MUSIC INTERVIEW: THE SOUNDS

Swedish Post-Punks Discuss Their Point Of No Return

By: Kelly Wiles

June 2, 2009

(Original Signal) Three albums ago, Maja Ivarsson, lead singer of Swedish band The Sounds, informed listeners “we’re not living in America, but we’re not sorry.” Nor should The Sounds be. Sometimes Europeans do it better than we do. Not just in their clothing abilities, but their rock band-ing abilities.* The rock band is an American invention, but sometimes the Euros do it better than we do. Our bands, through no fault of their own, are sometimes too close to the subject to see the whole picture — too aware of their country’s relationship with rock music to create it freely. Bands in America sometimes lose sight of their objectives and obligations while attempting to live up to this country’s tradition of rebellion and its capitalist expectations. For Europeans, the burden of tradition is not quite as heavy and the expectations aren’t quite as high, which allows a lot of bands a clearer grasp on what elements are truly important in a rock band.

The Sounds — from Helsingborg, Sweden — are one of these bands. Okay, so they technically fall under the category of New Wave, but as anyone who has ever seen them play live will tell you, these people nail the whole rock band thing. They totally get it. They get that their job is to exert a hundred and fifty percent energy on stage but make it seem effortless, to swagger and sweat under the stage lights but make it look cool… They get that they must be impossibly attractive and impeccably dressed. They get that stage banter must strike the right balance between self-aggrandizing and humble, and that in order to cultivate a loyal fan base, you have to tour your ass off.

Die-hard fans have always known that The Sounds have the potential to be huge. However, since their inception in 1999, the band has always flown slightly under most American music fans’ radars. Sure, Dave Grohl wore a Sounds T-shirt in one of his music videos; Maja was featured in the theme song for Snakes On A Plane; Bam Margera asked them to play at his wedding; and a small army of devoted non-famous fans have assembled. The Sounds still haven’t done things like gotten major radio airplay or bagged a Rolling Stone (or even a Spin) cover. This summer, it looks like all of that might be about to change.

The Sounds are trading in the cozy small-theater crowds for packed amphitheaters and taking their new album, Crossing The Rubicon, on tour, playing as openers for one of America’s biggest bands, No Doubt. The Sounds agreed to step down from their usual headliner status in order to gain access to a larger audience and introduce themselves to potential new fans. Apparently, this strategy is working. After just one show, the band’s MySpace wall was flooded with new comments, such as: “Heard of you for the first time at the No Doubt show last night. I found yuh!” or “You guys were absolutely AMAZING! In Arizona, I wont get over that day — you guys just literally made me fall in LOVE with your music. I cannot wait to buy your album. I mean, the songs I’ve heard are brilliant.”

You want to know what’s even more brilliant? That The Sounds are crossing the rubicon into big-time American success on their own. For the new album, they cut the apron strings with New Line records and formed a new label that they have complete creative control over. Buzzine‘s Kelly Wiles sat down to talk with drummer Fredrik Nilsson and bassist Johan about the new label, the new album, and the new direction the band is taking in America.

Kelly Wiles: When did your tour for Crossing The Rubicon officially start? How long have you been on the road?

Fredrik Nilsson: About three weeks, maybe?

Johan Bengtsson: We started in Europe in March.

KW: Your first tour lasted for two years, and then you took what I’m assuming was a much-needed break. How does it feel to be back on the road again?

FN: It’s been great. We love touring. After two years of something, you need a break — to do something else for a while — and then it’s fun again. 

KW: After two years playing hundreds and hundreds of shows, how do you manage to keep the energy levels up? How do you manage to deliver such a high-energy show night after night?

FN: I guess you try to have an exchange with the audience, energy-wise. You can really feed off a good audience. If they’re really into it, it’s so much easier to give that extra little [push] of energy. Sometimes you’re kind of in a haze all day, you’ve had a bad day, and it’s like you flip a switch or something. It’s the audience. [Leans into the tape recorder] So we’d like to take this opportunity to thank all our audiences around the world. [Laughs]

KW: The first time I heard you guys was years ago in this German movie called Big Girls Don’t Cry. Your song, “Teenage Battlefield,” was used in the opening credits. Besides that and Maja participating in the Snakes on a Plane thing, has your music been featured in other films?

JB: Music and Lyrics.

FN: And Final Destination 2 and 3. [Laughs]

KW: How has your songwriting process evolved since you formed The Sounds a decade ago?

JB: We were naïve and inexperienced in the beginning, obviously, and it was just…you live and you learn.

FN: I think we have much more control of…when we get an idea of how to get there. Like, ten years ago, maybe we had a really good idea in our heads, but we didn’t know how to use our songwriting skills to get there.

KW: Now, as a Sounds fan, I have to ask — are you guys planning on putting out any albums with B-sides? Because you’ve got some great songs, like “Teenage Battlefield” or your “Goodbye Seventies” cover, that aren’t on your main albums…

FN: That’s not something we’re thinking about right now, but hopefully later on — I’m sure something like that is going to come up.

KW: It’s always a given that American — or English or Australian bands — sing in English because it’s their native language. As a Swedish band, did you ever consider writing in Swedish, or was it always English from the get-go?

JB: Always English.

FN: Yeah, most [Swedish] bands do that.

JB: The universal language of music is English, and growing up listening to music, you want to be like your idols.

KW: One of the things your fans love so much about you guys is that you seem to have genuine creative control of your career as a band. In keeping with this, you guys formed your own record label, Arnioki Records. Can you tell me about what lead to that? How was the transition from New Line to that?

JB: We were really frustrated with our label situation. We felt like we had a really strong following on MySpace, the whole Internet thing, but when we’d go to play shows, the label wouldn’t put [the press] out, stuff like that. We struggled constantly within the system to get acknowledged as the act we thought we deserved to be, so we decided to kind of start over. It was a big struggle, getting out of that contract, but we made it happen and we founded [our own] label. We did all of the recording and everything surrounding the recording of Crossing The Rubicon ourselves, like finding studios, finding producers we wanted to work with — all that.

KW: Was it more stressful to have that responsibility, or was it more freeing to be in charge of things?

JB: It was…very stressful. [Laughs]

FN: I think it gives you a chance to be very creative. Also, you feel like you have to do it — otherwise it’s not going to get done because no one else is gonna do it.

KW: How did you guys decide on Crossing The Rubicon for the name of your album?

FN: The title is from this whole situation. It’s sort of a fancy way of saying you’ve passed the point of no return…which we did — it was either forming our own label and doing everything ourselves, or signing to a major label and…sign away the rest of our careers. Those were the choices we had, and we felt like once we made that choice, there was no going back.

KW: On “Beatbox,” Maja is actually rapping, which you guys haven’t done before. How did that come about? Did you guys set out writing that thinking, “We’re going to write a song with rap in it”?

FN: No, we didn’t set out thinking that. I think it’s not a rap song; it’s just a song that plays with a lot of genres.

KW: You’re opening for No Doubt. You guys usually headline your own shows. What has it been like playing as openers again? Has it been frustrating or strange in any way? What made you decide to take the gig as an opening band?

FN: We’re doing this tour because we want to gain lots of new fans for this new album. I don’t think it’s that much different; the only thing that, to me, really sucks is that we only get to play a really short set. Other than that, it’s great. We really like No Doubt, and we’re playing a headlining tour this fall.

*”Rock band” is not meant to be used here in its current genre definition, but in its 1950s definition — as in the “rock band,” as in: any band that performs live shows as a unit on a stage.