Along with bikini teams, Volvos and meatballs Sweden has also sent over some damn good rock bands. Following in the path of this so called 80s music revival is the kickass Swedish rock band The Sounds.
The Sounds album, Living in America, is one of the first albums from the indie record label, 456 Entertainment, which is co-owned by Carson Daly. Their first single "Living in America" debuted at # 4 on the Swedish album charts and is causing a small bit of controversy due to its divisive lyrics.
Maja Ivarsson is the gorgeous blonde singer of the band. She is strong powerful woman with a beautiful accent. She may have given me short quick answers but each one of them was the truth.
Check out the website for The Sounds.
Daniel Robert Epstein: Have The Sounds released an album before this?
Maja Ivarsson: No this is our debut album.
DRE: Why so long to put out an album? Why not release one yourself?
MI: We prefer to play live because once we got our record deal in Sweden we actually set our mind on doing a hit album with good songwriting. We wanted to play as much as we can on tour beforehand because weve been touring since day one and being in the studio was never something we were too fond of.
DRE: How was the experience of finally being in the studio to make the album?
MI: It was difficult in a way. We still prefer to be on stage but its a good experience for us because we didnt know what to do in the studio. So we ended up just hanging out and playing the way we do onstage. It was more conducive to doing it. The people in the studio were fresh and didnt have a lot of experience themselves so it was fun.
DRE: When you play live you have a real command of the stage. Have you always been like that?
MI: I guess I was pretty much born that way. When Im onstage Im never nervous. The people get off when Im going all out. I just lose all sense of time and space when Im doing it. I cant really help myself and people seem to love it. Thats just the way it is.
DRE: Do you transform onstage? I heard you leap around and hump the microphone stand.
MI: [laughs] I used to play the guitar in our early days. You cant do stuff like that when playing the guitar. Once I stopped playing the guitar I developed my own stage persona.
DRE: How have people been responding to lyrics like We're not living in America and we're not sorry"?
MI: People actually get it and the people that dont get it I dont care too much about. But if you think about it Sweden has been called Little America since the 1950s. We look up to you guys like America is the country and it is. I love the USA but there are some things that Americans do that people here try to emulate and they look silly. We dont have ghettos like America or drive by shootings. But in the suburbs of Stockholm people act like Snoop Dog and they look so silly.
DRE: So youre happy to have the good things about America in Sweden.
MI: Absolutely. You guys invented show business. I would never have been in a rock band if not for America. Im proud of America, you should be to but Im also very proud of being Swedish. If you go to a store in Sweden you can find t-shirts and jackets with the American flag on it but you can never find anything with the Swedish flag on it. If you walk around with a Swedish flag on your clothing it means you are a Neo-Nazi. But I still say never be sorry if you are from Sweden.
DRE: I read you are going to be bowling with some of your fans soon. Are you a good bowler?
MI: Im not very good. Ive done it a couple of times. I like sports though. When I grew up I took karate, Tai boxing and kickboxing.
DRE: Are you ripped? Are your arms huge?
MI: Theyre not huge but I think I have some good muscles. In the early days I was my own roadie so Ive been carrying stuff for a lot of years.
DRE: Are you stronger than the other guys in the band?
MI: [laughs] Some of them, no Im kidding but they are not strong. Were all pretty skinny and small.
DRE: This is your first headlining tour in America. Any difference between American bands and your bands?
MI: I think were all human. If youre in the rock and roll business and youre on tour it doesnt matter who the other bands are because if you dont have chemistry with them then its not going to be fun anyway. If they suck then it will be an awful tour. It doesnt matter if they are American, Danish or Swedish.
DRE: In your bio on your website it said that The Sounds are all 100 percent attack.
MI: Absolutely the live show is all about attack. I think rock and roll is not too much for smart people. When youre writing you should not get too smart. Like The Ramones songs are so simple that its hilarious but thats what makes it genius as well.
DRE: How is working with 456 Entertainment?
MI: They are the greatest. Without them we probably would not be where we are. Im just trying to make them proud of me.
DRE: You guys were on Carson Dalys television show but has Carson been involved with the band at all?
MI: Absolutely. Hes one of our managers and hes awesome.
I dont really like doing TV performances because thats the only time I get nervous. Im never nervous at a live show but on TV I always think I am going to lose my voice.
DRE: Have you been on TV in Sweden?
MI: Yes but its not really the same thing. In Europe its always on playback but in America its live. We can be drunk on Swedish TV and still sound good.
DRE: Many people compare The Sounds to Blondie, Duran Duran and Kraftwerk. Thats late 70s and 80s. Was that the music you all listened to when you got together?
MI: Actually we listened to none of that. We didnt really have a plan. Everybody in the band has been in several bands before and when we hooked up I felt right away that these are the guys that I want to work with for the rest of my life. I want to grow old with these guys.
