Thanks so much to the Gula Gången gang for the interview. Gula Gången is a superb Stockholm band that formed a few years ago, who released one album and is about to put out their second one. As I really enjoy their music I thought to learn more about them! Check their Soundcloud if you haven’t so, you’ll be surprised by their songs!
++ Hi there! Thanks so much for being up for this interview! How are you? I hear there is a new album coming up?
Yes we’re good. John is back from Berlin with a crystal meth addiction, but he’s loving every second of it. And yes that’s right, the album is out on Spotify 10th of June, please listen to it so John can keep up with his brand new lifestyle.
++ Tell me more about the album? Will it be released in physical format or will it be only available digitally?
This album is more eclectic than our previous albums. All the uncertainties in the world and all the changes, made it impossible to keep our mind focused on a theme or sound. We are also a diverse group with many different influences so it feels natural to just go with the flow and try new things.
It will be released on spotify but we are also planning to release one copy (yes, ONE copy) of the LP on Vinyl for a special event. We are not really sure when yet, but we will keep you posted when we do.
++ There’s a cool photo on the artwork for the album. Looks like a big family photo. What is the story behind it?
We are like a big family. Shiva is the street smart savvy mom, John is a sexy mom with a drug addiction, Leo is the bad mom with a bad taste in men, Adam is the talking dog and Simon is the awkward step dad who time to time knocks on your door while you are playing “The Sims 2” and asks if you can play together. A traditional family with great values and traditions in a spooky cursed house (right next to the lake).
++ There’s one song on the album, “Sommaren 21”, that made me wonder how you spent the last few summers, with the pandemic. We would get news that Sweden was doing things different Covid than the rest of the world. How did the pandemic affect you and how did it affect this album.
The weird part was that everything was allowed except for Rock’n’roll. We didn’t have any lockdowns so we could rehearse and hang out as usual. But almost all our shows got canceled due to restrictions. We were worried at first about everything that was happening but it felt good doing music together. It helped us, being able to focus on something creative and take a break from reality for a while.
++ There’s a video for this song too. It’s a super cool one. Where was it recorded? And who came up with this fun idea?
Thank you! It’s filmed in a gazeebo and a park named “Vita bergsparken”. We usually celebrate our birthdays and summer holidays with friends there. Fun fact! Carl Anton (famous swedish singer) used to have a tv-show theire. The music video was made by Andre Cordova Rudstedt, Elias Ljungberg and Erik Lokind. They were studying film so we asked if they could make something with us, they came up with the concept. All we did was show up and they told us what to do, a great luxury. Also, the music video is a fruit fetisch propagande video. Made to advocate the fruititarian lifestyle.
++ Let’s go back in time. What are your first music memories? Do you remember what your first instrument was? How did you learn to play it? What sort of music did you listen to at home while growing up?
Leo: my first records was mainly hip-hop: Eminem, Fattaru, Gorillaz etc. But when I was around 10-11 I fell in love with early Swedish punkrock, hanging round in the parks skating and listening to bands like Ebba Grön, Grisen Skriker, KSMB. At that time I started playing everything I could get my hands on but primarily trying to play all of their songs on guitar.
John: The first music I remember hearing was Cantaloop by Us3. My first CD was Rockafellars skank- Fat boy slim. The first album I bought with my own money was Fresh by Teddybears STHLM.
Shiva: When I was 15-16 I started to listen to 80’s pop music (Depech Mode, Duran Duran and A-ha). I loved 80s music and movies, the bright and horrible clothes, the big hairs and synthetic sounds.
++ Had you been in other bands before Gula G´ången? What about the other band members? If so, how did all of these bands sound? Are there any recordings?
Yes, here is a list of all the bands we have played in.
On Spotify:
Psykofant
Makeout Point
Paint sniffing survivors
Stockholmskretsen
Turbotutte
AK47
Not on Spotify:
Husband
Kennedy
Bacchus
Johnny Swish and the Bitcoin boys
PC-Cat
Hommeage
The scars
Vii är fett två
Personlig utveckling
++ Where were you from originally?
We are all born and raised in Stockholm, except Shiva who is born in Uppsala. Simon also spent some of his childhood in Varberg, a small coastal town. This might explain his love of the ocean.
++ How did you all meet? How was the recruiting process? What instrument did each of you play in the band?
