[KONTROVERS]

1.: Greetings Mattias! How are you? I hope everything´s fine and you´re in the right mood to answer all my questions.
Hi Gerste... Right now everything is just great... After a long day of reading and eating at the beach I feel great. Going back to work tomorrow after some weeks vacation. Maybe not so excited about that though...

2.: At first please let us know what are the latest KONTROVERS news? Is the split 7" with MASS SEPARATION and your new full lenght record finally out or do we still have to wait for it?
The split 7" has just arrived, and the new full length "När spelreglerna ändras" (Altered rules?) is at the pressing plant. The split is an old recording, recorded at the same time as our split 7" with Beyond Description. The new full length is recently recorded and a bit different
from our other stuff; more basic hardcore punk in my ears.

3.: Next a little bit of history: How long does the band exist, who founded it and what was the inspiration to found a band? What have you released so far and what´s your favorite KONTROVERS record?
I am in the mood for story-telling, so here we go. Me, Simon and our first guitarist Zigge talked about getting together a band, playing only classic punk-covers, we found a young very talented drummer - Jonas. We asked him and he was excited. We decieded to name the band "Force fed folköl". Nothing happened for a long time, and all we did was talk about it. But When we finally got together to do something, we realized that we really wanted to play classic scandi-d-deat hardcore; kängpunk. In some months we made 8 songs and got to record them, together with Rodrigo on his portastudio. At first we called ourself Disgorge, and pretty soon we changed it to Kontrovers. We released this as a democassette in 1996, and we were very pleased with it. Stefan later joined the band, Zigge was replaced by Fredrik. We did a new recording, now in Rodrigos newstudio. This recording became the 7" "Skendemokrati"(1999) (P.F.C.), much faster than before but people seemed to like it. After 8 new songs we got back to Rodrigo and wanted to record again - A split 7" with Beyond Description(2000) (C.A.F.) & a split 7" with Mass Separation(2003)(P.F.C.//ISG.REHK´DZ) were the results of those days in the studio. A year or so later, we recorded our full length, also at Rodrigos studio, 20 songs plus some songs for various compilations. Somewhere here, in the making of this record Carin joined the band, at first as a stand in for Stefan who moved somewhere else, but when Stefan came back we all wanted Carin to join the band too. After a while the record was released as Cd/Lp - "kontrovers" (2002) (P.F.C.). And the latest thing we did was to record 12 new songs, to be another Full length. This time in a studio called Berno Studios, in Malmö. This one is also released as both Cd and Lp, "När spelreglerna ändras"(2003) (P.F.C.). The inspiration to found my first band was all cliché like... you know.
Angry youngster wanting to be heard, to spread a message and to be seen of course. Some years later when we started Kontrovers we thougth we had somehting to say, and we wanted to use the lyrics as a way to spread our political beliefs. Musically, My main inspirations back then were (and are still) : Snifter, Black Flag, Ebba GRön, Discharge, Pink FLoyd, ENT, Hiatus, No Security, Bad Brains, Husker Du, Anthrax, Doom, DRI, Metallica, Napalm Death, Svart SNö, Totalitär, TT-reuter & Roky Erikson

4.: Can you describe your music for all those who´ve never heard of KONTROVERS?
oh shit - hardcorepunk, pretty fast at times, pretty slow at times. many of us used to listen to loads of metal, so there might be some metal in the music to. i dont know how to describe it really. if my mother would describe it, she would probably say "i dont understand it, i can´t even hear what they are singing".

5.: Your lyrics: Who writes the lyrics and what do yo wanna express by them? Do you think that your lyrics are an important part of the band?
we all write the lyrics, so they are very varying both in styles and issues. many of the lyrics are kind of "political". But we also have lots of
lyrics, dealing only with personal issues & problems. I dont personally think that lyrics have to be very important in a band, hell there are great instrumental bands. Lyrics can be very useful of course to spread a message or deliever a feeling.

6.: What does your family, friends and workmates think about the band you`re playing in?
my mother likes the fact that i am in a band... but she definitely do not understand our music. she also thinks it is great that we get to ventilate personal thoughts and political issues in our lyrics. Some of our friends like us and supports us, some do not iike us, but as friends they supports us anyway. My workmates, definitely not understand the music I play in kontrovers, but they know that it is very valuable in my work...

7.: You´re working at a youthcenter, right? Can you tell as a little more about your work there and this youthcenter?
Yes I am working with youths, mainly 15-23 years old. It is a place here in my hometown, a place for kids to hang out, get together, play musc, drink coffee, play pool and so on. I am responsible for the music activities in the house. We have rehearsal rooms, we arrange concerts, I am helping bands to record democassettes and much more. Many of the bands are punkbands, and many of friends punkbands started out at this youthcenter, called Hemgården. I started my first band there, when i used to hangt out there, before I got a permanent job there. In many ways this is the best place of work I can think of...

8.: How long are you intersted in HC/Punk?
I got into the punkmovement through skatebording, when I started buying thrasher magazine constantly in '88-'89 I was amazed by the punkers, and thrashers in the magazine. I started writing the "Black Flag - bars" & misfits-skulls in my schoolbooks, but I did not know what the band sounded like. Then I started to listen to the music in the old skateboardmovies, and soon I gott pretty good hang of it.

