The Hives (2011)
Interview Background
He might be one of the world’s most dynamic rock frontmen, but Howlin’ Pelle Almqvist of The Hives is a down to earth chap when he’s not prancing about on international stages. My cousin once saw the pretence-free Swede getting around Perth’s suburbs on a public bus, suggesting the vocalist’s top-hat-and-tails schtick doesn’t extend to lofty demands in day-to-day life. Conducted ahead of an Australian headline tour and a Splendour In The Grass festival appearance, this short conversation proved Almqvist is a gifted raconteur and charming interviewee. Even without a new album to promote (their Modular release Lex Hives would emerge in 2012), the subsequent live dates went down a treat.
The following is an edited version of an interview published in Rip It Up in July 2011.
The Hives - Stockholm Syndrome
by Scott McLennan
A long way from the high-kickin’, mic-swingin’, fast-talkin’ ringmaster of The Hives’ dynamic live shows, frontman Howlin’ Pelle Almqvist is at home in Stockholm watering his plants when Rip It Up checks in with the animated vocalist. Breaking the fantasy, Almqvist admits he doesn’t practise his amusingly brash gig oratories on his rhododendrons.
“I save that for the arena!” Almqvist laughs. “I have an on and off switch, but I have a hard time turning it off sometimes. I leave it on for weeks on end and I forget to switch it off. Right now it’s entirely off, so you’re safe to talk to me.”
A live favourite in Australia since their 2001 appearance at Falls Festival earmarked them as a touring band not to be missed, the sharp-suited Swedish quintet have kept the same line-up since they formed the band as teenagers in Fagersta almost 20 years ago.
“I think the secret to still being together is that we started really young. If you fail miserably for 20 years in a row someone’s probably going to quit, but I think it’s pretty important that what you’re doing is sort of popular so you can make a living out of it! There have been times when it’s got a little rough, but after those rough spots you come out stronger. It’s like a marriage – you’ve got to work at it.”
So you’ve had physical and verbal fights with other members?
“Yeah, both. The physical part less so now than when we were younger, but we’d fight. Now we talk through problems – you don’t usually start fighting for no reason – and if there’s a crisis we’ll have long therapy sessions. Not like in the Metallica documentary [Some Kind Of Monster] though – we’re our own therapists!”
You don’t want Metallica’s psychiatrist in a bad woollen jumper helping you out.
“Those sweaters are very Australian, aren’t they?” Almqvist asks. “I’ve seen them in airports across Australia – these super-coloured knitted woollen sweaters.”
A connoisseur of fine fashion, Almqvist admits he routinely brushes off romantic solicitations from both men and women attracted to the blue-eyed rocker.
“I turn these offers down in a very friendly manner – there’s no need to panic! The worse thing you can do is to run away, because they feel you’re even more special and start running after you. It’s best to stay calm and explain that you’re not interested, so it’s usually fine.”
During their recent European festival appearances The Hives have been performing new single Go Right Ahead, offering audiences a taste of their impending fifth album. Having showcased the influence of Phil Spector’s production on their previous single, 2008’s A Christmas Duel featuring Cyndi Lauper, Almqvist suggests they’ve now moved on to ‘70s glam rock for inspiration.
“We’ve been into The Jets and The Glitter Band lately – those bargain basement bands that didn’t make it! It’s so nuts and over the top, so we’ve always been fans of that.”
Will the next evolution of The Hives’ uniform reflect this ‘70s influence, with the appearance of flared suits?
“You’d think so, but you’ve actually got to juxtapose it with something else. No, I don’t think we’d ever be into the flared pants. The Glitter Band looked pretty cool of course, but our style was always more minimal.”
Almqvist’s highly energetic repertoire of stage moves has been carefully honed over the years, but the confident frontman admits that most have been cribbed from heroes such as James Brown, Mick Jagger and Roger Daltrey.
“The moves come together pretty organically. You do something once, then a couple of hundred times, and then you can do it perfectly. You cannot be afraid of failure – that’s the trick. It’s mostly stuff that I pick up from other people. You see the moves and you make them your own, but it’s still cool to do exactly what James Brown did. Most of that stuff is just a matter of wanting to entertain yourself a little more. If you’re playing 200-plus shows a year you need to change it up slightly otherwise you’d go insane. So it has that other function besides being entertaining for the audience – I have to entertain myself!”
