The Hives
The Hives are, quite possibly, one of Swedens loudest exports -- an emergency broadcast of rock proportions that first ricocheted across the Scandinavian countryside in the early 90s, waking those asleep at their radio dials and commanding attention, every polished-loafer shimmy-shuffle of the way. Hailing from the small town of Fagersta, the band dove into the mainstream with the album Veni Vidi Vicious, just in time for the so-called garage rock revival of the early 2000s. Soon the retro-rockers were hailed by Spin Magazine as the Best Live Band in the World and singer Pelle Almqvist was dubbed one of the "50 Greatest Frontmen of all Time."
SuicideGirls caught up with Almqvist to chat about the Hives newest disc, The Black and White Album, released November 13 in the US on Interscope Records and considered the bands most experimental album to date.
Erin Broadley: So you guys are on tour with Maroon 5 but youre also headlining separate club shows. Why did you guys decide to squeeze in a double tour?
Pelle Almqvist: Because we didnt want to just come over and do support shows. We havent toured in America in a long time so we wanted the people that like us to be able to see a show. Maroon 5 doesnt play every day [on their tour] -- they play like every other or every third day.
EB:
Right, they need their rest [laughs].
PA:
Yeah, well, we dont [laughs].
EB:
So youre out supporting your new album, The Black and White Album. How have your live shows been going? How has the crowd reaction been?
PA:
The crowd reaction is really great. Ever since we started touring this past summer it seems like people know the words before [the songs are] even out. It might have something to do with YouTube clips of us playing the songs. Weve never had a better reception of our songs since this record.
EB:
For this album you guys collaborated with Timbaland and Pharrell. What were some of the advantages and disadvantages to bringing in outsiders as producers?
PA:
It was just something we did because we felt like the process of making a record is the same every time. Its not as fun; it doesnt feel as fun and challenging. We just wanted it to be a different process. We toured the last record and then we started making the new one and we just ended up in the same rehearsal space, like standing in the same spot at night tuning your guitar. It just felt like we needed to do something else. Pharrell wanted to work with us for a long time and we were intrigued as to what it would sound like and how we would do it. We had already written some stuff that was more dance-y or something.
EB:
Well, people consider Pharrell the Phil Specter of today, except hopefully he doesnt pull guns on people in the middle of the recording session.
PA:
No, no, no
maybe a gold-colored Blackberry.
EB:
[Laughs]
PA:
It was really a totally different way for us working because it was so fast. The way he makes records, its really fast. We did, like, seven songs in two weeks. Then we just took the ones that we [liked] and as soon as you get bored or something you just start working on something else. Whereas [before] we would have a good riff and we would bang our heads together for a year until we make a song out of it. It was good for us to work in a different way and do it fast and sort it out later. Just do it and [then] decide whether it was good or not later. We criticize things before we have finished, most of the time.
EB:
Well, I think most artists would agree with you there.
PA:
Yeah. It was good to at least try not to do it.
EB:
You once described your album Veni Vidi Vicious as, a velvet glove with brass knuckles, both brutal and sophisticated at the same time. I thought was a rad description. What imagery would you associate with this album?
PA:
I dont know. Its kind of like... what youre trying to do is to make music that makes you feel a certain way. Thats the feeling weve been aiming for and some of it is a physical response, you know, whatever signals from the song to the brain. We have to do it in different ways in order for it to still feel exciting, you know. It would be way too hard to make it feel exciting if we kept doing the same songs.
EB:
Right. You want to keep it really dynamic and fresh.
PA:
Yeah, if the song doesnt make us excited then I dont know how it would make anybody else excited. Youre [not] going to present something to people that you dont even like yourself.
EB:
You guys wholeheartedly get excited about everything you put out there. I think thats really important.
PA:
Yeah, exactly, because youve got to tour it for a year and a half too and it would be depressing if you didnt like it.
EB:
[Laughs] I know. Well, maybe a lot of musicians are masochists.
PA:
A lot of people really are depressed.
EB:
Spin Magazine called the Hives the Best Live Band in the World and also included you in its 50 Greatest Frontmen of all Time. Thats quite an accomplishment and an honor, I would assume. How did you feel when you heard that?
PA:
Yeah, yeah, thats great. I think theres less competition these days than like the 70s and 80s, or the 60s and all that. I think the 90s destroyed a lot of that [showmanship]. There were not a whole lot of good ones in the 90s. People didnt think you needed entertainment, you know.
