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Javelins
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We already knew about
the Javelins' complete commitment to DIY thanks to a bunch
of singles of growing and compelling quality that showed
how much these four guys believe in the things they do,
and of course thanks to Yellow Mica Recordings, a homemade
project that in a short period of time has become by far
the most interesting label (with all due respect to Labrador
Records) to promote indiepop music from sweden and abroad,
with a rich and interesting catalogue made of CDRs and
a selected pick of seven inches vinyls. But as you will
read, the work of Martin, Daniel and Christoffer is carried
out with such dedication and consistency that anyone reading
this interview may feel compelled to start a label of
their own. We can only hope so much. |
Let's start with a brief introduction:
Where did you meet each other, why did you decide to start
a band, what are you doing in everyday life and anything about
yourself you feel it's worth mentioning.
this is Martin's version of how we met... Christoffer
was the scary bastard who stalked me and my girlfriend from
an Elliott Smith concert in Gothenburg about 4 years ago,
and then some time later he said "Hello" on the tram and after
that we started playing in the same band. He played drums
and I played bass. When he moved to Australia Daniel started
playing bass, and I had to learn how to play drums. Unfortunately
the band didnīt last for long, but after a couple of months
Daniel asked me if I wanted to play drums on some songs he
had written, and wanted to record. I guess I did, and we decided
to ask Christoffer to play guitar as well. After a few weeks
we had some songs and recorded them for free in a hi-fi studio,
and Daniel sent the ep to "Mitt nasta liv" (the greatest popfestival
ever in Sweden) and they asked us if we wanted to play there.
We said yes and did a crappy gig with a stand-in drummer and
me on bass. A couple of hours later Joel came up to us and
said that he could play bass for us. To prove (?) that he
could play bass he gave us an empty cd-r (even thou that was
just a mistake, he thought it was music on it), and he was
in the band.
I guess we decided to say that we were a band when we got
the gig at "Mitt nasta liv", before that we were even less
ambitious.
My name is Martin, Iīm 28 years young and I bang the drums
in javelins. I live with my girlfriend Ilona in the central
suburbs of Gothenburg and works as a tilelayer, so I deal
with italian tiles everyday acctually. Apart from that I spend
some time on yellow mica recordings, eat a lot of food, listens
to music all the time and watch the Simpsons.
The only thing about me worth mentioning is that I belive
that everything that ainīt D.I.Y. is a waste of time, and
that everyone should read more books, or just read more in
general!
Daniel's version: well, I met Martin & Christoffer
2.5 years ago,when I was asked to play bass in a band.we have
a mutual friend called Petter and It was his band. I kind
of thought that there was no progress. Martin thought the
same thing ,so we left and started to write our own songs.
After 2 weeks Christoffer joined us ...... and we became javelins
and three weeks later we had our first cdr out, and a show
coming up(mitt nasta liv).we did a horrible gig and lost 3
of our 6 fans(well our girlfriends were still supporting us).
We met Joel at the festival( I had only spoken to him on the
phone before that) and he became our new handsome bassplayer.
My name is Daniel, I'm 30 years young and I sing and abuse
the guitar in javelins. I also live in Gothenburg and I'm
unemployed at the moment(hurrah for that).Well, most of the
people will probably find me kind of boring- 'cause I only
have one interest in life; music.
Here's Christoffers version of how javelins started.
Martin and me had been playing together for a while, back
then I played the drums (and I sucked at it) and martin bass
(which he did well). But then I left for Australia and when
I came back martin had suddenly started playing drums with
a guy named Daniel who had previously recorded the crust punk
band (up against the wall motherfucker!) that martin and I
had played in. Daniel wrote superb indie punk songs and was
just enough bizarre for it to be fun. After we recorded our
first ep we got a gig at the mitt nasta liv -festival I kalmar
and fixed a stand in drummer (simon, great guy!) for the occation.
At that festival joel volunteered as bassist, and finally
we were a real band.
My name is christoffer, I'm 27 years old and I sing and play
guitar. I work at the Gothenburg university as a research
assistant in media science. I live in a suburb east of central
Gothenburg with my girlfriend Johanna. I read lot's of comics,
eat Indian food and sushi as often as I can and listen to
music. I'm also one of three at yellow mica.