Leo was just about to graduate at Chalmers University, his parents had pressured him to become a lawyer all his life. But when he stood there with the student hat in hand, he threw it on the floor and exclaimed: “No, I do not want this! I’m going to be a musician! ”
Leo quickly packed his bag and moved to Stockholm, a city where he did not know anyone. During a wild evening at Marie Leveau, he met John, who also liked music. They came in contact with Simon Hjort who demanded that they do dubstep, otherwise they might as well play guitar pop. Said and done.
They recruited cabaret singer Shiva Kazemi and provided a rehearsal room. Outisde of the rehersal room, they heard the janitor drum a beat on his broomstick and rassle with his keys. They noticed he had a perfect sense of beat, that man was Adam who becamse the bands drummer.
Gula Gången was born. And it was beautiful.
++ How is Stockholm these days? Are there any bands that you like? Any good record stores? What about the pubs or venues to go check out up and coming bands?
Good bands in stockholm that we like: Urban Dentist, Viagra Boys, Mama Sonic, Cinadriel, Madminton, Nya karolinska, Albano Spa, Lucifers Sunshine, Hnny, John Död.
Best bars: Loch Ness in Mariatorget, Piloten in Skarpnäck, Mickel Räv i Hökarängen and Patricia (party boat) in south stockholm. Nomad and Patricia is good place to discover new upcomming bands.
++ Something that is always impressive is the amount of quality bands that Sweden produces. Do you have a theory for why that is? I’ve heard all sorts, even the water that you drink!
John’s says that he heard Sweden is the only culture in the world that dances to melodies instead of beats. Its deeply rooted in our culture. Which explains the most popular club song which is ‘Shoreline’ by Broder Daniel, which is impossible to dance to. Leo pointed out that even when Swedes made famous death metal we made “melodic death metal”.
++ How is the creative process for you? Where do you usually practice?
We rehearse in Skarpnäck, Mostly we all just add on eachothers tunes or someone has an idea and then we create the song together off that idea. For example, “discovampyr” was based on Shiva’s idea to make a disco song about vampires. No band in the world really knows how a song is written, it kinda just happens in different ways.
++ What’s the story behind the band’s name?
Gula Gången was a tunnel in South Stockholm famous for being creepy and disgusting. But it was quite funny because it didn’t look so creepy because the walls were covered with this tacky bright yellow tile. John and Simon actually met there for the first time when they were 18 which is funny because Sid Vicious real name was John Simon and John has a cat named Sid after Sid Vicious.
++ You released in 2020 the album “Spela Allt Från Ditt Hjärta”. It quickly became a favourite. I always wished that I had a CD or a vinyl version of it. Why didn’t that happen?
We are too poor
++ Has there been any interest from labels in releasing your music?
Not that we know of. But you never know what’s cooking in the halls of glory.
++ On this album you collaborated with Olle Strandberg. How was that?
John: Olle is known as the swedish Robert De Niro, a professional through and through. Always gives his best, always does his homework and never lets a production down. He’s always joking and playing around being hilarious but the second you step into the studio it’s strictly business. Listen to his new debut solo EP 2 poplåtar & månladningen and his old band New Feelings. It’ll make you feel young again.
Simon: I would also say that he is somewhat of a party animal as soon as the work in the studio is done, but mostly he is an animal on stage.
++ Where was the album recorded? Who produced it? Was it you? Was it your first experience at a recording studio?
We did it all by ourselves, but Simon can probably tell you the most about it. We did it in our rehearsal room in Skarpnäck, which is pretty small but it does the trick.
++ I like the simplicity of the art for this record. And the second album artwork is nice too. Is any of you a graphic designer perhaps?
John: Everyone in Sweden is a graphic designer in some capacity. The difference is some make money of it while other make records.
++ I notice your albums are on the short-side. Just 9 songs on both. Why is that?
We have a short attention span and like to release our music as quickly as possible, ideally close to summer because we make “summer fun music”, but we also feel like albums are cooler. So short albums are the way to go for us! We have only been active for 3 years and released two albums, imagine our discography in 10 years!
++ And I have to ask, why did you choose to write and sing in Swedish? I ask as many Swedish bands prefer singing in English.
John: We like to do a lot of local references in our songs. For me the songs come alive that way, like a miniature Sweden that exists in our songs, filled with people and places we know, love and hate. Perhaps one day we’ll do an album with translations of our songs to learn people about Sweden, called it Sweden for beginners.
++ My favourite song of yours is “Vi Är Det Nya Normala”, wondering if you could tell me what inspired this song? What’s the story behind it?
