Post by karro on Mar 17, 2005 3:13:34 GMT -5
Opposite Webzine
Marco Ooijendijk
Interview Millencolin
In 1999 there you've released the Melancholy Collection with b-sides and hard to find tracks. This was sort of an appatiser for the fans in awaiting the new album?
Erik: We had a lot of songs spread out everywhere. We thought it was a good idea to collect them together for an album, 22 songs. Especially for people outside Europe. They had a really hard time finding the singles and they had to pay this ridicilously overpriced prices for them. So we did it a lot for them.
Nikola: I guess it was. Cause we were not touring at the time. It was a space to be filled in by something.
As you said, it's been 3 years between the 2 albums so it was kinda perfect to release the compilation right in between.
What have you been doing in the meantime?
Erik: I put the Millencolin-video together. It took about half a year. I have been doing our website. You can check it out at www.millencolin.com.
And I have been working at the local skateboardshop. We have been working on a local skatepark too in Orebrö. Nikola moved to Gothenborg but the other three of us still live in Orebrö. Millencolin is sponsoring the indoor skatepark too, financially. It all opened 2 weeks ago. It's been great to do something for the kids in the neighboorhood. Cause nobody did that for us.
I still skate. I skate a lot now since we finished building the skatepark. It's kinda bad weather in Sweden this fall plus recording the new album and everything. I haven't skated in a while. But now I skate a lof. Twice a day. The indoor skatepark is actually in the same building as Burning Heart Records. It's actually on the third floor. It's a big building, it's not really a part of the building. It was a big empty warehouse. We rented it, it costs tons of money. Plus we got some money from the government. There's an entrance fee for about 10 guilders to skate for a day. Then you get some insurance too if you break your neck ... It might be good.
Nikola: We took a break after the South American tour in August '98. I actually went back to school. So I have been studying for a year and a half. I just had my last test last Friday actually. Last semester I studied economic history at the university of Gothenborg. It's been really nice.
And last winter I played bass for another band. For a guy named Kristoffer Olström who is normally singing in a band called Fireside, a Swedish emotional band. This was his singer songwriter approach. I was playing bass for him on about 12 shows for him in Sweden and Norway.
I was writing a lot of songs for the new album also. Matthias has been busy in the studio. He has been busy recording bands.
We took a break after the South American tour in August '98. I actually went back to school. So I have been studying for a year and a half. I just had my last test last Friday actually. Last semester I studied economic history at the university of Gothenborg. It's been really nice.
And last winter I played bass for another band. For a guy named Kristoffer Olström who is normally singing in a band called Fireside, a Swedish emotional band. This was his singer songwriter approach. I was playing bass for him on about 12 shows for him in Sweden and Norway.
I was writing a lot of songs for the new album also. Matthias has been busy in the studio. He has been busy recording bands.
Erik: I don't really work at Burning Heart. I'm there every day for the marketing of Millencolin. The whole band like to be involved in everything what happens so nobody is over our head controlling our stuff. Sometimes now I'm a bit too involved. Everybody is putting tons of jobs on my shoulders. But it's good, I like it though. I like the Burning Heart office.
Do you still have contact with other bands on the Burning Heart label?
Erik: Monster? I love the Monster-album. It's a great album. And it's good. Burning Heart is releasing a lot of types of music. Not too different. There widing up a bit. But it's still the same music yeah. I think they put out a lot of great releases. We get all the albums. I live 5 minutes from Burning Heart. It feels like I'm working there everyday.
Nikola: A couple of years ago we played with the other bands more often than we do now. Now we're doing our own tours. In the States or here and there. But of course all the bands on Burning Heart are friends. We meet now and then. There's a really good atmosphere among the bands on the label.
What's the main difference between Pennybridge pioneers and your last album "For monkeys"?
Erik: We are really happy with the album. Plus the break, we got time to focus on the songs. Allmost all the songs were ready when we went into the studio.
Nikola: We're 3, 2 and a half years older. Since "For monkeys" we've been doing more than 200 shows. We learned a lot from playing all those shows. We as musicians, me as a singer, as songwriters. On this new album we also decided to go to America to record the album. For the first time.
Mr. Brett (Bad Religion/Epitaph) at Westbeach recorded us. So that's a big difference. And at the sound you can hear it's a Westbeach production. The new album is a bit heavier I think. A lot of energy which is a result of touring.
Not all the lyrics. A couple of weeks before we went into the studio I always have at least 10 songs that I have to write the lyrics to. On some songs on this album I wrote the lyrics maybe the evening before we went recording.
About Brett Gurewitz producing the album.
Erik: We got really proud that he wanted to produce us.
Nikola: We were not surprised that he wanted to produce us. We would have been surprised if he would have asked us in '94 or '93. Since he liked us so much, he signed Millencolin for Epitaph in the States and released us there. Since we met him 5 or 6 things before we knows he likes our music.
