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My interview with Inge Johansson took place on 10/23/01. He was on a cell phone in France, and it was almost dinnertime. One thing to remember: English is not his native language. He’s from Sweden, and although he speaks and understands English well, he doesn’t have full command the language. So if his answers seem grammatically unsound at times, cut the guy some slack. English and Swedish are very different. And to top it off, he had a bad cold. And now: Inge!
| Scott: Well, first, there’s one thing
that has been bugging me. Why are there parentheses around “International?” Inge: When we picked the band name, we sort of wanted a name that was more of a description of what we were doing instead of just a name. You know, we thought of that name |
 |
S: You guys put yourself forward as a collective. Does that mean that the view of one person is the view of everyone?
I: No, not really. There’s a lot of arguments and refereeing going on in this band [laughs] when it comes to most things. And we have our little arguments and then we make up something. But the collective thing is more that we really, really have the….we know that the sum of the members of this band are way stronger than any small isolated individual of the band could ever be. That’s the idea behind the collective and the ideas that we want to come across with our collectivity and things like that. So but of course we don’t have the same view about everything, but we have some sort of common analysis of the capitalistic society and what we think about things, but we have so many different ideas about how to…….
(Things get really noisy where he is. He has to move. Loud music playing. People chattering in Swedish).
I: Okay I’m back. I had to take care of some stuff. [laughing] Are you still there? Okay. Where was I? I was talking about the collective i.d. No, everybody doesn’t have the same view. Of course, we’d have a problem if someone in the band would say “Hey, I really, really like the police!” (laughs) and what they’re doing or oh “I don’t want to be a Marxist anymore. I don’t want to be left wing. I want to vote for right wing policies [laughing]” We’d have some sort of problem. Basically, we all have the same view on things, but we have different ideas about most things.
S: So, is there a front man?
I: No! Not really. I wouldn’t say that.
S: I’ve read several interviews about you guys, and every single of one them has been with Dennis [Lyxzen, the lead singer]. Why--
I: Yeah, that’s because most magazines and most media are stuck up with the idea that the singer is the spokesperson of the band. And I mean, in many cases it’s true, but not in our case. We work collectively on most things. So we try to split up the interviews, and the whole songwriting process is done collectively, and we always vote about things (laughing) and try to, to, to run this band according to our ideas as far as possible.
S: Who writes the lyrics?
I: It’s Dennis who’s writing the lyrics because, you know, he’s the singer. The same way as I’m writing all my bass parts. But on the other hand, when it comes to the lyrics, they all deal with political and social topics and we have a lot of discussions about what do we want to sing about, and what sort of message do we want to put through to the people who are listening to us. So, I feel that everybody is sort of involved in that part of the lyric writing process, but he is the one that actually puts it down to words.
S: Do you guys consider yourselves Marxists, anarchists…do you identify with one specific ideology, or do you kinda go with everything?
I: No, we feel that as a rock band, we are pretty free to move between different political ideologies, and we don’t feel that we have to be dogmatic about one certain ideology or one certain i.d. We think that’s just very stupid and narrowminded, so we move quite freely. Acutally, I’ve seen on the latest record where we quote everything from wild anarchists to communists, dadaists, punk rock bands, whatever. We just feel that there are so many good sources of inspiration out there, and you can use them for your own purposes and make your own thing out of it, but that’s what we are doing with all those ideas. So we wouldn’t consider ourselves to be dogmatic Marxists or dogmatic anarchists. We, you know, it depends on what day it is (laughing) more or less.
S: What are you guys trying to accomplish? Are you trying to change the world through your band?
I: If we had like a list of goals for the band, number one would be smash capitalism. But it’s sort of a utopic idea. You need more than a rock band to do that. The thing that we can do is to inspire people and to get them involved in their own lives and their own political struggle or whatever. It’s the same way as we got inspired by political punk bands and rock bands when we started out or, no, when we were teenagers or whatever. And there was a certain feeling I got from listening to bands like Dead Kennedys or Manic Street Preachers when I was younger that sort of stuck me to these ideals and this way of thinking, and if we can just make someone who listens to us feel the same thing as we felt, then you know, that would be super perfect. But on the other hand, we are also happy with people just coming to the shows, dancing, smiling, having a good time, feeling that they are alive for a moment. We are not really the band that wants to tell people what to do or what to think or what to make of this band. It’s this subjective experience that we are out for and we don’t really have any desire to control what people want to make of this thing.
S: So if someone says, 'I hate the (International) Noise Conspiracy for their politics, but I think they make great music,' is that cool with you guys?
