Lucien Interview

Gangbang: A Few words about the history of the band.
Greg : Well, Lucien is a Swedish (apart from me who is English) ‘Dark & Dirty Rock & Roll’ band with a bunch of rocking tunes based loosely around Scandinavian rock but with a much harder, darker and dirtier edge. Safe playing we are not!
We formed in the summer of 2004 after I moved here and started looking for members to form a band that I had been daydreaming about for years. I was in a punk band in the UK and got pretty sick of the whole scene getting so watered down so I wanted to start some real noisy rock with a very ‘real good music’ approach. I was god sent with the guys I got!
SS: It was quite intense from the start, right from the first practice.
Ekwe: Well mainly …they kidnapped me and forced me to play with them under the threat of cutting my right nut of. And, well that is where we are today, though I have started to feel a bit of affection towards the band nowadays.

Gangbang: How would you describe your music?
Greg: Shouting, screaming and crashing about with about 100 guitar solos. Ha! Seriously, we use the phrase ‘Dark & Dirty Rock & Roll’. A lot of people say its ‘Hellacopters meets Motorhead meets Misfits meets Zeke’ just to fit a sound, someone also described it as ‘Iron Maiden meets Anti-Flag’ the other day! I guess we just try to go balls out, play some fast good rocking tunes that we like, and if we all get into them time and time again and feel the same energy then it becomes a Lucien song! We set ourselves no limits with what it should or shouldn’t sound like and don’t really head for one sound or another although there is certainly a ‘Lucien sound’ but music is an organic thing so it just happens as it happens.
SS: We like trying to be a bit more radical and not holding back all the time, no limits!
Ekwe - Ehm, I wouldn’t describe it as music, it’s more like something divine, or rather totally undivine. But when a combination of noises sounds good it sounds a bit like us. But we are better. And more rock ‘n’ roll.

Gangbang: What are your fav. Bands?
Ekwe: For the moment its mainly Swedish hip-hop and some reggae I’m listening to so Promoe is kinda topping the list, but that’s just a phase of life. For real my fave bands would be Slayer, In Slaughter Natives, Down, Carcass ...hmm, I used to be a real fan of Pearl Jam, well the list could go on forever, and ever and ever.
Greg: Yeah my ‘fave bands’ list goes on forever and ever too, there is so much good stuff. I’m really digging the Promoe album ‘The Long Distance Runner’ also right now I‘ve gotta say, that guy is a poet of the people!. And I can’t stop listening to spacey jazz, I must be going through one of those phases also. But I would say that bands like Misfits, Ramones, Black Flag, Hellacopters always come out tops time and time again. But I like to listen to a lot of stuff, I always have a hard tome when people say ‘what sort of music do you like’ because I love everything from brutal grind core bands to jazz to rock to punk to classical, come to my house sometime and go through my record collection, we’ll have a ball.
SS: This week I’m listening too, Pilotos, Slowlife, Machinery - they all are all Swedish bands that we have played with recently and are good friends.

Gangbang: Someone said that "they all play rock, but they forgot about the roll”. Do you believe that? Do you think that rock (in general) is going through a crisis?
Ekwe: Can’t say I'd be the right person to ask, I’m not listening to rock for the moment, perhaps because both me and the genre are going through a crisis. I don’t know and I don’t care, I play because it’s fun. And we sure as hell roll.
Greg: It could be true to say as I haven’t picked up a good NEW rock album in a long time or found anything to get me really excited about to be fair, some good things have come about, but yeah I know what you mean. All my fave bands are not realising great albums anymore. There are so many weak ‘copy’ bands at the moment, especially in Sweden, very very ’safe’ bands playing rock buy the numbers, its sad to see, I always feel like slapping them around the face and trying to get them to just inject some fuckin’ FIRE in there! But its not happening. I would like to take a flamethrower and burn all these bands to death leaving nothing but charred remains of the clothes they bought because Nikki Sixx wore one like it too in 1983, but there you go. Well don’t fear there are a few good ones on the rise so don’t worry, and we are also here to save you!
SS: Well, things change. Look at it like waves from the ocean. Each wave comes, it doesn’t look the same as the last wave but its still from the same ocean.

Gangbang: Sweden is considered to be a rock 'n' roll "mother”. If i start to remember all the bands i know i probably won't stop (hellacopters, backyardbabies, hardcoresuperstar, sewergrooves, entombed, spiritual beggars, LUCIEN....) how does a country of 9 million people manage to be the main influence for the rest of the world?
SS: Yeah, really! Like 90% percent of people I know seem to play in a band, from the very beginning people don’t start to play because they see it as a way to get money, they just play! It’s just like tat I guess.
Ekwe: We have a Swedish saying that goes "Sverige δr fantastiskt" - that kinda explains it. NUFF SAID
Greg: ha ha, exactly! I always said that all the best music came from Sweden, and you only mentioned the rock bands, remember that bands like Satanic Surfers and Refused are among the best ever punk bands, then you have hip-hop and rap artists like Promoe who are fantastic and don’t forget Abba, one of the best ever pop bands! Yup, Sweden certainly does breed them that’s for sure. I have a theory that its because over the winter its so cold and dark that 1 - everyone gets depressed, which as we all know is a great basis for song writing and 2 - there is nothing else to do but practice with your band. It’s true, Sweden is full of great bands (there are a pile of shit ones too mind you) that’s why we live here.

