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Interview with Pleasurehouse
Sorry about the bad english and the lack of names etc. But I'll post
more about Pleasurehouse in a few hours time. //Erik
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Pleasurehouse Interview 23-Apr-93
Pleasurehouse played live at a local place here in Linkoping, and of course,
yours truly was there to record and interview this 'new' Swedish indie band.
Most of the questions were answered by the drummer, as he was the one who
talked the most (and told enough jokes to keep everyone else in hysteria. :))
[S] = singer, [D] = drummer, [B] = bass player, [G1] & [G2] = guitar players.
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ME: GREAT CONCERT GUYS!
S: It was okay.
ME: IS IT OKAY IF I DO AN INTERVIEW WITH THE BAND FOR A ZINE I'M WRITING FOR?
S: Yeah, grab your stuff and come up to our room. It's just up those stairs.
We have to sit down, and have a few beers. (smile)
ME: OKAY, I'LL BE THERE IN A FEW MINUTES THEN.
S: Yeah.
[Well up in their room, I found everyone sitting around a big table,
plus a few other people, who introduced themselves later as friends
to the members of the band. Everyone was drinking beer, except the
bass player, who explained he was the driver for the night.]
ME: HOW LONG HAS PLEASUREHOUSE BEEN PLAYING?
D: Since 1986... (laughter). Back then we had a different line-up though.
S: We started 1986, but it was only last year we were signed with West Side.
The CD you got there [Marseille] is our first release really, but the
songs on it are really old for us now.
D: We had a different guitar player then. He played with another band at
the same time, and sometimes he didn't show up at rehearsals, so now we
have this new one from Smaland (pointing at a guy in a sofa who nods).
G2: I played with My Favorite Martians before. Bass though. You heard of
them? We only released one single.
S: He didn't play on 'Marseille'.. only joined a couple of months ago. You
like the tracks on the CD?
ME: YES! I ONLY BOUGHT IT A MONTH AGO, BUT I THINK THE SONGS ARE GREAT.
I WOULDN'T BE HERE IF I DIDN'T. (smile)
S: Haha, that's true. Well, we're sick to the teeth with those songs.
We've played some of them since 1986, like 'This is how it feels'
and 'Happy when you leave', and you know, it's really boring to play
the same songs over and over again.. I mean, 1986!
D: Yeah, but 'Blind' was okay tonight, don't you think? I think so..
Felt great to play that one (drums on his knees), and they (referring
to the audience) were with us on it, dancing and all..
S: Yes, that one did okay. It's good to hear that you like the CD though.
It was to be released last october, but the company [West Side] decided
to wait until march this year. We got a good review in Aftonbladet..
[a Swedish evening-paper] Three 'plus'.. not bad at all really.
ME: A COUPLE OF NEW SONGS TONIGHT... ANY CHANCE WE'RE GOING TO SEE SOME
NEW SINGLES OR PERHAPS EVEN A NEW ALBUM SOON?
S: Nine songs. Four from Marseille, 'Breathe', 'Summer', 'Blind' and
'This is how it feels'. Then we played 'Cindy', written by our new
member [the guitar player] which will be out on flexi with the next
issue of Sound Affects together with a song from Easy [another band].
We also played 'Candyfloss', 'Vals', 'September' and 'Six Eyes'.
'Six Eyes' wasn't really written today [they said it was, to the
audience during the concert] (laughter), but we did write it this
week.
ME: HOW ABOUT THE LYRICS? ARE THEY WRITTEN TO SOMEONE SPECIAL OR...?
S: They're written like to a friend. Some of the songs are really
for someone I know. But I really want people to have their
own thoughts about what the lyrics are about. I think that goes
for all lyrics.. I wouldn't for example go and ask another singer
what the lyrics are about.. I have my own picture, you know?
ME: SO THE NEXT THING IS THE FLEXI WITH SOUND AFFECTS? NO SINGLES?
S: No. We have a lot of songs though..
D: West Side is like this. You sign with them, they release your first
album, and then they try to sell you to a bigger label. He (the owner)
sits in his house up in Skellefte and is having fun. Sort of like he's
just doing all of this as a hobby. He puts a lot of pressure on the
bigger labels though, to sign bands from West Side.
ME: YOU SAID YOUR NEW GUITAR PLAYER WROTE 'CINDY'? YOU'RE NOT THE ONLY ONE WHO
WRITES SONGS AND LYRICS FOR PLEASUREHOUSE THEN?
S: No no. He's writing a lot of our new material. He really did bring a
lot of new ideas to the group.
D: Yeah. Before, we played and then went home. After he joined, we're
a lot closer, and spend a lot of time together (the whole band) outside
the studio. More like a group now, if you know what I mean.
ME: WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT 'HERRGAR'N'? [THE PLACE THEY PLAYED AT]
S: Small scene. [everyone agrees]
G1: Did you feel it swaying? I felt it A LOT. It was like, wow.. if I'd
leaned a bit more forward, I bet it would've gone over. (laughter)
D: I heard my drums all around me! I couldn't...
S: And the first time he told us about that, was when we had two songs left
to play!
D: Yeah but.. [the other members laugh] ...they fixed it then at least.
