The Boogietraps is a norwegian band which rocks off as the last time on earth have come. Have you missed them give them a listening and have you heard them before, listen again. December 2025.

Please tell me a little history of the group, when you started to play , when and why? 

Magnum: We started the band as far back as 2013. Nils, Ulf and our original drummer Mathias were fresh off from another band and needed something new to do. I was between bands myself, so I was game. We had a few rehearsals and wrote a few songs before Mathias tragically passed away. The band was then dormant for a few months until we started up again with Olle on drums… and we’ve been going ever since.

Tell me a little about every member, age, name, what you play and bands before and on the side of The Boogietraps? 

Magnum: I’m the singer – “Magnum” on stage, “Ole” off. I’m 29, of course… plus 25. I’ve previously sung in the bands The Basement Brats (with Nils and Ulf), Dammit and Deluxe 66. I don’t have any side bands at the moment – except for the occasional Basement Brats reunion gig and a few minor “projects” now and then. Don’t have time for it either, frankly. Wish I did.

Nils Tempo: Nils Tempo, guitar, 51 years old. I also play in The Basement Brats and Mona & The Monos together with my girlfriend, Mona Mono. I dig guitars and especially Telecasters.

Ulf: I’m Ulf, 52 years old, and have played bass since about 1989. I’ve played in The Basement Brats, Dieseldyra, The Squareheads, Helldiver… oh, and Dammit.

Olle: Olle, 40, I’ve played drums since ’95. I’ve played in Caroline & The Treats, Twang-O-Matics, Moneyshots, Panheads, Axident Avenue. Right now I play in Margo, The All Night Longs… and The Boogietraps.

Boogie Traps, please tell me a little about the name? How did it came foreward? 

Magnum: If I may correct you, the exact form of the name is “The Boogietraps”. It was Olle who came up with the suggestion at a rehearsal one day when we tried to brainstorm potential bandnames. It is of course based on the word “booby traps”, but with “boogie” instead, to make it sound a little more musically oriented. We don’t play a lot of boogie, really, but that’s because we’ve trapped all the boogie. Obviously.

You have done some LP:s now, is it important to get out them on vinyl? 

Magnum: I guess whether it’s “important” or not is subjective. Obviously, plenty of people are more than happy with streaming services these days. My own subjective feeling is that a record/album feels a lot more “real” when I’m holding it in my hand as a physical medium – and never more so than when it’s made of vinyl. That’s very physical, with actual physical grooves that physically contain the music. So yeah, it’s very nice! Makes me feel like we’ve actually made something. Plus, it’s good to have some merch to sell at gigs.

Nils Tempo: YES! A record isn’t really released until it’s on vinyl.

Ulf: It is to some of us, but maybe not equally important to everyone.

Olle: I think it’s great fun to have it on vinyl. ‘Cause I’m always going to have it. If it’s only on Spotify, then someone can delete it with a keypress, you never see it again, and it’s just like it hasn’t happened.

The last one is called Some kind of stupid? Is there any peculiar one you think of there?? 

Magnum: I guess Nils will have to answer this one, as he was the one who wrote the lyrics. But I don’t think so…?

Nils Tempo: Well… not really. But if you feel that the shoe fits, etc.

This time is Fucking North Pole records which is releasing it, howcome? 

Magnum: We have – more or less – released our previous records (two albums and two seven-inchers) ourselves. The first album – “A Piece of the Action” – was in cooperation with an external label, but we actually did all the work ourselves, including dealing with the pressing plant and all that. That’s fine, but it’s a lot of work. This time Robert Dyrnes at Fucking North Pole Records was interested in releasing it, so that saved us a bit of the work – and got us better distribution too.

Is it important to have a record cover that shows which type of music you play? 

Magnum: I personally think it’s more important to have covers that actually look cool. And I think all ours do. I’m unsure if our covers really do show the type of music we play? Not exactly, anyway. I guess the covers are within a certain style – or styles – but I feel the music hidden behind those covers wouldn’t necessarily have to be garage/punk. That said, it would probably look a little strange if our records looked like they could be a disco or hip hop album.

Olle: When I buy records, I often buy them without having heard them first. When I see the cover, I think «Fuck, great cover! I’m sure that’s a good album!»

Ulf: Oh yeah. Back when vinyl was the thing, the cover had a lot of importance. Old KISS records and so on.

Do you have any favorite record cover? 

