Scandinavian Indie - Mouth Interview


Scandinavian Indie Presents: A short interview with
Mouth

by Erik Söderström (chief@lysator.liu.se) 
after a gig at Herrgår'n, Linköping, Sweden, 18-May-95.

Mouth are:
Fredrik Joelson (lead vocals & guitar)
Bengt Söderberg (drums)
Hans Carlsson (vocals & guitar)
Peter Bohman (Bass)

(c) 1995 Scandinavian Indie

If the answer is "A." it was answered by the group as a whole.

Q. WHAT DID YOU THINK ABOUT THE GIG TONIGHT?

PB. The audience was great, so the whole thing ended up pretty okay I think, but the lights hid most of them [the audience]. I saw one girl about two meters in front of me, but that was it.
BS. I wore these sunglasses the whole time! I've never done that before.
PB. Well, we saw that the place was packed before and after the gig anyway [laugh].
HC. I felt the stage sway a bit, but I thought it had something to do with the drugs, Ha ha.

Q. WHAT SONGS DID YOU PLAY?

PB. 'Tired', 'Hands', 'Float', 'Pure', 'Hate Urself', 'Teeth' 'Mongoloid', and 'Hole Of Your Head'. Then the extra number was 'Wake Me'. Nine songs in about thirty minutes.

Q. WHEN DID YOU START AND WHERE ARE YOU FROM?

PB. All of us have played individually in different bands for about fifteen years, but we've existed as Mouth for a year now. We're from Stockholm, though three of us are originally from Gothenburg. Outside Mouth, Bengt plays a lot of jazz, samba, he knows every latin music stuff there is, in Rio, Brazil and Hans makes music for commercials.

Q. WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN YOU'RE NOT PLAYING IN A BAND?

PB. Fredrik works with film. Commercials as well. He has worked with Almodovar, Bo Holmberg and Herman Lindqvist in Spain for example. He had to translate for Lindqvist, who didn't know any spanish, Ha ha. He's on his way to Portugal to continue working with film. He's also a program producer at EFTI. Hans studied to become a designer in Paris and now he designes clothes for theaters. He won a price for his designs in 93 as well. Bengt also works with film. Sort of a film researcher you might say.
HC. Didn't Peter telly what he does? Peter? Ha ha, okay, than, he's a musician.

Q. WHY THE NAME MOUTH?

FJ. Because it's the most vital and useful organ! We kind of look at it as a human loudspeaker.
HC. Sex... Ha ha.

Q. HOW ABOUT RELEASES?

PB. We've released a single called "Pure" (3 songs) and recently an EP called "Float" with 'Tired', 'Float', 'Mongoloid' and one more song, which seems really hard to get hold of. We saw it in some stores in Stockholm once, but never since. Telegram distributes it... The full-length, "Inner Peace", is released in September.

Q. WHAT DO YOU CALL YOUR MUSIC STYLE?

FJ. Pop. But it is such a widely used word these days... Fast guitar pop is probably a better description.

Q. ARE YOU TOURING RIGHT NOW?

PB. Sort of. We're playing in Karlstad on the 19th [May], Kalmar with Kent on the 20th and in Gothenburg at Underground on the 27th. Then on the 7th of June, there's a big Telegram party in Stockholm, at BZ, where we play with Popsicle and Souls.

Q. HOW ABOUT INFLUENCES / SONGWRITING?

A. Nine Inch Nails, Smashing Pumpkins, Helium (from the U.S.), Pixies, David Bowie, Lou Reed, Zappa, Velvet Underground.

Q. WHAT DO YOU LISTEN TO RIGHT NOW?

A. Breeders, Frank Black, who really limps with his productions, but kept doing it as long as it worked. In the end he had to change though.
HC. PJ Harvey, Hole, the latest Whale is really good.

Q. ANY SWEDISH BANDS YOU'D LIKE TO MENTION?

FJ. Dipper, from Lund. And Olle Ljungström.
A. Souls and Popsicle. Cardigans as well.
FJ. Not Cardigans!

Q. YOU'RE SIGNED TO TELEGRAM RECORDS. HOW DID THAT HAPPEN?

A. Well, we sent them a demo, and they liked it. That's about it. Hansi Friberg [who was with them] takes care of our gigs.
HF. Yes, I handle Mouth, Green, Cloudberry Jam and Pinko Pinko.

Q. HAVE YOU BEEN FEATURED IN THE PRESS/TV/MEDIA?

PB. We've made a video for 'Float', which probably will be shown on Z-Tv next week (on Tryck Till), and a week after that on MTV. We haven't seen it yet, but we felt it was good when we made it. KENPFF Foundation made it, with Jocke Kenpff as director and Lotta Suarez as producer. We've also made a video for 'Pure' in New York. You'll be able to see that one on TV in august if all goes well. We'll be the "Single of the month" in Sound Affects in the issue after the next issue, or the next issue after that one. Keep your eyes open! Linda Norrman wrote an article about us in Expressen [31 march 1995, Fredag, Page 9] and put us on her "Best Right Now" list. That's great for us, though it came out a bit early because the Float EP was really a demo then, and the EP was not to be released for a couple of weeks. Well well...

Q. WHAT FESTIVALS WILL YOU BE PLAYING THIS YEAR?

PB. We're sure of Arvikafestivalen [21-22 July] and Hultsfredsfestivalen [10-12 August] (at Stora Dans) now. Then there's the Tullakrok festival in Ängelholm [22-23 July] which is about 99% sure.

Q. HAVE YOU HAD ANY GIGS OUTSIDE SWEDEN YET?

PB. We played in New York about four weeks ago at Nightingale, Mercury Lounge and Brownies. That was really a Self-confidence-boost! We're going back there for three weeks from the 17th of June for a couple of gigs.

Q. ANYTHING YOU'D LIKE TO FINISH THIS INTERVIEW WITH?

HC. If you get a chance, go and see the ORB! When they played at Gino [Stockholm], not long ago, the music was so loud and everything was so airy-fairy that you never knew when the music started or ended. It was fantastic!
A. One of the toughest gigs we've been to must have been the Soundgarden, Rollins Band, Frank Black etc. concert in Stockholm last winter. It was worth the pain afterwards though.

[At this time, they start discussing the similarities between Whale, Portishead and Tricky, and the somewhat lenghty interview is at an end.]

Hansi wants Demos! Send your demos to:
Hansi Friberg
Fredmansg. 4
118 47 Stockholm
Sweden


Scandinavian Indie Mouth interview 18-May-95



Scandinavian Indie - your Internet guide to scandinavian independent music
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Snail-mail: Erik Söderström, Björnkärrsg. 13 B:34, 582 51 Linköping, Sweden

This page was last updated Dec 26, 1995 by Erik Söderström