Gangbang: I read on you "site" about your fav. Bands and among the classics like Lynyrd Skynyrd, KISS and The Rolling Stones and some newer (,Turbonegro,Hellacopters,Sonics)you also mentioned bands like Bathory,NILE etc.In my opinion to be open minded is the key to write good music? What’s yours?
Ekwe: I can’t say I like any of the bands above to any greater extent but I agree, open mindedness is good. I listen to anything I consider good. The key to my music writing is locked away in the deepest part of Uranus so I’d rather not fetch it only to answer a question
Greg: I hate to be picky but The Sonics were a 60s band, and Brian Setzer has been playing since the late 70s, but yes…. diversity is the key indeed, if you listen to nothing but say…Slipknot then you will more then probably have a band that sounds like Slipknot for example. I of course love bands like The Stones and Kiss for they are the old gods that laid down the rules (note there are some ‘classic’ bands that need to be forgotten though people! Get over it, it’s no longer 1987, your hair will not grow back and your youth is gone!) and I worship the musical complexity and sheer aggression of bands like Nile (I find them quite relaxing yet baffling). Also grind core and hardcore and death metal, black metal, I can’t just listen to one sort of music, good tunes is good tunes! I also love jazz like Sun Ra and I think if you combine a bit from here and there…not copy but if you hear a good idea you can use from it then you maintain a little bit of something different. For example if I play a guitar solo that (to my ear) sounds like a sax line from Coltrane (for example) that’s taking it out there.
SS: Yeah it’s ok too mix it all up, if it works, there are some things that don’t work…like rap rock for example! Except for maybe kid rock…but you know, you can’t put rap in Motorhead!

Gangbang: How difficult/easy is to sign a deal with a record label these days?
SS - Well as far as I know it’s not easy to get one in Sweden but a lot of Swedish bands sign up to other labels in other countries.
Ekwe: No idea.. My guess is that it depends on who you know. It’s all about the people you know. Unfortunately.
Greg: And timing also, such as when Nirvana broke big record companies were signing up every wingey mop-top in a flannel shirt…same as punk in the 70s. It’s all about timing and position. My advice to any band just starting is to fuck all record companies and just do it all yourself, keep the power! Go and examine how Dischord Records works and started and make your own!

Gangbang: Your plans for the future? Are you working on an album?
Ekwe: Yeah.. Guess we are. Need someone to release it though!
Greg: Yeah, we’re still writing, we’ll get to an album quite soon. We’ve just released an EP on CD and I think we’re going to be putting it out on vinyl too - we also talked about the idea of making ‘demo tapes’ of it, which we all actually think is a pretty cool idea.
SS: To finish and release a full album would be cool, also aim to play elsewhere from Sweden. Even Norway.

Gangbang: Three records that you bought lately?
Ekwe: I haven’t bought any cds in quite a while. Mainly bought movies. I’m planning on buying Neurosis - ‘through silver and blood’, Perfect Circle - ‘emotive’ and ‘mer de noms’ and probably something else. I very seldom decide what to buy, I let price tags and fate decide.
Greg: The last 3 albums I bought was Sun Ra - Space Is The Place, (this is a more ‘listenable’ Sun Ra album, it rules, you don’t know what to concentrate on next!) John Coltrane - Lush Life (Coltrane stripped down, that guys sounds send shivers up my spine!) and Hellacopters - Strikes Light Lightening (always one of my fave bands, if they released a record of them farting, I’d maybe buy it).
SS: The latest Hypocrisy album and a few 2nd hand vinyls.

Gangbang: Do you know anything about Greece? Greeks happen to go crazy when they hear great bands coming from Sweden. So "not if" but "when you" become a famous rock n roll band.
Don’t forget to stop by for a concert.
Ekwe: He, he we sure as hell wont! I like Greece, been there 8 times or something, must say that my fave part was Kavala in northern Greece but I’d love to go - get us some gigs and we'll be on our way!
Greg: Yes, I know everything about Greece as I have not only seen the movie Troy but I have also watched Clash Of The Titans. You have a lot of movie stars living there and also a lot of very badly animated large monsters. We will come by for a gig as long as a giant kraken doesn’t ruin it. But seriously, of course we come by, any one out there want to book us a few show, please get in touch!
SS: We would love to do several smaller gigs if we can, get a lot close to you the lovely audience!

Gangbang: If there is anything you would like to share and i forgotten to ask, pls do.
Ekwe: I am totally retarded. They should never have let me escape Arkham Asylum. But here i am and i kick ass!
Greg: Peace to you all, thanks so much for the interview, please check out www.lucien.cjb.net or email thelucienproject@yahoo.co.uk to get in touch!

Interview by -manoc- for GB issue #02_2006