On september 23 rd, The Hellacopters sure did raise hell in front of a beer sedated audience at the Usine PTR of Geneva. But before the rattling rock'n'roll apocalypse, TheFake met Anders Niklas Anderson, frontman of the swedish band that is on a hell of a marathon tour. Just try catching this band travelling at the speed of sound!
TheFake: Is it your first concert in Geneva? No. We've been here once before. I can't remember... I'm not sure. I know I've been in Geneva before, with my other band Entumbed but...awh! forget it! I don't know!
Considering your vinyle record "The Hellacopters Now" that was released in 1996, does the name of your band refer to the Walkeyrie flight scene in "Apocalypse Now" ? No. Not at all. First of all, there's no meaning. Me and Dragon who started the band we found a paper when we were in the States, in '94, and it was like one of those free student-papers. Well, I guess the paper was kinda drug liberal. They had this article on American CIA helicopters trying to track down marijuana fields in Mexico. And the headline was : " Hella 'copters over Mexico''. So we thought that sounds like a good name. Afterwards, we found out that in San Francisco there's this slang that's used : "Hella something..." "Hella good..", "Hella bad"... that we didn't know about, but it's just a band name.
You've just released an album called "Rock'n'roll is Dead", what does the title mean to you? Again it's a cool title for a rock'n'roll album, it's got rock'n'roll and dead in it. It sounds pretty good to me, looks good in print. But then again, it's the way I feel about the state of rock'n'roll today. I think it's a pity that the best big rock'n'roll today is played by 60 year olds. And they're called the Rolling Stones. I mean something's gotta be wrong, right? I love the Stones but where are all the young bands, where's the attention for them? There are exceptions, you know, The Hives, but I don't know...It seems pretty dead to me, hence the title.
Do you consider that you're the only ones playing rock'n'roll now? Not at all. These days I feel it's just so little about the music, even if you are a rock'n'roll band, it's so much about what you wear, so much about what's in fashion...I mean it's always been about fashion in one way, but now it's so much more about the fashion than the actual music. If you want to get in the press in England, for example, you gotta shoot heroin, your girlfriend's gotta be a model...I'm saying that the band can't make it today on the strengh of the music. That's just how the business works today, and I don't want to be part of it and I'm not. Even if we are on a major label it doesn't change anything we work the same, they're just a vehicule for us to get our music around. It's not that we're angry or anything, it's just the way it is. We can't change it. The only thing we can do is play the music we love and hopefully people like it. There should be more bands like that... there are a lot of bands like that, but nobody knows who they are.
Speaking of that, who are the current bands that really stimulate you? All the ones I've heard. Like I said, it's hard to know every band cause you don't get exposed to a lot of good bands. Obviously, I know a good deal of bands in Sweden. There are new bands and bands that have been around...We've got a really good band in Stockholm called Captain Murphy. I just produced a swedish band called Dollhouse, which I think are really good...The Flaming Sideburns are very good. And a band that split up -Gluecifer- There's a lot of bands but... More power to them!
You've released 7 albums since "Supershitty to the Max" in 1996, what album would you propose to discover to someone who doesn't know your band? It depends on what you're after...You can probably get it for really cheap if you download it for free from internet, so I suggest everything! The album "Rock'n'roll is Dead", that's where we're at right now. And the album " Supershitty to the Max" is where we were at, at that time. They're all different but if you would listen to them in chronological order, the changes make sense. But if you hear the first one and this last album you would be "What's goin' on here?!". I don't know, it depends on what your tastes are I guess... I mean the first one is just a hell lot of noise...I like all our albums.
Are you more a studio band or a live band? No, we're a live band! That's what I think rock'n'roll is about. When you have that thing between the band and the audience...When that clicks, there's nothing better than that. That's what keeps us going. I actually don't like being in the studio, I like the result, but getting there is just... hard work!
How's life on tour with the Hellacopters? Right now, it's boring cause I've got a cold! I can't drink! Other than that, we can afford to travel comfortably these days, I mean, you saw the bus, it's pretty neat... I can't speak for all the people in the band, but I'm here for the show. It gets boring sometimes...There's a lot of waiting...It's ups and downs, basically. Sometimes it's not so cool, but if you have a good show, it's worth every minute of it...I don't like days off, you get into a routine, I guess and if you have a day off, you have to get back on the tracks. It's better to keep moving. And we have this thing where we don't tour more than three weeks at a time. That's what I experienced from being on the road since 1990 and I know that to keep a band together, this three week touring period is good. Otherwise you end up hating each other for sure.