Proud and happy. It felt like a really big step for us. On the first 3 albums we used the same guy, the same studio in our hometown. It felt like the only option for us. To do it in the States, in the Westbeach studios with Brett. So it was the only natural option. We are really excited what the fans and everybody think of it. The reactions so far from the press has been really positive, which makes us happy.
Was Bad Religion a major influence when you started the band?
Erik: We are painting our own painting in the frame.
Nikola: It was for sure. Bad Religion, NOFX, Operation Ivy and so on. Those bands were our main influence. And bands that we kinda focused on in the beginning. When we started the band we needed something like a frame. And the frame were these bands. The frame has sort of become wider.
What was the idea when you started the band? It was in '92. What did you want to accomplish at that time?
Erik: We played in 3 different bands. We sang in Swedish and we were skateboarding. And we listen to all those skateboard music which was NOFX, Operation Ivy, Bad Religion and The Descendent. We really loved that type of music. Then us skaters said why not start a band like this. And Nikolas singing English, it sounded so much different that the other bands which were singing in Swedish. It was great.
Nikola: Me and Matthias we were in the same class since first grade. We met Erik through the local skate scene.
What is the idea that you have now, with already have sold more than 750.000 records and doing 500 shows?
Erik: A lot of fun stuff happens all the time. I don't know if we still have too much ground to cover. We haven't been to Africa to play, it's kinda hard to go there I guess. We've been pretty much everywhere. We've reached a lot of goals. But now I think musicwise we haven't done the perfect album yet.
Nikola: There's still a lot more to do with the music and the songwriting. We've been everywhere where punkrock is being played. I think we reached most of those goals. Like performing and so on. But we can always sell more albums. That would be nice. But the thing that keeps us going is the music and having a feeling that we still have something to give. That we still can write better songs than on this album. As long as we feel that we'll be playing.
Millencolin will be doing the US Warped Tour this summer. They also did the whole tour in 1997. There won't be an European Warped Tour this year!
Where the lyrics of the first single Penguins and polarbears about?
Nikola: The lyrics are about a lof of stuff. Basically I try to write about personal stuff. Stuff that I have been going through. Mostly on a personal level. I don't write any political lyrics. I hope that people that listen to our songs, read the lyrics and feel like, oh these lyrics he's saying what I feel too. We all have our political ideas and thoughts. But we don't have the need to write about it.
Marco Ooijendijk
Interview Millencolin
In 1999 there you've released the Melancholy Collection with b-sides and hard to find tracks. This was sort of an appatiser for the fans in awaiting the new album?
Erik: We had a lot of songs spread out everywhere. We thought it was a good idea to collect them together for an album, 22 songs. Especially for people outside Europe. They had a really hard time finding the singles and they had to pay this ridicilously overpriced prices for them. So we did it a lot for them.
Nikola: I guess it was. Cause we were not touring at the time. It was a space to be filled in by something.
As you said, it's been 3 years between the 2 albums so it was kinda perfect to release the compilation right in between.
What have you been doing in the meantime?
Erik: I put the Millencolin-video together. It took about half a year. I have been doing our website. You can check it out at www.millencolin.com.
And I have been working at the local skateboardshop. We have been working on a local skatepark too in Orebrö. Nikola moved to Gothenborg but the other three of us still live in Orebrö. Millencolin is sponsoring the indoor skatepark too, financially. It all opened 2 weeks ago. It's been great to do something for the kids in the neighboorhood. Cause nobody did that for us.
I still skate. I skate a lot now since we finished building the skatepark. It's kinda bad weather in Sweden this fall plus recording the new album and everything. I haven't skated in a while. But now I skate a lof. Twice a day. The indoor skatepark is actually in the same building as Burning Heart Records. It's actually on the third floor. It's a big building, it's not really a part of the building. It was a big empty warehouse. We rented it, it costs tons of money. Plus we got some money from the government. There's an entrance fee for about 10 guilders to skate for a day. Then you get some insurance too if you break your neck ... It might be good.
Nikola: We took a break after the South American tour in August '98. I actually went back to school. So I have been studying for a year and a half. I just had my last test last Friday actually. Last semester I studied economic history at the university of Gothenborg. It's been really nice.
And last winter I played bass for another band. For a guy named Kristoffer Olström who is normally singing in a band called Fireside, a Swedish emotional band. This was his singer songwriter approach. I was playing bass for him on about 12 shows for him in Sweden and Norway.
I was writing a lot of songs for the new album also. Matthias has been busy in the studio. He has been busy recording bands.
We took a break after the South American tour in August '98. I actually went back to school. So I have been studying for a year and a half. I just had my last test last Friday actually. Last semester I studied economic history at the university of Gothenborg. It's been really nice.