9.: Can you remember the first show you ever visited and the first record you ever bought?
my first record was an old socialist-hippie-progressive band "Nationalteatern - Barn av vår tid" this was 1982, I was only six years old, but I really wanted this record, so my mother bought it to me. But the first one I bought by myself was "Kiss - Animalize" 1984 or '85. The first show must have been "Dan Hylander" a swedish really boring singer. I went with my father when I was really young. One of my first punkconcerts must have been the swedish band "De Lyckliga Kompisarna".

10.: What about your musical influences? What are the ten most important/favorite records for you and why?
shit... well we all have very different musical references. I myself, i have always been into really miscellaneous musicstyles. But when I am writing songs to the band, I think I am most influed by the 90'ies american-crust and old scandi-crust. Disrupt, State of fear, ANti-CImex, Totalitär, No Security and so on. But also in the punkscene, trends affect you, and right know just as everyone else i am a bit into japanese hardcore. Hopefully the trend will last and those crazy japanese musical einsteins, will just keep on delievering great records.
-RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS - the uplift mofo party plan
(when this one came, I was stunned - so skate, so cool)
-NO SECURITY/VALVONTAKOMISSIO split 12"
(probably the first käng-record i heard, I was totally sold - been a devoted
no security fan since then...)
-PINK FLOYD - the final cut
(their last record with Waters, dark, emotional and beautiful)
-AFI - sing the sorrow
(this have to be one of the best albums in the world...)
-STOOGES - s/t
(so much energy - amazing, raw, first?)
-METALLICA - kill em all
(thrashmetal at its best...)
-SLAYER - reign in blood
(to me, this is summer, skating, partying)
-SVART SNÖ - nemesis divina
(also one of the first hardcorealbums i heard... they ought to get more
attention)
-STATE OF FEAR - the tables wil turn
(catchy, angry basic well played hardcore...)
-DISRUPT - unrest
(classic! - those songs are just so great, no matter what people think)

11.: What are your thoughts on the Swedish scene? Do you see the scene as a particularly strong one? What about unity, respect and understanding?
oh! I don´t know really. The scene is not comparable to the rest of Europe, but at some places in Sweden the scene is really strong. Those places come and go. The scene is not very static, it is changing all the time. Sometimes the scene is nothing else but police-like, and sometimes it is beautiful, respecting & caring. The scene, to me, seems better in the rest of Europe.

12.: Please tell us about the area you live in and about life in Sweden in general. Do you like to live there? What about racism and nationalim? Is it a big problem in Sweden like in other European countries too?
I live in a town called Lund, it is a University-town, so we have alot of students here. The town is sometimes very nice and I really love living here, Sometimes I just hate this palce, and I want to find a house in the forrest somewhere. Nowadays we dont have so many punkgigs or anything in this town, everything and almost everyone has moved to Malmö, just 15 Km away so that is cool. Yes we have racism, nationalists and nazis here. But we have surprisingly few of these assholes in this town. These kids acts in herds, they are all centered in different towns. Of course it is a big problem. In some regions the racist parties are very strong to, so it is not just a "kids thing".

13.: Did you ever had problems with nazi scum at gigs? If yes, what did you do against this assholes?
In my town and in malmö there are oftyen no problem with thids shit. But in a town not so long from here, there are often nazis showing up at gigs, beating up people and so... As far as I know many of the gigs there ends up with fights and chases. I think that one way to try to make the nazis not coming to the shows, is getting more punks to come there. Too many punks makes the nazis afraid... In this town I know that there are many demonstrations and so against the nazis too. And the problem concerns everyone in the city. Me myself, I am to anxious and afraid to go to the shows in that town.

14.: Back to the music: If you were offered a split with a band of your choice, what band would it be and why?
...hmm, i would like to say AFI - just because i think they are one of the best bands ever.

15.: Where and when did you play your craziest show with KONTROVERS?
shit my memory is very bad. But one that comes to mind is a show we did in Swiss. At a place called 'catwalk music bar'... The show was maybe not so crazy, but it was a wicked night. It all ended up with love songs, acoustic guitars, duets - and Heidi. i cant remember everything that happened that night, I just remember laughing all of the time.

16.: Do KONTROVERS gig regularly? Locally or also in other countries? Are there many venues in Sweden supporting HC/Punk/Grind etc.?
Right now we dont do any gigs. Because everyone in the band is not living here anymore. But we will be back... There are not as many venues supporting this music, as there are people. So the regular thing here is a bunch of people are setting up gigs at different places.

17.: How do you see the future with the band? What about futureplans?
I have no idea. I just want to get out on the road, but it is to hard, when some are studying, some are working and so... But i really hope that we can do many more tours. After the touring part, I know that EMI and MTV will get their hands on us. So we will sell out, buy houses in Hollywood, earning shitloads of money, and probably start playing neo-metal. No really, I dont know. I just want to play, skate and eat.

18.: That´s it mate, thanx a lot for answering all these questions!!! All the best for you and KONTROVERS. Any last comments? This space is yours...
Thanx alot, sorry for my bad english... Take care... See ya on the road somewhere...