Svintask is a group that is quite difficult to describe. But what one can say is that they play punk and that's really the thing really. April 2018

A little story about the group?

-The established lie is well that Pod, Benno and David in the mid-nineties felt outside Laholm's apple-capped music life and hated the new punkwave that was great in Sweden at the moment; on the one hand, tantalizing left-wingers who spiced their music with funny humor and on the other side, conservative vikingrock, who totally romanticized themselves over something they never experienced in tired rock music. We started a band that was a declaration of war against all this and did everything in order not to fit in, get up, be damn and be opposed. "They" would never get us. Once played a band with similar ambitions on the "room" in which Esse and Macki were part of. The created chaos and skinheads that followed the band began to fight with the audience. Laholm's self-esteemed music life had never experienced anything like it and the two bands clenched their dirty bags and Svintask was born. Since then, we have just continued to exist and play on only to annoy people.

Tell us a little about each member, age, job, family, band before and band on the side?

-Hard to answer as we are more like a bunch of friends / superficial acquaintances than a band in traditional sense. Pod and Pitt are the ones who meet regularly and form some kind of songwriting and the like. Haak pops up when we call but he thinks he has been fired from the band a long time ago and rarely has anything positive to say - which is good. Benno sings but believes he has terminated himself after the single "Vinstvarning". Esse is a proud member but we have not seen him for many years as he prioritizes holidays in Asia and "Bäddat för Trubbel". Macki left a long time ago but has begun to reappear. Then we sometimes manage to fool some other people into the rehearsal room. It's this chaos that makes us not play live so often and when it's done, rarely are everyone and the ones involved are not very "well-rehearsed". The oldest in the band is 44 years and then it's a falling scale.

I can hear many different styles between ska/reggae to hardcore and everything with punk in between, I hear right? Which punk style is the most fun to play?

-You're probably right, but it has not been a thing of playing a lot of strange styles, but it's probably primarily because we are relatively many songwriters with different music tastes. It has always been so but is heard more clearly as you learn to handle the instruments and especially the recording technique. Clearly, it can give a shattered impression - but we're a split band. Pod and Pitt are the ones who wrote the most music to the new album, and then maybe there are more Oi! And Ska influences.

Svintask, are you satisfied with the name? Do you get a lot of shit for the name! If the best band name had not been taken, which have you been chosen thn? I mean which is the best band name?

-Well, that's a name you remember for good and bad. It seemed brittle at first as a distraction against all the "tough and cool" band names that flourished. However, you quickly get into a box of expectations that feels stingy. Knowing the hell if the name is so good actually. We spun quite a while for a new name but all the genius names were busy ... do not get any favorite name on the straight up in my head.

What's the best thing about playing live?

 -To get an insight into how damn bad you actually sound.

Where is the best to play, where is the worst?

-So we play so rarely so we have no opinion on the question. Can imagine that places with people who like turmoil are the best places, or vice versa.

How is it to play punk in Sweden today ?

-To think it's a bit like playing boule, that's a little fun and no direct merit if you want to be appreciated by the opposite sex, but a nice way to hang out.

How would you describe your music in three words ?

-Genius and taste.

What does punk mean to you, is it just a word or is it a lifestyle? Or is it dead as you say in Hjulet snurrar men punken är död (The wheel spinning but the punk is dead ;-)

-Difficult. If you are going to be pretentious and analytical, the term punk is two-piece according to me. Secondly, it is used as a term for some subgroups of rock music. Secondly, the term punk is also a more elaborate adjective that describes various things that might violate norms, are disrespectful, rebellious, innovative, etc. It's the latter definition that I think is interesting and to get even more navel-looking, the two terms are not compatible with each other - I mean how punk is punk music today? Never understood those who say it's a lifestyle. Is it punk to choose the standard punk menu that someone else put together and who is over 40 years old and live for these doctrines? I listen a lot to rock music that falls under the punk category because I like that kind of music, but it's not very punk, it would just like to be dance band or hard rock. In punkcircles, there was more punk to listen to dance band music ... and so you can continue to argue in all the damn eternity ... and that's not really punk.

 How do you look at download, mp3 and the like?

 -Do people still do that in Spotify / streaming times?

How do you think it's to live in Sweden today, politically?

-You feel the strongest as" trend "is the polarization that takes place between two crazy extremes of society and that these two reinforce each other. If you say something to someone, you may be shouted by the craziness of one side and hated by the others and suddenly you are placed in a compartment and have to defend yourself. Also, experience that people are being violated in all possible and impossible contexts and at risk of To be classified as silent or hailed by any damn group, I think people become dumber and dumber ... you can not get into complex things without choosing comfort / stress / stupidity to see simple solutions and controlled by vague emotions.

Are there any good bands in Sweden today? In your home town?

-Yes.

Do you play anything outside Sweden?

-Now, there's hardly any audience in Sweden alike.

Other good bands from abroad?

-Sureky. At the moment, I'm a little weak for Sleaford Mods.

Your texts, what are you influenced of? Never in a language other than Swedish? No lyrics on the disc, why not?

-Inspiration has never been a problem. The brain is after as many years as punkers programmed to start producing Christmasrhymes as soon as they get into something. Angry is the energy and then the "svintaskiering" subject by turning up the anger to the max in the textwriting and gladly find an unexpected angle of the subject so that it does not just get even a crippled "war is stupid-song". What the hell, do not know how it works, but think it's located in the above. That we sing in Swedish depends on the same thing; The brain has been programmed to think punk lyric in Swedish. Initially, Swedish was chosen because we simply speak Swedish and it would be weird if we wanted to express ourselves in English or French. That the lyrics are not included on the record could be just a cost question ... damn mass of text requires to do booklets and something else ... maybe we'll try out an all-singing book sometime.

