like two of the biggest biggest
Swedish artists Harry Sweden and the guitar played Oscar is
the manager for like Young Lean and all of that. Yeah,
so there is a lot of harker people still working
in the music industry, like with big big artists over here.
Speaker 1 (01:00:42):
Right, No, I love I love that. The The last
thing that I wanted to talk about was specifically your
work with big Taste or bad taste Sorry where not
big yeah, yes, not Big Taste, Bad Taste. When did
(01:01:03):
you start, I guess, wanting to work in the music
industry and how did you transition into that.
Speaker 4 (01:01:11):
I got fed up from the music industry and the
band of the labor and everything when I moved to
Stockholm and I started to work with football, was soccer
with sports, and I worked with sports for like ten
years or something like that, and then I don't even remember,
(01:01:32):
but start.
Speaker 3 (01:01:33):
I mean, I always knew the guys from Bad Taste,
and I just like started hanging out with them again
and I went to visit them, and because they have
like a house in La, I went to visit them
over there and we were talking about, yeah, we should
do like a festival here in the lay with Swedish
bands and blah blah blah, and like some crazy ideas
(01:01:55):
like sometimes you just do. And then I think like
just one thing led to another and I was working
with music again with Bad Taste. I don't even know how,
but it just happened. They're just like God brought me
back to the music scene. Yeah, I guess I just
(01:02:19):
started hanging out with them and I held one of
their artists and one of our artists slash producers. He
wanted to put out a record, and I said, like, well,
I can't step in and do something. Yeah whatever, And
up there was like the starting point of my way
(01:02:41):
back into the music scene.
Speaker 4 (01:02:44):
M hmm, yeah, got it.
Speaker 1 (01:02:48):
I know. It's it's great. And I think too exactly
what you're talking about or what we've been saying, where
all of the stuff that you learned from you know,
running a label, playing in Abernonda is stuff you still
use today. You know, it's like everything like you know
what you know what it's like playing shows, You know,
all of these different aspects of what the artists that
(01:03:12):
you work with and manage like you you're on the
same level, you understand.
Speaker 3 (01:03:17):
Yeah exactly, I mean, and I think that's really good
because I mean when I when I speak to one
of my artists after they have played the show, before
they're playing a show, they know that that I had
been there, so they're lifting to to whatever experience I
might have and and I have I have been doing
like I mean, as a manager, you work with record labels,
with the booking agents, with artists, and I had done
(01:03:40):
all that. I mean, I've been around and I have
been like doing all that stuff. I used to run
my own record label, I used to to play in
my band and et cetera. So yeah, that that helps
me a lot today. Yeah, because I mean, I I
(01:04:00):
perfectly know how you can feel after a show or
a bad show or whatever. Yeah, and I think that's
you know what it's like to have.
Speaker 4 (01:04:11):
Yeah, I know what it's like.
Speaker 1 (01:04:13):
Yeah, exactly. And when you when you actually started to
play shows back with Abananda, because I know that our
bands played together in Japan, if I'm not mistake, we
played Pump Up the Volume Fest or whatever, and I
know I was excited to see you guys. I know
it was. It was such a yeah, it was such
(01:04:34):
a great No. Well, I think if I the fest,
because I think we also played a club show together,
I could be wrong about it, and I think.
Speaker 4 (01:04:44):
You guys club the club shows.
Speaker 1 (01:04:46):
Were good, right, at least a club show.
Speaker 4 (01:04:52):
Was better.
Speaker 3 (01:04:52):
At least the festival kind of sucking mind. We hadn't
play for a long time and and we were like,
I don't know, right, yeah whatever, Sorry.
Speaker 1 (01:05:04):
Yeah, no, no, it's okay. I was just I was
going to ask where when you started to, you know,
play shows again, and you know, I mean you just
released new Abanata music. You're obviously doing the discography. What
you know, does it feel really different or does it
feel like you were back in the you know, practice
(01:05:24):
space as you were just trying to be a terrible
band and you know co do cover songs or whatever.
Like does it feel different.
Speaker 3 (01:05:33):
If it's different, because cause I mean we're like way
much older and we can look at things in another
I mean, we know because back then in Japan, there's
like it must be like twelve thirty years ago. We
did a lot of practice before. We were like really suck.
