The Hives: Law of the Hives

By Alif Omar Mahfix  •  in Interview
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You’ve been listed by SPIN as 1 of 50 greatest frontmen of all time. Who’s your personal greatest frontman of rock band?
For sheer consistency and being great over so many decades I would say it’s hard to beat Mick Jagger. He’s been pretty much at the top of his game for more than 40 years, most great frontmen have a career standard of 5 [laughs].

Ever going to change The Hives’ colour scheme to something other than black and white?
Nope! Not for The Hives at least. I sometimes try wearing colours in private but Hives will always be black and white. Even off-stage we have an outfit, black leather jackets and black jeans.

Will we ever find out who Randy Fitzsimmons? Is he even real?
Yes, he is real. We kept him a secret for 20 years, I think we can keep it for 20 more.

Back in 2002, during MTV Music Video Awards you guys played before The Vines and right after you guys were done, you told the crowd to turn off the TV since there was nothing worthy left to watch. Was there an actual animosity between The Hives and The Vines?
Not really, I think we were mad at MTV, they had us set up like we were in a battle of the bands. If they’re gonna make us battle against something – we’re gonna win, and we’re gonna do everything in our power to win. It’s just that. There was no drama with The Vines at all – we just think we’re way better. We talked to them years later at different festivals though, they seemed like nice guys.

We still don’t know much about Lex Hives. Tell us about its sound.
It really is a sort of a classic rock’n’roll album. You can tell by the sound of the album that that is how it was made. It’s very low tech. Most of the stuff we used for recording were like 30-40 years old equipment. So it really sounds like a good ol’ classic rock record. I’m really proud that we managed to make it sound like that.

Were all the old equipment intentional or did they just happen to be at the studio you guys recorded at?
It was intentional. We think it sounds better. Recorded music didn’t sound any better after the ‘70s, that’s when it peaked. Old sh*t is just better.

Good quote. Do you think a lot of music these days sound like they were tempered too much by computers?
I think it’s less of a problem now because lotsa people can make records at home and they can sound really cool on just the computer. But I think a lot of rock’n’roll records have sound a lot of worse in the last 10 years or so.

Who do you like currently though?
I like this band Graveyard from Sweden. I like the new rapper Azealia Banks, she sounds cool. Been a while since they made anything but I really The Knifes from Sweden. Also Lykke Li, she’s a friend of ours.

Besides Azealia Banks, Sweden represent, yo. You listen to quite a diverse genre of artistes. It’s not just rock for you, eh?
I listen to everything, if it sounds good I just call it rock’n’roll.

Indeed. You’re infamous for making vainglorious declarations on stage. End this interview with the most egotistical statement you can think of.
The Hives rule and you don’t! Is that good enough?

That’s the best you can do…?
I can do better but I won’t unless I’m on stage. I’m at home in my pyjamas right now. Find a YouTube clip of us or something [laughs].

[Laughs] Well, thank you for the interview Pelle!
It was a pleasure! Hopefully we can visit you guys some time.

That would be awesome.

Lex Hives will be released on 4 June 2012 internationally. Obey the law of Hives at www.thehivesbroadcastingservice.com.