The Hellacopters. Aprende inglés (del bueno) con Harlem

"Like Neil Young once said, 'its better to burn out than to fade away"

The Hellacopters, maestros suecos de la pose y del hard rock and roll, tiran la toalla. Pero antes de volar por libre, sus componentes ofrecerán sus cuatro últimos conciertos en España (ver Conciertos). Tocarán hits particulares y algunas versiones contenidas en Head off, su séptima entrega, que reúne adaptaciones de colegas como The BellRays, Gaza Strippers y New Bomb Turks. OSCAR CUBILLO, con su inglés de Wisconsin, ha hablado con el batería Robert Eriksson. .

Why did you created the band?
At the time, in 1994 there was very little contemporary music here in Sweden that we thought was good. Just a bunch of shoegazing bands feeling sorry for themselves so we had to put together a real rock band!

Why have you decided to split the band?
Lack of motivation basically. Like Neil Young once said, "its better to burn out than to fade away" and instead of letting this band, which we are very fond of, start to rust, we split up while we still think we are good and most importantly while we are still friends.

I think you wanted to be stars, big in USA, but you couldn't get it. Is it true? Are you tired after all this years?
Woah, where did you hear that?! That's pretty far from the truth! We have never aimed for USA more than any other country. Basically we want to put out good music for people and where people live doesn't matter at all. And to make it big in the US would take much more effort and time than we ever would have done. So basically US was one of around 20 countries that we release records in and go on tour to. It's bigger of course so naturally there's more shows there than any in other country but we have never even discussed about "making it big" in the US, or anywhere, for that reason. It has always been more of "if it happens it happens" sort of thinking. And if it would have happened it would have been on our terms.

Are you gonna be in another bands in the future. For instance, Thunder Express, Diamond Dogs…
Yes, everybody is gonna continue with music in new or already existing bands. I play in a new band called Tramp together with friends from Henry Fiat's Open Sore, The Turpentines & Captain Murphy. I also play in a band called Midlife Crisis together with Dregen from Backyard Babies (and ex-Hellacopter of course!) but that's more of a project. Strings has his Thunder Express, Nick has Death Breath plus some other plans, Boba has his project Bitter Twins and I'm sure Kenny will find something too.

The best and the worst audiences all over this years? I suppose you like the Spanish...
Yes, Spain is definetely up there among the favorites! The worst could be pretty much anywhere on a bad night but I know we have had some very lousy shows/audiences in France and in Belgium, but then again that could be us playing badly too!

Which is the best thing, the best remind about all this rockin years in Hellacopters?
The best is of course all the good shows we have done. And all the places we have been to. And all the people we have met. And the recordings. All in all it has been quite a ride!

Tell us something about your last album, a cover album. Why have you choose these songs to play? Influences and friends, I think.
We discussed the record after the Rock'n'Roll Is Dead tour and decided it was time to make a cover record and agreed on choosing 90's and 00's bands that don't get enough recognition. Much more fun than to make covers of Rolling Stones & old soul songs or whatever. So we picked out around 50 songs and discussed wwhat would suit us as a band, what we could do with the songs to make them sound like we wrote them etc and in the end we rehearsed around 18 I think. Went inte the studio in Feb. 2007 and it was completely done seven months later, more time than we ever spent on a record before. And after that we had the split-up meeting, so the record was all finished when that decision was taken.

How are gonna be your concerts in Spain?
As always, great! No wait...even better! Seriously I think it will be truly great and I'm very much looking forward to it.

Any words about The Bloodlights, your opening band here?
We know Captain Poon since the Gluecifer days who we toured with in the 90's and we though it would be fitting to have them as support band. All I can say is: come in time to see them.

What do you like about the people and the country of Spain?
I like your attitude towards things. Openminded and positive thinking. A little bit more of that hadn't hurt the Swedish people, especially in the wintertime.