Really we really wanted to do that and see what happened.
And it was and it was like, I mean, it
(01:05:57):
didn't turn out as good as say I wanted to.
I was kind of disappointed because I didn't enjoy it.
It was it wasn't. Yeah, I was expecting it to
be fun, but it wasn't. Uh So that kind of sucked.
That wasn't like a good experience. But when we play
now with like a show in Stockholm, we did a
(01:06:20):
couple of shows in Belgium and stuff, it.
Speaker 4 (01:06:24):
Was really fun. We didn't rehearse at all, We just rehearsed.
Speaker 3 (01:06:27):
Yeah, we did one rehearsal one day the day before
the show, we just went up on stage and played
and had such a good time.
Speaker 4 (01:06:35):
It was just fun. We didn't I mean, we weren't
planning for anything bigger.
Speaker 3 (01:06:40):
We weren't thinking about, oh, we might do this forever
with this is just only. We just went up on
stage and decided to just have fun. And it was
fun and and the show, the show stand up really
good and we really did enjoy it. And I think
the difference is that we just take take it as
(01:07:01):
it comes. I would like to take just one show
at a time, and what happens happens. We don't make
any big fans for anything, or we just we don't
say in the business the last show. We just yeah,
if everyone is up for it, but just do it.
And and if we enjoy it, we might do it
again or with or not, you never know. And I
(01:07:26):
think like not not not not feeling any pressure is
what what makes it fun. I mean, we're just doing
it because we actually love the music and we love
the songs, and and well I don't even love the songs,
but I love the whole idea of the hard core scene,
and I and and I love everything that hardcore gave me.
(01:07:52):
So when I go on stage now, I can just
like remember back and and try to like all those
years for one night, just once and just see to
what it is like some old men having fun. And
as long as we have fun and the people in
the audience audience have fun, I mean, why not, let's
(01:08:15):
do it.
Speaker 4 (01:08:16):
But but I think that.
Speaker 1 (01:08:18):
Ye, pressure everybody went.
Speaker 4 (01:08:20):
The pressure is gone.
Speaker 3 (01:08:21):
Yeah, everybody wins, and and not feeling that this is
like it has to be perfect or whatever. I mean,
we can be sloppy and and we don't care and
we don't even have to practice.
Speaker 4 (01:08:34):
We just do it because it's fun.
Speaker 1 (01:08:38):
Yeah yeah, right, And so in a way it actually
is like what it was at the beginning, where it's
like there was no expectations, you know exactly. Yeah, you
sort of prepared, but you were like, well, whatever, we
don't have to impress anybody. So here we go, here's
our girl busts.
Speaker 4 (01:08:57):
Cover exactly, and we do actually realistance cover.
Speaker 1 (01:09:03):
There you have it. Hopefully that gets you a little
bit closer to the Swedish hardcore scene and just it
was such an interesting thing for me to observe as
a person in Southern California, but then also to have
these discussions with people who were on the ground there,
whether it was Johannes from Colt to Luna. Dennis refused.
You can dive into those conversations in the archives, but
(01:09:25):
I just find it so fascinating that this really, really
small town in Sweden was like the epicenter of hardcore
for you know, a good couple of years.
Speaker 4 (01:09:34):
It is just so cool.
Speaker 1 (01:09:35):
So thank you very much Assie from End Hits Records
for bringing the idea to the table, and Jose for
being a great chat. Like I said, check out the
Abananda box set that is coming soon on end Hits Records.
Next week, I have another fun discussion. This one is
with Connor mccaliffe. I have never said his last name
(01:09:56):
out loud, so you know that's neither here nor there.
But he plays in Magnitude. He also plays in One
Step Closer and yeah, both are great bands. I love them.
I had to pursue him to come on the podcast,
and not like a stalker way, but you know, just
in a way that I was like, hey, you gotta
ask some friends, you know, in the in the scene,
(01:10:16):
so to speak. And I don't know Connor I want
to reach out to him, and then Yeah, hooked us
up on text and then there we go.
Speaker 4 (01:10:24):
We did it.
Speaker 1 (01:10:24):
So that is what we have next week and until then,
please be safe, everybody,
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