I: Yeah, of course it’s cool. If someone just comes to dance and have a good time, it’s a good thing. It feels sort of weird, though, I have never experienced that at all. It seems sort of strange to me that you can be sort of a right wing person and still dig the songs of the Noise Conspiracy. Then you are obviously not (laughing) paying that much attention to the lyrics, because I think it’s pretty hard to escape the things that we are saying when you are listening to the music.
S: I agree, but when you guys play shows, does it seem like everyone is into what you’re talking about, or are they there just to listen to some good music?
I: It’s hard to say if it’s like 50-50 music or politics. I guess it’s a little of both, and as I said earlier, that doesn’t really matter to me. Of course I’m super happy if someone comes up and is like “Oh my god! You’re talking about the same things that I’m thinking about!” or “I’ve listened to the record, and I have a few comments on the things that you’re saying.” That’s super cool. But on the other hand, if people just are there for having a good time, it’s also a part of the political i.d. of the Noise Conspiracy because we are trying to break down the everyday boredom situation and make people feel alive and feel happy and feel spontaneous, and that’s also very political in my eyes.
S: This is something that Dennis said. He was saying that originality is a bourgeoise idea that “we are against the 'lame notion of individuality'.” Do you agree with that?
I: Yeah, yeah, that’s where we stand on that issue. I don’t think, you know, because you can take whatever, you can take rock music for instance. There’s not that much originality in it today, I would say, because people have been doing it for fifty years and there’s only like 12 notes to pick from or whatever. So everything has already been done, and if you’re actually coming out today and saying that you’re going to create something new when it comes to art or music or whatever, then you’re obviously not knowing that much about history, because everything has been done already. Once or twice (slight laugh).
S: Does that apply to just music and art, or does that apply to everything.
I: Everything…I mean, it’s hard to…
S: In that context, was he just referring to music?
I: I think he was referring to music, yes, because we get that question a lot, like, if we consider ourselves to be original when it comes to our music or our political ideas, so that was in the context of music.
S: So you guys don’t feel you’re doing anything original?
I: No! (lots of laughter). Not really. Maybe that we are, because we are reusing a lot of political and ideological ideas that other people have written down, and we are using a lot of old and boring guitar riffs, but putting those two things together are…you know, just as the Situationists used Marxist theory and put into comic books, we’re putting it into rock music, and that’s sort of a new context, I guess. But I don’t think it’s very original.
S: You guys, or maybe it was just Dennis, but he was saying that a lot of bands these days are just rehashing the same old shit, and that no one’s doing anything new or exciting, but then you guys have said the same things about yourselves.
I: Yeah, I don’t think we’re…I mean we try to be exciting, we try to be a band that’s inspiring and accessible, and really….uh…yeah, exciting. We want to be an exciting band, but it’s hard because rock music is sort of stuck to it’s formulas many times, and it’s really hard to break the barriers, and I don’t know if we’re really interested in that.
S: Then the point of the Conspiracy is just to use the so-called “unoriginal format” to get their ideas across to as many people as possible?
I: Yeah, yeah, definitely. The, you know, we believe in strength in numbers. That’s because, you know, we’re Marxists, we’re socialists, we believe in those kind of things. We just, we use music as our vehicle for the ideas, and maybe it’s not the best way to spread a political ideology or whatever, but it’s the best way for us because we really, really love to play music, and that’s why we’re using it as the vehicle. If we’re into other art forms, we would use that, but music feels closest to hand. And I feel that I, personally, out of an egoistic perspective (laughing), I get more out of playing in this band and being in this machine of political propaganda. I feel better doing that than smashing McDonald’s windows. So, you know, we try to just talk about those things in the way that we feel political struggles should be based in things that we really, really love to do and that should be based in emotions and passion. So that’ s why we are doing this, because we feel very passionate about playing music.
S: Music is your vehicle for putting your ideas out there. Do you think it’s working?
I: I don’t know. I mean (lauging), we’re just a rock band and I don’t think it’s up to us to, you know, start a revolution or save the world. We just want to be sort of a soundtrack to what is going on right now and to people’s struggle. And if the revolution comes to town, we want to play there. That’s more how we think about this band, and if it’s working or not, I don’t know. Maybe we need a historical perspective to see what the influence of the Noise Conspiracy may have had on people.
S: I’m sure you get this one a lot, but you guys are strongly anti-capitalist, yet you’re on Epitaph.
I: Yeah.
S: Some people are skeptical because of reasons like that. Are they justified?
