If there’s any silver lining to what the pandemic brought us, it can be found in the amount of new material that artists were able to grace us with. Sweden’s Lucifer sure made good use of their time spent at home, as they get ready to release Lucifer IV, only 19 months after Lucifer III.
Fronted by former The Oath singer Johanna Platow, the band also features Nicke Andersson, of The Hellacopters and Entombed fame. Together, the songwriting team, also husband and wife, offers a clear 70’s rock, albeit with a dark vibe, informed by the metal sounds of their respective upbringing. I bet a 2050 listener, with no timeline reference, will be hard pressed not to slot that one anywhere else than the late 70’s, as forebearer of the metal years to come.
While us North Americans can only hope to soon see the band’s raving live show, European fans will get to feast on two LPs worth of new songs, as the band hits the road hard in the next few months. All dates and tickets info available here.
Lucifer IV comes out on October 29th, through Century Media,
What have you been listening to the most lately?
Lately, we – I’m speaking for Nicke and I because we live in the same household, right? – we’re actually listening to a lot of Southern rock lately, like LYNYRD SKYNYRD, BLACKFOOT, The OUTLAWS, that kind of stuff. We listen mostly to dad rock, old music. I must say, the older I’m getting, the more I look backwards in time. Growing up as a teenager in the 90’s, at first it was hard rock, METALLICA, DANZIG, that kind of stuff. Then, when I was like, 15-16, I got heavily into death metal and black metal and doom, and I had black hair, and my whole room was black. Then the older I got, the more I opened up again, and I started to look through my parents’ record collection. I was like, “Oh, can I have your ZZ TOP Tres Hombres album? And your DEEP PURPLE.” Actually, I still listen to a lot of these things that shaped me as a child. My mom was a huge ROLLING STONES fan so, if you’d asked me, what’s the only record you want to take to an island, you know? There’s a million records I want to bring but I guess, the most classic, which has always been my mother’s milk and my first musical language would be Stones.
Which album or period are you more keen on with the Stones?
I think nowadays I prefer the 70’s Stones stuff. I mean, my favorite albums would be probably Beggars Banquet and now I got more into Exile On Main Street, but you go through phases with bands, same with like BLACK SABBATH when there’s a big discography. There’s the obvious albums, but after a while you want something else.
What else we listen to? Nicke certainly loves a lot of 60’s soul stuff, and I like that too. When it comes to metal, most of it is pretty old school as well, VENOM, or old AUTOPSY or, you know, cool raw death metal. Mostly, if you would catch me by myself doing the dishes, I probably have some Spotify playlist on, like FLEETWOOD MAC radio, or ZZ TOP radio, or I listened to TOM PETTY a lot lately. I’m a huge DANZIG fan, so you’ll hear that coming out of the house too. Old Danzig of course, the first three albums.
Even if it’s older music, are you more into going back to your classics or to keep digging and finding other artists that sound similar?
Of course, there’s the classics, but you can hear that only so many times. You want to extend it a little bit. Nicke and I, we’ve been finding a lot of bargain bin records. Sometimes there’s a cool cover, and we have no idea what it is, and we buy it. Sometimes there’s one song that’s great. All our friends are music nerds and people recommend stuff to each other. The great thing is that it’s never ending, it’s like a barrel without a bottom, right?
What’s an example of a great, recent discovery?
Well, I discovered and I became a big fan of .38 SPECIAL. I know some people might think it’s super cheesy, but nobody knows them here. It’s one of these Southern rock bands from the 70’s that also went into the 80’s and became a little bit more AOR in the 80’s. But they have some stuff from the late 70’s that I think is really cool. I had never heard of them but I don’t even remember how I found that. I found out that they were pretty big in the States and they have some affiliation with the LYNYRD SKYNYRD people. They are from Jacksonville, Florida. They have some cool songs that I really love. They’re very melodic. One is called Caught Up In You and I think that was the best of their songs. But there’s stuff like APRIL WINE and BLOODROCK that I didn’t know before, all 70’s heavy rock that I think is really cool.
What are some of your favorite lyrics? Either the general body of work of a lyricist, or a song or even a line?
I love PATTI SMITH’s lyrics. I also think that, Mick Jagger, people always forget what an amazing lyricist he is. He really is. There’s thousands of songs or whatever, it’s crazy. He is very, very good. It starts with obvious songs, like Sympathy For The Devil. I mean, we covered on Lucifer II the song Dancing With Mr. D. They are really, really good. I also like not so constructed lyrics, like Neil Young for example. Sometimes he gets very repetitive, but on this album, On The Beach, there’s a song called Ambulance Blues and he’s saying “You’re just pissing in the wind. You don’t know it, but you are” and I like that kind of humor, you know? With Patty Smith, I really like her bravery. I mean, she has a song called Rock And Roll N****, who gets away with singing that, other than Patti Smith, and then it’s okay? She gets away with being that brave. Or a song called Pissing In The River. She touches me. I’ve seen her several times in my life. The two best times I’ve seen her was when I was still living in Berlin and she was playing at a church. Back then, I had a regular eight hours a day job with a big Berlin promoter. They put on a lot of shows and so I got to sit in the first row of the church benches right in front of her. She played two nights in a row so the second night I was sitting on the same spot and then she looked at me and said, “you were here” and made some joke. *Haha* It was amazing because she was really two meters away from me, the stage was 30 centimeters. Sometimes she can get a little bit preachy, but it’s okay because I just love her overall, everything, her body of work and her words. She does have a beautiful soul.
