TRUCKFIGHTERS – Fight For Music

Interview with Oscar

Ohh, what do you wan’t to know, there’s a lot to talk about? 😛 We’ve recorded the album in our own Studio as always, Studio Bombshelter in Örebro, Sweden. Recorded by me and Dango and also produced by us. So it’s a typical DIY album by Truckfighters 😉 It took us about 4-5 months full time to record it, it was a very exhausting time, but I personally think it’s the best album we’ve ever done… Maybe the best album we will ever do haha.. 😛 I’m very pleased with all the vocal parts for this album and for me it sounds way better than the old albums, and also the songs are just stellar 😉 But that’s what all bands say when they have a new album out right? 😉

2. How do you position yourself in the modern scene of stoner rock?

We’re definitely one of the bands that has been around for a while… And maybe, we’re one the bands that are most well known? At least if you look worldwide, I mean we can go to Australia and sell out shows aswell as in South America or EU. Usually bands tend to be known in one part of the world but perhaps totally unknown in a different part. Hopefully we will be able to tour all around the world for many years to come 🙂

3. Do you think that Sweden is affected on inspirational and musical level due to its cold climate?

Yes I totally think so, and also we got a lot of nice nature in Sweden, so it’s easy to get inspired just by going out in the wild in Sweden. I mean I live in Örebro just 3km from the city centre but still I have so amazing nature just around the corner. In Sweden we also have government funded rehearsal spaces, that can contribute to the fact that there’s many bands ailing from Sweden? It’s really easy and cheap to start playing music… You don’t need rich parents 😛

4. How is the experience of touring?

I think it’s nice, but it can differ a lot and you need to be really cool and relaxed to handle the touring in a good way, I mean first time we wen’t to the states to tour it was like being thrown back a few years in our career, we barely never had any soundcheck and it was very hectic with late get ins (it was not uncommon to get in at 9 in the evening and play 1 hour later, so as you can see, set everything up and also set up all the merch, it can be really stressful, so then it’s good to have routine and be able to cool down really quick in order to also do a stellar performance 😉 These days I’m much more relaxed when touring and I can appreciate doing stuff on the road without being too stress out about the gig coming up the same day. It’s awesome 🙂

5. Do you have any memories from you concerts in Greece and what can we expect of the new gigs?

Usually our crowd is quite the same all around the world, I think we got some really dedicated fans unusual to some bands perhaps, but we’re blessed to always have some wild people in the crowd that really cheer up the experience for everyone including us. Hopefully it will be a very energetic and awesome evening together with an enthusiastic crowd. 🙂

6. I can see ancient Greek columns at the cover artwork of the new album, any concept for the artwork?

Yeah, totally… we decided quite early to name the album ”V” or five… And the V stands for Five in the old roman language and it feels pretty greek to us. We also threw in a few modern elements like the airplane just to make the cover more timeless… you don’t really know which time it could be.. Could be the future, who knows?

7. What was the inspiration for the name of the band?

An old pulp fiction book series called Truckfighters. We actually took the name and logo directly from the book. It’s really not a good book, but a really crappy book about Truckdrivers driving around haha 😛 So hopefully we’ll make a better impression than the books did to us 😉 ?

8. How do you maintain the status of the band all these years?

I think the key for us is to have fun… We’ve been driven by the fact that we love playing music from day one. That’s also is the key to why we still play and it’s super important, so the day we loose the fun in what we do we can’t continue, it will shine through in our music. I think too many bands continue playing for the wrong reasons, mainly money I would guess.

9. How do you deal with the current status of the music industry?

Hmm, not sure what to answer to this question, it’s such a big topic. Do you mean how it changed from being an industry that only sold physical copies to an industry that is depending on the digital side as well? Anyway… What I’ve learned through the years that there’s a lot of ”talkers” in the industry and not as many ”do-ers”. I mean you hear stuff all the time, but I’ve learned to only base the professional side of the band on things that we can confirm and not what people say… You also learn to trust your instinct and do the way you feel like yourself. Don’t listen too much to ”important” people in the industry on labels, managements etc. Do what you wish yourself, after all it’s your music and you decide exactly what you wanna do with it 😉 That means if you’re still very much DIY like we are 😉 😉

10. What is the message of the band to the fans?

Keep supporting us and we’ll do our best to entertain you for many more years with new awesome records and great live shows. Hope to see a lot of happy faces in Athens 🙂

Truckfighters Live In Athens, Greece (7/10/2016, Desertfest)

The lights went out and the screen showed that the next artist to appear, was Truckfighters. I approached the stage so as to watch the show from very close to the stage. A lot of people were already present in the show, since the band was one of the most important acts of the first day of the festival. As the band stormed the stage, the headbangers of the front row started to prepare themselves for a very special moment. The sound was not as good as we expected but as the time went by, the audio level was improved and the band showed us how is to rock and roll these days. The line up of the band manages to offer a powerful sound on stage and the three members of the band sound like a whole symphony orchestra on stage. Heavy music with clear sound and groove.. Groovy sound that owes a lot to the almost academic effort of the drummer to drive the other “fighters” along with his bombastic beats. Niklas was jumping around all the time and the fans were becoming more enthusiastic by watching his stage show. Oscar was also good and remained focused on the vocal part with less opportunities to show his stage acts, which is professional from his side because it is hard to sing and play the instrument at the same time. The funny moment of the moment was also the sale of the Truckfighters T-Shirts with the logo of the band written in Greek characters. Intersting trick that made a lot of people to buy merchandise after the show.

Information: http://www.truckfighters.com/