G1: You heard my effects-box? It died several times, so I had to kick it
to get it to work again! I felt kind of funny, standing there and
kicking the box all the time. But no-one seemed to have heard the
difference..
ME: I DIDN'T. [everyone laughs]
G1: Well.. It sounded fine when it worked..
ME: HOW ABOUT SOME REGULAR INTERVIEW QUESTIONS? HOW OLD ARE YOU?
S: 24..
G2: He's 32! (pointing at the drummer laughing)
D: See! He's writing that down! I won't say.. [everyone laughs]
ME: OKAY.. FAVORITE BANDS (INSPIRATIONS)?
S: Moose, My Bloody Valentine... Suede's latest single is good. I also
recommend Dinosaur Jr's 'Bug'. Lately, I've been listening to The
Auteurs though. It grows on you.
D: Boo Radleys, Sonic Youth...
G2: Soundgarden
ME: HOW ABOUT SLOWDIVE OR CURVE?
S: uh.. no. They're too slow, if you know what I mean.
D: Definitely no.
S: And the whole Grunge-wave really sucks.
G1: I like Alice In Chains.
S: What's that? (laughter)
ME: SWEDISH BANDS? MINDSCAPE, SUREDO, A SHRINE?
S: Don't say Mindscape..
D: We don't like them.
S: No. They had one good song.. their hit. Suredo, yeah, they're great.
Weren't we supposed to play with them at Skylten [local place] ?
D: Yeah, but the guy who owns that place don't want local, or 'small'
bands to play there anymore. He's more into known bands now, like
Thastrom and so on.. It's really sick because that place was made
for like, unknown bands, you know.
S: So the last thing we heard was that they didn't have any date for
our gig, and they just let it go. Sad though.. Would've been fun
to play with 'em. A Shrine, yeah, they're also good. Also on the
West Side label.
ME: WHERE ARE YOU PLAYING LIVE NEXT?
S: We were to play in Norrkoping together with Blue (another Indie band)
from Orebro, but we haven't heard anything about it for a while now.
We're playing in Orebro though, in may, and then in Skelleftea.
D: Yeah, see, we have this deal, like, Blue's coming to Norrkoping to
play, and we're going to Orebro to play. Like a switch...
ME: YOU'RE ALL FROM NORRKOPING THEN?
S: Yeah... well, not our new guitar player, who, like I said is from
Smaland.
ME: OKAY.. NEXT GENERIC QUESTION: FAVORITE DRINK?
S: Carlsberg. [everyone agrees]
D: ..and Gin/Tonic!
ME: GROUPIES? HOW ABOUT THAT?
S: (laugh)
D: You wish! (laugh)
ME: OH YEAH, YOU HAD ONE SONG ON THE LATEST WEST SIDE COMPILATION..
S: Yeah. They called us one day, said that we had ten hours to do a
song for the compilation if we wanted to be on it. So we did
'You will never know', and the week after that, the compilation
was out.
ME: HAVE YOU RELEASED ANYTHING ELSE, EXCEPT FROM MARSEILLE?
S: Well, we've been on two compilations from West Side, and then it's
that flexi with Sound Affects. That's all.
D: If you don't count the demo tapes.. (smile)
S: Haha, we won't give out those though. We sound like.. [he says the
name of a group, which unfortunately, I can't remember. Sorry.].
We didn't sound at all like we do today. You wouldn't like them
if you like how we sound today.
ME: ANYTHING FUNNY HAPPEN TO YOU WHEN PLAYING LIVE?
D: Why don't you tell him about our release-party?
S: Okay.. we had this release party, for Marseille, and there were a
lot of people at this place, and of course, we wanted to do our
best. So we go up on stage, and starts to play. And it sounds
TERRIBLE! Everything was wrong. The sound came from all directions,
and no-one could hear what they played or sang. Later, we found
out that they had a 17-year-old sound technician, who just started
to work there.
D: He was just practicing there!
S: He must've been! It was a disaster! [laughter]
[at this point, most of the members of the band had gone downstairs
to the party to mingle, and someone who worked at that place came to tell
us that they wanted us to leave, because it was really a room for the
employees, the rest of us decided to join the others downstairs.]
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I talked a lot to the singer and the drummer, and asked them about
the lyrics and more about other bands they liked during the rest of
the night, but I guess we all had a bit too much to drink at that
point (Gin/Tonics for the drummer :-)), and I just don't remember
everything they said too well. Better to leave it out, than to
perhaps, write stuff they didn't say. :)
When the drink-bar closed, and there were no more Gin/Tonics available,
they decided to leave. Their instruments and gear was carried out to
their van. After I got my copy of Marseille signed by the members and
we had found one of the guitar players again (we lost him a couple
of hours earlier <grin>), and after the band told the management of the
place that they didn't like to be thrown out from the room they were
supposed to be able to use, they drove off in their van.
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To order a subscriptions to the Sound Affects magazine - call +46-11100053.
(you get a free CD with your subscription. Either PLEASUREHOUSE - Marseille,
or one of the West Side compilations (they've released four so far)).
PLEASUREHOUSE - Marseille. West Side Fabrication 1993 WeCD 042.
Breathe, Summer, Blind, Happy When You Leave, Regrets, This Is How It Feels.
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