From old money to new drones
- Before we even start talking about your current band, Bring the Drones, we must sort out this thing about Gamla Pengar. You recently quit the band, so what was the reason for doing that? - Well, I played bass in Gamla Pengar, but I’m really a guitarist, so basically it was just about not getting enough musical highs when not playing my own instrument.
However, I am very happy with the last single we put out with Gamla Pengar, ”Vackra land som ingenting gav”. Instead of rehearsing home-made demos, we just did the songs together from concept to recording in two weeks. Everyone in the band contributed to the songs in their own way, and that made it all feel interesting.
There’s always a need to express yourself creatively, and if you feel you can’t do that it’s not fun anymore. Then you have to go ahead and do something else instead of wasting your own and other peoples’ time. These days I do what I want – I sing and play guitar in Bring the Drones.
- Gamla Pengar were in the midst of recording new material when you decided to leave. What will happen to the material and what will happen to the band? - Yeah, we started recording an album in my studio but that’s not for me to worry about anymore. Gamla Pengar will still be around without me. They’ll probably find another studio and record their album. If not, Mikey has got a portable studio.
- Bring the Drones was already a project during your time in Gamla Pengar, but I guess that it will be your main band now? Or do you have more projects that people aren’t aware of? - Bring the Drones started for the sole reason that I mentioned before, and since we have the situation we have right now I will focus all my time on Bring the Drones. Incidentally, I also have some new soundtrack music that I’m going to start working on during the year. It’s for a Swedish feature film for which I have some pretty interesting ideas when it comes to how to make music for it. Other than that, there are also some bands coming over to record in my studio, so I pretty much have my hands full.
- How do you know Charlie, and how come you decided to start a band together? - We met at a gig in Alingsås for little more than a year ago. We talked about music and recording studios and at the end of the evening we just happened to exchange numbers, even though he dissed me because my studio is located in Herrljunga, hehe.
A couple of weeks later, I called him up and suggested we should record some songs together and the rest is history. His only requirement for Bring the Drones was that it should not sound anything like melodic punk, or “trallpunk” as we say in Sweden. We met up on a Saturday and wrote, rehearsed and recorded six songs in 3-4 hours.
- What has Anti Cimex music meant for you in your life? - Anti Cimex is one of the best punk bands. Period. I believe they paved the way for a whole new generation of punk bands. The first time I heard Anti Cimex, was when I was 12 years and in Gothenburg to buy a guitar amp. It’s difficult to describe the feeling from the time when you heard “Victims of a bomb raid” for the first time, but I remember I was fascinated by how the guitar solo sounded like a plane or bomb alarm.
- Had Charlie heard any of your music before you started playing together? - I guess Charlie had heard something since we met at one of my shows.
- Who does what in Bring the Drones? - I play guitar, bass, and sing on our upcoming EP:s, and Charlie plays the drums. On our very last recording, from March this year, has an old childhood friend called Danne on the bass.
- What happened to Oskar Ekman, who was supposed to play bass in the band? - I don’t really know what happened to Oskar. He was in the studio last summer and played bass for bit, but all the songs were re-recorded so his stuff didn’t make it onto any of them. I think he’s too busy booking shows and doing Dj work in Stockholm, but if he ever feels like coming to record with us again, he’s more than welcome.
- Will you recruit any more members, or just continue as a duo? - We’re keeping that door open, it’s better that way. In other words, you never know what will happen.
- What’s positive compared to negative when it comes to being only two persons in a band? - The advantage of being so few is that the creative freedom is larger, since there are fewer wills involved in the creative process. That also means that the risk for one person acting like a dictator decreases. The downside may be that you have to hire some people when the time comes to play live.
- Bring the Drones are a relatively new band, but yet you already have both a split and another EP coming out soon. Both mastered by fairly reputable people in Texas. How can this be? - Well, as you said, we have two pending releases coming out at the same time via the American label Cricket Cemetery. A split 5” with LTW, containing two songs in Swedish, and our own 7” EP named “Ayahuasca Agent” where all the songs are in English.
I learned, when I sent a recording to Bob Weston at Chicago Mastering Service, that the mastering is very important. Especially since everything I record is basically only released on vinyl. When I and Charlie were getting ready with the “Ayahuasca Agent” EP, we looked around for some good places that could handle the mastering. I can’t remember, but I think someone told us about Enormous Door, so I contacted Jack Control who works there and he was totally psyched to do the mastering because he really dug Anti Cimex. Needles to say, the mastering turned out awesome.
- Since you, apart from those upcoming releases, already have a lot of new material in the works, what exactly is the plan with Bring the Drones? Will there be any gigs, or will you just throw a lot of recordings our way? - We actually recorded a couple of new songs this week, which will end up on a new 7” EP. This time we actually made the first Bring the Drones song that was longer than 2 minutes.
The plan for Bring the Drones is the same one as any other band would have – world domination. Regarding gigs we have some inquiries in Denmark and Norway, but nothing is certain at this point. We’re taking it all one step at the time.
- What’s the idea behind the band name? - If I’m not mistaken, the drone attacks in Afghanistan and Iraq have not been that successful statistically speaking. I think it’s a dead race between bombing weddings, village festivals and other civilians versus hitting the actual targets.
The idea that wars in the future will be fought in front of a screen with a joystick is pretty frightening. Say what you will but Bring the Drones is a far better band name than Bring Me the Horizon…
- Before we call this interview a day I need to ask you what your relationship to the Swedish punk scene is like? - I’m actually not too familiar with the Swedish punk scene, but I love playing punk and recording punk albums. What I have seen when I have been out playing concerts in is that people are really committed and are digging it. The main problem, I guess, is that you have to travel 250 miles to earn $70…
Bring the Drones are currently working on new material, and you can make sure not to miss out on any upcoming news by keeping a close eye on their Facebook page.