Magnum: You mean by other bands or artists? Oh, plenty. I’m hesitant to even start listing them, because that list can never be complete. But to just mention a few: The Beatles’ “Abbey Road”, The Ramones’ titular debut album, KISS’ “Destroyer”, Pink Floyd’s “Animals”, “Never Mind the Bollocks Here’s the Sex Pistols”, Motorhead’s “Ace of Spades”… The list is endless. Want a list of bad covers? That list is endless too.

Nils Tempo: The Ramones’ “Road to Ruin”, The Louvin Brothers’ “Satan Is Real”, The Basement Brats’ “Tales from the Basement”, Johnny Thunders & The Heartbreakers’ “L.A.M.F.”, Jesse Malin’s “The Fine Art of Self Destruction”.

Olle: The Dictators’ “Bloodbrothers”… There are impossibly many of them.

Ulf: I think I have to say «Dressed to Kill» by KISS. That’s an insanely cool cover! That, and the back of «Alive II». The first time I saw it, I almost couldn’t believe what I saw. And “Alive!» too.

To play punk/garage like this in Norway, how is it nowadays? 

Magnum: Probably about the same as it’s ever been: A very moderate interest from the general public, not a lot of money in it (for most bands, anyway) but lots of fun – and some great people to meet along the way.

Norway have always have a lot of good bands, favorites from the past and favorites nowadays? 

Magnum: Once again I could go on for ages, especially as my musical tastes spread rather wide. A few names include Turbonegro, The Abusers, The Cosmic Dropouts, Alf Cranner, Odd Nordstoga, Ricochets, Jokke & Valentinerne, Raga Rockers… Right now I’m looking forward to the new Hard Luck Street album, and am curious to see what will become of (or of the people in) some exciting young Halden bands like L.I.A.R., Blindtärm and Piss Drawer.

Nils Tempo: Kåre & The Cavemen, Hard Luck Street, The Fects, White Trash Blues Band, Front Page.

Olle: Turbonegro. The Backstreet Girls. ‘Nuff said.

Ulf: I have to say The Backstreet Girls. That’s an old favourite of mine.

What does punk mean to you, is it only a word, a music style or is it a lifestyle for you? 

Magnum: Besides obviously “energetic rock music”, to me I guess it’s a bit about always having been… not quite average. I think I’ve always been seen as a little “weird” (to some). Not dramatically so, but I never quite fit in with most of my peers… or even really wanted to. “Punk” is inclusive – for the most part, anyway. There I can fit in.

Ulf: To me it’s mainly a music genre. It’s no lifestyle for me, that.

Olle: I don’t know… I like a lot of the values. I think it’s cool that a whole gang of people who are into a genre go out and say that we’re against racism, or discrimination, or homophobia. Do I think a lot about it in daily life? Nah – except that I’m an anti-racist and anti-fascist in daily life too.

Your lyrics what inspires you? 

Magnum: While Nils has been the most prolific songwriter – including the lyrics – in the band for the past few years, I’ve written a lot of lyrics over the years myself. Anything can inspire me, really, but I tend to be most pleased with lyrics that have actually been inspired by my real life. I’ve been able to get emotions, frustrations and thoughts out through my “art”.

Nils Tempo: Books, films, other music, people’s good or bad behaviour, my girlfriend and our dogs.

Please tell me a little about following lyrics 

-You can´t unring a bell 

-He did it right 

-When nothing leads to nowhere 

You have never thought of singing in norwegian?(

Magnum: Those are all Nils’, so I’ll leave it to him to comment on them specifically. But I can mention that “He Did It Right” is a tribute to Wilko Johnson. The title is of course based on Dr. Feelgood’s “She Does It Right”.

As for singing in Norwegian… I don’t think we’ve ever discussed it in this band, but let’s face it: There’s more interest in our kind of music worldwide than locally, so singing in an “international” language does broaden our appeal. Norwegian would limit our reach, and you probably wouldn’t be interviewing us right now, for example. In English, even!

For me personally, it really doesn’t matter much which language I’m singing in – at least as long as I know the language and am able to express myself in it.

Nils Tempo: “You Can’t Unring a Bell”: The race is run, and here you have fucked up so badly that there’s no solution.

“When Nothing…” was written before I was headed to something I counted on would be a wasted meeting at work. The meeting turned out to not be half bad, the lyrics a lot better.

Any swedish favorites?

Magnum: You know, we’re born and raised and live about a ten minutes’ drive from the border to Sweden. We’ve been exposed almost as much to Swedish culture as we have to Norwegian. It all blends together for us. So yeah. For me, acts like Ebba Grön, Nationalteatern, Fezz, The Hellacopters, Håkan Hellström, The Hives, etc. are examples of ones I like a lot.

