Rockezine.com interview with Mustain on Nov 20, 2004

with Frank Kooistra on Nov 20, 2004

For every single interview I usually check the band’s website. In this case, checking www.mustain.tk didn’t help me very much since all the info available was in Swedish. The only thing I know about Mustain is that the band members have an average age of seventeen and that their debut EP sounds pretty good.
		I know this is not the most original question, but please tell our readers the Mustain history. Sure! Mustain was formed in the beginning of 2002, by guitarist and vocalist Johan Lindström, bass guitarist Johan Danielsson, guitarist Marcus Stark and drummer Patrik Blomström, all at the age of seventeen. Shortly after the first show, Patrick left the band and a good friend named Frank Kooistra, also seventeen, was asked to fill out the empty space behind the drums. About seven shows were played in 2002, including a great performance in front of 3500 people on an Anti Racist Gala.
		A few weeks ago you released your EP Dead Alive. Has the EP fulfilled your expectations? Well, to be honest with you, it was released in July 2003, which is more than a year ago. Dead Alive has really helped us in many ways and we have certainly learned a lot from it. Afterwards it feels like it was a really smart act to make it the way we did. You see it’s actually only a simple first demo, which we recorded in two days. But by sending it to print and calling it an EP, it got a much, much more serious and professional look, and that led to great attention from magazines, concert bookers and people that saw it in our local record store. Dead Alive was released by us with the limited amount of 550 copies; a pretty expensive move for four young guys who still are in school. But it has been worth every single penny and every drop of sweat that we put into it.
		What’s the best thing you’ve read in the reviews? Oh my. We are sure some really lucky bastards, because we have almost only gotten good and great things printed about Dead Alive in fanzines and magazines. I think that the coolest things were the two great reviews in Close-Up and Sweden Rock Magazine. Those are the biggest Rock/Metal magazines in all of Sweden and it really made us smile a little bit extra.
we can only blame ourselves for picking a last name from a famous guy in metal		What’s the worst thing you’ve read in the reviews? Every time someone writes something about Mustain, the name Megadeth is also brought up. Even if it’s good or bad, it is starting to get a bit on our nerves. Probably we can only blame ourselves for picking a last name from a famous guy in metal. And hey! We all think Megadeth is a damned great band and that Dave Mustaine is a great artist, otherwise we would not be playing in a band called Mustain. So if people want to keep talking and comparing us to Dave and his fellows as soon as our name is mentioned, we won’t cry about it. It’s just that way and we won’t change our name. It would sure be great to meet the Mega-guys some day, jamming would be just awesome!
		Your name Frank Kooistra isn’t very Swedish. What is a young Dutchman doing in Sweden? Haha. Actually, I’m born in Sweden. But I’ve got Dutch parents and a Dutch passport which makes me a perfectly good, cheese-eating, windmill-loving Dutchman who grows tulips in my backyard. I’m by the way a cousin of Goldmember in Austin Powers. Isn’t that weird? Want a smoke and a pancake? No? Pipe and a crepe?
		The last couple of years every good prog rock, metal and thrash band seems to originate from Scandinavia. Why is that? It almost seems to me that every Scandinavian is in one or more rock or metal bands. That’s a hard one. In Sweden’s case there’s folk music everywhere. That’s Swedish culture and tradition and has been so for a very long time. Just like you say that Africans have the rhythm in their blood, maybe we have it too, because that’s what we grow up with. But just as in any other country there are many many genres in the music. Now, a little quiz for you. The ones who make the most noise are the ones who get the most attention, right? Who is louder, the girl with the violin and funny clothes? Or the four guys with Marshalls and blasting drums? Does this make sense to you at all or am I just making a fool out of myself? Anyway, Swedes are also great salesmen. So if you put these two mathematic puzzles together, you may have one possible answer to your question. The noisiest musicians in Sweden also know how to make their name heard in the rest of the world. This is just a stupid theory and I’m probably completly wrong about it, but maybe I’m right!!! Tell me in some years.
We are still a very young band with so much to learn from others and ourselves...		Are you focusing on Scandinavia or do you think you’re ready (or good enough) to spread your wings and aim for international success? Well. Still this was our first recording session together, ever. The response that we have gotten from both Sweden and other countries (Norway, Holland, Germany, and South America) has been far beyond what we expected. Some people seem to really like what we do and we sure enjoy it just as much. We are still a very young band with so much to learn from others and ourselves, but if someone would put it all on the table and offer us a World Tour, we would not be waiting to say: “Hell yeah, we’ll do it!” But we have to stay realistic. You see, if you’re called Mando Diao or The Hives, and you play their kind of music, it gets alot easier because cute girls hear you on the radio and buy your cds. But to get played on the radio you got to have a record company who is behind you covering your back. Now, I won’t say that the Hives-boys don’t work hard. They’ve probably also worked their asses off for many years, and truly deserve everything they get at the moment. The way to the top is like a giant staircase. You take one step after the other, and hopefully you don’t slip and fall down. Right now Mustain is somewhere on the first steps. But we’re really doing our best to climb that staircase; you have my word on it.
		What’s the next step for Mustain. Will the next release be a full album? We have just spent three days recording two songs in the same studio with the same guy who helped us out on Dead Alive. These two songs will be used on a promo cd together with our good friends in Chainwreck. If we do our jobs the right way and work hard, we will be on a small tour this forthcoming spring, doing somewhere between 10 to 20 shows depending on how many clubs are willing to take our offer. This project is called The Clown Show, and is as we would call it in Sweden, “Ett turné paket”. It will be offerd to clubs that play loud music all over Sweden and we will start promoting it in the beginning of January 2005. The Clown Show simply is one night with two kick ass bands playing their hearts out. So to answer your question properly, there is no full length album in our minds right now. Just live shows for a period of time. But be sure to tell all your buddies who own record companies to check us out, because at some point we’re going to want a Mustain record available for everyone who likes this thing.
		What is the most embarrassing album in your own private album collection? How did you get it? I don’t think that I have any records that I’m embarrased of at the moment. I listen to a lot of different things and the others in the band do too. There are cool things to snap up in almost everything and it’s important to always keep your mind open for new ideas and styles. Even if the biggest part of my album collection containes metal and hard rock, I’m a big fan of softer music too. Frank Sinatra, Michael Jackson and Mariah Carrey are awesome people who all have done great things to musical history. I just wished for a Sinatra cd for Sinter Klaas this year. Hope I’ll get it.
		What would you like to add to this interview? Be sure to check us out if you have the possibility and be sure to book The Clown Show for a great night if you run a cool club or just want a nice party for your kids. Our beautiful hompage (www.mustain.tk) will be up in English soon but so far we’re only available in Swedish. Though I’m sure that you can find your way to the media section for audio and video downloads even at this point. So until next time; have a great X-mas and a happy new year, and hopefully we will see each other again in 2005, stronger, louder and crazier than ever before. Peace.
		(Geert Oldenmenger)