I: No, I mean, much less than…we get much less critique on that than I expected us to get. But we were sort of thinking about this, and we thought of hey, let’s use all the channels that the capitalistic systems are offering us to, to speak out against it. I mean, it might seem like a paradox, but it’s always a paradox to be a socialist in a capitalistic society, and whatever you do, you always have to sell yourself. And we choose to sell ourselves to a record label and to do like cheesy stuff like promotion videos or whatever, to be able to do this seven days a week instead of ourselves in a grocery store or a factory and be able to do the Conspiracy two days a week. So I think that the messages that we have are actually gaining from being put out in a capitalistic outlet. We know that we are the product of the record company and they want to sell records and we are fully aware of that. They are fully aware of the fact that we know that, but that sort of makes us a step ahead all the time. But when it comes to people being critical about this, most people understand when we try to explain the situation. Sometimes we get shit from like the real, die-hard, hard core DIY people about sell out and whatever, but I don’t consider their business to be outside the capitalistic system either, just with smaller means. And we want to reach as many people as possible, and then it’s better for us to be on a bigger label. Epitaph is still an independent label, you have to remember that, but it’s a big independent label.
S: So being on MTV and all that kinda stuff, you don’t feel you’re selling out? It’s just a better way to get your message out there?
I: Yeah, it’s one of the ways. I’d rather see a Noise Conspiracy video on MTV than see another Limp Bizkit video (laughing). I’d rather see any video but a Limp Bizkit video. (more laughter). It seems sort of, yeah, it feels sort of weird. But on the other hand, we know that we can’t live as socialists in a capitalist society, in the same way that I hope that you can’t live as a capitalist in a socialist society.
S: So, if you guys got huge, you don’t think that would cheapen your message at all?
I: No, I don’t think so. I mean, we have a purpose with the band, and if we ever get huge, it would be partly because of the purpose. I mean, Rage Against The Machine gets really, really big. Of course, they have this big label and big promotion, but they were doing the same thing as we are. They were selling the idea of rebellion to kids, and we know that we are doing that, too. The record label knows that as well, so it’s sort of, that’s our sales sheet. But I guess if we got really, really huge and made tons of money, then we would end up in a discussion about hey, where are we going to, like how are we going to use this. And how are we going to spend the money we are making, because right now we aren’t making that much money, I can tell you (laughing). I made more money having a full time job than I have being a full time punk rocker. But of course we would end up in a lot of complex discussions about economy and things like that. But on the other hand, that’s a question I hope to leave to the future. But we make no secret out of the fact that we want to sell a million records.
S: So, if you were to sell a million records, or even less, you’d be making some money off the capitalist system. Do you feel like, by making money off of it, you are also a part of it?
I: Yeah, we are already part of it in our everyday life. Everything, from the first thing when you wake up in the morning and you go to have a shower and then shave with the latest brand of razor blades. It’s always something. It’s always products. You have to sell yourself everyday and sell your labor to your boss or whatever. So you are always involved in the system. There’s no way of escaping capitalism unless you want to be as politically correct as the Unabomber and sit outside in your log cabin in the woods making bombs and, you know, growing your own carrots (laughter).
S: Do you think it’s realistic…you guys say you’re out to overthrow capitalism and you say you know you can’t do it yourselves, but do you think that will ever actually happen?
I: Yeah, I mean there’s historical proofs for that, because history changes all the time, and revolutions occur when old systems need to be replaced. I mean, the capitalist system is very complex and very good at reproducing itself all the time. But, yes, if I didn’t believe that, I wouldn’t be in this band. Or have those ideas. But I really, really believe that will happen. Maybe not during my lifetime. I really hope so, but it will definitely happen.
S: I mean, it’s not like a handful of slaves are overthrowing their master.
I: No, it’s much more complex than that now.
S: It’s everything. It’s everywhere. To try and eliminate that seems pretty impossible.
I: It’s gonna be a hard task. But I think that the time and the place for the situation will come. I’m really, really convinced about that, but I’m not the person to say it’s going to be done this way or that way or whatever. I’m not really interested in that sort of questions either. But I feel very, very convinced that that situation will occur.
S: How do you feel about the current terrorist situation with the Taliban and the World Trade Center?
I: Now that I’ve been on tour for like two weeks, I’ve had very little access to English-speaking newspapers and I don’t have any real last-minute updates on it. But the last thing I heard was that ground troops were sent to Afghanistan and that’s the last thing I heard. I don’t know how many civilians they’ve killed, but it must be quite a plenty. But when you look at the thing that happened on the 11th, in New York, when they crashed the planes, it was actually much closer to the Noise Conspiracy than you might imagine because we were shooting a video for the new single on the 11th and we were supposed to fly to New York on the 12th to play and live on Manhattan. But that obviously did not happen. They cancelled the whole thing.
