Erlend: I would say it’s an intense and energetic mix of punk, rock n roll and hardcore, with a lot of melody and crunch. I hate describing our own music.
2. What bands had the greatest influence on you when you were growing up?
Erlend: I was a metal-kid, and there’s no way I’ll claim to have been born with a Minor Threat 7” under my arm. I grew up on Michael Jackson, but suddenly fell for harder stuff like AC/DC, Megadeth, Metallica and Guns N Roses. Nothing spectacular in other words. After a while I got more into death and black metal. But then started getting into hardcore and punk after my brother dragged me along to see Fugazi at the age of 15. I was sold.
3. In England we hear so much about Swedish music but very little or nothing about Norwegian music. What’s the scene like in Norway?
Erlend: I think the scene here is great, on a wider level than just punk and hardcore. The scene for those genres is very small and very stuck with their own rules, which I’m against. I want people to check out electronica as much as hardcore, and shoegazing as much as punk, and death metal as much as “emo”. That’s basically what the scene is like here in Oslo, and its very cool to see a lot of people going to all sorts of shows, and buying all sorts of records. That’s what always makes it cool to get back to Norway after touring Europe or USA, where the scenes are a lot more isolated than here. It has a lot to do with Norway consisting of just 5 million people. Bands I would recommend include: Jaga Jazzist, KILL, Next Life, Skarnspage, Lukestar, Surferosa, Kaospilot, Single Unit, Infidels and Noxagt. Probably a bunch more, but check these out for starters.
4. Does Norway have a Freddie Mercury style rock God that we should be aware of?!
Erlend: Actually there was talk about this norwegian guy called Jan Werner Danielsen starting to sing for Queen when Freddie Mercury died, but I’m glad that never happened. He’s disgusting.
5. Has JR Ewing had a large impact on the scene in Norway?
Erlend: I think we’ve sparked a lot of interest in more underground types of bands for a lot of people, and I also see a lot of people not “getting it” the first time they see us, but suddenly after a couple of times they get into it. We take pride in having worked so hard with the band, and the fact that we made our music accesible for a lot of people who would never ever check this out otherwise.
6. You went on tour in 2002 around America with Pretty Girls Make Graves and Hint Hint, did the Americans react well to your sets?
Erlend: We had great feedback from people on that 2 week tour. A lot of people told us they had been waiting for us for years, some people even travelled from one coast to another to see us, which means a lot to us. With the exception of maybe 1 or 2 shows, we had the greatest time of our lives, and can’t wait to get over there again.
7. You recently played some huge venues with Turbonegro, how was it playing to such large audiences?
Erlend: Of course it was strange putting your amp up in the middle of an icehockey arena, with 100 people around you working on stage-props and building it from scratch every day. But when it came time to play every night, it felt relatively natural, and we’ve played enough bigger stages at festivals etc. to not freak out about it. The last show in Oslo was maybe the wildest we’ve ever done, with 4000 people in our own hometown.
8. What are the best and worst aspects of touring?
Erlend: The best aspects includes seeing places you’d never see unless we’d play in this band, meet nice people and play shows infront of a lot of people every night. We’re tour-junkies and love it. The worst is having to leave your girlfriend bored at home, getting home from tour broke, and stuff like that. But in the end it all adds up, which is why we love it and won’t stop doing it.
9. In every interview that I’ve read with JR Ewing you usually wind up talking about porn, groupies and how beautiful Norwegian women are. Don’t you think this is a bit of a rock star cliché?! Shouldn’t hardcore bands convey more important messages?
Erlend: I think we’ve discussed porn once in 1 interview, which was with a punk porn website. We can talk all we want about 7” pressings and what bands we’re into at the time, but I can just as well talk about girls. I hate reading interviews that look just like the other 50 interviews you just read. When it comes to conveying messages, we convey exactly what we feel like conveying through our lyrics, and I have no problem discussing politcs OR girls. I guess that’s a no-no in punk.
10. You’ve said before that you are not a political band, and that any issues that are touched upon in JR Ewing’s lyrics are personal and not intended to tell people what they should think, but isn’t it inevitable that you will influence the people who listen to your music? Don’t you think it is ok to try and influence people about something if you really believe in it yourselves?
Erlend: Of course we influence people, but we do it without forcing distinct messages and politics down their throats. Look at bands like International Noise Conspiracy, dressing up like clowns and performing half-assed garage rock mixed with boring and easily absorbed political ideas. I’d rather have people sitting down, reading the lyrics and listen to the music, and then interpret it their own way, instead of giving them a lesson in how to spend their lives. Give people the benefit of the doubt sometimes, but have them wondering as well as getting them involved is important too.
11. Norway seems to me to be a pretty neutral country as far as global politics are concerned, does this mean that the people in Norway are also neutral or do they have strong opinions about the way the world is headed like many people in England do?
Erlend: My generation is not neutral when it comes to for example the way USA have been dealing with Iraq and Afghanistan. We have a prime-minister (a former priest, to make it worse), who’s very afraid of standing up againts the US and the other countries who were fighting this “war”, and that has pissed off hundreds of thousands of people my age as well as younger and older people here. There have been mass-demonstrations against this all over Norway, but I guess that doesn’t get a lot of press-coverage in global press.
12. Unfortunately its really hard to get a hold of and listen to your earlier releases, could you talk us through how your sound has developed?
Erlend: The first couple of singles we did were a lot noisier and harder than what we’re doing now. I was 17 when we made our first songs, and I’m still proud of some of the earlier stuff. Our first “real” release was “Calling In Dead” on Coalition Records, which came out in 2000, which is a record I still love. It’s pretty dark, depressive, but also kind of melodic at times, as well as extremely energetic. Then we did “The Perfect Drama” 10”/CDEP, which is more of an experiment than a full-blown musical effort. We changed a lot in the overall sound, and it was an important step for us. Still, the sound is crappy and it lacks in perfomance, but it’s still a record that holds a lot of value. Then there’s “Ride Paranoia”, which I’m very satisfied with, that everyone should get. He-he.