Did the label existed prior to the band or was yellow mica
setup to publish Javelins records?
Martin: ymr was just a name we wrote on the first javelins
record since it felt stupid to not have a label of our own.
At least I think itīs stupid to release demos when you can
release the same thing on your own label. Instead of trying
to find record deals by sending out demos, I belive that every
band should start a label of their own where you can release
your band, and if you feel like it, release your friends bands,
and then your band can release on their label, and so on.
I try to do everything I do, no matter if itīs zines, bands,
set up shows or labels (I think this is the 3rd label Iīm
involved in) as D.I.Y. as possible, since I really believe
it will make a difference on peoples lives. I really like
to be able to trust a label, and know that they wonīt fuck
you in the end, even thou there arenīt that many of them that
lasts more then a couple of records/ years. I believe that
labels like K records, Kill Rock Stars and Dischord will be
around at least until Calvin, Slim and Ian dies without selling
out, and without ever disappoint anyone who belives in D.I.Y.
I would like to thank all distros, zines, labels and shops
who helps spreading the word about D.I.Y. indie/ punk/ twee/
jangle-or-whatever-you like -to-call-it worldwide, they should
get all the credits they deserve.
 Your
guitar-pop seems to own something to C86. Did that indiepop
scene in the 80s had a huge impact in Sweden? And a huge impact
on yourself? What are the main influences of the Javelins?
Martin: I'm sorry to say that I donīt know that much
about the Swedish indiepop scene in the 80īs, even thou I
donīt belive the C86 was a big thing in Sweden back then.
I can only remember a handful of 80īs indie bands from Sweden,
and theyīre all pretty crappy.
I wouldnīt say that the C86, or the 80īs indie scene, had
a huge impact on me, even thou there were a bunch of great
bands like Beat Happening, Talulah Gosh, Househunters and
Shop Assistants. I'm more influenced of the music, and in
some cases, the politics of bands like The Remains, Vaselines,
Black Flag, Boyracer, Minor Threat, Tokyo Eye, Bikini Kill,
The Pretty Things, Shop Assistants, Henryīs Dress, Heavenly,
Minutemen, Bright Lights, Talulah Gosh, The Capstan Shafts,
Sonic Youth, Dear Nora, Bad Brains, Helen Love, Hormones in
Abundance, Richard Berry, Ramones and The Who (pre 1967) and
labels like K records, Dischord, 53rd & 3rd and Kill Rock
Stars.
OK, a bunch of these are C86, but as long as itīs good music
that means something Iīll go for it.
Daniel: I never listened to the Swedish bands when
I was younger, I thought that there was tons of better bands
from UK and America. My favorite band when I was about 16
was the Smiths and then I went on to the Wedding Present and
Orange Juice etc.(I had a shameful gothperiod inbetween).
So I guess that C86 has influenced me at some point, but that
kind of music was not big in Sweden when I grew up.
I have always been more into the janglepop bands but the last
couple of years I have become more in love with the contrast
of gentle calmness and noise. Some of favorite bands; the
Fall, boyracer, Smog, desperate bicycles,Will Oldham, guided
by voices etc.
Chritsoffer: lots of people have said that we sound like
wedding present, for example, which is quite weird since they're
not really a conscious influence (as far as I'm involved at
least). As far as I know the c86 pop wasn't a huge thing in
Sweden, but hey in 1986 I loved abba and dire straits and
vas eight years old. as for influences for javelins, I personally
have been into the more post punk English scene with band
like joy division, the jesus and mary chain, early the cure
and so on. I am also quite a fan of the early nineties swindie
scen and the bands at a west side fabrication, the bear quartet,
popsicle for example, and the English early ninties scen,
with bands like ride, stone roses, my bloody valentine. And
I listen to lots of other music, martin and Daniel has introduced
me to twee and excellent band like bright lights, boyracer
and on and on. All this is stuff you take in and then use
when you write songs, but we never try to copy anything, the
songs just turn into living creatures of fuzzed guitars and
out of tune singing as soon as they enter our rehearsal room..
