Rock'n'Roll, 70's soul and a raw and wild sound. They are The Sweetbacks from Sweden and the leader Lincoln De Grace give the answers to our mad questions...aaaaa

Hi Lincoln, Sweetbacks come from the ashes of L.A. Hotsluts! What do you love to remember particularly of that period?
When we first hit the scene of our city Karlstad, we were 110% stuck-up, selfgood, adrenelin seeking kids who wanted to be heard and seen. That thing came out of looking and listening to cool bands and that thing. Most of us had been listening to punk music and had just discovered the power of rock n´roll. But behind this attitude, there was a very strong seriousness in lyrics, music and mostly to be heard. All these emotions had been built up on the basis that we were diffrent. We wanted to express ourselves by play loud punkrock music. It may sound as our lyrics were deep shit but it wasn´t. Okay we said what we ment in our songs and there were fun titles to them: we kicked God down to hell, New media whore, Rebell, One way ticket to Amsterdam and All in the name of alchohol. We were a rude and shitty punkrock band that never became understood. The stuff I love from that special period is that we rocked at our shows, had a lot of laughs and we did a lot of funny foolish stuff. But the best thing is that we developt our view on rockmusic under that period.

After a year of gigs, fighting and a lot of self- destruction, L.A.Hotsults broke out and from their ashes came out Sweetbacks! How did you arrive to this kind of decision and why did Sweetbacks changed their sound in a heavier style influenced by Black Crowes, MC5, The Faces and many others?
There are two reasons for that: The first one is that "The Count" who wrote 50% of the music were into grunge and that stuff. Me and Abs (Cobra) were really into rock music at this time. We doug ourselves deeper into Guns N´Roses, Rolling Stones, MC5, Stooges, Kiss and Swedish bands like The Hellacopters and Backyard Babies ment a lot to us, even though our intrest in these two groups have fainted under the years. They helped us into the path of there forefathers like the bands that I mentioned and they had an ever bigger impression on us. But in the begining Backyard Babies were cool an Hellacopters is a great band. Another good swedish rock band are Mando Diao. Guns N´Roses are in fact the most important influence for The Sweetbacks, even though it may not always sounds like that, you can see the aggression and asskicking feelings that we send out. In short words..we wanted to rock!

For the beginning of your career with Sweetbacks to this latest work you’ve been facing lots of problems with the line-up. Do you have any news about your former guitar players Robban and Chris? Would you like to explain us why did they choose to quit the band?
As we all know it´s hard to find a line up of people thats clicks. With the previously line ups we were not able to catch the sound that we were after. We didn´t connect as good as a band should either. Robban quit beacuse he felt that he didn´t contribute with anything but problems to the band. He was cool as hell but he had a rough time that year and went trough some deep shit and he had to get away for a while. Leave the country. Today he plays the blues and has a eazy livin'. Chris is a super cool dude but at that time he was not the personality that we were longing for. He was a bit shy and it didn´t work out as we hoped for. Today he plays the bass guitar in Silverwings and Mellow bright band. Two cool bands from our city, Karlstad.

Listening to your former demos’ mp3 (available on your web site) and making a simile with these last out off "Wild child", it seems to me that u developed the tendency to a more mature and complex sound, influenced by Rolling Stones, Quireboys and Hanoi Rocks! What do u have to say about this impression of mine and which kind of importance has had the cooperation or the new guitar player Slim Kim on the songwriting?
It is natural for a band to develop their sound in every new release that they make. Not change their thing but experiment and build some new towers. The "Wild Child" Ep is how we want it to sound. But now we have developt that sound and we have come up with some really interesting material that will be featured on our next release... Album or something. It´s good to be two brains in the songwriting procedures. Kim has some very interesting ideas sometimes and we work them up together. But I have written 70-80% of the material so far. Music and lyrics. A cool thing is that we will have a slowrock kinda song on our next record. Kim has written almost the whole thing and it´s a cool song bout' the difficulties of love..haha.

Also the cooperation of Danny (organ, piano, harmonica) is pretty strong in the new work. How did you meet this extraordinary artist?
Well... Me, Mange and Danny studied music together. I wanted a piano/organ player in the band och we asked Danny who was thrilled. We invited him to jam with us for maybe a month and we said that we were not sure if he could join the band. Then we forgot it and suddently he was in the band! Haha.. the sneeky little bastard joined us when we looked away. He is a great contribution to the band. And he plays good harmonica to. He is the youngest of us and we call him "Little-Daniel".

Lincoln, let’s talk about your particular way of singing. You use your voice in a very "clear", "pure" tone, differently from many other rock singers. But are there some vocalists of the past and of the present too who mostly influenced you?
I can sing with a very clear tone but I can also sing and scream with a crunchy touch on it. It´s good to be able to sing in diffrent styles but the most important ti´hing is that it sounds like me when i´m singing. I am really satisfied with my voice and I now that it will only get better and better with time.. just as good wine! Hahaha. It is hard to find good singers. When i´m listening to small bands it may be good but mostly the singers are shit. Some have it, some don´t. I love Steven Tyler, Chris Robinson, Sebastian Bach, "Early" Axl, Robert Plant and Josh Todd of Buckcherry.

The song "Wild Child" is actually a terrific anthem, I really cannot take it out of my mind! From what did the inspiration of this song come out? What is it exactly about?
Wild child is a typical "I don´t give a fuck about your rules" song. Like a teenage rebel anthem. It is about do watcha want when people are trying to take control over you. Release the beast within you!!