And last winter I played bass for another band. For a guy named Kristoffer Olström who is normally singing in a band called Fireside, a Swedish emotional band. This was his singer songwriter approach. I was playing bass for him on about 12 shows for him in Sweden and Norway.
I was writing a lot of songs for the new album also. Matthias has been busy in the studio. He has been busy recording bands.
Erik: I don't really work at Burning Heart. I'm there every day for the marketing of Millencolin. The whole band like to be involved in everything what happens so nobody is over our head controlling our stuff. Sometimes now I'm a bit too involved. Everybody is putting tons of jobs on my shoulders. But it's good, I like it though. I like the Burning Heart office.
Do you still have contact with other bands on the Burning Heart label?
Erik: Monster? I love the Monster-album. It's a great album. And it's good. Burning Heart is releasing a lot of types of music. Not too different. There widing up a bit. But it's still the same music yeah. I think they put out a lot of great releases. We get all the albums. I live 5 minutes from Burning Heart. It feels like I'm working there everyday.
Nikola: A couple of years ago we played with the other bands more often than we do now. Now we're doing our own tours. In the States or here and there. But of course all the bands on Burning Heart are friends. We meet now and then. There's a really good atmosphere among the bands on the label.
What's the main difference between Pennybridge pioneers and your last album "For monkeys"?
Erik: We are really happy with the album. Plus the break, we got time to focus on the songs. Allmost all the songs were ready when we went into the studio.
Nikola: We're 3, 2 and a half years older. Since "For monkeys" we've been doing more than 200 shows. We learned a lot from playing all those shows. We as musicians, me as a singer, as songwriters. On this new album we also decided to go to America to record the album. For the first time.
Mr. Brett (Bad Religion/Epitaph) at Westbeach recorded us. So that's a big difference. And at the sound you can hear it's a Westbeach production. The new album is a bit heavier I think. A lot of energy which is a result of touring.
Not all the lyrics. A couple of weeks before we went into the studio I always have at least 10 songs that I have to write the lyrics to. On some songs on this album I wrote the lyrics maybe the evening before we went recording.
About Brett Gurewitz producing the album.
Erik: We got really proud that he wanted to produce us.
Nikola: We were not surprised that he wanted to produce us. We would have been surprised if he would have asked us in '94 or '93. Since he liked us so much, he signed Millencolin for Epitaph in the States and released us there. Since we met him 5 or 6 things before we knows he likes our music.
Proud and happy. It felt like a really big step for us. On the first 3 albums we used the same guy, the same studio in our hometown. It felt like the only option for us. To do it in the States, in the Westbeach studios with Brett. So it was the only natural option. We are really excited what the fans and everybody think of it. The reactions so far from the press has been really positive, which makes us happy.
Was Bad Religion a major influence when you started the band?
Erik: We are painting our own painting in the frame.
Nikola: It was for sure. Bad Religion, NOFX, Operation Ivy and so on. Those bands were our main influence. And bands that we kinda focused on in the beginning. When we started the band we needed something like a frame. And the frame were these bands. The frame has sort of become wider.
What was the idea when you started the band? It was in '92. What did you want to accomplish at that time?
Erik: We played in 3 different bands. We sang in Swedish and we were skateboarding. And we listen to all those skateboard music which was NOFX, Operation Ivy, Bad Religion and The Descendent. We really loved that type of music. Then us skaters said why not start a band like this. And Nikolas singing English, it sounded so much different that the other bands which were singing in Swedish. It was great.
Nikola: Me and Matthias we were in the same class since first grade. We met Erik through the local skate scene.
What is the idea that you have now, with already have sold more than 750.000 records and doing 500 shows?
Erik: A lot of fun stuff happens all the time. I don't know if we still have too much ground to cover. We haven't been to Africa to play, it's kinda hard to go there I guess. We've been pretty much everywhere. We've reached a lot of goals. But now I think musicwise we haven't done the perfect album yet.
Nikola: There's still a lot more to do with the music and the songwriting. We've been everywhere where punkrock is being played. I think we reached most of those goals. Like performing and so on. But we can always sell more albums. That would be nice. But the thing that keeps us going is the music and having a feeling that we still have something to give. That we still can write better songs than on this album. As long as we feel that we'll be playing.
Millencolin will be doing the US Warped Tour this summer. They also did the whole tour in 1997. There won't be an European Warped Tour this year!
Where the lyrics of the first single Penguins and polarbears about?
Nikola: The lyrics are about a lof of stuff. Basically I try to write about personal stuff. Stuff that I have been going through. Mostly on a personal level. I don't write any political lyrics. I hope that people that listen to our songs, read the lyrics and feel like, oh these lyrics he's saying what I feel too. We all have our political ideas and thoughts. But we don't have the need to write about it.
