noisedfisk

An interview with Strip Squad

2006.01.18

— Music

If you are into indie-pop (and when I say “indie”, I mean real, true, sincere, honest, not-serious and politically incorrect indie), you should fall in love with those five young people from Sweden who formed the band Strip Squad back in 2003. In another post of mine, I said (or I should have said) that Strip Squad are one of the most promising bands from the North. I confirm: “The Adventures of Strip Squad” is their debut album and believe me, you’ll find on it plenty of great tunes to dance to. As they say on their homepage, “popular culture needs a seriousness towards frivolousness and vice versa. This is something that we try to incorporate into our music”… and that’s exactly what they do. Even though their music is sometimes compared to Belle and Sebastian (but it’s closer to the Hidden Cameras from Canada, in my opinion), it’s most of the time more joyful, probably more “home made” and DIY. But it can be serious, sad and introverted as well and that’s what makes it so unique. I had the chance to make this interview by email with two of the Strip Squad girls, Malena Heinrup and Jenny Hernandez-Grönberg. The girls appearing on those exclusive pictures (see left) are Malena and Maja Claesson from their new year’s-trip to Gran Canaria. The boys are Björn Gylling and Martin Lindqvist. Unfortunately, Jenny couldn’t make it, so she’s not on the pictures. Maybe next time…

Strip Squad is not the most popular band in the world… (yet). Who are you and who’s the boss?
Malena : I can only speak for myself here. I love Strip Squad because we share a broad range of interests, from pole dancing at a gay club in Gran Canaria to our concerns about environmental issues. Nobody is the boss. Jenny: We’re all the boss. We try to work out everything democratically, but most of the time end up making one desicion, then changing our minds like 100 times before everyone goes “ok fine” and end up taking the original idea anyways.

Strip Squad has just released a self-financed album… Are you trying to find a record-label?
Malena: It is true that we dont have any contact with any label, but we are not trying to get one either. Personally I am satisfied with the situation, we dont need any middle men to get our message out. Jenny: We’re not really bothered about labels – we’re smarter than them anyway, they’d just fuck up. Seriously, any average person is like a 100 times smarter than someone working in the music industry and i tell you why: because all those people do loads of drugs and had evil on their mind. Truth! If anyone gives us an offer we might consider it, but it’d better be damn good. Also we don’t like people telling us what to do, because were all 14 mentally so if they say “write a song” we’ll have to say “no!” and pout and storm out in rage.

On the SwedesPlease blog, you’re compared to “Belle and Sebastian if they really let loose and were truly indie”…
Malena: I love Belle and Sebastian, but i agree that they (or… their music) can be a bit stiff sometimes. Our intention is to make people let loose and to NOT follow indie patterns like, “indie people must always keep their eyes on their shoes”. It was very flattering to read that blog. Jenny: Well, does truly indie mean good? er. B&S are good. But a bit uptight no?

One of your songs is titled Razorcuts… Is it a reference to the British band, the Razorcuts?
Malena: No. I know people who cut themself to get the pain out. I dont cut myself, I let my anxiety eat me up from the inside instead. Jenny: Razorcuts is about how people hurting themselves might do it as a punishment towards the person they love, to say “hey look i’m hurting, how does that make you feel huh? it’s your fault”.

Some of your lyrics are rather… full of sexual details… Do you spend all your free time fucking and thinking of sex?
Malena: No. Jennifer: We spend a lot of time talking of it. Mostly because of frustration.

How would you describe your new album?
Malena: Like Belle and Sebastian if they let loose and were truly indie.

Swedes are usually said to be calm and wise whereas Danes are much more eccentric and free-minded. Are you from Denmark after all ;-)?
Malena: No. But my mother is from Skåne (south of Sweden) which used to belong to Denmark. Hundreds of years ago, that is. Maybe that affects me, haha. We are all quite quiet, shy and introverted, it’s only when we are together that we… let loose (as they say). Jenny: Correction: that’s a myth, people only think that because Danes are always drunk. They’re also always happy (a clear sign of stupidity). We hate denmark and hope they all die. Haha kidding. Besides Danes smoke dope with makes you retarded.

What do you think of the swedish indie-scene at the moment?
Malena: I dont know and i dont care. But i like Vapnet’s song “Kalla mig”, and an artist called Anna Ternheim. Jenny: Not bad. Better than the last 5 years anyway.

Any plan for 2006?
Malena: I want to become an international gay icon. hopefully we will play on some silly festivals around sweden. Jenny: Minitour in sweden – also we’re gonna promote ourselves in the UK. Preferably also sell a song to O.C. so we can get rich and go to our fans in USA, australia and europe and play.

[Tack Malena och Jennifer...]

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