I have interviewed Death By Horse once before
(2016) but now they have released a new album so
then we have some new questions and some new
answers…. March 2019
Have there been any member changes since last
(August 2016) If that´s the case, which and why?
-Yes we have, it's actually only us (Jahna &
Tommy) who are original members now. We had
different visions and one had to skip for
personal reasons. no hard feelings at all, just
different goals and obstacles in life. So now
it's new start! And we are happy for our new
drummer Linus!
I said last time I was thinking of Vice Squad,
Action Pact and you hadn't heard them, have you
listened to them now?
- We actually forgot. But we are now checking
them out a bit quickly. Listening… hmm .. The
only similarity I hear is that it is punk and
women on song.
What are you compared to otherwise?
-It does not seem easy to find a good
comparison, but many think it breathes some 90's
and 90's skatepunk. Some have compared our music
with eg. Rancid, The Baboonshow, Candusuck, The
Cranberries, Blondie. Well, they were the ones I
came up with now.
You have become with a record company, Second
Class Kids, how does it feel?
-Fantastic. Pelle at Second Class Kids feels
like an extra member of the band and our
experience is that we work great together.
Very pleased.
The cover of the latest album looks a bit
brutal, how did you come up with the idea and
why did it get this way?
-We had almost infinitely cover ideas. Where
everyone in a different way has portrayed a
brutal reality, or reality against unreality. On
the final cover and pictures in the vinyl, I am
dressed up as Alice in Wonderland and Tommy to
Peter Pan. We have both been beaten by the
brutal reality, the blood must flow, but we have
not given up, we are still struggling. The idea
is partly that we are all looking for
"unrealities" to hide in. It can be games,
social media, food, sex, alcohol, drugs,
watching movies, watching TV, daydreaming. We
probably do it all, to survive. Or maybe live.
Reality can be ugly, gray and hard. And we all
need a refuge sometimes. But when reality clings
in and says that we should not have them here
refugees anymore, nowhere to escape. Then the
unreality stands and takes up battle. There is
also a diagnosis called Peter Pan syndrome,
where you seems to have an inability to "grow
up" and get out of the dream world. And like
Alice in the wonderland. Who can really say
what's up and what's down? What is right and
what is wrong? There is more to add. But we
finish it there. The record is called Reality
HITS hard because it's a fucking hit album!
We talked about politics last time and now it's
like it is in Sweden with a minority government
and a gang that has one fifth of all votes?
How do you look on the current situation?
-Politics is frustrating. And just like news, I
stay away from it as much as possible if I have
no plans to try to create change, then I look up
the information I need. Why go around whining
and feeling bad and spreading negative energy,
if I still don't intend to do anything about it?
According to me, politics is based on fear. Fear
of anarchy, fear of what would happen if every
person gained total control over himself. Fear
of not having control. Fear of the future, fear
of everything that does not exist here and now.
Fear of everything that you do not know and fear
of total change. I (Jahna) comes from a super
red family, which I appreciate, but I do not see
how this "game" will help us in the future. I
think that all parties in Sweden today exclude
and box in. All parties are narrow-minded and
hold hard on their chosen "package". You have
learned what you think is good and bad, right or
wrong, rather than actively thinking o taking a
decision yourself. Because if you are red you
have to think red! If you are blue you have to
think blue! And we cannot possibly cooperate.
But seriously! We are all the same breed. We
call ourselves human. If we compare ourselves
with another species, a reptile, for example,
man is as species very similar, with very
similar values. Had we been subjected to threats
to humanity (extraterrestrial attack or
environmental disaster) then maybe we would see
that we are actually fighting for the same thing
and that we all belong together.
Tell us a bit about the following songs:
-Cowtittysucking It's just a desire for people
to open their eyes and see what they do. It does
not mean that what they do is wrong, but see,
acknowledge and ponder. People have long
believed that children must drink cow's milk for
example. Which is breast milk from a completely
different species. A species that also needs a
powerful milk to grow from perhaps 50 kg to 150
kg in a short time. Not at all particularly
suitable for man. If you now want to drink
breast milk from other species, then the goat's
milk had been better composed for us. At the
same time as it is said that drinking cow's milk
is vital, it is loudly protested about when
mothers breastfeed their children over two
years. With a milk that is just for them. People
are disgusted if you were to offer human breast
milk to the coffee! If we then look at how the
industry looks. Then I can add that all the
regular milk that is not organic, so the calf is
taken from his mother and the cow is put
directly into for milking so that we humans can
get her milk. The calf must never even taste its
mother's milk. Imagine it in the human world.
And understand how wrong it actually is!
Regarding eggs, this is the chicken period we
eat. Thus, non-fertilized eggs. People are
disgusted by hearing. The menstruation itself
itself is not wrong. But the storage of the
chickens and our total control over these
animals and their slavery in order to have good
breakfast eggs, it is wrong, I think. Although
it is free-range chickens that are organic, it
does not mean that they get a little more
surface, with the possibility (during the summer
months) to go out into a resting garden (most
chickens never even find out) otherwise they
spend their lives in a giant barn, like a
concentration camp.
White Christmas A desire to find home, and the
life that is lived on the trip there.
Narcissist It is about blindness and
unwillingness to see what you do yourself and to
refuse to take responsibility. It is also about
double standards, where, for example, you tell
how much you love each other on Facebook, with
cute pictures, but when the screen is gone,
reality is something completely different. It is
only you who can grab your life and turn it in
the direction you want. It may sound hard, but
what you out in the ground you also get
harvested.