Is there anything you will never write about? It does not seem so if I see your song titles?

-It´s surely is something, but it's more likely that some angles of certain subjects we would never get for us to use. There are too many clichees and obvious things that just get tiresome. Then there are always personal things that are hot on the heart and they rarely become the subject of a dis-song when the energy in the form of anger is missing.

Politics and music, does it always belong?

-No, it will always be a political standpoint if you do not write a complete nonsense text (which is certainly also a position) and no mistake in it, politics are important. Svintask has always attacked stupidities on both the right and left sides ... and the middle too. I think we have a little different political viewsg among the members and the band has no party whip. This does not mean, however, that we do not take political positions each or that we could convey any political opinions in the name of the band. Pod, for example, is very close to the working class movement and would never write a text that strikes against ex. union or its value base but could certainly attack certain statements or phenomena within the same.

Best political band / artist?

 - Do not know, Joe Hill maybe.

Do you think music can change someone's life, then I mean lyrics etc?

-Yes. You may not have any supremacy about the power of music, and I think that before, music worked more like some kind of identity creator / marker, but I absolutely believe that texts / music can act as a powerful force in potentially ongoing processes, like comfort, as one socially kitt but also for purely manipulative purposes. I do not dare to think about what had been bored young boy with excess energy in Laholm if we had not had the music / band to channel frustration, anger and get kicks.

Your cover is really nice on your CD, who has done it. Is it important to have a cover so you understand what kind of music you play? Which is your favorite cover all the time? ...

-Pod has signed most of Svintasks cover / posters because he thinks it's fun to draw and as part of the DIY thing. Pretentious advertisers had used a lot of terms like brand, graphic design and corporate identity in this context, but there has never been any higher thought behind the image language (possibly the drawings were tougher and more beautiful than the band members), but it has become a major part of the band's identity. As you notice, we have difficulty choosing favorite covers, favorite bands, etc ... having trouble with favorites, idols and so on in general and thinking more about terms of bad and less bad.

Is it important to get out physical discs? Vinyl or CD or both and? Is there any good record store in your hometown?

-It's probably a thing for us that's getting old. We grew up with music caught in physical products and think it's nice and more real in some way. People listen to music in a different way today on good and bad. Remember when you were little and had put a lot of money on a disc that turned out to be a really bad and how to bother through it anyway to learn about it to get value for money, and not very rarely these discs became after a time even favorites. Such things will probably not exist today and the term "record growth" is probably foreign to today's youth. A little fun in the context is that we have just received the commentary about the new record from several older listeners and is that way there is a point with a physical disc that sells expensive to the adolescents. - Be patient , we'll be fine. at last!

How is your audience looking like? What people comes to your concerts? Do you miss any kind of people?

If we have any audience, it's probably as divided as our music. Should you see any trend, so if the majority in the beginning were the type of mohawks, then probably the majority areskinheads today, with the reservation that it may be the same mohawkpunks that lost the hair. We are not very keen as band, even though the music on the last record is a bit more readily available, so we will never get a wider audience and become popular, then we put the band down.

Please rank five favorite discs, five favorite concerts?

-We are so damn hard with that! Clearly there are good discs but highlighting someone as a favorite in all respects does not go. Possibly there are discs that meant a bit extra during certain periods of one's life. It's the same with concerts. Many concerts are out of the memory, but strong concert memories for both Pod, Benno and Pitt are probably the first concerts when hardcore started to grow up in Sweden in the nineties, and you became completely bloody in the audience when Sick of It All played and you loved it. Like some form of Fight Club. It does not work really today.

Is it boring with interviews ??

-We did a lot of interviews and, for the twenty-first time, answering the question of the band name, Laholm, or telling us how it all started, maybe sin´t the word" fun "is the first to appear. We solved it by meeting, drinking beer and responding to interviews in the most unserious ways, laughed and having fun;I remember one where we always chose to interpret that the questions were about a friend Dagge, and responded like what we thought he would answer and sometimes became annoyed at the author who focused so much on someone who was not in the band. We are quite clever on the matter. At the same time as we think that we as individuals are unimportant in the context, we love people who are driven by a commitment and do something for the stage in the form of fanzines etc and we are happy to support this.

If you could choose five bands from history, deadand live to have a concert with your band, what are the dreambands then?

 -Now, we're there again. We have no such dreams.

Is music a great way to get out frustration and become a nicer person? Are you angrier today than when you were young punks?

- Are you upset and angry at something ex. a debate on television, it has happened many times that you channeled the anger by writing a song text that makes you happy; - Here, you got it your arses. Believe that those angry internet warriors on different social media are reacting in the same way and for the same reason. The advantage of writing a song text is that you can think of a couple of turns before it reaches the public, forced to make some little sense of it and stand it by its name in the end. Banking the shit out of an instrument or a boxing bag is probably a good way to get out anger. Hard to say if you are as angry today as before. Think rather that you are angry on other things. Being angry has not been a self-esteem, but rather the energy that triggered us to write songs.

Future plans for the band?

-We release our alternative football World Cup single on June 1st, then we have no direct plans.

Easy to add?

 -This was more than enough              

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