EB:
Well, perhaps the frontmen changed when the drugs changed. In the 80s everybody was doing cocaine and they were jumping off amps and running around stage.
PA:
Yeah, yeah.
EB:
In the 90s everybody was shooting up heroin and theyre all nodding off in the corner.
PA:
Exactly, [laughs] its the wrong drugs.
EB:
[Laughs] Speaking of your dynamic stage presence and so forth, whats the worst injury youve ever sustained from a live show?
PA:
For injury, mainly it would be like cuts and scrapes and bruises and stuff. Those things just kind of go away. The bad stuff is like the kind that sneaks up on you, like when you wear out a knee or something.
EB:
Like whiplash or tearing a ligament. By the end of the tour youre hobbling like an old man.
PA:
Yeah, its like your body is slowly getting worse. I never broke [a bone] or anything like that but its just getting older, getting a lot of inflammation and stuff like that. I dont know -- it somehow balances out. The more you do it, the more your body adapts. Its almost like exercise; it makes you stronger and weaker at the same time. Its hard to gain weight, though.
EB:
Yeah, well youve got to burn off all the liquor somehow.
PA:
Exactly.
EB:
Youve talked before about how punk rock was your first love and about how the Misfits made the best hidden pop music in the world and that the band has melodies on par with ABBA or Motown or the Beatles. Can you elaborate some on that?
PA:
Yeah, it kind of has to do with [Danzigs] voice too. The way he sings, its like then you can actually tell that the song is really good. You can actually hear the melody where a lot of punk would be more of hectic The thing with the Misfits is its kind of the best songs and the worst playing of any kind of recorded music. You can tell they dont have the energy to go full speed through all the songs but thats part of what makes it exciting. But the songs themselves, theyre really beautiful melodies. But since they looked the way they did and singing about zombies and sex and cut off heads
EB:
And killing babies.
PA:
And killing babies and raping mothers and stuff. That didnt really break through to the mainstream, but I think some of those melodies are really beautiful, great melodies. I mean, I think its fantastic. Like, the other day it was Halloween and we were in Seattle and we saw a Misfits colored van and every time I hear those songs I realize its some of the best music Ive ever heard. Its subversive.
EB:
I read that back in 1998 Courtney Love said that your band was better than her husbands band, Nirvana. Is [that statement] still a source of controversy?
PA:
Well, it came up. I dont know when she said that, but I think it was something she said to put the other band members in [Nirvana] out. Because the whole quote was something about how we were better than them because in our band there were five clever boys.
EB:
Oh! [Laughs]
PA:
I think that was the whole thing there. She really, really likes us and she asked us to play guitar on her record but we were on tour and we couldnt do it. But, you know, its flattering coming from anybody, you know.
EB:
As a frontman, do you think that the art of performance is something overlooked by a lot of rock bands today?
PA:
Yeah, I think so. A lot of people who think theyve made a good record
they think a good record [equals] a good live show. Because a lot of them make their first record and they get popular and then they start touring. Whereas, for us, the records came out of playing shows -- we basically just played shows for four years before we put our record out. We were not old enough to put out a record at that time. We liked that part of it so much, going to shows and being excited by what you see at the show, as opposed to like, Yeah, its kind of like the records except its louder. I dont understand why [a musician] wouldnt want to do anything extra [on stage] unless it had to do with having really bad coordination.
EB:
[Laughs] You mentioned being young when the Hives started. Werent you guys were like 14-years-old or something like that?
PA:
Yeah.
EB:
Basically by the time we heard of you guys over here in the States, you had already been credited with opening the doors to a lot of other Swedish bands like Sahara Hotnights and the International Noise Conspiracy. What were some of the bands you remember that opened doors for you?
PA:
Yeah. Theres a band called Refused we toured with and it was right when they were quitting. We toured with them and that helped us and going to Europe. That was our first European tour that we went on with them. I thought it was great, and then we started going to Europe more as opposed to just staying in Sweden. They were a really great live band and I think that pushed us. If you tour with bands that are also really good, it makes you
EB:
It raises the bar.
PA:
Yeah.
EB:
It ups the ante and makes everybody on the tour better.
PA:
Yeah, exactly. Weve had that with a couple bands that we really liked
where you have to fight every day to be the best.
The Hives are on tour now. For more information go to www.myspace.com/thehives and www.hives.nu
The Hives are on tour now. For more information go to www.myspace.com/thehives and www.hives.nu
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