Scandinavian Indie - Smash Hit Wonders Interview


Scandinavian Indie Presents: A short interview with
Smash Hit Wonders

by Erik Söderström (chief@lysator.liu.se) 
after a gig at Herrgår'n, Linköping, Sweden, 09-Nov-95.

Smash Hit Wonders are:
Petter Nyhlin (vocals)
Thomas Blixt (guitar)
Jesper Klarin (drums)
Johan Avedal (bass)

(c) 1995 Scandinavian Indie

If the answer is "A." it was answered by the group as a whole.
If the answer is "MB." it was answered by their manager, Magnus Bengtsson.

Q. WHAT DID YOU THINK ABOUT THE GIG TONIGHT?

A. It was fun to play, even though the stage broke. One of the legs on one of those squares that makes the stage just broke and Petter fell backwards! Maybe it was time for it to break, when it's been swaying for such a long time.
MB. You almost couldn't hear the drums. We wanted them a bit back on the stage, but during soundcheck the soundcheck-guy wanted them where they were.

Q. WHAT SONGS DID YOU PLAY?

PN. It was quite a few.. 'Socialism', 'Summer of ´89', 'Golden Haircut', 'Straight Edge Song', 'Alltogether Now', 'Breaking the Bonds of Male Power', 'I Never', 'Superbambi' and 'Let Freedom Ring With a Shotgun Blast'. The extras were 'Manic Monday' and 'Wannabe a Wannabe'. We had world premiere on 'Alltogether Now' and 'I Never' tonight!

Q. WHERE ARE YOU FROM?

PN. We're fom Skövde! The second best band from that town really. Kracklites is the number one! They play some kind of hardcore-techno, like if the Doors would play techno today. People are really afraid of them! The guy who sings is like 120 kg, and looks lethal. At least that's what everyone says. Petter's talked to them, asking them to play live more than they do, but no-one dares to hire them. They simply kick ass.

Q. WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN YOU'RE NOT PLAYING?

PN. I'm unemployed and without a place to stay at the moment, Thomas sweeps chimneys, Jesper works as a music teacher and Johan is a student (film). Our manager, Magnus is a media teacher, reporter at TV4, student and, of course, manager.

Q. WHO WRITES THE LYRICS / MUSIC?

PN. I write all the lyrics and work with Thomas on the music. But all of us arrange the songs.

Q. HOW ABOUT RELEASES?

PN. [Laugh] It's pretty embarrasing. One demo. That's it. In December 1994.

Q. COULD YOU NAME SOME OF YOUR INFLUENCES?

A. Pixies, Sebadoh, Blithe, Bob Hund, Jam, Neil Young, Machinehead - that's where the 'Let Freedom Ring...'-title comes from, but we would never actually buy something they've made though.
TB. The Who, Small Faces and Savages are really my influences.
PN. Redheads!

Q. DO YOU LISTEN TO OTHER SWEDISH BANDS?

A. Sure we do! Bob Hund, as number one, then Naked! Other than that, well, Kent, Honey Is Cool, Souls, Salt, Blithe. And Loosegoats. They're really great, friendly and all.

Q. ARE YOU TOURING RIGHT NOW?

PN. No, not at all. The next gig we know of is in Sundsvall on the 9th of December, together with Blithe and Honey Is Cool. We have a preliminary date in Skövde on the 8th of December though. That's pretty much it for this year. Next year we'll play at the Underground in Gothenburg, on February 10th.

Q. WHAT FESTIVALS HAVE YOU PLAYED?

PN. We've played the Emmaboda festival this year (1995), Araby '95, which was an anti-rasist gala with about 15.000 people in Växjö and then the Kamikaze festival in Hova this summer.

Q. WILL WE SEE YOU SIGNED TO A LABEL SOON?

PN. Well, we're talking a bit with Soap right now, but they want a lot more material from us before they release anything or sign us for that matter. It's kind of good that everything's a bit slow for us right now. We get a lot of time to rehearse new songs, which is needed if we want that contract. Anyway, Ceilidh (Good Dog Records) want to release something with us, if the new Stevepops, a good old four-track 7",sells well. That's all we know right now.

Q. HAVE YOU BEEN FEATURED IN ANY MAGAZINES OR PAPERS?

PN. Yes! We got a fantastic review in Avenyn (entertainment section in Göteborgs Posten), and from a load of fanzines. Almost too good reviews to be honest about it. Pop and SA have reviewed our Demo as well, but the reviewer in SA really didn't know what she was doing, saying we were "lo-fi"!

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

A. We had a motor-accident a week ago, which could've ended really really bad. Bengan [MB] was driving the van, I think we were going to Borlänge, and listened to Goldie pretty loud. Petter just played a bit with Bengan's cellular phone, but Bengan wanted him to put it down, in a safe place. Petter put it in a little holder on the dashboard which he thought to be a really really safe place. But that wasn't what Bengan thought, so he was about to grab it, and...
TB. I shouted What the hell!!!.
A. The road turned, Bengan didn't. He almost hit a telephone pole doing 80 km/h!
TB. I just screamed: Hit the brakes! Hit the brakes!. Then, when we finally stopped, I remebered the trailer!
A. The trailer went to hell. Though we were lucky that it just snapped like that from the van, or we wouldn´t be here now. The funny thing is that even though all this happened, the cellular phone was still lying in the holder on the dashboard! A lot of stuff on the trailer were broken though, and we had to cancel our gigs in Borlänge and Falun, which made us lose about 10-15.000 kronor. But we didn't need to pay anything repairing the broken instruments. Thomas and Jesper fixed everything themselves.

Smash Hit Wonders can be contacted through snail mail to:
Magnus Bengtsson
PL 8124A
541 91 Skövde
SWEDEN

Scandinavian Indie Smash Hit Wonders interview 09-Nov-95

Scandinavian Indie - your Internet guide to scandinavian independent music E-mail: scan-indie-request@lysator.liu.se WWW: http://www.lysator.liu.se/~chief/scan.html E-mail: chief@lysator.liu.se Phone: +46-(0)13-175042 Snail-mail: Erik Söderström, Björnkärrsg. 13 B:34, 582 51 Linköping, Sweden

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