The swaggering demeanour of The Hives has been part of their schtick since their earliest performances in the mid-‘90s, with the band initially drawing inspiration from cult gang flick The Warriors.
“Kitschy action films like The Warriors are the perfect example of the themes we love, although Flash Gordon and vaguely superhero stuff are also good for inspiration. Quentin Tarantino is great at taking the heritage of the movies that you had copies of on VCR when you were a kid and then turning them into something that makes sense for now. He’s made films that are better than most of his influential movies really ever were. I think for him as it is for us that it’s the aesthetics that suck you in. You can use those aesthetics but still make something with content, whereas a lot of those old films were mainly made to look cool and no one thought about the fact they could have dialogue. Most of those kung fu movies are a 10-word script!
“It’s the same thing with us – a lot of the music we’ve been influenced by was only written to make you smile and shake your hips, but we’ve tried to fill it with a little more content. [Novelty ‘60s rock track] Wooly Bully would have been a pretty good Hives song, but we couldn’t have lived with those lyrics!”
Back at Thebarton Theatre after almost four years, Almqvist is excited about returning to South Australia.
“It will be our pleasure. Do you know if the oil workers are on leave from the oil platforms this time? They were insane at the last show – they let it rip!”
Unpublished Interview Material
Are you still a vegetarian?
“I sort of dabble in it, but I still eat fish. I don’t eat cow, but I still wear leather. That’s pretty much it, but I feel people should eat less of it. And if someone ate that cow already I might as well wear it! I’m just happy knowing it wasn’t me…”
Little Steven from the E Street Band narrated your documentary on the Tussles In Brussels DVD. Was it your love of the E Street Band or The Sopranos that made you go with him?
“We’re just fans all round. The Sopranos is what got us thinking that he should do the job, but before we saw he could act we always liked him as a guitar player too. It turned out perfect and he’s a fan, so that’s how we got to meet him.”
What’s your favourite Bruce Springsteen song?
“Oh yikes. There’s so much – I like a lot of that stuff. What do I say now?”
Lost for words, Pelle? I didn’t think that would ever happen.
“40 years of music – there’s a lot to take in!”
He might be one of the world’s most dynamic rock frontmen, but Howlin’ Pelle Almqvist of The Hives is a down to earth chap when he’s not prancing about on international stages. My cousin once saw the pretence-free Swede getting around Perth’s suburbs on a public bus, suggesting the vocalist’s top-hat-and-tails schtick doesn’t extend to lofty demands in day-to-day life. Conducted ahead of an Australian headline tour and a Splendour In The Grass festival appearance, this short conversation proved Almqvist is a gifted raconteur and charming interviewee. Even without a new album to promote (their Modular release Lex Hives would emerge in 2012), the subsequent live dates went down a treat.
The following is an edited version of an interview published in Rip It Up in July 2011.
The Hives - Stockholm Syndrome
by Scott McLennan
A long way from the high-kickin’, mic-swingin’, fast-talkin’ ringmaster of The Hives’ dynamic live shows, frontman Howlin’ Pelle Almqvist is at home in Stockholm watering his plants when Rip It Up checks in with the animated vocalist. Breaking the fantasy, Almqvist admits he doesn’t practise his amusingly brash gig oratories on his rhododendrons.
“I save that for the arena!” Almqvist laughs. “I have an on and off switch, but I have a hard time turning it off sometimes. I leave it on for weeks on end and I forget to switch it off. Right now it’s entirely off, so you’re safe to talk to me.”
A live favourite in Australia since their 2001 appearance at Falls Festival earmarked them as a touring band not to be missed, the sharp-suited Swedish quintet have kept the same line-up since they formed the band as teenagers in Fagersta almost 20 years ago.
“I think the secret to still being together is that we started really young. If you fail miserably for 20 years in a row someone’s probably going to quit, but I think it’s pretty important that what you’re doing is sort of popular so you can make a living out of it! There have been times when it’s got a little rough, but after those rough spots you come out stronger. It’s like a marriage – you’ve got to work at it.”
So you’ve had physical and verbal fights with other members?
“Yeah, both. The physical part less so now than when we were younger, but we’d fight. Now we talk through problems – you don’t usually start fighting for no reason – and if there’s a crisis we’ll have long therapy sessions. Not like in the Metallica documentary [Some Kind Of Monster] though – we’re our own therapists!”
