Groovies is a really noisy punkrockband from Luleå and its´really fun to listen to them. Hives isn´t so far away from them but it´s absolutely not any carboncopies on them. August 2009.

History?

-The Groovies started to play together in march 2002 and from the start have we changed two bassists and one drummer, the original lineup was then  Henrik Nyström, guitar, Henrik Bäckström, vocals, Andréas Selberg, drums and Fredrik Lustig, bass. Our thought when we started was to play really fast garagerock with a really good live performance and with influences from the 60´s garagescene and the 70´s New Yorpunkscene. Our first gig did we on Jokkmokk festival 2002 and I remember that we had three songs which was ready and we did a cover on The Stooges old hit ”Search and destroy” as a final song. We got a good review on the gig and then after that we have going on well.  

Please tell me a little about every member, age, family, interests and osmething abd about every one?

-Nowdays we have a line up which is Henrik Nyström, guitar, Henrik Bäckström, voclas, Daniel Böckerman, bass and Janne Ruuska, drums. Nyllet have precisely get his first job as a disher at a bar in luleå. Earlier have he mostly been lying in the old boyroom and played guitar and drawing pictures at night. Danne comes from the beginning from Tibro, near Skövde and he moved to Luleå five years ago. He lives in an apartment with his girlfriend in central Luleå and he works as a cleaner. Janne comes from Luleå from the beginning but he lives nowadays in Kungsholmen with his girlfriend in Stockholm. Janne works as a cock and he skateboards in his spare time. I moved to Gothenburg half a year ago and right now I live with a mate in Biskopsgården. I´m a carpenter but right now I work as a receptionist at Östra Sjukhuset.

New sensation came out 2007...something new which is coming?

-New Sensation is a type of compilation with songs which we have had since the beginning. We´re not so active right now just because of the fact that we lives in different parts of the country so its´really hard to do new material but we recorded four tracks last summer which maybe comes up on My Space soon.  

I think I can hear groups like Hives and Mando Diao , am I totally wrong there?  

-The Hives likes The Sonics really much and that do we do too so sure can your some similarities but there ´s thousands of 60´s bands who have done this type of music before HIves, listen only to the Nuggetsbox and you have a lot of good garagebands. Mando Diao try to be a new Stones or something like that.

Which type of audience do you have?

-We have a really mixed audience, everything from old garageguys to punkkids.

Are you a real liveband...I have never seen you but I believe that it is so?

-We have got the best response when we have played live so that you can say. We have played really much since the start 2002 and we have been on six Europetours. They likes us a lot in Spain so in the beginning we will go on our second tour there.  

Do you do any covers live?

-As a band it´s much more fun to play your own songs live but we have done covers on”Strychnine” by The Sonics and ”Search and destroy”.

Luleå, is there any market for music like this there?

-It have opened a punk/hardcorehus in Luleå two years ago which is driven by musicans and people who are musicinterested. They have rehearsalrooms and have gigs there. Danne use to have punkggigs there on his club. Surf into  http://foreningsgatan7.blogspot.com/ and check it out.

Stefan Sundström, is it the one Stefan and how come?

-We met Stefan Sundström when we played in Stockholm and he seemed to like us and what we were doing. We decided a date and he hitchhiked up to Luleå to record us.  

Why Alleycat and howcome?

-Our old drummer Andréas was a mate to Jonk (daddy alleycat) and started to know him. Jonk  did some sort of showcasegig for us on Sticky and he seemed to like our freakshow. Some time later he booked a minitour for us and he wnet with us just to see if we had the same energy on stage everytime we played and he liked it so much that he continued to work with us. One funny thing from that tour is when we played in Oslo so was Jonk and Danne peeing in our supportacts beer when they was down and soundchecked, we never said anything about it and they drank happily up their beer, haha.

Is there any other good bands in Luleå?

-Yeah, Treklang (reggae), The Horsemen (country, rock, pop)… is there any more? JI surely forgot some band but I have honestly bad check on these bands.

In Sweden? In the world?

-It´s a little bit hard to sit here and namedrop a lot of bands but here is some I listens to and which have influenced me/us in some way:: The Seeds, The Sonics, 13th Floor Elevators, Roky Erickson, The Stooges, Velvet Underground, The Doors, Mc5, The Standells, Love, Stones, The Beatles, The Music Machine, Led Zeppelin, Kiss, Black Sabbath, New York Dolls, Radio Birdman, Hasil Adkins, R.L Burnside, Ramones, Dead Boys, The Damned, Black Flag, The Kids, Hendrix, Black Lips, The Hellacopters, The Nomads, The Dictators, Flaming Sideburns, Baby Woodrose, The Gun Club, Hank Williams, Kenta, Union Carbide Productions, John Holm, Råg i Ryggen, Richard Hell, Johnny Thunders, The Clash, Pistols, Neil Young, The Cramps… a lot of good shit. 

What do you think about living in Sweden otherwise?

-It´s Ok to live in Sweden. We have a lot of good music which comes from here. But it´s a big difference on playing here in Sweden if you compare to the rest of Europe. People is more open there than they are here, in Sweden, or especially in Stockholm they stand with their arms crossed an try to look cool and in Europe they go out to check out the band and to dance.

How´s your relation to punk, is it only a word or is it a lifestyle?

-I would say that it´s a lifestyle. Even if you don´t look like a punk when you´re around 50 so mustn’t that mean that you don´t have the same way to think left. I mean that you get more experience and more in your head as more years you are alive but the roots will surely be in the punkroots all the time.

Politics and music, does it goes hand in hand?

-I don´t think it do that. Sure, it can be good to write about it men when it´s a lot of political talking between the songs it becomes too much, then you can hold a speech or be in a debate or something like that if you think it´s so fucking important. I think that music shall be around to forget the daily problems for a while and have fun and listens to anyone who have it worser than yourself.

Please rank your five favourite records, five favourite concerts and five most important things in life?

-Five records: 13th Floor Elevators, Easter Everywhere, The Stooges, Raw Power or the frist record, The Doors, Strange Days, The Golden Dawn, Power Plant, Mc5, Back In The USA. It was hard, I could say 15 more.

Roky Erickson, Trädgårn´, 2007, Neil Young And The Crazy Horse, Globen, 2001, The Stooges, Skellefteåfestivalen, 2004, I could not come up with more now.

Boozing, eating, fucking, music and movies

The, first the latest and the most expensive record ever nought?

The first record must have been Roxette, Dressed For Success  on a bought cassette when I was five. The last record was Robert Johnson, Complete Recordings and the most expensive must be The Leather Nun, Slow Death, the LP from 1984 which I bought for 300 Skr,  .

Where do you stand when we talk about mp3 and downloading?

-I like to buy records and go to record stores and look for records and it´s very rare that I download music but if I do that I buy the record anyway if I like it. And then it´s good for smaller bands which will come out with their music, it´s easy to spread it etc. And then iis the question how funny it is to have a record in fileformat, I want to hold in a cover in the same time as I listens to the record. And I think it both bad and good for a band like us.  

Futureplans for the band?

-After the Spain-tiur in october so will it not happens too much, we will get a new kick or maybe we put the band on ice for a while.

For yourself ?

-I have a new project going on which is called Bloodvision. Wes hall try to record something this autumn if we get our fingers out our ass sometime. If you like to hear so look after it on myspace..

Something to add?

-Thanks for the interview