music// The Hives
A story from Issue 6
The Punk Rock Aristocrats Are Back!
Pelle Almqvist, Niklas Almqvist, Christian Grahn, Vigilante Carlstroem and Dr. Matt Destruction are back! After laying low since their 2007 album, Black and White, their latest offering is Lex Hives. Since it's release in June, they have been touring the world nonstop. If you haven’t seen The Hives live, well all I can say is add it to you bucket list! You're really missing out on seeing one of the best shows, and no, I'm not exaggerating. Their snarky attitudes, stage antics and Pelle (the front man) proclaiming to be the "greatest band in the world" - it's rare to see that kind of energy and passion from any band. They are true showman.
I was first introduced to The Hives about 15 years ago in the form of a scratched to shit burnt CD. I'd found in a friends car. At the time I was listening to a lot of Dead Boys and Buzzcocks stuff, so The Hives were like a progressive version of that. Their simple and subtly complex sound and catchy 'Ramonesesque' lyrics are what made me love their music when I heard it.
We sat down with the band, on the last night of their US tour, and here is some of what she talked about.
How has the tour been going?
Pelle: The tours been going pretty great. I mean it's been since we put out the album. We played a lot, especially in California and Europe and we did a bunch of east coast dates. Its kinda like we owe the world so many concerts cause we have been away for a couple of years, so its like we are still making up for it.
How do you feel Lex Hives is different from your past work?
Pelle: I think it's indifferent because it's purer in a way. It's as much Hives as we could make it. That was the plan basically, and figuring out what the Hives do and what we want to do, and it’s pretty simple and straight forward in the best possible way. We figured out that most music we like is recorded just by people standing in a room playing the music and what you hear is what happened. Like early punk rock and early 50's rock' n' roll - they made awesome records with no money. so basically pretended we had no money and stood in the studio and played.
So you did it for yourselves?
Pelle: Exactly! We produced it our selves and pretty much everything.
Where did the name "The Hives" come from?
Pelle: Well at the time we where about 14 years old and we found it in a dictionary. It said it's a disease that you can get from eating lobster and strawberries, and we just thought it was neat. I think we thought it was probably lethal and it spread a lot easier, like it was a virus or something. That’s the way we thought of ourselves, like the poison gets into your system and then you can't get it out and then you're hooked for life. And then we realized that all cool band names are plural. It's like 'Hives', then we added the 'The' and made it a plural, which is always better for band names.
You have been playing a lot of different style shows this tour. You where just on Jimmy Kimmel, you've done small clubs, large venues and we heard about the Detroit show. Do you like the diversity? Does it help you to get out to more of you fans?
Pelle: Our philosophy is "it's fun when something happens', so in order to make something happen, you gotta do all kinds of shows. Like, we played 2 shows in one day at a theatre in Sweden. We played massive arenas during the summer in Europe, we played at a bar in the Desert just a couple days ago, and then we played a snowboarding competition. We will play anywhere that's new and fun basically. We feel like we are unstoppable and so far we have not been able to put ourselves in a situation where the show has stopped. The power went out 3 times at a place we played in Spain recently, and we kind of just keep going. When we played the snowboard competition, where your hand are frozen to the mic stand, but you just kind of keep going. So we are basically always trying to put ourselves in a position where we may be stopped, just to see if we can. So far nothing has been able to slow us down.
What has been the most memorable moment you've had this tour?
Niklas: We played a pioneer town - that was a really great show. The day after, we had a day off and some friends of ours treated us to a BBQ in Joshua Tree. We all hung out - it was pretty trippy.
Pelle: There was a lot of madness that probably shouldn't be talked about in an interview!
Niklas: We actually did start that 100-beer thing while over there. We had more than a hundred, I think.
Pelle: How many did you have?
Niklas: Well, it was more than a hundred, I think.
Pelle: There were more there than just the band.
Niklas: Exactly, that's why it was a problem, but we started with a hundred… ah nevermind! We had a fun time. Sometimes we try to put ourselves in places where people have never heard of us or most probably won't like us.
Like when you opened for Maroon 5?
Niklas: Thats so much fun to play - in front of an arena that have never heard your music before is perfect!