You don’t want Metallica’s psychiatrist in a bad woollen jumper helping you out.
“Those sweaters are very Australian, aren’t they?” Almqvist asks. “I’ve seen them in airports across Australia – these super-coloured knitted woollen sweaters.”
A connoisseur of fine fashion, Almqvist admits he routinely brushes off romantic solicitations from both men and women attracted to the blue-eyed rocker.
“I turn these offers down in a very friendly manner – there’s no need to panic! The worse thing you can do is to run away, because they feel you’re even more special and start running after you. It’s best to stay calm and explain that you’re not interested, so it’s usually fine.”
During their recent European festival appearances The Hives have been performing new single Go Right Ahead, offering audiences a taste of their impending fifth album. Having showcased the influence of Phil Spector’s production on their previous single, 2008’s A Christmas Duel featuring Cyndi Lauper, Almqvist suggests they’ve now moved on to ‘70s glam rock for inspiration.
“We’ve been into The Jets and The Glitter Band lately – those bargain basement bands that didn’t make it! It’s so nuts and over the top, so we’ve always been fans of that.”
Will the next evolution of The Hives’ uniform reflect this ‘70s influence, with the appearance of flared suits?
“You’d think so, but you’ve actually got to juxtapose it with something else. No, I don’t think we’d ever be into the flared pants. The Glitter Band looked pretty cool of course, but our style was always more minimal.”
Almqvist’s highly energetic repertoire of stage moves has been carefully honed over the years, but the confident frontman admits that most have been cribbed from heroes such as James Brown, Mick Jagger and Roger Daltrey.
“The moves come together pretty organically. You do something once, then a couple of hundred times, and then you can do it perfectly. You cannot be afraid of failure – that’s the trick. It’s mostly stuff that I pick up from other people. You see the moves and you make them your own, but it’s still cool to do exactly what James Brown did. Most of that stuff is just a matter of wanting to entertain yourself a little more. If you’re playing 200-plus shows a year you need to change it up slightly otherwise you’d go insane. So it has that other function besides being entertaining for the audience – I have to entertain myself!”
The swaggering demeanour of The Hives has been part of their schtick since their earliest performances in the mid-‘90s, with the band initially drawing inspiration from cult gang flick The Warriors.
“Kitschy action films like The Warriors are the perfect example of the themes we love, although Flash Gordon and vaguely superhero stuff are also good for inspiration. Quentin Tarantino is great at taking the heritage of the movies that you had copies of on VCR when you were a kid and then turning them into something that makes sense for now. He’s made films that are better than most of his influential movies really ever were. I think for him as it is for us that it’s the aesthetics that suck you in. You can use those aesthetics but still make something with content, whereas a lot of those old films were mainly made to look cool and no one thought about the fact they could have dialogue. Most of those kung fu movies are a 10-word script!
“It’s the same thing with us – a lot of the music we’ve been influenced by was only written to make you smile and shake your hips, but we’ve tried to fill it with a little more content. [Novelty ‘60s rock track] Wooly Bully would have been a pretty good Hives song, but we couldn’t have lived with those lyrics!”
Back at Thebarton Theatre after almost four years, Almqvist is excited about returning to South Australia.
“It will be our pleasure. Do you know if the oil workers are on leave from the oil platforms this time? They were insane at the last show – they let it rip!”
Unpublished Interview Material
Are you still a vegetarian?
“I sort of dabble in it, but I still eat fish. I don’t eat cow, but I still wear leather. That’s pretty much it, but I feel people should eat less of it. And if someone ate that cow already I might as well wear it! I’m just happy knowing it wasn’t me…”
Little Steven from the E Street Band narrated your documentary on the Tussles In Brussels DVD. Was it your love of the E Street Band or The Sopranos that made you go with him?
“We’re just fans all round. The Sopranos is what got us thinking that he should do the job, but before we saw he could act we always liked him as a guitar player too. It turned out perfect and he’s a fan, so that’s how we got to meet him.”
What’s your favourite Bruce Springsteen song?
“Oh yikes. There’s so much – I like a lot of that stuff. What do I say now?”
Lost for words, Pelle? I didn’t think that would ever happen.
“40 years of music – there’s a lot to take in!”
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