Yeah, that’s it! We desperately needed some refreshment in the pit of hardcore punk demos. And here it is, it has just arrived! I am very proud to unveil my interview with IRON, the newest, craziest, rawest and most vicious Malmö hardcore punk band of the year 2013!
They are booking their first major European tour for September 16-25th (focusing on Germany, The Netherlands, Belgium and perhaps Poland) and need your help to get them to your town! Check out their brilliant tunes, read up my chat with Carl (also of ANCHOR) below and contact them via [email protected]. Spread the word, this will most likely be one of your favorite soundtracks for this Summer!
Hey, Carl! It’s good to hear from you.
Let’s talk about IRON. Shoot me a brief introduction to this new project.
Let me start this out by thanking you so much for having the interest in a new band like IRON. We’ve just been around for a couple of months, and getting this attention is so cool, but feels a bit weird. We don’t feel like we are that special at all. People all over the world has written to us and giving us such nice compliments about our music and most of all our message.
IRON is basicly a band formed by four friends who wanted to play music with a message beyond the topics of average punk bands. We feel like there are way more things to bring up to discussion then just the normal subjects found in hardcore. Personally I believe that if you play hardcore punk and don’t bleed at shows, or play your instrument out of anger from the lyrics and what you feel inside, what’s the point of even playing punk? We play because we are really pissed off about things, and this is our outlet, a way to keep our heads intact another week you know… But of course we also love to have fun, and let the magics of music do what it does to people ;)
We are all vegan straight edge, and that was the intention in the beginning. In Sweden theres just a short number of straight edge bands, and we wanted to add a number to the keepers of the faith so to speak, haha. We are the only straight edge band in our city Malmö, and I don’t know yet how people will approach our music here. Hopefully good!
We just had our first show inside of a flat at our friends place. It was so much fun to play, and we got so excited we even forgot to play one of the six songs we have, hehe.
Ha! Amazing :) But you realize that nobody will find you online because of the name? Haha :D
So, who’s in the band? Shoot me a brief introduction of yourselves and your other projects, both past and still runnin’.
Hehe, yeeeah I guess. In English, the slang word for IRON is “faggot” from what I’ve heard. Maybe thats why no one has used it as a band ;) I don’t really care about facebook hypes, and what not. If a band is good, it will spread out to the people who still got the spark, you know.
IRON started out as a project for people who were vegan straight edge and wanted to play. We just fooled around in our friends Dennis practice space (the singer in SISTA SEKUNDEN, drummer in PRIMITIVE RITES etc). And we basically played Force of change by STRIFE, ooover and over again. Then two guys got sick of that, and left. That’s when IRON formed.
Eric on guitar, who only had played in a death metal band named CADRASS ( CARCASS yooo!), and some nonserious punkrock projects before. He is working as a storage/delivery guy, making sure all supermarkets in Malmoe is getting their vegan food. He also likes to play with his balls. His Kettle bells. I’ve never seen anyone do snatches like this guy!
Fredrik had a beautiful bass guitar so he got that part, even though i think he is mainly a guitarist. He formed the heavy touring band NO OMEGA a couple of years ago and then quit the band. Fredrik is a true sweetheart, and always got something new to talk about when it comes to treats. I’m all on his side! Part from eating cookies, he also is a delivery guy. Moving bunch of stuff by bicycle and a special designed trailer. I think there is just one other company in the world who has this cool way of moving stuff. Eco friendly as fuck!
Thomas, whom brought all of us together, had the biggest urge to do this band, so of course he grabbed the microphone and swung away with it. He had a vegan straight edge elektroband in the late nineties. I haven’t heard them myself, but im sure they were,,,eh,,special. He owns a kickass tattoo shop and has been making unholy looking tattoos since 1999. Besides that, him and his wife runs a vegan adult store, with pleasure and fancy filth to the people as their vision. Go check it out! Love that place.
