Spetälska has just released an LP called Dö som Boskap, the record doesn't sound like anything else in our punk/hardcore/goth world and is really worth listening to. So of course there will be an interview. July-2025

Tell us a little about the group, when you started and why?

Wilke: We are a Umeå band and we are a so-called Covid19 band that started during the pandemic. My girlfriend Elvira lived in the same student corridor as Agata and brought us together. I met Luiz at the bookstore Röda Stjärnan in Umeå and we started talking about Joy Division. So we didn't really know each other before Spetälska.

Agata: I usually say that Wilke wanted to start a band, I had a bass, and Luiz was a genius. The rest is history.

Is it only Luiz, Agata and Wilke who make up the group or how is it?

Wilke: That's right.

What kind of groups have you been in before?

Wilke: I've played in the crustpunk band Systemskifte before I moved to Umeå, then I was involved in starting the grindcore band Grid in 2014, but left them after two years. However, they are still active today!

Luiz: I played post rock and shoegaze in my home country of Brazil, and math rock when I lived in Ireland. In Malmö I started a lo-fi, 80's indie band but we never released anything and didn't play live.

Agata: I've always been a loner before Spetälska, so this is my first band. The boys have pulled me out of my comfort zone.

The drummer on Dö som Boskap, who is it?

Luiz: It's me. I actually play drums on all the other songs too. Why?

Agata: Luiz gets mistaken for a drum machine sometimes but we can promise that it's just him and his two arms and legs in all our music.

You released your record on Zorch productions, why did you choose Zorch?

Wilke: I went through my record boxes and checked what similar bands have released for labels, then I emailed everyone. Zorch took the plunge and wanted to release the album. Zorch releases a lot of odd stuff, so it was a good fit!

The cover photo of Dö som boskap, where does it come from?

Wilke: I'm half-Austrian, and when I was in Vienna two years ago, I walked through the city. By chance, I discovered the statue in a residential area. The statue is a memorial to those who died in World War I. If anyone else wants to visit the monument, it can be found at Mannswörther Strasse 11 in Vienna.

Is it important to have a cover so you understand what type of music the band plays?

Wilke: To create a cover that reflects the music is difficult, I think.

Agata: It is important to us that our imagery is genuine and matches what we want to portray. But as Wilke says – it is difficult to reflect one medium in another. The viewer will probably have to decide whether the covers fit the music or not. That's the way it is with all art.

Which is your absolute favorite cover on a record at all?

Wilke: Everything that Nick Blinko in Rudimentary Peni has drawn. Then all releases on Crass Records had interesting and nice covers.

Agata: S/T by Joyce Manor I think. Nothing special about that cover really, I'm simply nostalgic.

To play this type of music in Sweden is not so common, how has the album been received?

Wilke: The problem with making music in 2025 is that there's too much competition. It's hard to reach out to people when a million other bands are also releasing music at the same time. "Dö som boskap" has received mixed reactions, and that is positive. We don't want to be a band that appeals to all people.

Agata: We write what we like. The fact that there are people who like "Dö som boskap" is a nice bonus. We appreciate those who take their time to listen, even those who didn't like it.

What's the strangest thing anyone has written about it?

Wilke: That it sounds like The Kristet Utseende. Not to belittle Pastor Fahlgren's great deed.

Your lyrics, who does them and what are you influenced by?

Wilke: We write the music together and all members contribute lyrics. My own texts are a concoction of politics, history, philosophy, horror and science fiction.

Agata: Lyrics that Luiz and I write are often more focused on emotions than Wilkes. I am drawn to themes of nostalgia, religion and cannibalism as a metaphor most of the time.

Tell us a little about the following texts?

- Anständighet & terror

Wilke: Anständighet & Terror is a song inspired by the French Revolution. The term "Decency & Terror" is an "ugly translation" of the slogan "Virtue and Terror" of the revolutionary leader Maximillian Robespierre. The song is about nothing being carved in stone or lasting forever. In one night, an entire world order can be overturned. The song's message can be summed up with a quote from old Lenin: "There are years when nothing happens, then there are weeks when years happen".

 -SJ Nattåg

Agata: I commute a lot between Umeå and Örnsköldsvik. SJ-Nattåg was born during a period of commuting that ended with an incredibly unsuccessful journey down to Stockholm, by train of course. The song is basically about frustration. Delayed departures and cancelled trains - these are small things that are stored and finally cause you to burst. Is there nothing better in this life than mishaps? In that case, there are not many ways out.

-Guldkalven:

Wilke: I wrote The Golden Calf after I read the Bible. The Bible is, in my opinion, both an interesting but also often bizarre storybook, and the song "Guldkalven" is about the danger of following religious scriptures literally.

-Nedeliya Luiz: Nedeliya (or Nedelia) means Sunday in Bulgarian, where I lived when I wrote the text. It is about loneliness, not having the opportunity to change one's own life, feeling like a slave to one's work and certain social structures, something that many people feel every Sunday. I wanted something "from Bulgaria" but can't write lyrics in the language, so I chose this name.

To have politics in your texts, is it something that is important or is it the same as for many people already have?

Wilke: For me, it's important that the music has a message, political, philosophical or emotional. A song that has nothing to say is not a good song.

