Swedes in the Desert

Charles C. Labenz Arizona Daily Wildcat Sludge Nation are: Mans Jalevik, Christopher Dahlgren, Pieter Verdoes, K.M. Bremer, & Jonas Kernell

"The so called alternative music in this country is more hyped up than we are I think," says Mans J„levik, the band's singer and songwriter. "We started out as more punk rock, because we didn't know how to play, and then as we learned how to play we had more opportunity to do what we wanted to do."

Swedish bands have the same problems with labels as American bands do. Especially since groups like Roxette, Ace of Base and the Cardigans have given the country a certain image. "Once something gets big," J„levik says, "the record companies look for something that sounds the same." He cites indie-pop and Euro-disco as the main categories of music that have elevated Sweden to the third largest music exporting country in the world, after America and the U.K. This band is obviously here to show us some of Sweden's sludgier side.

Wildcat: Do you all live together?

Several members: Yes

Christopher: Same bed.

WC: What do you think of Tucson now after you've lived here for a few months?

Mans: Slow slacker town. But then we haven't been around. We've just been going to the same places.

WC: What do you think of Americans?

Mans: Superficial. In a lot of ways. I think they have a different way of selling themselves, all the time. I mean, people come up and the first night they just pour everything they have over you. And then the friendship, or whatever they call it, is supposed to last and keep going on that first dose. I don't think friendship means the same here as it does in Sweden.

WC: What does friendship mean in Sweden?

Mans: Drinking beer ...

Jonas: You often have friends for life in Sweden. It takes a lot to lose a friend. You keep your friends close.

WC: What's good about this country?

KM: I don't know, there is still that kind of pioneering spirit in America that I can feel sometimes. People don't see trouble in the same way and dig themselves in that muddy hole too long. They take a new grip on things. And Americans are very easy to get along with.

Mans: It's not bad to promote yourself or say that you're good at something. In Europe that's taboo, you just don't do it.

Christopher: I like the hugeness of it sometimes.

WC: You're from Gothenburg, the home of Swedish super group Ace of Base. Any encounters?

Christopher: Yes, the sisters. When I was a D.J. at the sort of university club, they used to come and - this was before they were famous - they used to come and ask me to play their first single. I refused the first couple of times because I didn't know who they were.

Mans: I had a beer with the blond one once at the same place. And then her friend, a guy bigger than me, came up in a fishing vest or something and asked me why I had a ring in my nose. And I asked him why he had a fishing vest. And then they left.

WC: Mans I understand that you're just back from an erotic convention in Sweden. What did you do there?

Mans: Uh ... beep, and I beep. No, I worked there piercing. I work at a piercing shop in Sweden. I went home for vacation and then I was working while I was there. So we pierced some strippers and met some porn-stars and some scum ....

WC: Was it a success?

Mans: Yeah, it was good for us, but it was more a porn thing than an erotic thing.

WC: Are piercings and tattoos big in Sweden?

Mans: Piercings are bigger than here I think. At least in the small towns. But tattoos, yeah it's more expensive with tattoos in Sweden. (Laughs) So it's just the rich people that have the tattoos.

WC: You must be doing pretty well then?

Mans: Yep.

WC: What will the next 10 years bring for Sludge Nation?

KM: Money.

Christopher: Wealth.

Mans: Syphilis.

You can catch Sludge Nation this Wednesday at Club Congress. Their American debut E.P. will be released on April 29 by Dedicated Records.