I was brought up with my older brothers, sisters and my hardworking single mom. They loved Bruce Springsteen, Rolling Stones and my brother was into synthesizers so I had a mix of everything. My keyboard player now is into Johnny Cash and Hank Williams so our band is a big mix ttoo. If people want to compare us to Blondie or Duran Duran I think its very flattering because its all good music.
In fact when we first got together we did a demo and we all thought it sounded shitty. So we went back and wrote some really good songs.
DRE: Have you ever met Blondie?
MI: Yeah when I was really young in 1998. there was a show in Copenhagen and I was the only girl waiting for her to come out afterwards. She signed my poster!
DRE: Did you hang out with your brothers and sisters a lot?
MI: Yeah but I was the middle child so my older brother used to kick my butt a lot.
DRE: So thats why you act out onstage.
MI: Maybe! I havent analyzed it that much.
DRE: Do you reject this idea of including you in this 80s revival?
MI: No I dont. People always have to compare new stuff with old stuff, so they know what they are talking about.
DRE: How was it touring with Kill Hannah?
MI: I love those guys. Im surrounded by gorgeous men all day so it cant be bad. They have the greatest personalities.
DRE: I would imagine youre psyched about touring with The Strokes though.
MI: Absolutely I love their music. I hope they are as nice as Kill Hannah.
DRE: Dave Grohl has been very supportive of your band.
MI: Yes and thats pretty unbelievable to me and my generation. I was brought up with Nirvana. Dave could be this asshole if he wanted to because hes so huge. But hes not. He treated me like his younger sister. I love him for that.
DRE: What do you guys do when youre not playing?
MI: Sleeping and drinking then were playing again. We dont have too much time off.
DRE: What do you drink?
MI: Pretty much everything that has alcohol in it. I love vodka and I like beer.
DRE: Do the guys treat you like one of the guys?
MI: Exactly like you said it. When people treat me ladylike I get offended. We did one TV thing in Sweden for charity and all the females were in one dressing room and the men were in another so I had no one to hang out with. Then I just walked into the male dressing room and hung out there.
DRE: Where did you grow up?
MI: I was born and raised in the same town where they make Absolut Vodka so I was baptized in vodka. Then in 1989 I moved to his small town called Helsingborg where we formed The Sounds. Its 20 minutes from Denmark.
DRE: What were you like as a young girl?
MI: I played the French horn when I was seven so I always played music but never sang. I was always into art and I got good grades in it. I like Roy Lichtenstein. I went to art school where I met [Sounds guitarist] Felix [Rodriguez].
DRE: When did you discover you could sing?
MI: I dont think I know that yet but if you tell me I believe you.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
The Sounds album, Living in America, is one of the first albums from the indie record label, 456 Entertainment, which is co-owned by Carson Daly. Their first single "Living in America" debuted at # 4 on the Swedish album charts and is causing a small bit of controversy due to its divisive lyrics.
Maja Ivarsson is the gorgeous blonde singer of the band. She is strong powerful woman with a beautiful accent. She may have given me short quick answers but each one of them was the truth.
Check out the website for The Sounds.
Daniel Robert Epstein: Have The Sounds released an album before this?
Maja Ivarsson: No this is our debut album.
DRE: Why so long to put out an album? Why not release one yourself?
MI: We prefer to play live because once we got our record deal in Sweden we actually set our mind on doing a hit album with good songwriting. We wanted to play as much as we can on tour beforehand because weve been touring since day one and being in the studio was never something we were too fond of.
DRE: How was the experience of finally being in the studio to make the album?
MI: It was difficult in a way. We still prefer to be on stage but its a good experience for us because we didnt know what to do in the studio. So we ended up just hanging out and playing the way we do onstage. It was more conducive to doing it. The people in the studio were fresh and didnt have a lot of experience themselves so it was fun.
DRE: When you play live you have a real command of the stage. Have you always been like that?
MI: I guess I was pretty much born that way. When Im onstage Im never nervous. The people get off when Im going all out. I just lose all sense of time and space when Im doing it. I cant really help myself and people seem to love it. Thats just the way it is.
DRE: Do you transform onstage? I heard you leap around and hump the microphone stand.
MI: [laughs] I used to play the guitar in our early days. You cant do stuff like that when playing the guitar. Once I stopped playing the guitar I developed my own stage persona.
DRE: How have people been responding to lyrics like We're not living in America and we're not sorry"?
MI: People actually get it and the people that dont get it I dont care too much about. But if you think about it Sweden has been called Little America since the 1950s. We look up to you guys like America is the country and it is. I love the USA but there are some things that Americans do that people here try to emulate and they look silly. We dont have ghettos like America or drive by shootings. But in the suburbs of Stockholm people act like Snoop Dog and they look so silly.
DRE: So youre happy to have the good things about America in Sweden.
MI: Absolutely. You guys invented show business. I would never have been in a rock band if not for America. Im proud of America, you should be to but Im also very proud of being Swedish. If you go to a store in Sweden you can find t-shirts and jackets with the American flag on it but you can never find anything with the Swedish flag on it. If you walk around with a Swedish flag on your clothing it means you are a Neo-Nazi. But I still say never be sorry if you are from Sweden.