Nils Tempo: Hederos & Hellberg, The Maggots, Imperial State Electric, The Hellacopters, Diamond Dogs.

Olle: The Hellacopters, Backyard Babies, Maggots, Fezz

Ulf: Ebba Grön, Fezz… I think Union Carbide Productions are pretty cool too.

To live in Norway today, how is it politically with racists, high prices , not to be in the EU etc? 

Magnum: Life goes on as usual, doesn’t it? There’s inflation and racism pretty much everywhere, sadly. Not being in the EU… well, since we are a part of the EEA – and Schengen – the differences aren’t that dramatic for the most part, to be honest. Norway is of course still a rich country. For us mortals, it’s a bit more troublesome and expensive to mailorder stuff from EU countries, but I guess that’s a “luxury problem”.

Olle: It’s like everywhere else in Europe. It’s the right that’s growing. That’s shit. There are high prices everywhere. But we have higher wages here. Not being in the EU? I think that’s great! But we need to deal with them anyway.

Ulf: Personally I think it would have been best to be in it, but…

Olle: It´s no for me!

Is it much places to play live for you in Norway? 

Magnum: Of course we’d always welcome more places to play, but I think you can probably find somewhere to play in most reasonably sized locations. Now, whether they reply to our e-mails when we write to them and ask to come and play is another matter…

Olle: There are a few lucky, select places. When you’ve been playing in bands for a long time, you get to know people, and you hear about new places from other bands and stuff like that.

Nils Tempo: It’s okay. It may not be so easy to go on a three months tour, but there are opportunities for weekend gigs and the likes.

What is the best with livegigs and what is the worst? 

Magnum: The best is of course the actual playing. Getting our rocks off on stage, being able to go a bit crazy and get it all out. It’s a real workout, I’ll tell you that much! Chatting with members of the audience after the gig, or with other bands we play with, is also an enjoyable experience. The worst? Speaking for myself – much the same as going to e.g. southern Europe on holiday: All the waiting and the actual travel time.

Ulf: The worst is definitely the waiting. There’s a lot of waiting. And then it’s very nice when things work, I think, and when it sounds good and it spreads to people who are watching. That’s a good feeling.

Olle: The best thing about playing is to be on a trip with the guys. That’s top! To drink a few beers. The worst is to be cold and shivering and it’s raining and shit.

Have you only played in Norway or have you played anything outside Norway? 

Magnum: I can’t recall that this particular band has ever played outside of Norway, actually. We happily would!

Olle: We would very much like to play in both Sweden and Denmark.

Ulf: We were supposed to go to Sweden once, butt hen the pandemic appeared. I remember I had even booked a hotel.

Olle: Yeah, we were supposed to play at Hang’Em High – a car show.

Please write down your ten favorite records all-time?

Magnum: Ouch. An impossible task. Ten albums wouldn’t even begin to cover it, and I know I would be working on such a list for a week until I was fairly satisfied with it… and then come back to it the week after because I’ll have changed my mind. I can mention a few, but this is neither an exhaustive nor a ranked list:

The Beatles: “Abbey Road”

The Ramones: “Road to Ruin”

Pink Floyd: “Animals”

Bad Religion: “No Control”

Warren Zevon: “Warren Zevon”

The Monkees: “Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd.”

AC/DC: “Let There Be Rock”

George Harrison: “All Things Must Pass”

Motorhead: ”Overkill”

Håkan Hellström: ”Känn ingen sorg för mig Göteborg”

Stiff Little Fingers: “Inflammable Material”

…and so on, ad nauseum.

Nils Tempo: Johnny Thunders & The Heartbreakers: “L.A.M.F.”

The Ramones: “Road to Ruin”

The Beat: “The Beat”

The Insomniacs: “Wake Up!”

Mink DeVille: “Cabretta”

Dr. Feelgood: “Down by the Jetty”

Link Wray: “Rumble”/”The Swag”

Bo Diddley: “Bo Diddley”

The Decibels “Create Action!”

Johnny Kidd & The Pirates: “Out of Their Skulls”

Ulf: I have to say The Devil Dogs’ “Saturday Night Fever”. “Ace of Spades” and “Overkill” by Motorhead. Oh, and “No Sleep ‘Til Hammersmith”. “Power Age” by AC/DC. And the first Raga Rockers album – “The Return of the Raga Rockers”. Oh, and KISS’ “Alive!”.

Olle: AC/DC’s «Highway to Hell”. Alice Cooper’s «Killer». “Ace of Spades” I think is great. The Dictators’ “Bloodbrothers” again. Turbonegro’s “Apocalypse Dudes”. That’ll have to do.