Luiz: I would also say that there are a lot of songs that talk about the life of the working class and problems that you don't recognize directly as political. You could say that most people who are depressed or "mentally ill" are so because of capitalism, or that capitalism worsens their condition.

Agata: All music is political. Consciously or not.

Which is the best political band?

Wilke: Natonalteatern? Even though I myself am a punk I think that the Swedish proggbands many times wrote better lyrics than the punks did.

Luiz: Right now it can only be Kneecap. I lived for two years in Ireland and learned a lot about the Irish left-wing nationalist movement, which is still good, old-fashioned left-wing without many of the mannerisms that make the European left so cowardly and incompetent. A band as brave, sharp and smart as they could only come from the Irish working class.

Speaking of politics, what do you think it's like to live in Sweden today? What is the best and the worst?

Wilke: Sweden is in total decline. Now we are going to give 300 billion to NATO while health and social care are on their knees. There is money for war, for human lives there is nothing. It's hard to think of anything positive about Sweden. Maybe the contempt for politicians?

Luiz: Sweden is in free fall, just like the rest of Europe but with an arrogant attitude, that we are still a "special" country, a "humanitarian superpower", unfortunately that attitude lives on and creates even more problems. Many "good people" still believe that corruption does not exist in Sweden, that the Swedish media would never lie to the population, and that gross, explicit racism would not be tolerated. Even in "ordinary" countries, a migration minister with links to neo-Nazism would not be accepted. Racism in Sweden is not only something that is practiced by hooligans on the street, but it is a systematic error, there is a total lack of empathy for everything that is not white and European. This is proven when you see how a large percentage of society feels about, for example, Gaza, China, Iran and others.

Agata: I am probably everything that our current government dislikes – woman, lesbian, health worker and immigrant. Wins by being white anyway, life plays. I am pleased with the fact that things are still better politically here than in my own country. So far. Nice weather up here too.

Is there any really good bands in Sweden that you would like to recommend?

Wilke: Rättens Krater from Bergslagen!

Agata: The Ravening, Left Hand of Darkness and Spögelse like this in a straight line.

Five favorite records all time?

Wilke: Can we say a favorite record was instead? In that case, I say Death Church with Rudimentary Peni.

Luiz: Fourteen Autumns and Fifteen Winters, The Twilight Sad

Agata: Adore - The Smashing Pumpkins

Was it a matter of course that the album would come out physically or can you think that you have made an album if it is only available digitally?

Wilke: I read Skrutt Magazine's interview with Massgrav, and they said it well. "Real bands release real records".

Agata: Digital albums are great but I love the feeling of holding something I've created physically in my two hands.

Have you done anything more physical than Dö som boskap?

Wilke: Yes, we released a vinyl single ourselves called " Dekadens/älven " in 2023. We still have a few copies left in case anyone wants to buy it.

Agata: We also had cassettes with live recordings from a gig, "Mörker över älven", but they are probably all sold.

How do you come up with an album title like Dö som boskap?

Wilke: It's from a poem by the poet and soldier Wilfred Owen who died in World War I and wrote anguished poems about life in the trenches. The same poem that we interpret in the song "Dödsdömd Ungdom".

What kind of people do you have at your concerts?

Wilke: Punks, goths and other loose folk.

What's the best thing about playing live?

Wilke: Reaching out to people.

Agata: When you play live, your music feels "real". I love all the errors and all the changes that occur spontaneously and most of all I appreciate the chemistry we have in the band when we are on stage.

What is the strangest thing that has happened during a concert with Spetälska?

Luiz: Not a concert but I lived for a year in Bulgaria. We continued with Spetälska as usual. I "commuted" from Sofia to Sweden to play concerts and then I went back to Bulgaria again.

What type of bands do you play with?

Wilke: We often play at punk gigs where it is a little mixed. A hardcore band, a 77-punk band, a goth band and then Spetälska.

Luiz: Umeå is too small to have segregated music scenes and I think that's a very good thing.

What is your relation to punk?

Wilke: I'm 33 years old and have been in the punk scene since I was like 14-15. So for me punk means a lot. Punk for me is community, resistance and to give a fuck about what the rest thinks.

Luiz: I've been doing alternative music and political activism all my life, but was never explicitly "punk". Maybe I looked too kind and harmless.

Agata: I like the loud, angry, sad, odd and political. Then it's clear that you are attracted to this particular music. When I moved to Umeå, I was drawn to the community in the punk scene and started to discover myself more and more. Punk for me means freedom, resistance and community.

Futureplans for the band?

Wilke: We're going into the studio again in October to record 4 songs. These are supposed to be released as a split together with another Umeå band. Then the lineup will possibly change around New Year.

For yourself?

Wilke: I'm graduating as an assistant nurse this fall.

Agata: Starting my bachelor's degree is either at Konstfack or Umeå Art Academy.

Words of wisdom?

Wilke: Long live Palestine.

Something to add?

Wilke: Feel free to buy records and merch from us so we can afford to make new stuff. Records can be bought from Bengans or directly from us. T-shirts and other merch can be purchased via our social media.

Agata: We are most easily reached via our Instagram @spetalska if you have any questions or just want to write for fun.