The Hives return to Brazil in mourning for Randy Fitzsimmons and with a plan to ‘steal fans from popular bands’ [ENTREVISTA]

In Seattle, Pelle Almqvist took a break from preparing for a show to talk to the Rolling Stone Brazil. “There’s a sound check going on, so it’s a little noisy,” he explained, as he settled into a dressing room with exposed brick walls.

It didn’t take more than a minute of interview for the singer to declare himself to Brazil: “It’s great to be back. We’ve always had good times in Brazil — and I don’t say that about any country.”

The Hives hadn’t visited Brazilians since 2014, two years after the launch of Lex Hives (2012). Now, the band returns with their first new album in 11 years, the The Death of Randy Fitzsimmons. Find out what to expect from the presentation at Primavera Sound São Paulo 2023:

Fans and more fans

Fans eager to receive The Hives can prepare themselves to experience “unnecessary amounts of rock and roll”, he assured Skin.

The group’s performance takes place this Saturday, 2nd, from 4:40 pm to 5:30 pm, on the Corona Stage. Although the performance does not last an hour, it is enough time for the band to play the entire latest album and even go beyond it.

The 50 minutes should also be enough for the Swedes to attract new fans — one of the coolest parts of playing at a festival, in the view of Skin. “It’s great for us to play at festivals, because it’s a way to steal fans from more popular bands”, confessed the musician. “Probably not everyone who likes The Cure like The Hivesbut if they get the chance to see us, maybe they’ll start to like it.”

And speaking of The Cure, Almqvist confessed that the headliner’s show is one he wants to watch on Primavera Sound São Paulo. Pet Shop Boys was also included in the list, but until part of the line-up was recited by the Rolling Stone Brazil, Skin I didn’t know who would accompany The Hives in this year’s edition of the festival: “I love The Cure and love Pet Shop Boys. I’m looking forward to watching them. I have no idea who will play with us, but I’ll watch Pet Shop Boys It is The Cure“.

Fitzsimmons family

The songs of The Hives have always been credited to Randy Fitzsimmons, a kind of sixth member of the band. His disappearance would have caused the Swedish group to take a hiatus of more than a decade, which, in The Death of Randy Fitzsimmonsfaced uncertain grief.

Before disappearance — or death —, Randyhowever, seems to have invited his family to help him compose the new album. chip, Montgomery It is Wilbur Fitzsimmons appear, for the first time, credited as composers of the album’s tracks.

They are credited for the songs, but we don’t know each other. We didn’t even know he had a family. They could be brothers, uncles, or something like that. Maybe when he died, these people inherited his compositions, you know, the publishing rights. It’s a possibility we’re considering, but honestly, we don’t know.

For those who don’t like mystery: Randy Fitzsimmons is the pseudonym of the guitarist and composer Nicholaus Arsonwhich, according to Pitchforkfaced mortality in recent years while dealing with an illness.

Skin hope that Randy is still alive: “I want to believe that he’s still out there somewhere, I miss him.”

Music and politics

“They’re coming for the crown / They’re going to take it down / I totally guarantee it / Repeating history / Shutdown,” he sings Skin, with a lot of energy, in “Countdown to Shutdown”. The song quotes Abraham Maslow and even Charles Ponzi, responsible for the origin of the financial pyramid. Even though they have a lot to say about what doesn’t feel right in the world, The Hives prefers not to settle in a specific political territory:

I think it’s more like pointing the finger at what happens. It’s like predicting the next financial crisis and how that works. But it’s not necessarily a song made to support a political party. It’s more about poking at all these things that are wrong. The way everything is set up means there will be another crisis and it will get worse and worse. As individuals, there is little we can do because these systems exist. I think that [a música] It’s saying how we would solve it. It’s saying what’s going to happen and that we don’t necessarily have a solution.

Skin believes that fans know what the band is talking about. “If you follow The Hives for a long time, you’ve been able to tell what we support”, he argued. Furthermore, not everything needs to be more than music, the singer considered: “It’s not important for us to communicate that in our music. Sometimes we just want to work at a level that awakens the feelings it awakens, and not turn into something political or whatever. That’s not what matters. The most important thing is the feeling.”

After the unique presentation in Brazil, The Hives will head to Ecuador and, on December 7th, will be disembarking in Venezuela to perform one of the first rock shows in the country in ten years. The band’s decision to perform in Caracas is not associated with a political position. In fact, it was simpler: “the show was offered”, and the hives accepted. “We are not playing for the government”, he confirmed Skin.

It was an interesting proposal for us because I had never been there. Vigilant, our guitarist, has been on fishing trips twice, but I’ve never been. So, I wanted to go for that reason. I also believe that playing rock and roll can generate good synergistic effects in these places. […] We play in many countries where we don’t agree politically with the government. In fact, most of them. So, that doesn’t change. We’re on tour in the US right now. I don’t think I like everything the government is doing either.

“Countdown to Shutdown” is among my favorite songs Almqvist, alongside “Stick Up”. “Because they’re the ones I like the most”, he explained.

‘Stick Up’, I like the feeling of it being the only minor key song on the record, I think. I like the groove and the lyrics. And I like the song ‘Countdown to Shutdown’. I like the way it makes people jump at shows. And that’s good for me. Generally, my reason is whether it’s good or not.

What to complain about?

The annual Human Development Index report published this year, referring to 2022, shows that Sweden is among the countries with the highest level of development. More specifically, Sweden occupies seventh place in the ranking, behind only Switzerland, Norway, Iceland, Hong Kong, Australia and Denmark.

Occupying 87th position, Brazil has a lower HDI than countries such as Ukraine, which is at war, and neighboring Argentina.

Quality of life, however, is not capable of draining feelings that, according to Skinare in our hormones: “One part is euphoria, one part is horny, or something like that, and another part is something destructive.”

You have these feelings regardless of where you live and it can be very frustrating to feel like you want to complain about something but have nothing to complain about.

The artist’s position didn’t stop him from confessing that life in Sweden is actually reasonable: “I’m not going to complain. It has a high quality of life. We had a pretty decent childhood, at least materially. Everyone was warm and safe and had food.”

Getting capitalism’s problems out of the way, The Hives spotted questions whose answers are beyond the responsibility of any individual — and became the The Hives. “I never understood it, because it always seemed like everyone had the same amount of money. I never knew if the kids I was friends with were rich or poor. I didn’t see any differences. That was cool, I guess,” he reflected Skin.

Swedish influences

The Hives was invited from Arctic monkeys in presentations in Brazil in 2014. The British are, for Skin“the only really good popular band” (via NME). Not surprisingly, the two groups came together during the tour The Car in the UK and Ireland this year.

Other songs considered really good appeared in the eyes of Almqvistwho is a fellow countryman of ABBA, The Cardigans It is Roxette, for example. Even the filmmaker Ingmar Bergman remained in Sweden’s account.

No, we don’t like The Cardigans. ABBA It’s ok. ABBA It’s good, but it has nothing to do with the music we make. Ingmar Bergman…I like it, but philosophically it is very far from The Hives. So, I think very few of our influences come from Sweden. We often say that the things we like could be found if we lived anywhere. We took other things from Sweden. Maybe work ethic and things like that.

The band’s inspiration lies, to be more exact, in America and Australia. The musician mentioned Little Richard, The Sonics, Mitch Ryder,The Detroit Wheels, The Saints, The Stooges, Ramones It is AC DC as examples.