Which type of people comes to your concerts? 

Magnum: People who like our music, I suppose? Oh, I don’t know. Ordinary people… with particularly good taste!

Olle: There are a lot of people who are “dressed in black”. Rock folks.

What is the most chaotic thing which ever have happened during a The Boogietraps-concert? 

Magnum: Probably that time at a local festival when the power cut out after we’d played about two songs and didn’t come back on for half an hour, at which point we were supposed to be done. Besides that, we usually serve up the “chaos” ourselves, on stage.

Olle: Or that time we had to wait to play because someone decided to do an indoor burnout with an old Harley and there was a forty-five minute break while they aired out.

Ulf: Wasn’t there one time when they turned the PA off before the last song?

Whichs is your favoritesong to play live? And which is the song is most popular in the audience? 

Magnum: I like singing songs that I either dig a lot myself or that are a bit “different” than the norm. Some of them include “Easy”, “When You’re Gone”, “Got You on Their List”, “High Hopes”, “The Knife Slipped” and “Something’s Changed”. You’d have to ask the audience what they prefer. That’s probably different from person to person.

Ulf: Right now I think “Some Kind of Stupid” stands out. I think that’s fun to play.

Do you do any covers live if you do , which songs? 

Magnum: Yeah, we usually play a cover or two at every gig. We’ve even released an EP of covers. Some that we have played a lot include Teengenerates’ “Dressed in Black”, The Lyres’ “She Pays the Rent”, Eddie & The Hot Rods’ “Teenage Depression”, M.O.T.O.’s “Dance Dance Dance Dance Dance to the Radio” and The Inmates’ “Jealousy”. At our last gig we tried to renew ourselves a bit and played Mean Jeans’ “Steve Don’t Party No More” and the Dead Boys’ “Ain’t Nothing to Do”.

I love beer and do my own brew. Any thoughts of doing a The Boogietraps-beer, if you do , what type of beer will do and what would you call it? 

Magnum: I love beer myself, and that would be fun, but… it’s not something that I’ve ever thought about. Do you have any suggestions?

Olle: I think it should be a good, easily drinkable lager that fits well to barbecue food. None of that posh shit. No hoppy bullshit. A completely ordinary lager that fits perfect to barbecue.

I support Arsenal i England and GAIS in Sweden, do you have any favoriteteam in football? 

Magnum: I used to follow FFK – Fredrikstad Fotballklubb – quite closely a few years back, but these days I don’t really have the time. It’s still the team I support, though. In most other leagues I’m fairly neutral.

Olle: I hate football. Done.

Ulf: Kvik Halden, Norwegian second division.

How do you listen to music, is it vinyl, CD Spotify, what is the perfect format? 

Magnum: All of them. I prefer vinyl – it makes the listening experience more of a ceremony of sorts. I’m one of those people who did not throw away my vinyl collection when CDs “took over” – though I’ve got a wall full of CDs as well. And I actually just bought a new CD player, as I can’t quite deal with the present inflated vinyl prices… and my old CD player was beginning to struggle a bit. But yeah – vinyl records is the most “real” format to me.

Nils Tempo: I prefer vinyl, but use Spotify quite a bit – at work etc.

Ulf: I suppose I use Spotify the most, but vinyl is the perfect format.

Olle: Vinyl and Spotify. Vinyl is of course the perfect one.

Do you buy much records yourself? 

Magnum: Some would probably say I buy way too much, but believe it or not, I have limited my purchases quite a lot over the past few years. More than I would have preferred to. Besides not having had as much disposable income as before, I’ve also got a storage problem. I’m getting to the point that if something comes in, something else needs to go out for me to be able to fit it in. I think the best solution is to get a bigger house…

Nils Tempo: All the time. I guess I buy two to three LPs a month. The last I bought were “Our Mother the Mountain” by Townes Van Zandt and “Viva” by Lone Justice.

Ulf: I don’t.

Olle: I buy quite a bit. But I’m on a small break now, because I need to listen to what I’ve already bought.

Wisdomword? 

Magnum: “Play loud. Love deeper.”

Nils Tempo: “Be the change you want to see in the world”

Ulf: “Say it with sado», I think. And «To fly is the safest way to fly» too.

Olle: ”No cock is so hard as the life”. Oh, I know: ”No one can do everything, but everyone can go to hell.”

Something to add

Magnum: Nope. That’s me finished! Unless you have any follow-up questions…?

Nils Tempo: Go to gigs, applaud the band, give the person next to you a hug and say “FUCK, THIS IS GREAT!”