Rockezine.com interview with Hellacopters on Apr 17, 2003

with Nick on Apr 17, 2003

It’s a sunny afternoon when I arrive at the Doornroosje-club in Nijmegen, Holland. Bobby is sitting in the sun reading John Irving. After a short conversation I meet up with the band’s road manager who introduces me to Nick. The singer/guitarist is will be my interview partner today. The friendly (and very modest) spokesman suggests that we also, find ourselves a nice place outside for our conversation.
		Your own opinion about By The Grace Of God It’s our best album until now. I know it sounds cliché, but we are very content with it. If someone else would have made it, I would still buy it.
		Is the album as successful as you hoped, having joined a major label? I really don’t know what to hope for. It does well enough to keep us on the road touring, and that’s what we want. In Sweden we have sold many more albums than before, but sales in other countries are pretty much the same as before. Maybe also in Germany a few more, although we always did pretty well over there.
		Most people I meet think it’s a great album, but off course there are always some negative reactions. But I say to my self: I don’t mind, it’s our music. On the other hand, on stage nothing has changed actually: we still play what we want to play, and the audience respects it and still come to visit us.
		The more recent albums sound more commercial, were any concessions made towards the label? We make the music we want, the way we want! It’s a matter of development, we have grown musically. The older you get, the more influences you get. Maybe it’s even a bit like digging in the past. Time after time I find new sources of origin, where it all comes from. So much music has been made, and there will always be so much more to explore. With all that new found knowledge you can create so many more new things.
		When Grande Rock was released, our record deal with White Jazz came to an end. After that we recorded High Visibility, and presented it to several record companies. From the four or five labels that responded positively, we chose Universal. Sometimes it’s an advantage to be on a major label, with promotional stuff and contacts, but we also know the disadvantages. A major label is always a risk because they fire a lot of people much easier.
		Did you take more time for recording the latest albums? It sounds like more overdubs, and less direct as the early work. Not really, it took about three weeks, and that’s pretty standard for us. So it’s a bit like usual. Personally I don’t like to be in studio’s, and I don’t think we’re that good. Months of recording will do no good to the final product. I think we’re still kinda direct, but we have developed throughout the years, even in recording.
		By The Grace Of God is recorded in two studios. The first part in the Polar-studios, in Stockholm, for the second part we moved to the countryside. That was a strange experience: while recording, we could see the open country through the windows, and even the sea on the other side. We were told that there was a ghost wandering around in the area. Think it was a good ghost, or at least he didn’t want to harm us (laughs). Bit scary though.
		Is Scandinavia a breeding ground for high-energy rock & roll bands? Don’t know, in the sixties there were a lot of garage bands. A lot of people underestimate the large Scandinavian musical history, which goes back to jazz and blues. Indeed lots of bands hail from our home ground, guess we are not that interested in trends, just good music. However, since upcoming bands as The Strokes and White Stripes, the music industry is more open to rock & roll. So I hope this will open more possibilities for more bands and good music.
		What were your own sources of inspiration? It all started with Kiss, after that I discovered punk rock. I started buying records of the Sex Pistols, The Damned, and MC5. My very first record was Kiss’ Rock And Roll Over; my mom gave it to me. I started my own first punk rock band Entombed, and from that point on I discovered a lot of different influences from jazz and blues to metal. Nowadays I listen to a lot of different music, my collection is never complete. I have a preference for vinyl, but on the road a CD is much easier. I’m still looking for a portable record player installation
		There is still a lot of Kiss in the Hellacopters It’s in the back of your head. Call it old fashioned, I don’t wanna change it. Some call it retro, I call it good. I still like Kiss, especially the riffing and the solo work of Ace. Fortunately Strings is also a big Ace fan. (A conversation starts about Ace Frehley being compared to other guitarists, and the breath taking qualities of this man’s guitar playing, which is shared between Nick and me) A quote from Nick: ”That’s how I define a good guitarist”.
		The Hellacopters even covered Kiss once, for a compilation tribute album. This recording’s pretty rare, according to Nick this recording could be put on the next Cream Of The Crap album. Since many recordings are hard to get, and high prices have to be paid for these limited releases, The Hellacopters will at least release two more Cream Of The Crap albums, with rare recordings. Nick admits that he himself doesn’t even have all the releases.
		What can you say about the graphic art of lots of the limited releases, and the release of a Hellacopters comic? Well, like with a lot of the 7”, it’s just a good format to work with graphic cover art. Friends of us make it. It’s also a nice extra for the fans that buy it. By the way, we’re planning to limit these extra releases, because we have overdone it a bit.
		About the comic; one of our friends who did some cover art for us came up with the idea and asked us what we thought about it. All of this resulted in the current comic. I like comics also, so to me it was no problem at all (another shared point of interest with his interviewer). My favourite artists are Peter Bagge (Neat Stuff) and Jim Woodwring (Frank).
		Any future plans? Tour, and hopefully make another album and tour again. We don’t have any great plans, just keep on doing what we do as long as it’s fun. A certain future release is a split album with Adam West.
		(Cor Schilstra)