SKUMDUM

MSN is really good. I interviewed Pierre from Skumdum before the fact that they´re releasing a a split-CD in december 2008.   One Sunday evening in oktober 2008 was the day fort his interview.   

 

Only three now….what happened to  Linkan?

 -Linkan decided to move to Malmö and study. After many thinkings and discussions he decided to let him be replaced because he understood that he couldn´t fly up to Skellefteå so often that we wanted and we have always thought that all members should be a part in the songwritingprocess so to have him as a hanging liveguitarist wasn´t actual. We had many talks after that and we thought about who will replace him …but then we did a gig in Skellefteå and we decided us to try to do it as a trio. We recorded the concert and we thought it sounded really fine…so we decided us to go on as a trio and a year later I must say that we don´t regret one second what we decided then. Everything have become so much easier and it´s so much easier to rehearse. And it have been cheaper to fly to some gigs. I mustn´t say how many miles we have done in a sweaty minibus through the years….Skellefteå isn´t in our world(or Swedens) center.  

 

You haven´t any thoughts of taking in someone else?

-No. As I wrote before it´s really good to be a trio.

 

I have listened to the record a little….folkmusicinfluences?

-It´s surely some influences from folkmusic…I have always been weak for English and irish folkmusic and I like the gypsystomp that for example Gogol Bordello does…even Manu Chao is an artist I have really big respect for.  

 

It´s fun when you develop a little but I still think you have your Skumdum style, Is this your your voice which gives it the sound or? 

-Good but hard question. I also think we have the special “SkumDum sound” and I am really honest when I say that there isn´t a band in the world which sounds like us. Of course I think that my voice is one of those parts but also the way I plays the bass, Chris drums and Patrik plays his guitar, It´s really fun to see that Patrik started to write songs.He have come into the group a much lot better the latest years and also Chris is a part of the songwriting. How poppy/skatepunky/crusty a song is in the beginning when we started to work with it so is it Skumdum in the end.  

 

Did you thought that you should be going on for so long time when you once wrote my favouritesong Meningslös Tro?

-Haha I don´t even think that we thought about things then. …Fuck in that time so was the thirtys an age that your parents was. But I read an old thing I wrote in school and guess what you should do in about 15 years…and there it stood acually. In 15 years I´m a rockstar and tour the whole world with my band Skumdum.

 

Is that right? Rockstar I mean?

-Haha I don´t even know what a rockstar is….maybe someone like Dregen , or??

 

You have been abroad and played…where have you been?

-We have played in Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark, Spain and France. Now hopefully it will be Germany this summer and we´re booking a tour with a German band. And then we go on really good in Japan so it´s not impossible that it will be e Japantour too..

 

Which country have been the best and which is most cool?

-I think that Spain is really wonderful! Fucking good audience, fucking good places to play and that people go to concerts to dance and sing along. In Sweden all shall looking at each other…I think that every swede have an own reviewer in their bodies.

 

Do they sing along in the swedish songs too or do you don´t play them anymore?

-Some of the songs we play now and then and sure is the spains sing along in them too…We have good complains that we don´t play so many more songs from Demoner-record and that even if they don´t understand anything of the songs.  

 

Is it therefore you have done a spanish singed song on the lates trecord? Just to tribute the spanish fans?  

-Haha it´s actually a song which mate wrote when we lived in Barcelona 2001. But the new song I wrote on our latest tour of Spain. We have 2 songs in Spanish.  . El perro de la muerte – as we wrote 2001 and Resaca en las chabolas – which comes on the split. . El perro de la muerte - "the dog of death" isn´t about anything but we have obliviously got it so good together so the spains do think it´s something deep under the lyrics. We sat when we were drunk and did it, haha.

 

You talked about that 30 years was something that your parents was in the time when you started to play….which ages have you been coming to?  

-Haha we´re 20 years all of us. No, seriously so am I the oldest one with my 31 years, Chris went over 30 this spring and Patrik is still 28 years…fucking child…  

 

Have he been 28 years for a long time or what?

-No, what I mean is that he haven´t been 29 years yet, he´s a child of december.  

 

Me myself I´m closer to 50 than 40...

-Haha yeah, you see for yourself that time goes.

 

You can really say so but I was there when the punk was in their beginning anyway? How do you see on punk today, is the attitude more important today than it was when you started or what?

-More important if you ask me..We have never been so political as we were on "Skum of the land" and "Two sides of the story". But we have never been a band which have been stucked to something special party…I have mostly found special questions which have been touching me and then I have written a song about that.  

 

Which questions is closest to your heart?

-Time...our tax system..integrationpolitics... yeah, there´s a,lot….but time is the most important and how we choose to disuse it I think is most important.

 

When we talk about time….you have been a dad, how have it changed you? ...

-Wow….yeah what to answer on a question like that. I don´t know if I have been so changed….but I become so fucking angry when I read about children and animals which is going bad for. I looked at TV some Sunday and I cried when I saw something there. I don´t remember what it was but I can almost cry when I see cartoons nowadays. …and then it´s so that you feel more responsible as a parent….It´s a little bit more compromising nowadays to get everything comes together.. 

