So, I've made no bones about my love for Swedish pop impresarios, The Horror The Horror, and, on a lark I emailed the band on their MySpace requesting an interview. Within a few days, lead singer Joel Lindstrom and I were chatting it up like tight bros from back in the day. Suffice it to say, Joel is a nice guy, who has no problem offering up a little fan service! Enjoy, kids.
So how did The Horror The Horror get started? Did you guys know each other before becoming a band?
THTH got started out of the boredom and frustration that came of that my old band and at the same time Mattias' old bands kind of vanished, or lost the momentum, or whatever and we still wanted to do stuff and play music and write songs, but mostly just to hang out and we had no real output at that point. So basically me and Mattias started hanging out more and more and then we started to stuff musically together and then we got in touch with some old friends, people that we liked to hang out with and also people that we had played with earlier and also liked musically. Johan and Jacob and I know each other from school and Patrik and I and Mattias and I also got to know each other from some years before we started the band.
THTH got started out of the boredom and frustration that came of that my old band and at the same time Mattias' old bands kind of vanished, or lost the momentum, or whatever and we still wanted to do stuff and play music and write songs, but mostly just to hang out and we had no real output at that point. So basically me and Mattias started hanging out more and more and then we started to stuff musically together and then we got in touch with some old friends, people that we liked to hang out with and also people that we had played with earlier and also liked musically. Johan and Jacob and I know each other from school and Patrik and I and Mattias and I also got to know each other from some years before we started the band.
So what music did you listen to growing up? Have the bands and music you liked when you were younger changed a lot, or do you still listen to the things you did as a teen? Who would you consider to be your influences?
As a kid I listened to everything my older sister put in front of me, initially mostly Italo disco and all the standard 80s hits. The first bands that I got really into was the Cure, The Smiths and Depeche Mode and then I got really hooked with the Manchester scene, Stone Roses Charlatans and Happy Mondays and all of that. But at the same time I was exploring all the 60s and 70s stuff that I found in my father’s LP collection. Basically I was all over the place through my teens. I even loved the acid jazz stuff for a while, Galliano, Corduroy that shit. All of this music I still have love for but it's hard to say what's the biggest influence. No doubt, the 90s scene both more electronic stuff and the indie scene had a major impact as it was at that point I started to play in bands. But when we started this band I was basically only listening to the NYC scene, Velvet, Lou Reed's Transformer, Television, Talking Heads, Richard Hell and Jonathan Richman and some punk stuff Sex Pistols and The Saints etc. And at that point came all the new bands from New York: Strokes, Interpol, LCD Soundsystem, Radio 4, !!! that I loved and that surely influenced us too. Lately I've been going back to all the good stuff from the 80s like Talk Talk, Prefab Sprout, Terence Trent D'arby and what not. But also Giorgio Mordoder, Lisa Stansfield and S'Express.
As a kid I listened to everything my older sister put in front of me, initially mostly Italo disco and all the standard 80s hits. The first bands that I got really into was the Cure, The Smiths and Depeche Mode and then I got really hooked with the Manchester scene, Stone Roses Charlatans and Happy Mondays and all of that. But at the same time I was exploring all the 60s and 70s stuff that I found in my father’s LP collection. Basically I was all over the place through my teens. I even loved the acid jazz stuff for a while, Galliano, Corduroy that shit. All of this music I still have love for but it's hard to say what's the biggest influence. No doubt, the 90s scene both more electronic stuff and the indie scene had a major impact as it was at that point I started to play in bands. But when we started this band I was basically only listening to the NYC scene, Velvet, Lou Reed's Transformer, Television, Talking Heads, Richard Hell and Jonathan Richman and some punk stuff Sex Pistols and The Saints etc. And at that point came all the new bands from New York: Strokes, Interpol, LCD Soundsystem, Radio 4, !!! that I loved and that surely influenced us too. Lately I've been going back to all the good stuff from the 80s like Talk Talk, Prefab Sprout, Terence Trent D'arby and what not. But also Giorgio Mordoder, Lisa Stansfield and S'Express.
We’ve gotten this question a lot over the years and I have two favourite suggested explanations:
1. School system. Back in the 80s and 90s there used to be really good and free government funded music classes that almost everyone took.
2. Boredom: Sweden is cold and dark and in most parts of the country nothing much happens at any point. Ways out of the boredom that this creates are to watch TV a lot, commit suicide or to lock yourself in a room with some friends and rehearse and hope that something fun will come out of it.
The two explanations also might be joined together.
Do you think there is any more to it than those two reasons? Something genetic maybe? Which lesser known Swedish bands should people know about?
Yeah, there are a bunch of popular explanations but I really don't think there is any one real reason. Swedes are pretty tall and I've read somewhere that tall people have bigger success career-wise than short people. Also people say Swedes are good looking and that is, as everyone knows, the most important key to success in the music industry. Another explanation is the strong melodic tradition in Sweden, from the traditional music, through ABBA and so on, but I don't know... I think people should listen to Paper, an awesome kraut/punk-band from Stockholm. They have released two albums so far and those are both brilliant. Another cool band is I Are Droid. They released one album like two or three years ago and they are working on their second one right now. Also I have to promote our own different side projects: My new band is called The Italian String Machine. Johan has his own project called SirVice. Jakob plays the drums in a band called the Majors and Patrik has two bands, The Battle of Santiago and The Worthy. All brilliant stuff of course! Best new track: Wallenberg - legendary feat. Leila K (of which I just did a remix as Italian String Machine)
So maybe Sweden is perhaps genetically engineering a master race, who will dominate the world through good-lookingness and pop tunes? Sounds kind of awesome, scary and awesome. On a completely other note; is song writing for the band collaborative, or is there a primary songwriter?
That analysis came from your mind not mine ;-)
The THTH song writing is always a collaboration. Usually me or Mattias comes up with a rough draft of a song, a guitar phrase or two and then we try out different stuff, arrangement wise, and the rhythm stuff etcetera and everyone tries their own stuff until we are all (kind of) satisfied and I try to come up with the melody and the words almost always last.
The THTH song writing is always a collaboration. Usually me or Mattias comes up with a rough draft of a song, a guitar phrase or two and then we try out different stuff, arrangement wise, and the rhythm stuff etcetera and everyone tries their own stuff until we are all (kind of) satisfied and I try to come up with the melody and the words almost always last.
I mostly stick to singing, but on the latest album I actually play most of the keyboards.
So the big question: when are you guys going to tour the States?
As soon as we get the invitation, we'll be over there for sure!
Well, consider THTH formally invited! I can't actually pay for you guys to get here, but if you play in Oregon, I can offer my basement for everyone to sleep in as well as a nice continental breakfast! Thanks for your time. Any words for your fans?
Alright, we love the continental breakfast! So we just might pick up on that, you never know. Thank you! Yes. To our fans: If you exist, thank you! And be patient, we will try our best to come to you and meanwhile dig into the records/mp3s or whatever. And, this summer we are recording a brand new single, (not from the album) that will be released as download/Vinyl 7" in September or so, if everything goes according to plan that is. It is going to be fantastic, unique and surprisingly fresh sounding. Or, more so than anything we have done before!
All the best!!!
Joel/THTH
All the best!!!
Joel/THTH
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