THE
JACKALS
THE
JACKALS
are young, wild & crazy boys from Sweden. Listening to only one song of their demo tape made me realize that they should tell us more about them...
You're quite young, what motivated you to start this band ? Do you have many friends of your age listening to glam rock..., I mean it's not a common thing here, most people under 25 are usually into techno, rap or bands such as KORN, DEFTONES, etc.
Well, back in '96 when we started the band we were about 16-17 years old and we felt the urge to do something creative and different. Where we're from there really isn't anything to do and 99% of the people are fuckin' stiffs who are offended by all things different, so starting a flamboyant rock & roll band seemed like the only thing to do! The musical direction came quite natural since we've always listened to rockin' stuff like Aerosmith, Kiss, Hanoi Rocks, Alice Cooper, NY Dolls etc. and none of us have never really paid any attention to what is "in" or "out" when it comes to music. I guess we've always liked the great combination of good, catchy music and cool visual appearance. Appearing onstage in Adidas trainers doesn't really appeal to us y'know...
Northern Europe seems to have many crazy rock'n'roll bands, do you think that The HELLACOPTERS or BACKYARD BABIES had an influence on that ?
Yes & no, I think it goes further than that. There has always been some kind of a rock & roll tradition up here and especially Sweden & Finland have always been suckers for glam, sleaze & punk bands. But sure, The Hellacopters and the Babies have been major forces in putting the scene back into the eye of the public again. It's a big difference in the musical "climate" today compared to when we started.
Here's a few Swedish bands (different styles) that I like, can you tell me if you know them and what do you think about them ? :
SUGAR SHOCK: I love 'em! Their demo is great and I really dig what they're doing! Starlet is a cool guy and we're currently trying to put a tour together with them and two other excellent Swedish bands called The Scarecrows and Plan Nine. It'll be some kinda "glam-rock-revolution" thingy.
The (INTERNATIONAL) NOISE CONSPIRACY: Haven't really heard alot by them. They're a tad too political for our taste...
ENTOMBED: Not really into that kinda hard-ass stuff... Too metal.
DIVISION OF LAURA LEE: Never heard of...
LEIAH: Never heard of...
ABHINANDA: Heard the name but not any of their stuff. Some kinda hardcore outfit, eh?
What kind of audience do you see at your shows ?
Mostly teenagers. There's a good scene for R&R here right now so there's lots of young people that are interested.
What would be your definition of the word "punk" ?
I think it's an attitude. You know - sticking to your guns and not giving a shit about what other people might say.
If you had the opportunity of being someone else just for 24 hours, would you do it ? Who would you choose ? why ?
Sure! I'd choose someone like Bill Gates and transfer all his money to a Swiss bank account registered to The Jackals.
The GODFATHERS used to sing "Birth, School, Work, Death", do you think that life has to be so boring ? What would you suggest to improve this fate ?
I guess that's reality for a lot of people... The key thing to prevent this must be to choose to "work" with something, or to do something that you're truly passionated about (in our case performing music). That way you'll turn that line into "birth, school, having-a-blast, death" which sounds more appealing. Sometimes that can be hard to do though, but you've gotta keep trying!
Major labels have started to hunt people who copy their artists thanks to the Internet. What do you think about this attitude ?
I'm not a big fan of that (i.e. illigal distribution of copyrighted music online) actually... It's the bands that suffer ultimately and I think that sucks because most bands put a lot of effort into creating their music and making it avaliable to the public, so they deserve every penny they get. Artists gotta live too you know, and since showbiz is a risky biz, you really need the money. I think it's one thing though if it's "rare" songs from deleted releases that are made avaliable online since that don't really influence record sales. However, I think it's the artists themselves who should decide whether to press charges or not against the person that is copying their stuff since it's their music...
What are your projects ?
We will hopefully enter the studio within a month to record our next release which currently has the working-title 'Electric Hairdo'. We will also be on the Hanoi Rocks tribute album that's gonna be released any day now by SMT - we're doing a version of 'Back To Mystery City'. And there's of course a bunch of gigs coming up and hopefully that tour with Sugar Shock, The Scarecrows & Plan Nine that I mentioned earlier.
would you like to add something to conclude ?
Yeah - for lotsa L.U.V., kisses and debauchery come to our shows and buy our recordings! For further info go to our website at http://hem.passagen.se/jackals where you can download our songs and find out all sortsa weird and wicked things!
Cheers!
Kay Jay & The Jackals
