Scandinavian Indie - Pinko Pinko Interview


Scandinavian Indie Presents: A short interview with
Pinko Pinko

by Erik Söderström (chief@lysator.liu.se) 
after a gig at Herrgår'n, Linköping, Sweden, 08-Dec-94.

Pinko Pinko are:
PG Wallnäs (vocals, guitar) (23)
Jens Åkesson (drums) (23)
Edvin Wallnäs (vocals, bass) (25)
Svante Sjöstedt (guitar) (26)

(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?

A. That was a really small stage! And it swayed as well. You could only jump straight up, and not in any other direction. Other than that, the gig was okay. Much better though than the gig six months ago here [at J's Place, Linköping 09-Jun-94 with the subtitle "Eggstone meets Blur"]. That place was small. Everything was small. The stage was even smaller than the one tonight, and that is small. And there was a pillar in the middle of the room, and it was right in front of us! We played "Going My Way" for the first time there though. There were a lot of people there.

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

A. We're from Gothenburg. We started two years ago as 'Beetroots', but changed our name to 'Pinko Pinko' after an argument between us, STIM [an organization who handles the money for bands when they get played on the radio, tv and so on] and a swedish blues-group called Beefroots. STIM always mixed us up with them, and finally we had to change our name. That was at 'Tantogården' [a venue in Stockholm, Sweden].

Q. I REMEMBER READING ABOUT IT. WASN'T IT A CONTEST - THE AUDIENCE THERE COULD SUGGEST NAMES, AND THEN YOU'D SELECT ONE?

A. No. I've heard that before, but it isn't true. We picked our name ourselves. We were happy to change the name though. We've had the same line-up from the start by the way. Musically - we are on the same wavelength, and has been from the start, which is amazing. It's a great feeling.
SS. When we started, it all happened so fast, and it sounded great from the first time!

Q. HOW ABOUT RELEASES?

A. A full-length CD (april) and a CD-single (march) on NONS [North Of No South - the label they're signed to]. We've been on a cassette-magazine called "Popangelov" with 'True Modern Boy' as well. We also have four demo tapes, [Bang On The Beetroot (september 1992), Blast (march 1993) and Trivialities (june 1993). I have no idea what the fourth one is called and when it came out.] which are pretty well spread. The third one is the one we can use right now. The fourth one is almost like a copy of that one. We only made it to show that we have more songs, that we are productive. The earlier demo tapes have a 'Manchester' sound - nothing we can play today. And no, you can't have a copy (haha).

Q. ANY PROMOTIONAL STUFF?

A. As a matter of fact, yes. We're on 'Z-Tv Nytt' [Swedish Tv channel, with loads of music.] next week, and we have a new video that is released here and in Japan as well. (The full-length CD is also released in Japan and the UK). Japan is really interested in swedish and brittish music right now, which we think is great.

Q. INFLUENCES?

A. David Bowie, Stone Roses, Smiths, Beatles, Madness (for their harmony), Duran Duran (girls on film).
SS. Arbete och Fritid.
A. Of course we're not influenced by everything they've done, but bits and pieces. A song. You know? We're more influenced by ingeniousness, brilliant ideas, new things. We're not stealing ideas, even though we're influenced by them. We've been compared to Suede and Brainpool, but we think Sator have more in common with Brainpoo' than we have. Okay, we know them well, we listen to the same things and we're about the same age, but we don't sound like Brainpool.

Q. WHAT DO YOU LISTEN TO RIGHT NOW?

A. Gene, Posies, Eggstone. And Freddie Wadling in Blue For Two is really amazing.

Q. HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THE AMERICAN/BRITTISH INDIE SCENE?

A. If you allow us to generalize: Americans love when it sounds a lot and when you sweat a lot. Brits love when it sounds good as well. Offspring? Duh.

Q. YOU PLAYED AT THE AFTER PARTY TO BLUR's CONCERT IN STOCKHOLM HOW WAS THAT LIKE?

A. It was really fun. There were about 500 people in there [at Studion, 'Start-Club', a venue in Stockholm] and about 100 in line that never got in. Hansi, at Slitz Magazine [Swedish popular culture magazine] got us the gig. Cia Berg and Henrik Schyffert [from Whale] were there as well as Blur (of course). Not many people in there were sober though. But it was an experience.

Q. WHO WRITES THE LYRICS?

EW. I write the lyrics. I write them at the same time we write the music. We work like this: First we start with strong songs and melodies, but we work more with the air between melodies than with the melodies themselves. We use acoustic guitars and song from the start - then we're influenced by eachothers work, ideas and what we hear from the others in the band and write the music from that.
JÅ. I start with my own feelings and patterns though it changes with suggestions from the others. It always gets better and better than what you started with anyway. We know it sounds good when EW says he likes it.
SS. I just have to mention my favourite guitarrist John Marr. Why? Well, without a dist-box, without long tunes, he could be playing danceband songs for all it matters, but it sounds so good.
EW. I had never played bass before we started to play together. I've played a lot of instruments, but never bass and never in a band and never at the same time that I am singing.

Q. WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THE MUSIC PRESS?

A. Well, it's the journalists who gets the music out to the public mostly. We've been 'The Band Of The Month' in Slitz Magazine for example, and Linda Norrman [Expressen] have written a lot about us as well. When you get a response from the audience, the journalists hear about it, and write about it. That's the way it goes.

Q. ANY "GIG-STORIES"?

A. We usually get a great response when we play, though there has been some low-marks too. Sometimes people come up to us before the concert and say "what the hell are you doing here?" which affects the concert of course, though not that much. Another example: at 'Tantogården' EW had a hair clip and he got accused of being gay. It's just things that happens. We've done 21 gigs since though. From Umeå to Simrishamn. We played in Kalmar a week or so ago by the way [at Rabarbeer, 'Pump-Club', indie-place], which was okay. Not many people though. But they listened to us (no-one went to buy a beer during the whole gig!) and then left when we were done. The story behind this though is that the guy who were supposed to put up posters about the gig around Kalmar first said he didn't have any posters. When we reminded him that we had sent a load of posters, he said they were in the kitchen (at the place) but that he hadn't found any good places to put them up! Had he just moved there or what? We weren't happy about that one.

Q. ANYTHING ELSE YOU'D LIKE TO TELL ME?

A. We were interviewed once by Kalle Dernulf [on the national radio, channel P3], but he asked us questions that were really weird. Like, he thought that a swedish band couldn't have english influences and references (when he asked about that), because we were from Sweden! Who'd say something like that?
Oh and could you say hello from us to BallDe at Vapour Trail, we were "The Demo of the Month" there once before we got our contract and we were interviewed as well, before they went 'hardcore'. And say hello to 'Mats', a group from Malmö [Sweden]?


Scandinavian Indie Pinko Pinko interview 08-Dec-94



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