I can also appreciate silly lyrics like MERCIFUL FATE and KING DIAMOND lyrics. I love it, I find it extremely entertaining. I have a ball when I go hiking or walking and I listen to his stories. With Lucifer, there’s no concept album where you have nine songs or whatever, that lead you through a story. That’s not for me to make, but I can enjoy it from somebody like him. I think what’s also important with lyrics is that they have some sort of humor, even if it’s a really dark lyric. Not that it’s laughable, but you know how people in life have to go through really harsh experiences and things that might turn you bitter, but what saves you is good black humor to deal with it. I think that’s a great survival tool. When you find that in lyrics, I love that. I think it’s awesome, because that’s the best way to deal with bullshit, to laugh about it.
Besides Patti Smith, what are some other memorable concerts that you’ve seen in your life?
I’ve seen DEAD CAN DANCE as a teenager in the 90’s in Berlin and that was mind blowing. It was a seated show and I don’t remember exactly how many musicians but it was a lot of musicians. They actually played everything on proper instruments. It was almost orchestral, but it wasn’t, it just sounded like Dead Can Dance on the album. It was performed so perfectly that I just sat there in tears. It was almost like a spiritual experience. It really touched me, it went really deep. They had timpani drums and everything was so intense. You can’t make that with synthesizers, or a fucking USB stick or whatever people use. It was very impressive. The way Lisa Gerrard and Brendan Perry were singing was ethereal. That really blew my mind.
Then, I guess shows make a big impression on you when you are a kid. The first shows you go to, they really hit you hard because you’re not used to it. The first show I saw was MOTÖRHEAD when I was 11 with my parents, but I don’t remember that so much. But what I remember was, when I was 13, I got tickets for GUNS N ROSES at the Olympic Stadium in Berlin. That was huge. I was 13 and I just got into rock music. That was the coolest thing. Then, I was really impressed when I was 14 and I saw DANZIG. I saw them at a venue in Berlin called Huxley’s, which would turn out to be a venue where I’d go many, many times throughout my teenage years and see so many bands there. I saw Danzig there and that’s when I started to wear inverted crosses, and started to wear only black. I thought it was really cool. That pulled me over to the dark side but they are still rock and roll. Everybody had leather jackets and black hair, then I dyed my hair black, and I was sold to the whole thing.
Is there any artist or bands that you’ve never seen, and you really wish you could have seen?
Yes, I’ve never seen the RAMONES. That makes me very sad because I love the Ramones. I love Joey Ramone, I wish I would have seen that. I’m sure there’s plenty more. I mean, I’m clearly born in the wrong time, all this stuff. I mean, I’ve seen ZZ TOP, and a lot of these bands, but not in the 70’s. I’m very sad that Charlie Watts just die but I got to see the STONES with him a few years ago because Nicke supported the Stones with The HELLACOPTERS in Stockholm, that was really cool. They had a meet and greet where they took photos together and I got to stand like, three meters away, behind a tape line! *Haha* “All the girlfriends over here please.” But I got to see that. Mick Jagger walked past me and rolled his eyes at me for some reason! I don’t know what he thought who I am, but something annoyed him about it, but hey! *Haha*
For bands that you’ve seen multiple times, is there one which you really would die to see them play a specific song and they just never play it?
I saw ZZ Top twice, both in Berlin, and for my taste, they didn’t play enough stuff from the old albums. I wish they would have played Beer Drinkers & Hell Raisers or Hot, Blue and Righteous. I think that would have had me burst into tears. Other than that, I’m sure there’s plenty of things that will come to mind after we talk!
What are some of your favorite guest vocals appearance on a record?
On STEVIE NICKS’ solo album Bella Donna, TOM PETTY is singing a song with her, Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around, and I think that’s really awesome. But then, she also came onto one of his albums and sang with him on this song Insider. That’s a really good song as well. I think they actually swapped songs. I think Insider was supposed to be on Stevie Nicks’ album, and Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around on Tom Petty’s and somehow it ended up this way. I love what they do together.
What is the band that you’ve toured with that impressed you the most? The one that you had to watch their set, night after night?
When I toured with The Oath, we supported GHOST for five days. That was back when the first Ghost album came out. I love that album, I thought that was great. I think I watched every show. Then, I was on tour for several weeks supporting PARADISE LOST with Lucifer, and there was I think four shows where TRIBULATION played. I really enjoyed watching Tribulation, especially because the guitar player that they had then, Jonathan, he was doing this kind of crazy vampire ballet thing, doing pirouettes, or whatever they’re called. I just thought it was cool, I have not seen that move before. He has his own thing, and that’s something I always love.
I think the coolest for me was that Lucifer got to support PENTAGRAM one time. That’s when I actually befriended Bobby Liebling and I had to do his makeup before the show. Then it was really funny because I came on stage and first you kind of just get into your songs, you know, and then I opened my eyes, and see Bobby leaning onstage, staring at me. He watched the fucking Lucifer show before doing his own show, so that was really cool. I’m a big Pentagram fan, so that was really cool. I mean, I know he has his demons, and I know there has been some stuff that’s quite horrible but I’m not going to get into that here. However, I’m still a Pentagram fan, I love those records, and the few times that I’ve seen Bobby Liebling perform, when he’s got it together, when he is not being an idiot, he’s really good onstage. He really has persona and charisma, the way he performs. He doesn’t even have to move much. There’s people that monkey around so much, it’s not that. You have to have some sort of character, you can’t practice that. Either you have or not, and he has it.
Is there any up and coming bands that you’d like to mention?
Nicke’s brother is in a band called TØRONTO, and that’s really cool. Then there’s a band from Stockholm that’s very new, they are called FREEDOM. They just put out an album self-released.
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