John: After the first chord round you can hear a beer can being opened (2 seconds in). We did that live in one take.
Simon: John also kept drinking the beer and we kept on recording, you can’t hear it but it’s there.
++ And from the new album “Ensam” is also a top track. What can you tell me about this track which is also your last single?
John: Last summer we reread The Lord of the Rings so all the songs we wrote back then all had that theme. The old Swedish translation of the book is really beautiful so we wrote a lot of songs about Bucklebury Ferry and the Green Dragon. We find the Shire very inspiring as a way of life. Ensam is a play on words. Ensam = Alone, En = One, Sam = Samwise Gamgee. It’s about the relationship between Sam and Frodo and Sam’s struggle to help Frodo through these dark times. Really it’s about the friendship dynamics, when you wan’t to help a friends who either you can’t help or are resisting your stretched out arm. It’s also a bit about asymmetric friendships, that horrible feeling that your relationship means more to you than it does for the other part. Being alone in a relaptionship, therefore the title Ensam (alone). And it’s also about that even the smallest of us can make the greatest difference. Which is what The Lord of the Rings is about. – J
Musically for me it’s based around the guitar riff in the chorus. I take inspiration from difference guitarists on difference songs where I try to write a write like they would. Sommaren 21 is based on a riff I wrote years ago with a friend when we tried to play like Graham Coxon of Blur. With Kommunikation from the last album I wanted to play like Conny Nimmersjö and Johnny Essing from the swedish band bob hund, which is much more melodic rather than chord based. With Ensam I tried to write a riff like Bernard Sumner played in Joy Division. When we wrote our first song Likfärd (never released) we translated our favourite Ian Curtis lines into to swedish.
Simon: The bass riff that starts and drives through the song is based on a Cat Stevens-inspired acoustic piece I’ve written. I showed it to the band and Leo played the bass-notes and instead of Cat Stevens it sounded very post-punk/joy division. I’ve also made a full version of the acoustic piece with lyrics inspired by The Hobbit instead of Lord of the Rings, hopefully it will be on our next album. The Swedish translation of Tolkien’s works is quite hard to read but contains lots of beautiful poetry.
++ If you were to choose your favorite Gula Gången song, which one would that be and why?
John: Mine is Till Besvär , which is the most fun to play. I was really proud of us when we wrote it, the first song I used a capo to and I love the complex chord structure, and it has a great tempo when we play it live. Perhaps in hindsight the studio version we released is not very representative of how I imagine the song, it’s a lot harder with distorted guitar than we usually play it. From the new album it’s the second track which I forgotten the name of, although I had nothing to do with that recording. I was in Berlin working on my crystal meth addiction when they wrote that so I first heard it in the finished form and I thought it was the most beautiful song ‘we’ve’ written. Sommaren 21 is also really fun to play and has great tempo to it. Usually the favourites are the ones that are fun and easy to play with a good tempo, that you can rely on when playing live. If a gigs doing badly the complex songs are a hassle, when you have to get the sound perfect. Its difficult to recreate the sound from rehearsal to live, I never understand how band does it. But then again I never really tried.
My favorite is dum dum dum, of all songs I’ve ever contributed to this is the one i’m the most proud of. When I first time I heard it recorded I knew that we had something great going on with this band. The song just kinda happened by itself, with Shiva behind the genius behind the foundation of it. It’s really simple with only 2-3 chords through the entire song which makes it easy to find new elements to play it. When people ask me to show them a song from my band, this is the song I show them first.
The song John forgot the name of is called “Skymningssagor” and it has quite a weird story behind it. I was looking for a recording of “ensam” and I found a project on my computer called “emo” and it was the guitar and synthesizers from that song. I had no memory of ever recording this but I loved what I heard and then Leo added electric guitars and Shiva some ambient singing to it. And it was beautiful!
Simon: I have some sort of memory of trying to make something in the style of “summer ends” by the band “American Football” and I think this was it…
John: Dum dum dum is the right answer. Just a perfect piece of popmusic. It’s like Simon says, I started playing C and F and then Shiva just started singing the chorus which really is the whole song. I stopped playing but Simon told me to keep going because something special is going on here. It’s important to give each other compliments when you play in the band, if you like something someone is doing you should tell them that. When we recorded it wasn’t supposed to be a duet but for some reason we came to that conclusion. We love Olle we’re all good friends and he lived closeby so we called him and 20 minutes later he arrived on his bike, happy go lucky. Me and Leo went out on a beer run during recording of Olles part and when we came back he’d come up with the “oh wama” part we sing in the 3rd verse which backs the harmonica solo. The spice that Olle gave the song was really the sriracha on the cake.
