Interview with Lions Den
Hello there, how are you? We’ll start with the same old question, so can you please tell me the history of the band, present its members and so on…
Erik: Lions Den started out as a side-project between Alex from Go For Broke, Simon from The Romance and myself. We wanted do a demo in the vein of Right Brigade and I wanted to sing in a band. Shortly after we did the demo Alex had to move to Stockholm and Simon didn’t have enough time between his other bands and work to go further with Lions Den. I then talked to my close friends Goran, Viktor and Mike and asked if they’d be up to the band with me and they were all siked about it. At first Lions Den weren’t meant to be a Straight Edge-band or a serious thing but when Goran, Viktor and Mike joined we all felt that this was the direction we all wanted for the band. Johan later joined the band on guitar. As we speak Mike has made the decision to leave the band to focus on his art school and we’re pretty bummed out about it but Gustav, who is a great dude, will take care of the bass. So our line-up for the band is: me (Erik) on vocals, Goran drums, Viktor and Johan on guitars and Gustav on Bass.
Do any of you play / played in other bands?
Erik: Goran has played in some killerbands like Outlast, Bonds Of Trust, Crew Cut and Another Reason. He also plays in Swedens hardest band Stay Hungry. Look out for that one!
What are your future plans? I know you are planning a euro tour and a CD release as we are speaking… Can you tell us more?
Erik: We’re finally getting a release out on Ugly And Proud Records and we’re really siked about this. Big ups to Nikolay for helping us out with this. We got some time now to start working on new material but we don’t have anything in mind in terms of future releases. We’re kinda up for anything, a split 7” with fellow partners in crime Angers Curse would rule. That has to happen. This spring we wanna do a longer tour like 3 weeks.
Is this your first tour? Have you ever played outside Sweden?
Erik: Yeah, this is our first time outside Sweden and we’re really looking forward to it. The very fact that we’re going with one of Sweden’s best bands, Angers Curse, is a reward enough.
Can you please tell us some interesting facts about the hardcore/punk scene in Sweden? It’s not very popular in Eastern Europe so it’s an opportunity to educate the kids here…
Erik: I’m pretty sure that you’ve heard about the older bands from Umeå like Refused, Abhinanda, Seperation and maybe D.S 13. Nowadays there aren’t that many bands around if you compare to how it was in the late 90s. But I’d say that we do have some pretty cool bands active now like Stay Hungry, Angers Curse, The Kind That Kills, Balance, Anchor, First Cut and Dead Reprise. You should check these bands out. There are a lot of new kids at shows and people are getting into.
I just can’t leave you without asking you about sxe. You are all sxe, right? When and how did you make this step? What is it like to be a sxe band?
Goran: I have been sxe 14 years. I made my decision because all the wrong steps I made in my past. Drinking and smoking for me was not an option. So I had to make a change. Being in a Straight Edge-band is like the best. We know each other from way back. We have the same thinking we work for the same goal and we think as one.
What do you think about vegetarianism and veganism?
Erik: We’re all vegetarian and Gustav is vegan. I think it´s an easy choice to make but we don’t want push our ideals down people’s thoughts. We just feel that if you do eat meat, stop and think about what you’re doing and maybe try a vegetarian diet.
How about the diy culture of hardcore and punk? What do you think about commercialization?
Viktor: Well, I think the DIY-culture is what keeps the scene we all love alive. If we relied on somebody else to do our dirty work, we’d all given up a long time ago, because we’d be going nowhere fast. Today it’s also so easy to do stuff by yourself. Pretty much every kid in the scene owns a computer and all the stuff you need to make CD’s, design t-shirts, make stickers etc so the DIY-scene has become so much easier these days that it’s hardly something to ”brag” about anymore.
As far as the commercialization goes, I think our scene is way too small to allow it to become too commercial. There are gonna be bands that can make a living from playing hardcore, but to be honest, those bands can be counted on two hands, and these are bands that tours pretty much all year to be able to live off of their music. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with wanting to make a living playing music. If someone told me that they wanted to release a CD with Lions Den and were willing to pay for everything, hook us up with good booking agencies, print merch for us and so on, I aint gonna pretend that I wouldn’t be tempted to take that offer.
Any final words?
Thanx for the interview and a big thank you to Nikolay and Ugly And Proud Records for doing the release. Check out the Swedish bands and be on the lookout for our cd. Stay Edge! XXX
MySpace page: Lions Den