I would say it’s a tragic thing what happened. 5,000 civilians getting killed, or I don’t know the exact numbers there. But I don’t think that the solution right now is to put on the cowboy hat and go out and kill even more people in the outside world because, when I’ve been to America, I’ve seen the news there, and I’ve seen how everything sort of circles around what’s going on inside America and not how America affects other countries. There’s a reason to why this thing happened. I don’t say that I support Osama bin Laden in any way. I mean, he’s a right wing, fundamental extremist, so I don’t like his ideas. But I can see why people in those countries hate America because of what America did to so many civilians and innocent Arab people during the Gulf War. How many got killed and infected and sick by chemical weapons, and how people in Palestine feel about suffering terror from the U.S.-subsidized Israel troops and things like that.
So there’s a reason why this thing happened, and there’s a reason why there’s so much anger against America. And I think that now you see the tragic consequence because George Bush expects everyone in the western world to just line up behind America and their ideological and their foreign policies instead of sitting down and asking the question why did this happen and explain it to people. Because he knows why this happened and he knows that he supported Osama bin Laden with all his guns and all his bombs during the war that Afghanistan had with the Soviet Union. It’s very important to explain to people why people around the world are so mad, because when the World Trade Center crashed down, 5,000 people died. But during the last 10 years, 200 million people have died in Arab countries, in Asia, in Latin America as consequences of American and western world foreign politics, and comparing those two numbers, you feel like there’s a reason for the hate and the anger that America got to feel when that happened. But on the other hand, I don’t think it was a very positive thing, and I can see that every Arab or Muslim country out there are going to feel the consequences now in the hunt for Osama bin Laden, and it makes me very scared and very depressed because it’s a lose-lose situation.
S: But we obviously can’t just let him “get away with it.”
I: He isn’t a nice a nice guy. But I don’t think that George Bush is any better. So, this is a very sort of lose-lose situation. I don’t know how many civilians that have died over there since America started the war, and I guess I will never really know the true numbers because I think that the Arab side is exaggerating and the U.S. side are holding numbers back. It’s a hard question. I think that all dictatorships should be crushed to the ground, and I hate the idea of fundamentalism, but I don’t think it’s going to be any better by having the U.S. bombing, blowing away Afghanistan’s infrastructure. It’s not going to solve any problems.
S: Well, one more question and I’ll let you get going here. Who are you listening to now? What’s in your cd player?
I: Oh! Oh my god. So much stuff. I have my little bag of cd’s with me. In my cd case of this tour, I have my Best of Blondie collection; I have my Four Tops collection; I have N.E.R.D—In Search Of; and I have Discharge, and I have Danzig (laughs), I have Morrissey, I have the Smiths, N.W.A., KRS-One, TLC….but yeah, that’s what I’m listening to at the moment.
S: So you don’t just listen to political bands all day long.
I: No, no, not at all. If I would have to agree on every single lyric on every band, then I wouldn’t have that many records. Music is just music, and you shouldn’t take everything too seriously when you listen to it. I think you can listen to music with different ears, you know what I’m saying? Like, when I listen to Billy Bragg, I really, really listen. I really sit down and analyze the things that he’s saying, and I really try to get some sort of inspiration. But that’s not the same thing when I’m listening to a modern R & B record. Then I just listen to it because I like that beat or that cool melody or whatever.
S: Well, thanks for your time. You guys are playing here next month, right?
I: Yes, we are. We’re doing San Diego, and we have good friends that I’m looking forward to see. I’m really, really super excited to go over to the U.S. again. I’m a bit scared because the law or whatever that gives American agents the license to kill politically subversive people in critical (laughs), critical situations when it comes to what America is involved with internationally. So I don’t know what is going to happen to us when we come over there (more laughter).
S: Well, I think they probably won’t notice you because you’re just a bunch of white kids, ya know?
I: Yeah, if we had a big backdrop with a picture of Osama bin Laden or turbans or whatever, we’d have more of a problem.
S: You’ll be fine, I’m sure.
I: I hope so. I really hope so, because I really like to tour America and I want to do it again. I’m looking forward to coming over. America’s been treating us really, really good. We’ve done two tours in America, and they’ve been amazing. And we’ve really had a good response from people, and we’re sort of building a base of…I wouldn’t say fans, I just hate that word, but you know, we have a following there and a lot of good friends. Touring America is always super fun. You always get to see a lot of cool stuff. I love America, and I’m saying this as a socialist! (laughing hard).
S: Well, I’ll be letting you get back to your dinner there.
I: Okay, thanks for the interview. See you in San Diego, I guess.
The (International) Noise Conspiracy interview
conducted by Scott Batiuk.
Official
(International) Noise Conspiracy Website
http://www.epitaph.com
T(I)NC photo courtesy of Epitaph.com.
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