 

But it´s harder to be a ”rockstar” now when you have been a father?  

-Haha yeah it´s a little bit more puzzling.I am lucky and I have a girlfriend which understand how important music is for me. And then we have good fathers and mothers which helps us if we need any help there. With the system we have now when we tour where we do 1-3 weeks at once instead of playing only weekends. But it´s a little bit hard to do weekdays in Sweden…..  Som tur är har jag en mycket förstående sambo som vet hur viktig musiken .

 

It doesn´t come so much people then or?

-Almost no places wants to let bands play Sunday-Wednesday. Even if you go down in payment…this spring was the first time we managed to play Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday in Sweden and Norway.

 

But it´s better to play on weekdays abroad…I mean more in the south of Europe?

-Yeah, it´s much better but they will also let us play in weekends more there too…. But there´s the climat different. …it´s not a death sin to go out on a Tuesday in Spain and drink some beers. In Sweden you become an alcoholic at once if you take some cold beers some weekday.

True…the new record comes in december, why a split CD?

-I and Danny (the singer in HOOT) have talked a lot of years about doing something together. And the thought was that we´re going over to Florida and tour with them when the record comes. And we decided that we will take them to Sweden and do a tour together. And this spring we decided that now was the time. And then it´s three years since we released “Skum of the land” so it feels that iot is the right time to release something new…we will do a promothing on this record so everyone who pay for the record in advance will get a 4-track ep for free there 3 songs are unreleased.  

 

But not an own fullength CD?

-Yeah, we will release a fullength but it will not be until next autumn. We have 19 songs which we have done and we have recorded them in our rehearsalroom…we have been said that we will record a fullength when we have 25 songs. Earlier we have been forced to release everything we have done just to do a fullength. That have done that we haven´t had any bonus material to release on compilations or singles . And that the quality haven´t been 100 % on all the songs.

 

Nothing more on swedish? ....

-No it will never be anything more with Skumdum in swedish…maybe some song here and there but no records.

 

Why not?

-It feels like I have said this 1000 times before so I send our official pressrelease about this if it´s ok.  

 

Hehe....does people talk about this often? But I think that people liked this a lot? But now back to the music…is it you who does the most of the songs?

-The thing I can say about swedish songs is this. Excuse me I tried to find the lyrics which I wrote about this. After we have released “Det vi kan bäst” I sat down just tow rite new material…I did 14 songs in three days with lyrics and everything…Then I understand that everything only was a routine. No surprises, no spontaneity… Almost as the feeling to go to work….and the problem with Skumdum in swedish was that it feels like we have done everything to develop the sound. I see that I have been a little bit hard in the pressrelease…we actually do some songs live in swedish …but it was forced to be written like that so people would understand. And it´s a lot more fun to give people a song as Lisa instead of the fact that we don´t play it.  

 

What do you work with?

-I work since 2 years back as a construction builder. And earlier I have been everything from a seller to doing pizza…But I am educated as a recreation instructor but I have never worked with that.  

 

What do the other work with?

-Chris is unemployed for the moment bu the have worked as a truckdriver on a company. Patrik works on the same company as me but he drives a mudsuckcar(I don´t know how I translate this).  

 

That sounds dirty?

- Haha yeah it is... No seriously he drives around with a really big lorry and take up gravel and dirt from industries.....

 

Nice….Now back to the important thing Skumdum…how much does a group like Skumdum sells? Have you noticed the downloading much?

- We have never sold so much as we did with ”Skum of the land”…but it is in english and we have sold a lot on our tours so of course is the market bigger when it is in english. I think that we have sold about 1500 in Scandinavia and about 1000 in Japan. But of course so have the downloading done so we sell not so many record. I´m not against the downloading but I don´t believe that the kids understand that if they don´t buy t-shirts, records and other merch so will no one play. Sure it is “the happiness to pla” which is the important but will it costs us a lot of money without getting anything back so does the happiness disappear after a while. If I knew that everyone who download our music will come on our concert and maybe buy a t-shirt so wouldn’t I doubt on the thing to release everything for free. The problem is that it isn´t so and I think it´s really hard the whole thing with downloading. I still buy records even if I have them on mp3…have actually a whole lot of records which still haven’t open and which still is wrapped with plastic.  

 

That´s right I think….but there´s some advantages with it also….the downloading I mean?

-The best with it is that small band can come out to an audience really fast. The worst with it is that there´s noone which do so it is any quality on the net. There´s so much music which is shit which never have seen daylight if it haven´t been just because of downloading and internet. Sometimes I have got some mail on My Space from some new band which want me to luisten to their new demo on their My Space which I almost do. In some cases it´s a rehearsalrecording with so bad soundquality so you almost not can hear if it´s a girl or a boy which sings. It´s so that I won´t listen anymore on the band when they release their debut later and that is something that I don´t think that people understand. It was so easy before . if you were good there was some company who released the record. If you wasn´t good it wasn´t any recordrelease. Now it sounds like I am the worst musicelitist and so it isn´t…I only want people to think about it before they start to promote something you will be ashamed of after 2 years.  

