Soundtrack Of My Life: The Hives’ Howlin’ Pelle Almqvist

The first song I remember hearing

AC/DC – ‘For Those About To Rock (We Salute You)’

“I might be editing my childhood subconsciously but I remember hearing ‘For Those About To Rock’ by AC/DC on one of these slimline cassette recorders in Nicholaus’ [Arson, The Hives guitarist and Almqvist’s brother] room. I remember it feeling cool and dangerous, kind of like an action movie. If I’m not going by memory, it’s probably a Swedish children’s song called ‘Imse Vimse Spindel’ which is ‘Itsy Bitsy Spider’ but with Swedish lyrics.”

The first album I bought

Skid Row – ‘Skid Row’

“I went to the local record store with my own money and bought ‘Skid Row’ – and then whatever EMF record that ‘Unbelievable’ song is on [‘Schubert Dip’]. The store was in my local town, it was called Playman – maybe the English name was cool, but it makes no sense, right? The Skid Row record was the thing – there was tight leather pants and hair, which I thought looked cool. I think that record is still good, it still holds up.”

The first gig I went to

Kreator at Folkets Park, 1989

“I forced my dad to take me to see German thrash metal gods Kreator in my hometown with Swedish doom metal kings Candlemass supporting, who were my favourite band at the time. For some reason, at 11 years old, I was really into doom metal. I put on my coolest clothes and went. It was at Folkets Park, which is like a community centre that every Swedish town had. It was a social democratic thing, they built an entertainment centre in every city – a government entertainment centre. Very Eastern Bloc!”

What did your dad think of the show?

“I think he thought it was funny but it was pretty serious to me. As an adult, I think his impression of doom metal was very different. Who are these grown men stomping around in robes on stage like druids?”

The song that reminds me of home

Sator – ‘I Wanna Go Home’

“It’s kind of a power pop hit, but it was playing on a million road trip vacations when I was a kid. They’re from the same area of Sweden that we are, so I think that’s why. It was probably big in Germany and Sweden, but they never really broke the UK. It’s a really good song. But I also think songs about home always feel the same to everyone. The feeling of listening to ‘Georgia On My Mind’ – even though I’m not from Georgia, I get it.”

The song I wish I’d written

 Karen Dalton – ‘Reason To Believe’

“Sometimes, I think songs are overrated. In our genre, a good band with a shit song will usually win over a good song from a shit band. But a song where it doesn’t matter who performs it and I’ll still like it? Karen Dalton’s ‘Reason To Believe’. It’s a super sad love song. I feel like her music was discovered when we broke through as a band, and somebody told me about it.

“If I’m going with a song that I wish I’d written for The Hives, that’s way harder. Stooges songs make no sense without The Stooges. Rock ‘n’ roll [songwriting] is different, for me. Rolling Stones songs – they work for The Rolling Stones, but whenever somebody else plays them, they sound like shit to me!”

The song I can’t get out of my head

Gershon Kingsley – ‘Popcorn’

“There’s a couple – but the old synthesiser hit ‘Popcorn’, that’s constantly on repeat in my brain. I think, ironically, ‘Can’t Get You Out Of My Head’ by Kylie Minogue shows up once or twice a year. And then for some reason, ‘Don’t Worry Be Happy’ by Bobby McFerrin. It’s like a Pavlovian thing, when I go off stage, that shows up in my brain. The thing about songs that you can’t get out of your head, you don’t even really have to like them. It’s just catchiness, something neurotic… like playing a magic trick on your brain.”

The song I can no longer listen to

Radio pop

“Ninety per cent of all mainstream pop on the radio, the whole time I’ve been alive. I think that’s gonna have to be my answer. I don’t have a specific [song] – it’s all of it. I’ll just leave it at that.”

The song that makes me want to dance

 The Hives – ‘Try It Again’

“Anything by The Hives, played live. ‘Try It Again’ has got a pretty good groove. The problem is that I have to sing all the fucking time, so there’s very little room for dancing in Hives songs. I wish there were more instrumental bits where I could cut a rock. We’re gonna have to figure that out on the next album.”

The song that makes me want to cry

Gordon Lightfoot – ‘If You Could Read My Mind’

“Howlin’ Pelle don’t cry, obviously. I feel the same emotions, but I don’t cry. That Gordon Lightfoot song, it’s like how I was talking about songwriting before. It doesn’t matter who plays that song, it’s equally as good. It’s not tied to performance like rock music is. My favourite is the Johnny Cash version, or the original. Something about the chords, the melody and the lyrics working together. I think it’s a very well-written song.”

Have you ever cried to that song?

“Maybe if somebody pepper-sprayed me while I was listening to it.”

The song I do at karaoke

 The Champs – ‘Tequila’

“I do ‘Tequila’, where it’s just instrumental and goes ‘Tequila!’. That beats everybody’s ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’. I think there’s the timeless comedy of just standing there, waiting for the ‘Tequila!’ to come. I hate tequila, but for the comedy, I would [take a shot]. It’s very Hives. Maybe that’s the song I wish I’d written!”

The song I want played at my funeral

Tom Waits – ‘Come On Up To The House’

“It seems very well suited for that. I think it might be about dying, some line about ‘does life seem nasty, brutish and short?’,  but I love that song. It’s beautiful and I think it would work at a funeral. Every Tom Waits song on ‘Mule Variations’ is good, and that’s probably my favourite. It has a really cool, massive drum sound, like, beyond Led Zeppelin. That’s what I first reacted to, but then I got really into the song – and that’s the album where I started loving Tom Waits, because before that, I guess I was too young. I listened to it on the CD Walkman in my bunk on the tour bus. It’s one of my favourite records.”

The Hives’ new album ‘The Hives Forever Forever The Hives’ is due out August 29 via PIAS

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