Me myself, I’ve played in a bunch of weird bands. A death metal band, a garage rock indie band, a gupsy folkrock band for example. I am currently the drummer in the VSE platoon ANCHOR, and I also got a fresh project cooking with Anton Svensson, who sung in GUILTY until just recently. When I don’t tour with ANCHOR, I try to have as much time away from work as possible. I do work as a social worker, and I’m part time working in an institution for heavy drug users, and also at a temporary grouphome for single coming refugee kids. I’m pretty restless, so I’m always up for sick shit. Tonight I’m gonna catch a freight train, and just ride along with it and see where it takes me up North in Sweden.
No shit!
I’ve traveled through Norway many times and I pretty much know the whole country (I sincerely love it by the way), but only passed through Sweden (spent most of the time in Gothenburg).
So… What’s there to do in Northern Sweden? :) After telling me everything about traveling ;) you can take this question as an urge to discuss your favorite local Swedish punk scenes :)
Norway is soo beautiful!! We played Stavanger last year, and the way through the mountains between Oslo and Stavanger was incredibly nice!!
Gothenburg is just nice when the weather is good. Which is rare to happen, haha. Always rainy. it’s called little london here in sweden…
Hm, I’ve been through four continents while touring, but I’ve never been further up then half of Sweden. It’s a shame! I want to play Umeå someday, since that’s the town that has got a huge punk history. I’m sure alot of people know at least two or three bands from there, right?
Not that far away, a little down south is the city of Gävle found. It had a pretty solid hardcore scene in the nineties, and then it dried out for many years. But for about two years ago a bunch of dedicated old farts decided to put fuel on the scene again. And they sure did! Rocket fuel! In just a couple of months, there were 50-70 new faces coming to shows, wanting to help out and being curious about this subculture we all are a part of. Whenever im in Gävle, I feel like home. The unity up there is so strong, and I’m truly happy to have met those guys! David Z, Thomas Ö, Thomas F, Danne dolk, David Jannati, Johan H, André, and all the other super sweet girls and guys! They are a true inspiration. Just as cool is the Stockholm Straight Edge guys. No other DIY group is booking that many different types of bands like them. And they are having like 10 shows every week. Sure, they are straight edge, but I know theyre addicted to be stressed about shows, about giving the bands the best experience of their tour, and also thinking about the importance of being greeted in the scene when youre the “new kid”. A huge big up to those guys! Too many to mention!
I could keep on about Gbg hardcore, Malmö HC, and all the other cities if I wanted to.
Speaking of hardcore scene.. IRON screams “I see no heart!”. What’s wrong about the current state of the “scene”?
We talked alot of how distracted people has become by nonsense like merchandise, the right nike shoes, and how to hype the “right” bands just because someone says so. So we put it together into a song. Real hardcore bands are doing this thing with the intention of play as many shows as possible, as far away as possible, if there are kids who really wants to see them play. Those bands do everything to make it happen, even if they go broke from it.
But for an example: It makes my stomache turn every time when I hear about some band who couldn’t do this and that show because it was 9 hours away, when they also had someone driving them. When you’re a kid (and even now sometimes), it means so much to have a show to look forward to. And then having a lame ass band canceling without a reason. That’s exactly what we mean with the song No Heart.
Ok, so let’s justify the rest of your manifesto. “Sex positive, queer…”. Are you simply putting in a good word for sexual diversity? What’s behind that?
Our singer wrote the song Cum out and play, because the lack of songs about sexuality. We believe that it is up to each and every one of us to determ how, and what we want to do with our sexuality, as long as all parts are enjoying it and are up for it. All humans have their own sexuality and what we like. But there are still not even legal to be homosexual or even a little queer in so many place. We are being oppressed by religion, the government, and alot of the times our parents and relatives. for being who we are! That stinks! So basicly this song is embracing the brave people who dare to be themselves, and do what they feel like. It’s a good thing and we just want to reach out to kids who still dwell about who they are. Some people think its bringing shame over the straight edge. But hey, we arent telling people to mindlessly fuck around just to hurt people or in an unsafe way. In every decision we make, we gotta think thrue about the consequences of course…
Alright, sex positive we are then :) “Vehemently anti-capitalist”. What’s wrong with capitalism?