 

Most overrated band right now?

-Ohhhh piethrowing I like really much hahaha. No, I don´t want to mention anyone and I´m a coward and says everything which have with Idol to do.  

 

Some bands you listen to now?

-Yeah….I listen a lot to Rise Against and Star fucking hipsters. And then I have always been a sucker to the Fat Wreck bands.

 

Star Fucking Hipsters is really good….yeah, we´re on our way to end this interview but we take some more questions…You only do My Space nowadays….no ”real” website?

- No we will build a new one because the old one have lost everything which is interesting. So now it is  www.myspace.com/skumdum which is the one right now.

 

What do you like My Space, Facebook and those things?

-Have some difficulties with  Facebook. I think it´s too much- But we can notice that many bands have found their way out to the world via My Space….what do you like the record then?

 

I have listened 4-5 times to it today and it grows more and more for every time and I really looking foreward to hear the wholeness with a physic record ? It´s fun with the folkmusicinfluences? What do you think about it?  

- We´re really satisfied…all the songs have their own style on the record but I think that the wholeness is really good.

 

Will you find any new fans with your ”new” style do you think?

- Hmmm I hope so but the thing I think is that the new material is so much broader than before.

 

Which people do you miss on your concerts? That you want to see on your concerts?

- Wow...I see tendencies that people is older now when we have gone over to english. But I miss all the kids which download our record on Internet and then sits on MSN and Facebook instead of going to concerts.  

 

The record comes out in december…when and on which company?

- Yeah, fuck now you will hear…the record is released on our newstarted company Junkyard Entertainment. We have got this together with our main sponsor Junkyard and Sweet. So it have been a lot of work with distributors in the rest of Europa…  

 

Will you have any other bands there?

- That will we surely have…I haven´t talked with Mr Junkyard about which bands and how big power I have…hahaha..

 

Something more to say in todays interview?

- No I don´t know..I would like to have some help with promotion with the record but it´s not interesting in the interview. Have a funny history. I found two songs with the old Kågepunx, folköl record.I tell you the history first…as I said two boxes with Kågepunx…I sent it to Interpunk.com if you have heard about them? It´s one of the five biggest onlineshops for punk in the world. So I thought it maybe could be some mad Japanese who wanted to buy the Kågepunxrecord. I sent also som Va fan har hänt records which was colelcting dust. They come up on the site 16 0´clock Swedish time and they was sold 17. So I sent 15 new ones…which was sold in 2 hours. Sent 15 more and can see that after one day half of them are sold. …so we´re on the 30th place on their hitlist.

With Kågepunx, folköl!!!

 

Good......something else to say before we stop here? To the readers I mean?

- Buy the record and come and dance on our concerts.

 

After some checking over his disk Pierre founded what he have written about swedish lyrics and here it is…..

 

Hello!

At the beginning I thought about writing a short mail that we don´t sing in Swedish anymore but I thought that I should explain why we have taken that decision.

All Skumdums gigs nowadays is in english nowadays and we don´t play any song in Swedish anymore. We will not play any song in Swedish anymore evn if people begging. Why do you think…...

Just because of the fact that we want to go further. It´s surely so that we will not do any more song in Swedish. I was sitting after “Det vi kan bäst” record and I did songs to a new record. I did 13 songs in a week and then it hit me. This isn´t fun anymore. I know exactly how I should to a perfect “trallpunk”-song in Swedish but it’s no challenge. Now we must go further and do something else , otherwise we will lost our happiness to play.

After many talks we decided us to try in english. That lead to the fact of all borders we had before was broken down. For the first time we had the chance to do precisely what we want just because of the fact that people would think that the languagechange was the big difference. And some people thinks it´s a sellout but it can stand for them because we haven´t earn some more money just because of the languagechange. Of course is the market bigger just because of the fact that we´re singing in English and the tourpossibilities is eternal. I cannot see any negative thing with this.  

Sure I can understand that people who likes swedish punk is disappointed but we must think about this bands continuing. I think that Skumdum sounds more Skumdum than ever and I cannot understand what the resist to english lyrics is about. We cannot go on playing songs which was done 95-01 because then it´s better we start a coverband which only plays  Skumdumcovers in swedish.

I think that Skum of the land without doubt is the best album we have done and that the new songs kicks ass. If people don´t agree people don´t need to listen to us. Nagging and jdging us and be angry on us the last thing we need and it doesn´t help any other people either. Give the new songs a chance before you say anything. Do you still think this is crap we cannot do anything except say that you can listen to another band.   vi gjort och tycker att de nya låtarna kickar röv! Om folk inte håller med så behöver dom ju..

Hope this answer is alright and that you can understand why we have changed language…please send this mail to other people which is disappointed by our choice.  

/Pierre