So Lincoln, after a while you were born you found out to be Swedish, but it’s difficult to believe it listening to your music! I mean, many Swedish Bands develop the tendency to be very similar to each other, while your sound is quite new and original! Don’t you think the same? Do you believe that this kind of difference could help you, or do you believe that it will leave you at the border of the greatest context?
You could say that we play american and english music because it was born there. As all other bands we try to play that music but with our own touch and hopefully people like it. We like it and that is the most important thing. If you think that our sound is sticking out it´s probebley because we are more intense in our way of delivering the tunes. It is supposed to hit you the second you press play. I also think that we have good songs and that is the most important thing when you´re dealing with music. Many bands fall on the basic rule that they don´t have enough good and personal songs.

You already have some projects for the future? Can you make us some anticipations about it?
Right now we are writing material and rehearsing. We have talked to Nicotine Records bout' releasing a full lenght album and we are working on it now. Hopefully it will be finished before december and hopefully Nicotine will release it in the early sprin and we will come out and play. In Italy but also in Germany, Denmark, Holland etc. We also have a big gig in Norway soon. We won a competiotion with two other bands and we are going to Norway to play the finals. It´s gonna be recorded and I want to win that contest! As a matter a fact we were hailed as the best live band from our city earlier this year so we wil go there with full unit and loaded guns ready to shot from our hips. We also have some small plans for a split vinyl and stuff like that.

You’re one of the best group I’ve listened to in this last period. Is there any label which has shown its interests towards you? If there isn’t yet one, try to convince everybody why Sweetbacks are and will be in the future a big band. Come on guys I want a great self proclamation!
(laugh) We have talked with lot´s of record companies. Dead-Beat records in L.A. was interested among others but we are looking forward to our cooperation with Nicotine records. We are very interested of having a swedish label because it is more easier to handle with. Why record companies should check us put is fair square and simple because we are like a band should be.. Hungry, fabulous, beautiful, adrenaline seeking youngsters. We are gonna work our asses of to get out and play and to make it. We love music and we love to play live. We are not afraid to do our thing on stage and we take our music very seriosly and we ave a lot of fun while doing it. Maybe we are crazy to say this but in our point of view there isn´t many "demo" bands like us and it would be stupid to turn your eyes away from us because we are on fire.

Now that I’m thinking to it, there’s one thing which links you to another Swedish rock band. Your site shows some images which are very similar to the ones contained in Backyard Babies "Total 13" album. Is it just a pure coincidence or there is something more behind this?
We don´t have a connection to Backyard Babies except that we both probobly like glam rock. We had a period when we were glam but now we just are the way we are... The Sweetbacks. When you play rock music you have an imae even if you don´t want an image. In rock/punk history trends have been greated without notion from the ones who where dressed or looked diffrently. We look exactly like the way we want to and if we are similar with somebody we don´t care. We are The Sweetbacks and we try to look as cool as Ron Wood but it´s hard you know. Haha!

Wait a minute. You all are coming from Karlstad, and Mama Kin come from that same place! Do you know these guys and what do you think about them?
We have played for a while and it felt like we were the only rock n´roll band in our city at the time. There was stoner rock and stuff but no pure rock band except us. Then our friends started Mama Kin and we built a scene. In those days we were radical. We had a lot of fun and did gigs together and were always ass- drunk partying all the time. The guys in Mama Kin are some of our best friends and they are cool dudes. I like their image. There are some rockbands in Karlstad right now but I don´t know what they are up to but to mention a few: Silverwings, Ben Dovers, Mama Kin and The Rash. They are cool but we kick their asses. (laugh) Only kidding.

I imagine Sweden is a place made up of an entire population of rockers and, above all, plenty of blond, beautiful and disposable girls! Is there’s something wrong in my imagination? If you have never been in Italy what do you think to find here?
You are right about the women!! The rockers i don´t know but the women are no doubt the worlds finest. Karlstad are in fact Swedens most good looking girl city. You would love it here! (laugh). I have been to Italy and all over Europe. I like the nature i Italy, Spain and France. I love the feeling in those countries. I like good wine so it´s cool to travel Italy. We also love the women down there! I´ve heard that the rock scene down there are really cool. People are really appreciate the bands that play and that there are many places to play in. People rocks in Italy, that´s what I´ve heard. In Sweden people are quite shy (exept when their drunk) and sometimes it can be hard to get them started.

If u could come in my Country, what would you say to Italian girls to convince them to spend one night with you? And above all, tell them who among you is the most experienced in "sex matters"!
(laugh) I would say that we all got 30 cm big d***s!! Haha.. No I would blink my eye, tell a joke and whisper something secret in their eares. Fun questions! It is no doubt me, Lincoln. But we are all pretty crazy in girls, girls, girls. Especially "Little-Daniel" he knows how to handle a women.

Now you say u’re "Young, hungry, restless, rebellious and out of control". But a future teller reveals you that if in the next 3 months yu won’t stop drinking and won’t be quiet and completely under self control one day one of you will jump on a sport car driven by a drunk Vince Neil! So what are you going to do?
Well if it´s destiny it just going to happend. Everything can happend to somebody all the time. You can walk over the street and suddently be run over by a car. You can´t worry bout' that but of course it´s good to take a step back sometimes. But I think that we all have nine lives, like a cat!

Ok! After this existential dilemma I can say the interview is over! You now have an open space to say whatever u want!!!! So thanx guys and long life to rock’n’roll!
It was a cool interview. Thank Bruno! Check us out and if you like it, spread our name. If you don´t like it shut the fuck up! If everything works out we will see you when we come to Italy. Stay cool! Over & out, Lincoln De´Grace.

Intervista realizzata da Bruno Rossi
Traduzione realizzata da Margherita Realmonte.