++ What about gigs? Have you played many?
John: A few. Not that many that we might hoped for. We debuted in the summer of 2019 and recorded our first album during that fall, come spring when the record was about to come out and we were looking forwards to festival gigs the pandemic happen which halted our progress. The gigs we have played have all been great really.
++ And what were the best gigs so far? Any anecdotes you can share?
John: Last year we played a gig in Malmö in the south of Sweden. It was our first gig as a quintet since Adam joined which gave us all a great boost. We had a great train ride down and had ate great food but got way too drunk, at least I did. I don’t really remember much of the gig other than that I spend more time on the floor with the audience than on stage, but the audience were great. It was the first time the clubs were open for a long time so everyone was exuberant and it got really messy and loud. As I said I don’t remember much but afterwards I was told that I played a solo version of Obladi Oblada which I really hope isn’t true because I don’t know how it’s played. I was the first one home that night.
++ And were there any bad ones?
John: For every like four good gigs you always get a bad one, which can vary in badness. Some are horrible, some are just not that good. You can’t really avoid doing a bad one every now and then unfortunately, you used have to learn from it and move onwards. Usually it has to do with being too tired or having too much to drink. Ironically some of the best ones are also due to having too much to drink so you can’t really read too much into it. It’s good if the audience also had too much to drink then you’re in symbios. If not you’re in trouble.
++ Has there been any interest from the radio? TV?
We have played two times on P3 (one of Swedens biggest radio stations) when they had a show called “Pop and Indie” which played lots of smaller acts. It was such a good show but they stopped making it earlier this year? What the fudge?
A German podcast called “Eleven Pop Songs” has also featured our music, which is really nice cause we always love it when our music manages to get through to people in other countries. Like now!
++ What about the press? Did they give you any attention?
No, but we don’t give them any attention so it’s OK.
++ What about fanzines?
Not that I know of, but isn’t that the point of fanzines that you don’t know about it? Simon, Shiva and Leo have a fanzine about skeleton factories or something but I don’t think they’ve written about us.
I’ve put a Gula Gången-cameo in one of my comic book fanzines- Simon
++ Looking back in retrospect, what would you say was the biggest highlight for the band?
We wrote a new song the other day. It was my first rehearsal back from Berlin and it was great being back playing rock and/or roll again. Simon started playing a bassline and sang a song about us as a band on a bus and I joined in playing the simple chords, then Leo added a great melody on his guitar and Adam added a great beat on the drums. Shiva played something beautiful on her synth and in the matter of seconds we all knew we had a great new song which we’re looking forwards to working on. The best songs are the simplest to write. Sometimes you work on a song for years and you never really work it out, other times you just play something and sing something and you have your biggest hit. Those times when you try something for the first time and you can all know that it’s special and you can feel each others energy, those times are the biggest highlight. Also last year we played in Örebro we had an open bar and tried every cocktail they had was a highlight. Cocktails are really expensive in Sweden due to high alcohol taxes so if you get the chance to get loaded for free you cherish it.
++ Aside from music, what other hobbies do you have?
Crystal meth and Pokémon cards.
++ I always like to ask my UK friends, what football team do you support? I thought why not ask my Swedish friends now! Are you Hammarby fans? AIK? Djurgårdens? And if you go to the matches often?
John: Hammarby, all of us. That’s a dealbreaker, sooner or later bands break up if they don’t support the same club. Some of us have season tickets, others attend sporadically, but we all share the love.
++ Been more than a few times to Stockholm and I love it. But I’d like to ask a local about what you would suggest checking out in your town, like what are the sights one shouldn’t miss? Or the traditional food or drinks that you love that I should try?
“Bottleshop” is a must, it’s a brewery and beer store and we released a “Gula Gången”-beer with last year. When it comes to food, “Günthers” is worth checking out, it’s a sausage stand (“korvmoj” in Swedish) that’s often compared to the soup nazi in Seinfeld.
“Fuang Yuan Shi Wu” makes the best affordable Chinese food and “China!” makes the best pricey Chinese food.
Most of these places are very close to Medborgarplatsen and Skanstull in Stockholm, those places are filled with hidden and not so hidden gems.
++ Anything else you’d like to add?
John: Disco sucks and Free Palestine.
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