Interview with Tha Band
*Thank you very much for coming in because you've probably got a hectic schedule over the next couple of weeks, haven' you?
-Yeah, it's pretty hectic.

*The itinerary I saw said gigs, drinking, travelling, gigs, rock 'n' roll, travelling, gigs…
-That's our schedule.

*We'd better do a quick catch-up and introduction because you are originally from a very small town…
-It's a very small town: Fagersta, Sweden.

-Which was once described as 12,000 people and a hotdog stand. That's a very long queue! The other thing, that Hives fans will already know, you didn't form in the usual manner of people bumping into each other at gigs. How did you form?
How can I put this? There is a guy called Randy Fitzsimmons, and he thought that the five of us would make a good band. I don't really know why. Mostly 'cos the five of us had nothing to do, I guess. He just said that the five of us should form a band and it would probably work out really well. We were like 'I can try it with these five people as well as any five people'. We tried it and it worked out really well.

*Is it true that he sent out letters and then you all met up?
-Yeah.

*What did the letters say, 'I have seen you as a vagrant and potential rock n roll star, please come and meet likeminded vagrants'?
-Almost! It mostly said just a time and a place, something about starting a band. Some of us still have the letter.

*So, musically did you hit it off straight away?
-Pretty much, yes. We knew what we wanted to do, but we had better taste than skill so it took 5 years to get it right. I think though that we always want to have better.. have more of a vision than we have skills. That's what you want if you're in a rock band, really. We sort of bonded because we all liked 70s punk Swedish rock.

-The Swedes are not afraid to rock. There are certain countries that are afraid to rock. The French, now they are scared to rock. Even the Canadians who attempt to rock are still a bit frightened to let themselves go. Certainly from the records I've heard Swedes are not afraid to rock.
-I like the fact that we got everything from an isolated point of view. That we found the records that we did on our own, rather than just reading what was cool in the paper and sort of putting it together that way. We just tried to find what sounded good to us.

*You mean that it doesn't come with any baggage or hype?
-No, it doesn't come as a result of us trying to make music that anybody would like. It came from us making music that sounded good to us, 'cos we didn't think there was anywhere to go. We didn't really think that there was anywhere to go. We come from a small town and there were 20 potential rock fans and so you didn't ever think that your band was gonna go anywhere so you might as well do what you wanted. There was nothing to win and nothing to lose.

*You've got the tour starting in the UK and the record's gone gold, like the stealth record! Dave from Hartlepool wants to know if you have a wardrobe of suits or do you have one each? If you only have one each what happens when somebody throws beer over one of them?
-You wash it. But most of the time you are in a rock n roll club so everybody smells like s*** anyway! Maybe I can't say that on the radio? And the air is filled with smoke and sweat and beer so people can't really smell you. You just have to make sure you look good.

*Are you looking forward to this tour?
-Yep. I know I am, are you?

*Do you get any time off to check out other bands or to hang out with fans?
-Yeah, yeah we do. You just have to take the time to do it, don't you? Effectively you play, you work for one hour a day, pretty much, and then two or three hours of interview so yeah you have time to do whatever you want.

Pelle Again

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