DRE: I read you are going to be bowling with some of your fans soon. Are you a good bowler?
MI: Im not very good. Ive done it a couple of times. I like sports though. When I grew up I took karate, Tai boxing and kickboxing.
DRE: Are you ripped? Are your arms huge?
MI: Theyre not huge but I think I have some good muscles. In the early days I was my own roadie so Ive been carrying stuff for a lot of years.
DRE: Are you stronger than the other guys in the band?
MI: [laughs] Some of them, no Im kidding but they are not strong. Were all pretty skinny and small.
DRE: This is your first headlining tour in America. Any difference between American bands and your bands?
MI: I think were all human. If youre in the rock and roll business and youre on tour it doesnt matter who the other bands are because if you dont have chemistry with them then its not going to be fun anyway. If they suck then it will be an awful tour. It doesnt matter if they are American, Danish or Swedish.
DRE: In your bio on your website it said that The Sounds are all 100 percent attack.
MI: Absolutely the live show is all about attack. I think rock and roll is not too much for smart people. When youre writing you should not get too smart. Like The Ramones songs are so simple that its hilarious but thats what makes it genius as well.
DRE: How is working with 456 Entertainment?
MI: They are the greatest. Without them we probably would not be where we are. Im just trying to make them proud of me.
DRE: You guys were on Carson Dalys television show but has Carson been involved with the band at all?
MI: Absolutely. Hes one of our managers and hes awesome.
I dont really like doing TV performances because thats the only time I get nervous. Im never nervous at a live show but on TV I always think I am going to lose my voice.
DRE: Have you been on TV in Sweden?
MI: Yes but its not really the same thing. In Europe its always on playback but in America its live. We can be drunk on Swedish TV and still sound good.
DRE: Many people compare The Sounds to Blondie, Duran Duran and Kraftwerk. Thats late 70s and 80s. Was that the music you all listened to when you got together?
MI: Actually we listened to none of that. We didnt really have a plan. Everybody in the band has been in several bands before and when we hooked up I felt right away that these are the guys that I want to work with for the rest of my life. I want to grow old with these guys.
I was brought up with my older brothers, sisters and my hardworking single mom. They loved Bruce Springsteen, Rolling Stones and my brother was into synthesizers so I had a mix of everything. My keyboard player now is into Johnny Cash and Hank Williams so our band is a big mix ttoo. If people want to compare us to Blondie or Duran Duran I think its very flattering because its all good music.
In fact when we first got together we did a demo and we all thought it sounded shitty. So we went back and wrote some really good songs.
DRE: Have you ever met Blondie?
MI: Yeah when I was really young in 1998. there was a show in Copenhagen and I was the only girl waiting for her to come out afterwards. She signed my poster!
DRE: Did you hang out with your brothers and sisters a lot?
MI: Yeah but I was the middle child so my older brother used to kick my butt a lot.
DRE: So thats why you act out onstage.
MI: Maybe! I havent analyzed it that much.
DRE: Do you reject this idea of including you in this 80s revival?
MI: No I dont. People always have to compare new stuff with old stuff, so they know what they are talking about.
DRE: How was it touring with Kill Hannah?
MI: I love those guys. Im surrounded by gorgeous men all day so it cant be bad. They have the greatest personalities.
DRE: I would imagine youre psyched about touring with The Strokes though.
MI: Absolutely I love their music. I hope they are as nice as Kill Hannah.
DRE: Dave Grohl has been very supportive of your band.
MI: Yes and thats pretty unbelievable to me and my generation. I was brought up with Nirvana. Dave could be this asshole if he wanted to because hes so huge. But hes not. He treated me like his younger sister. I love him for that.
DRE: What do you guys do when youre not playing?
MI: Sleeping and drinking then were playing again. We dont have too much time off.
DRE: What do you drink?
MI: Pretty much everything that has alcohol in it. I love vodka and I like beer.
DRE: Do the guys treat you like one of the guys?
MI: Exactly like you said it. When people treat me ladylike I get offended. We did one TV thing in Sweden for charity and all the females were in one dressing room and the men were in another so I had no one to hang out with. Then I just walked into the male dressing room and hung out there.
DRE: Where did you grow up?
MI: I was born and raised in the same town where they make Absolut Vodka so I was baptized in vodka. Then in 1989 I moved to his small town called Helsingborg where we formed The Sounds. Its 20 minutes from Denmark.
DRE: What were you like as a young girl?
MI: I played the French horn when I was seven so I always played music but never sang. I was always into art and I got good grades in it. I like Roy Lichtenstein. I went to art school where I met [Sounds guitarist] Felix [Rodriguez].
DRE: When did you discover you could sing?
MI: I dont think I know that yet but if you tell me I believe you.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
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And about us being the coldest people on earth... I don't know why we come off that way, 'cause we really aren't. There's lovers and there's haters...