Interview Backyard Babies Elserhalle, Munich, Germany by Sabine Schenk One year ago I sat at a small table outside a little Italian restaurant on Sunset Boulevard and in front of me were Nicke and Dregen the masterminds of one of Sweden’s hottest bands: The Backyard Babies. We did an interview before their showcase at the Troubadour that night and it turned out to be the longest interview I ever did for coolgrrrls.com (17 pages, man!). This year Social Distortion finally decided to tour Germany (it’s been ages since their last show in Europe) and on board they had the Backyard Babies as their support act. What a line up! I got the chance to meet Nicke and Dregen again for another interview before their show in Munich that night. A lot of things can change within one year so we talked about their new label in the US, their autobiography and Social Distortion, of course. How are you? Did you enjoy the Dwarves show last night? (Check out my update for background information) Dregen: Yeah. The Dwarves is always fun to watch. When was the last time we saw the Dwarves? Nicke: In London. In ’98. What probably everybody wants to know is: how does it feel to be on tour with Social Distortion? Nicke: It’s kinda funny because the last time they went to Europe, that was in ’96 or ’97, we were the support act back then as well. And we just came from a tour in America with them as well. Social Distortion is probably the band with whom the Backyard Babies played the most shows. About 80 or 90 shows, I think. It’s almost a 2 months tour now. They are so great because they helped us with so much stuff along the way. Especially in America. They more or less asked us to be special guest on their tour and we won’t turn that down because they did us so many favours. And it’s good for us to do that European tour as well. There are always a lot of Backyard Babies fans at the shows. Dregen: I think that the majority of the people in the audience have heard of our band but a lot of them have never seen us live. So it’s a good tour for us. And how’s the tour going so far? Nicke: It’s great. It’s almost sold out every night. It’s perfect. Dregen: We have done sold out tours before with other headline acts when we were a support act. But when we played the venue was usually only half full because the people just came to see the headline act. But on this tour the halls are packed from the very beginning, right after the doors opened. So that’s good for us, too. The last time we met you did a showcase at the Troubadour and what happened after that? Nicke: A lot of things happened. We got signed in America with Liqour&Poker. We now signed a worldwide deal actually with Another Century Media. Liqour&Poker is part of Another Century Media. We are still on BMG in Scandinavia and Japan. The rest of the world is going to be Another Century Media. So I guess the showcase was really good. The Westcoast has always been good to us. We turned into some cult band there. We have a lot of fans there that support us. They are real die hard fans because it’s so hard to get our records in America so they really have to fight to get our records. But now they are available there, too. That’s the plan with Another Century Media. We are trying to break in the US and England. That’s the thing with real rock music. You have fans like that. We always had fans like that being all loyal and cool. We like to hang out with our fans, too. We don’t put ourselves on a different level or something. So if I was a fan I would really think that this was cool, too. And we are still doing our stuff. We haven’t really changed. We are still trying to play fucking good music. What was the reaction of the audience like when you supported Social D in the US? Did they appreciate your stuff? Dregen: It’s been overall like really good because I think in America even more than in Europe Social D fans are a bit like AC/DC fans or something. They are only into Social D and they don’t care about the rest. It’s always good for us to have a challenge, you know, to convince people. Nicke: That’s why I like touring Germany so much. People here like rock’n’roll it doesn’t have to be one specific band. There’s also a Backyard Babies biography out now in Sweden. Why is it only available in Sweden? Dregen: Actually we haven’t had time yet to get it translated. The interest in it was really big in Sweden. And the guy who wrote the book, it’s from his perspective. So it’s a Swedish kind of view on the whole thing. I think you couldn’t really enjoy it if we just translated it. Because it has so much to do with where we’re from and specific streets in Stockholm and stuff. If you haven’t been to Sweden or Stockholm it wouldn’t make sense reading it. So we have to rewrite it but it’s on the way. There are a lot of interviews in it and a lot of people who have been in contact with the band for some reason over the years. It’s interviews with people as well that don’t like the band. So we inserted a lot of material which we could have just skipped. But so you can see all the different views on the Backyard Babies. We are not the nicest people in the world to everyone, you know. Nicke: This is just the way we are. We have got nothing to hide. Dregen: It’s also about the whole Stockholm rock scene. About the Hellacopters, the Hives and a lot of other bands. It’s also about certain clubs and places in Stockholm. Nicke: So it’s about the whole Swedish scene as well. You have two records coming up is that correct? Dregen: Well, Tinnitus is actually already out on Liqour&Poker in America. It’s sort of a compilation from Total 13, Making Enemies and Stockholm Syndrome. In Scandinavia we released a live album which is called Live Live in Paris which is not available here. So Tinnitus is a combination of those two records in Europe. Dregen, last night you DJ-ed again at the Kings&Queens. Are you planning to do another DJ tour? Dregen: No, not really. Why did you go on a DJ tour anyway? Dregen: You know, I have always been the guy since I’m like 15 years old that came over to someone’s house if there was a party to be the DJ. I just like taking care of the stereo. It’s also cool because you can meet fans in a different way. I play pretty much everything from John Lee Hooker to Slayer. Like that I can give fans kind of a hint what we have been growing up with. Actually I’m pretty much done with my questions so what are your plans for the near future? Dregen: Go home after this tour and just start writing a new album. Nicke: That might take 1 month but it might also take 1 year. We just take our time. Too many bands are releasing too many crap records, I think. Most of today’s albums have just 3 good songs on them and the rest are just fillers. Then we will try, as we always do, to make the best record possible. We will be in the studio around January. Then we are going to have a new album out in spring next year. Dregen: So we are going to be in Germany doing the summer festivals! Is there anything you want to add? Nicke: We are really looking forward to start our work with Another Century Media because they seemed really cool. It was good for a few years to try out the major company bullshit. But it wasn’t that much fun actually. Thanks, guys!