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I've
finished one of my last review tellin' you that the
Swedish Bootleg Booze Records and the partner in crimes
Rock Alliance don't miss a bull's eye! And I don't know
how could I tell the opposit, since first The Accidents,
then The Deadbeats and recently the Urrke T. and Midlife
Crisis' 7" cut out a special space in my records
collection. For this reason I thought it would have
been a great idea to address some questions to Andreas
Axelson, vocals and guitar of The Deadbeats. So, if
you love the 70's, The 'Copters and generally rock 'n'
roll, don't miss their "Long Hard Nights"!
Hi Andreas! Where, when and how
The Deadbeats was born? Introduce the early days of
your band to our readers.
The Deadbeats was born in autumn '95 on a count of having
nothing to do and a lot of rock songs bouncing around
in my head. I just had to get them out, so I formed
the band whilst very drunk with Andreas Sjöberg.
At that times we had different line-up, with Benny (ex
drummer) who joined the day after I think and Robert
(ex bassist) a few days after that. And thats the really
early days of the Deadbeats!
I listened your great last work
titled "Long Hard Nights" published by Rock
Alliance, a division of Bootleg Booze Records. I noticed
that your sound is injected by a huge 70's feeling and
I noticed similarities with The Hellacopters sound of
works as "High Visibility" and "By Grace
Of God". Do you agree with me? Which are the today
and past bands that influenced your sound the most?
I agree that there is a huge 70's feeling and that was
our intent! Soundwise and songwise we love that sound!
The Hellacopters have the same feeling yes, even more
so infact they have a littlie more money to spend on
studios and that stuff, but not the same songs! We all
love Thin Lizzy and AC/DC and to some exctent Kiss.
I love Kiss, and we collectivelly listen to 70's and
60's music like Ike and Tina Turner and Lynyrd Skynreyd
and try to get the same feeling soundwise, but it's
really hard!
Which are in your opinion the
main differences between your previous first full-length
and the last one?
Everything! Seriouslly there were some songs on the
first album that have simallarities songwise but apart
from that, it's a brand new band today, in every aspect
and we are a million times better today!
I think that the title of your
work is related to your rock'n'roll lifestyle! So, describe
us a typical Deadbeat's Long Hard Night.
Long hard nights can be interpreted in a lot of ways,
but when I wrote it, it was about a guy who's really
heartbroken and has issues dealing with life and the
lifestyle of being out every night and never really
getting to know anyone and never being with women more
than one night. So it's not really about partying in
any way. A typical long night with us is often very
blurry in the end very very good in the beginning. Let's
leave it at that... (laughs). You'll have to find out
for yourself get us over to Italy and we will show you
some really long hard nights! (laughs)
How does the song-writing mode
work in your band? Can you define it as a team cooperation
or an individual composition? Who writes the lyrics,
who takes care of the arrangements and how do your great
melodies take their form?
You could say that I am the main songwriter in The Deadbeats.
Andreas Sjöberg comes up with a few riffs too,
but we all make the song happen! I often do the riffs
at home verse/riff/chorus as a full song and then I
show the ideas to Claes Holmberg (bass) Micke Kniven
(drums) and Andreas Sjöberg (guitar) and then we
arrange it together and put it some more riffs, or throw
some away. Then I come up with a title or something
and start writing the lyrics wich I really hate... I
am my own worst critic! A song doesn't always get made
like this but very often!
Is there any song of "Long
Hard Nights" that you feel closer to for some reason?
Not really. I Like "Too Late To Save" and
"Perfect World" and a lot more at the moment
though!
I noticed that Sara Eriksson
and Benny Larsson played respectively hammond and tambourine
on "Long Hard Nights". Sara also gave her
contribution to background vocals. How did you meet
these artists and why did you decide to ask them to
be your partners in crime?
Benny was the drummer in the Deadbeats before Micke,
so that was just the obvious choice. Sara is an old
freind of us that we know can sing really well, and
she can also play keyboards and cello and a lot's of
other stuff. So we just asked them and they really wanted
to do it!
How's to work with Rock Alliance
and how did you reach the deal with this label? A lot
of bands are interested in reaching deal with majors,
but I think that sometimes the indie labels can work
better, 'cause in most part of cases they really love
the proposal of their artists. What's your opinion about
this?
An indie label is often better because you get a really
close relationship to them and we like Bootleg Booze
recs a lot. They are great people and there have never
been any problems! But of course it would be great to
be on major label (as long as they don't rip you off
that is...) then you wouldn't have to worry about going
to your shitty job everyday!
If I'm not wrong I read that
you were better known in U.S.A. than in your Country.
This sound really strange to me, it's a deadly sin!
But if it's true, let me know the reason why. Do you
think that your today Sweden label will help you to
change the state of things?
To be honest I don't think we're better known in the
States, at least we aren't anymore because we've been
doing this for 10 years soon and I think most people
have heard us or heard of us in someway home in Sweden,
but of course Bootleg Booze is gonna make us more known
back home and first and foremost in Europe!
Tell us about the greatest and
the worst The Dedbeats gig of ever?
I'm sorry man, but I can't point them out like that
every gig we've done is blurring together. Perhaps I'm
getting old or something... (laughs)! But the one we
did with Twopointeight and Bombshell Rocks last year
and that one was pretty good, I think.
Which are the maddest bands that
you met on stage during the tours of your career? Do
you wanna tell us some crazy event occurred?
The maddest band is The Dontcares and later I joined
them so I play bass there now. It's hard to pin out
single events, because it's crazy 24/7 with them, but
lets just say that we always seem to end up naked!
What are your future plans? Did
you plan some tour dates, is there a chance to see you
on stage here in Italy?
We´re working on coming over to Europe (at last!)
in someway but we'll see how the album goes and so on,
but we have been in contact with booking agencies in
Italy actually, and we hope we can go there soon. We
also have plans for a video but we'll see!
Fav drinks and your personal
top 5 albums of ever:
I drink beer and red wine mostly, but generally I drink
everything! Top 5 albums huh? I hate this kind of questions.
I don't know, you always forget one or two. Well okay,
Slayer "Reign In Blood" and AC/DC "Powerage"
is two of the best 5 albums ever anyway!
If you had the chance to change
something in the world, what would you do for sure?
Don't know it's to big of a question. Get myself out
of debt maybe?
What is the craziest or the most
dangerous or stupid thing ever done in your life?
Driving drunk and crashing!
Ok Andreas, the interview is
over. Now you're free to great our Exploders and all
your fans as you like. Thank you so much.
Thanx for the funny questions. Hope to see ya´ll
soon. Buy our album, it's great!
Intervista realizzata da Bruno
Rossi
Tradotta da Martina Benedetti
Supervisione di Margherita
Realmonte
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