Pelle: You go on stage and they don't like you and you have to make them like you. Thats why we started this band and we don't ever want to loose that. So many bands go around only playing to their fans, and then theres less and less of them. And they're less excited cause they have seen you before, so you have to find new people, other wise you're dead.
Niklas: We are such sucker for attention - little bit like The Who, maybe. They are constantly trying to out do eachother.
I think a lot of your classic inspiration is obvious - The Stone's, AC/DC, The Stooges. What currently listening to?
Vigilante: I think it's different for everyone in the band. We like the same music, but we listen to different stuff - anything from new hip-hop to old rock n roll.
Pelle: And new rock that sounds like old rock, like Nick Curren or J.D. McPherson to like Jay Z. It really doesn't matter, if its good music, you can take little tid bits from it.
Chris: A friend of ours just put out an new album, his name is Money Brother. He Swedish, but he sings in English. It's a very good record. Another is Gunner - he has an EP out.
Niklas: Whenever we are asked this question, over the past 6 months i've noticed i have such a hard time coming up with an answer. i haven't really thought about it 'til now. Basically for like 2 straight years we were trying to make a record that sounded like The Hives as much as possible, so I was just listening to our demos and our recordings. We where really listening to a lot of our own stuff for a while, which sounds kinda weird to some, but its kinda like...
Pelle: But, we are mainly influenced by ourselves. That's our main influence.
What's in your IPod or CD player right now?
Vigilante: JD McPherson.
Chris: Money Brother's "This Is Where Love Is".
Pelle: Well, truthfully, I've been listening to Funhouse by The Stooges because i just got some super deluxe edition mega thick vinyl collector bullshit and it sounds awesome! So I've been listing to that a lot cause it’s been on my turntable.
Matt: I've been listening to a lot of Queens of the Stone Age and Eagles of Death Metal.
Niklas: Ive been listening to a lot of the bands we are touring with like Fidlar and the Fleshlights and stuff like that. I love the Fleshlights they have a song called "We Are Romans" - it's really top notch.
So tell me about the new look - does this go along with the thought process as The Hives?
Niklas: Yeah, it was kind of a no brainer to go into the tuxes, tails and top hats. We were always dressing up like some sort of punk rock aristocrats, and we do so more now than we ever did and it's a pretty sweet look.
Pelle: Like a cross between Dracula and Fred Astaire.
Niklas: It’s like wearing a swimsuit to a rodeo.
I've heard people refer to you as a Pop band. What is it, Pop or Rock?
Pelle: We are definitely a rock band. We're very far from a pop band - maybe they meant 'popular' cause that we are!
What kind of toys are you buying with your "rockstar" money?
Chris: I used to buy a lot of cars and motorbikes, but it's changed a little bit to bicycles, which I find very fun. Sort of build and ride …and Vigilante has a very fine hot rod.
Vigilante: Yes, it's black '32 roadster. I used to have lots of cars, but i really didn't have the time to enjoy them - too much traveling. Spending time with the family and stuff like that is more important. I really enjoy fly-fishing.
Niklas: I have tons of hobbies in the garage that I can't get to with the touring and playing - and I don't think your magazine features gardening and cross-country skiing and kayaking.
Pelle: Unless they're rad custom kayaks!
Niklas: Now you're stealing the idea for my magazine!
Pelle: There's a point where you get money as a rockstar and you spend it on cool shit like cool guitars, cool cars and shit like that. I think at one time Chris had 14 cars, but I think if you're on tour 220 days a year, you get to the point where it's like, "Whats the point?"
Chris: I once read an article about a car collector that had tons of cars - some of the best on the planet. He sold his collection because he just wanted to go to shows and see other peoples’ cars. He was just so sick of it.
Were you worried about how your album would be received, since its been so long since your last album?
Niklas: Our fan base is very steady. It's not steady in the since that it's just the same people coming to the shows - we constantly notice younger and younger fans, which is pretty cool. Those are the ones you want to play to, the over excited 17 year olds. That's the best crowd ever!
What's next for you guys?
Niklas: We will be touring Europe with The Bronx for 2 months, then off to Australia.
