Heart of noise

I couldn’t help thinking of monkeys and typewriters when I learned about The Hives’ country of origin. You know, stick enough Swedes in a studio and eventually they’re going to come up with a blinding rock ‘n’ roll record.

A textbook case of random predictability, right?

Wrong! Having listened to the new albums by Millencolin, (International) Noise Consiracy and Division Of Laura Lee, it appears that the Fagersta Five are the merest tip of the smorgasbord. Which is awfully good news for the man who signed the lot of ‘em.

“There’s always been great rock bands in Sweden, but it’s only now that people outside of the country are picking up on them,” proffers Burning Heart Records supremo and fellow Fagersta-ite Peter Ahlqvist. “The English media are trying to turn it into a ‘scene’ but the bands are all from different towns and making different sorts of music. The one thing they have in common is that they tend to look good.”

While nowadays a global concern that’s 51% owned by Epitaph, Burning Heart started life in the ‘90s as a glorified singles club.

“Really, it was self-indulgence,” Ahlqvist laughs. “Having promoted gigs by my favourite bands, I thought, ‘Why not start releasing records by them?’ I’m a big 2-Tone, No Future, Stiff and Revelation fan, so I stole a little bit from each of them!”

Our Hivesian friend Howlin’ Pelle takes up the story: “If Burning Heart like you, you can put out a record, but they won’t spend very much money if they don’t think you’ll sell anything. We weren’t the band they put their Kroner into at the beginning. Now we are, though, for obvious reasons.

“We know pretty much all the bands on the label – they’re great people, but not all of it is my cup of tea. That’s the way it should be. I mean, if they were only to release stuff that I liked…”

One band The Hives are rather partial too are (International) Noise Conspiracy.

“Their singer, Dennis Lyxzen, was in a legendary punk band called Refused who, if they’d kept going, would’ve been massive,” Peter Ahlqvist resumes. “Anyway, Dennis formed a new band, (International) Noise Conspiracy, who I saw and signed on the spot. The only other time I’ve done that – been to a gig and done the deal there and then – was with Division Of Laura Lee.”

Taking their cue from ‘60s protest singer Phil Ochs who dreamed of “The perfect symbiosis of Elvis and Che Guevara”, the (I)NC are the closest the European Union has come to cloning the MC5.

“It’s art, it’s politics, it’s crazy fucking rock ‘n’ roll,” says Conspiracy theorist Dennis Lyxzen. “Sweden was a good socialist country, but not anymore. We struck a chord by being the first band from here to say, ‘Hang on, we’re part of the big global picture now. We’re subscribing to the same economic thinking as America and we don’t like it!’”

It speaks volumes about the (I)NC that their First Conspiracy debut was simultaneously released on their own G7 Welcoming Committee label and Chinese independent Ling Lao Records.

“Our first time touring as a band was in China. We entered the country illegally and did 15 shows in four towns, which was pretty out of control. People were stand-offish at first – I mean, they’d never seen a punk band from Sweden wearing suits before – but then they got really excited. You’d do a kick or a knee-drop and they’d cheer so loud you could hear them back in Sweden.”

While not quite so “up the workers!”, Division Of Laura Lee share many of the (I)NC’s influences – Iggy, Joy Division and The Jesus & Mary Chain – and penchant for finely-chiseled cheekbones.

“Actually, I’m the fat not very good looking one in the band,” rues DOLL guitarist Per Stalberg. “We’re the same as The Hives in that we were shit when we started but, being an underground band, had time to develop. We sang in Swedish, pissed people off by doing art stuff like painting on stage, and couldn’t see any further than releasing our own 7”s. That’s changed now – partly for the better and partly for the worse ‘cause everything at this level has to be planned.”

Thankfully, success hasn’t blighted Division Of Laura Lee’s studio output with their Black City album as remarkable in its own way as Your New Favourite Band. Which, lest we forget, was compiled by Alan McGee from The Hives’ Burning Heart back catalogue.

“The Poptones thing is a one-off that’s worked really well,” Peter Ahlqvist enthuses. “I’ve read a lot of stuff about Alan – some good, some bad – but on a personal level I think he’s a nice character who cares passionately about music. A bit like me, really.”