You had not played outside Sweden in August
2016, has it become any of this yet?
-2017 we were touring Germany, Poland and the
Czech Republic. Have you not seen our tour
documentary on YouTube? (The Trojan horse tour)
backlash! ;) (get it checked right away ...
sorry!)
2018 we were on tour in Denmark and Germany,
which is also recorded, but we still have not
had time to cut it together, so much else to be
done all the time. But it comes!
Now in April and May 2019, we are going back to
Germany, the Czech Republic and Belgium.
The new album comes on vinyl, is it a dream come
true?
-Now, even if it feels very cozy and special,
the format itself has never been important. The
dream was to make music that reaches out to
other people's ears and minds.
Is it as fun with interviews these days as you
thought then? Has it become more?
- There have been more interviews. I (Jahna)
both like and don't like them. I have a tendency
to talk too much and have difficulty expressing
myself in speech, so it becomes when millions of
thoughts are formed into a few words. But it's
fun when the interviewer has done research and
knows who they talk to. It is also fun when the
interviewer feels interested.
The strangest question you have received so far?
- Do you feel lonely as a woman in the punk
world? I have received that question on a few
occasions and it surprised me so much the first
time I got it. Why should I feel alone and how?
I do not understand. On stage or was it? I do
not feel that it is important if it is what´s
inside the pants of my fellow musicians in the
punk world. We are people who make music. Gender
is once again just an inbox as I, where I am
now, feel superfluous.
To be on Spotify, is it something you have to
do, do you earn something on it or is it the
other that earns it? What do I want with the
question, are you forced to be there?
-You don´t must anything, so it is. But for us
it has played a big role. Good for reaching out.
People are generally not so eager to buy a
record if they do not know that it is good
already. We experience Spotify as a more honest
assessment on the record and easier to check and
see what people like. On Spotify you also get
paid for each listening that is done, so you
want to support an artist properly, buy the
record, but listen to it on Spotify. haha!
Do you sell a lot of records and merch when you
are out playing?
Do people want to buy this ?
- Sometimes, but we have been a little poor at
standing and selling after gigs. Maybe because
we always run around and talk with everyone
after the gig and forget about standing in the
merchandise and sell. We also hardly ever have
anyone who is selling for us. We both buy ALWAYS
t-shirts from bands we like! Love them t-shirts.
:)
Have there been many concerts in the last three
years? Do you have anything memorable you want
to tell us from something fun that happened
last?
-It has become a lot of gigs since we last spoke
at. So hard to pick something out. We really
love all meetings with people along the way. To
meet, that's fine.
When I was young punk (I'm old) it was enough to
put a Six Pistols badge on your jacket for
people to be scared, even worse was when you
short hair and had green pants. But today not
much shocks? What should a young punk do to
"shock" their parents today?
- Hmm… if you want to shock your parents now,
then you should probably be Straight Edge. ”The“
Drinking ”culture and jokes about liquor it
belongs to the older generation I experience. If
you come home and say that you do not drink
alcohol, take drugs, eat meat and stand up for
it, then many lost parents would lose their
foothold. If you are of the male sex then you
can still provoke most parents by dressing in
women's clothes and kissing the same sex.
Unfortunately, it still goes home. However, not
as effective for the female sex. You could also
ask to have philosophical discussions once a
week with your parents, then they will surely be
worried that you are using cannabis. You could
also sit down and ask your father and mother how
they feel, if they are happy and if they are in
the life where they want. It would probably have
been shocking.
Is there a lot of music you listen to that
nobody believes you are listening to. Tell me
any record or artist that you / you think shocks
us that you like?
-Difficult. I almost don't think people have any
definite opinion about what neither Tommy nor I
seem to like about music. The biggest shock
could well be "Triakel" (Swedish folk music) for
my (Jahnas) part, I think. We both have very
broad music tastes I would like to say.
Everything from Hip Hop to Grind Core, Tommy
adds.
If you were to make a six-song record with
covers you want to do in your way… ..what
six songs did you bring with you?
What More Can I say – ‘68
Who’s Got The Crack – The Moldy Peaches
Save That Shit – Lil Peep
Trouble Breathing - Alkaline Trio
Hate song - Daniel Johnston
Poupée de cire, poupée de son - France Gall
Do you get a lot of questions about your name?
Or is it something people do not think about?
- People usually respond to our name, but don't
think about the meaning as usually. Once I got
an unexpected comment from a woman, she said she
liked us after seeing us live, but she had been
kicked off by a horse and trampled on her head a
while ago. It was her explanation why she
couldn't buy our record.
Have you ever been on any song for any political
purpose, or been involved in some tribute to a
soccer team or something like that ... is it
something you can think of to be or is it to be
painting yourself into a corner you think?
-No, we do not have that. Well, it depends on
what. We both dislike classic sports such as
football and hockey but extreme sports such as
climbing and boarding then we talk!
Future plans this year for the band?
-Musikvideorecordings. Europe tour. Gigs in
Sweden. Tour Documentary-cutting. Booking Agency
Exploration. Music Creation. Plana
tour for next year where we will break
new ground.
Some new songs made for another album or is it
harder and harder to do them?
- More difficult and harder to have time for.
But there are plenty of ideas! However, we spend
a lot of time booking our tours and gigs,
cutting videos and designing merch.
Words of wisdom?
-Be nice. Don't take it all too seriously. Be
open minded. Laugh a lot. Choose to watch and do
not judge. Take care of each other. Do not see
everything as a competition that must be won, we
are no longer sperms.