What are Javelins lyrics about? You seem to stay clear
to some extent from the kind of self-analisys that can be
found in many swedish pop singers these days and go for a
much direct confrontation ("you've got to let me know/why
you left me")
Martin: I can only answer for the lyrics that I write,
and maybe theyīre more direct, and if they are, I think thatīs
because Iīm not too much of a self-analysing person... I would
say that our lyrics are about the same things as many bands
lyrics; girls, hate, stupid people, alcohol, childhood, old
TV shows and sell-outs.
Daniel: I answer the same way as Martin, I could only
speak about the lyrics that I have written.
And I do not often think about the lyrics after they've been
written,neither do I analyze or try to copy patterns in other
peoples lyrics.but I do think that the words are at least
as important as the tunes are.
Christoffer: I wish I could say that there's a lot
of conscious work behind our lyrics, but at least my lyrics
are usually either written while we record (as I normally
just sing nonsense while we rehearse) or they are written
in bursts of inspiration (usually while being drunk, and these
lyrics usually end up in the wastepaper bin). I personally
think that Daniel writes the best lyrics in javelins, he doesn't
get stuck in the kind of easy self-pitying teenage angst lyrics
that usually fill the indie-scene (which happens to be the
kind of lyrics of tend to write.)
 Running
a record label you probably can measure the size of the indiepop
market in sweden. What's the typical pressing/burning of YMR
releases and how many do you sell? How do you pick and choose
the bands you publish?
Martin: Well, we donīt sell that many records in Sweden,
or to be honest, we donīt sell that many records at all, even
thou Fraction Discs sells alot of our records. Maybe you should
ask them instead?!
I think the indiepop market in Sweden is pretty big, but in
Gothenburg everyone seems to be into disco nowadays, or maybe
itīs just me and my ideas about staying true to ideals and
so on, but Iīm a bit disapointed about the twist the indiescene
in Gothenburg has done the last year. Some people are more
interested in spending their money on cheap beer at the local
bar while listening to disco, than they are in going to see
bands and bying records. Maybe itīs time for us to leave it
all to the new kids in the town?
Our pressings are between 20 and 500 copies, but the average
is 100 copies, and thatīs about how many we sell in general.
We release the bands we like, and we find them live, by rumours,
on the internet, among our friends or as legends in the indie
scene (well, boyracer are legends, arenīt they).
Daniel: I think that a commercial indie record in Sweden
usually sell around 1500 copies, but that's with marketing
and a serious budget and stuff. We don't have any of that
and as martin says, we usually sell around a hundred copies
of each release. Most of them go abroad, and some we sell
at distros or concerts. A typical Swedish band to end up at
yellow mica is a small band that some one at yrm has seen
live while drunk and then asked if they want to release on
the label. That's the way Tokyo eye, we are soldiers we have
guns ended up on ymr at least. Otherwise we just stumble across
stuff on the internet or via hearsay and ask them. Sometimes
we receive demos and e-mails from bands who think that we're
a big label with a huge budget and that we can make them famous.
But that's not really the way we do things, we don't do any
specific marketing and we don't have any budget.
It seems that here in Italy the whole swedish pop invasion
started with the Cardigas going mainstream. Were they already
a product of the blooming swedish scene or do you believe
thay had nothing in common with other indiepop bands out there?
Martin: I went to the same school as the members of the
Cardigans (so it feels kind of weird to write about them),
but I donīt know if they started something, they were just
one of many bands in the indie-trying-to be-popstars-scene,
you know, one of these bands that tried really hard to get
a deal with a recordlabel, but I must admit that they were
one of the few good bands that came from that scene.
Daniel: nothing to add
Christoffer: Cardigans became mainstream in something
like 1994 when the Swedish indie-scene exploded with brilliant
(in my opinion, not martins for example) pop-bands and lot's
of these bands also became quite big abroad while most just
existed for a couple of year and then disappeared. Cardigans
made it because they tried really hard, I think, and also
because they managed to change as they became more and more
commercial. The other Swedish bands tried to stay the same,
in terms of musical style, and when people got bored whit
that kind of music around 97 they disappeared, then cardigans
had already adapted a new style and moved on. I can't say
I have any opinion about them really, they're ok and far better
that much else that's on mtv, and I respect them because they
never pretended to be DIY-indie as many other bands so even
while they're on huge labels.
Salvatore
Links:
Yellow Mica Recordings Website: www.yellowmicarecordings.com
Javelins Website: www.yellowmicarecordings.com/javelins.htm |
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