What’s wrong with capitalism? Oh, man where should I start. Just look what the history has repeated during the last 6-700 years and you will see the same patterns. A few people has taken the power in various ways, and using it to gain as much welth as possible from the small man. It’s been everything from stealing land from farmers in Mexico, to selling copied medicines to third world countries. The few of the top elite, banks and companies rule this entire world. And what is ruling them? Nothing but greed and money. It should be the people. You and me. We are handed a few different parties to choose between, but they are puppets to companies in the other hand. So what are the choices really? Capitalism makes people turn on the less fortunate, the weaker, the sick and the poor. And it will always be like that.
Yeah, man, I do agree. If you’re not a boss then you’re part of the working class working for the boss to get rich. It all rests on your work.
Will we ever be able to get rid of it? What’s the alternative?
It’s such a big subject to go deep into. I mean its world economics! The way to reverse our greed, and the narrow minded way the elite (and alot of us others too) are thinking is hard. I wish people wouldn’t think just about themselves when they do business and fuck the poor countries over. And that goes to all of us! Every time we buy something replay cheap, some other person has been cheated on the profit!
You’re right, let’s not go further with it. We all know what sucks in the system.
So, following the decomposition of your manifesto, tell me what did you mean by saying “we are not cops” :)
Oh, the sentence “we are not cops” just means that us as a band, and as persons doesn’t have anything to tell people what they should do in the bedroom. We simply want people to have the FREEDOM to do what ever they like to, without anyone judging them.
Alright, Carl. You have recently teased some sort of physical release, to be released soon. Please sum up your legacy for us. What’s there to grab and what else are you cooking up there in the cold mountains of Sweden? ;)
We basically wanted to record the first couple of songs we made, and then just make a cassette tape ourselves, taping like 20-30 tapes and give em out to our friends. Just for fun. But just when we uploaded four of the five songs at the bandcamp site, people really got crazy about it and we got a couple of offers from different record labels to release something proper with. So.. We did. The four demo songs + an unreleased song will be transformed onto a seven inch vinyl and released in July by Assault Records from Germany, Judas Cradle Records from Gothenburg Sweden, and Instigate Records from Malmö Sweden. Also a friend of ours will participate in the release.
its way beyond what we thought. I mean, we could never have guessed that people liked our shit this much, to actually want to release it on three different labels. We are so happy about it, and now we are just gonna continue to make new songs and and record them too. Other than that, we have been starting to make plans for a two week Europe tour in September, and hopefully it will happen.
Yeah, man. These songs are sooo fresh and energetic, I love the posi vibe they share.
About the tour, any details on that? Besides your debut show, have you played a couple more yet? Do you plan some single shows prior to the September run?
I’m glad you think so. We still haven’t found our definite sound yet, but we are getting there.
We haven’t booked any shows on that tour yet, but it will be mostly in Germany, Holland and perhaps Belgium. Who knows.
Besides our first show in our friend Kajsa’s flat, we haven’t played anything, but we just got asked to play at the danish punk band NO FEALTY‘s release party in Copenhagen on August 9th. Cool shit. It’s inside their rehearsal place and I always love such shows. Small, crowdy and intimate. We also gonna play a fest in Sweden known as Unity fest in September. It’s my good friend Jens Axelsson who is co-organizing this great event.
Ok, Carl. Let’s wrap it up then. Tell me what are your expectations for IRON in the coming months.
Oh lets see! I guess we will make more songs, and plan the tour. Apart from that, mostly chilling at the beach, eating mashed potatoes, listen to BLACK SABBATH and look for new vegan treats. We are always looking for new treats! You know, the hard-to-find stuff, like polish fruitjam chocolate, or new biscuits at the local Arabian store.
I really enjoyed talking to you, bro! Thanks so much for reaching out, taking some time with me and sharing your insights! Any last words? :)
Last words: Thanks to every one out there who dig us!
Stay true to yourself, because no one else will.
IRON Facebook
IRON Bandcamp
[email protected]
