Hails please give me quick background history on the band and who plays what?
I (Johan, guitars) started Iron Lamb with Grga (vocals) and Thomas (drums) a couple of years ago, after talking about doing something more rock/punk orientated for a few years before that. At that time it fitted our schedule so we decided to go to the rehearsal space and jam a little and see how it felt. When we decided this was working out, we forced Daniel (bass) to join the band, partly cause he was the only one we could think of who had played both metal and punk before, and who came more from a genuine hard rock background than anything else, but also cause we knew he was equally demented as us, and able to fit in with our strange ways. All of us has known eachother for over a decade and we already played together in several different bands so we knew we all worked good together. This spring we also got another guitarist, Jens, in the band. Jens is a great guy and has played in a lot of good bands previously, and it works out great, and now we can play all the dual guitar stuff on the album live also.
I (Johan, guitars) started Iron Lamb with Grga (vocals) and Thomas (drums) a couple of years ago, after talking about doing something more rock/punk orientated for a few years before that. At that time it fitted our schedule so we decided to go to the rehearsal space and jam a little and see how it felt. When we decided this was working out, we forced Daniel (bass) to join the band, partly cause he was the only one we could think of who had played both metal and punk before, and who came more from a genuine hard rock background than anything else, but also cause we knew he was equally demented as us, and able to fit in with our strange ways. All of us has known eachother for over a decade and we already played together in several different bands so we knew we all worked good together. This spring we also got another guitarist, Jens, in the band. Jens is a great guy and has played in a lot of good bands previously, and it works out great, and now we can play all the dual guitar stuff on the album live also.
your bio states you formed to play "filthy and hard rock n roll", I would definetly say you have achieved that exact description with your music, I am reminded a lot of the dirtier days of The Hellacopters, Turbonegro, Gluecifer aswell as Motorhead and Poison Idea...what bands would you personally say fuel and shape the sound of Iron Lamb?
I am also reminded abit of Zeke at times when listening to your music, would you consider them an influence?
I don´t want to point out any specific influences, but all the classic rock, hard rock and punk rock stuff we grew up with influences us in some way of course. But rather the 70´s and 80s stuff than some of the 90´s and 2000´s stuff you mention, I would definitely not say that the scandinavian "action rock" stuff is an influence at all, but maybe we share some influences with those bands, from the older stuff... Zeke are an ok band, but nothing that I would really consider an influence, definitely not..
You have your debut full length album "The Original Sin" coming out via Pulverised Records, please tell the readers in your own words what they can expect from this album? Are you pleased with how it came out? How did you hook up with that label?
You can expect a classic sounding punky rock album with quality songs that will hold up against time, lyrics that are 100% honest and 0% image or fake. Also a production that truly reflects what we sound like, live and/or in the rehearsalroom. What you hear is what you get, no bullshit.
Yes, we are pleased with how it came out, especially the vinyl version (Highroller Records) since we haven´t even seen the cd version yet. Obviously this is our first fullength, and hopefully everything will be even better next time, but considering the circumstances, we are happy with the end result. But I really can´t wait to record again, with our new guitarist, and especially Grga being back in Sweden, will have him much more involved in the songwriting process since he was living in Norway when we wrote and record alot of the songs on the album. We contaced Pulverised about doing a 7" or 12" or something, I don´t remember, and they offered us doing a fullength instead. Highroller later contacted us about doing a vinyl release for them, and in the end they ended up licensing the vinyl version of the album from Pulverised.
You already have a few releases under your belt, are these still available and if so where can people pick them up at/via?
I don´t know about the Motorbreath split and the peskycostal preaching 7", but we have a few copies of the first 7" ep left, so contact us if you´re interested in that. Check out Soulseller Records and Highroller records for the other ep´s, they might still have some..
In 5 words describe Iron Lamb?!
Pissing, laughing, taking *****. Actually that´s just 4 words, but that´s enough! Thanks to Rip it Up (France) for describing us so well!!
Pissing, laughing, taking *****. Actually that´s just 4 words, but that´s enough! Thanks to Rip it Up (France) for describing us so well!!
I know you guys are active on the gig front, do you have much planned for the rest of this year? Do you plan to tour outside of Sweden to support the album? Can we expect some gigs in the UK at some point?
We do have some stuff planned, but not too much. We have a few gigs in Sweden planned the coming months (Gothenburg, Uppsala, Sthlm, Sundsvall), and in late october/november we are planning a 10 date european tour, probably through Italy, Austria, Germany and maybe Czech and Slovenia. Should be great fun!! We don´t have anything in the UK planned, but if you know of any good promotors, feel free to hook us up, would be happy to down a few pints over there of course..
You are all involved in other bands, some of which are very well known and actively gigging etc..do you find it hard to juggle all different members and bands schedules and activities? Where do you hope to take things with Iron Lamb, is it just more of a laid back fun side project for some members or do you all treat it as seriously as your other bands?
Most of our other bands are not so active right now actually. Dismember is on ice, Tyrant is more or less on ice, General Surgery and Martyrdöd are working on new albums and not playing much live right now, so it´s not too bad. I guess we just prioritise whatever is going in at the moment, but basically, Iron Lamb is no 1 now.
In recent times there has been another explosion of great bands coming out of the Stockholm area and east coast region playing all different styles, from black, and old school death, doom and 80s heavy metal to crust punk bands and bands such as yourselves. Why do you think the scene is so vibrant in your region? What local bands would you recommend to the readers to check out?
Stockholm has always been very active when it comes to bands forming, but maybe some of the bands that are formed more recently plays stuff we like better? Sthlm is just a big (in swedish measures) city, and has alot of musicians and productive people. Sweden has a long tradition of supporting musicians with all kinds of cultural subventions, providing rehearsal spaces and music lessons cheap etc. It´s not anything specific for metal or punk music, it´s the same with all styles, Sweden just have a very rich and proud musical tradition, especially in comparison to our country´s size.
I like alot of swedish bands from many different genres, too many to mention really..But some of the ones I appreciate who released records more recently would be Stench (killer death metal with a wicked and original twist), Obnoxious Youth (Motörcore), Dr Living Dead (thrash metal) and Beast (rock n core).
Sweden and Scandinavia has always had a great scene for punk rock 'n' roll bands from the more well known ones like The Hellacopters and Gluecifer to bands such as Puffball, The Deadbeats, The Burnouts, The Peepshows, The Robots etc... why do you think this music style has exploded and became so popular in your country? Are there any other current bands playing in the same style as Iron Lamb that you could recommend?!
Like I said previously, I´m not sure any specific genre is over representated here, Sweden just has a a very rich musical heritage. Obviously, when one or a couple of bands from a specific genre gets popular, that generates alot of copycats and wannabees, which probably explains the "action rock" wave of the mid/late 90´s, but that goes for all genres.. Honestly I don´t think there are any other bands that play in the same style as Iron Lamb really, since we are more influenced by the classic rock and punk artists and albums than any current ongoing underground trend. If you listen to "The Original Sin", it´s a pretty wide album that covers alot of musical range, I can´t think of any other band that would have put as different songs as Rotten Wood, The Original Sin, Iron Lamb and Dubious Preacher on the same album. Or am I just tunnelseeing since it´s my own band? Maybe, I don´t know. Some of our songs have an almost commercial approach, and some are very rough and dirty. This is not anything we think about when we write the songs, we just try to make each song as good as possible, and since we listen to stuff that is very classic and easy listening, as well as super obscure elitist stuff, that probably reflects in our music as well. Our goal was to not be narrow from the beginning so we wouldn´t end up painting ourselves into a corner after a while.
However, there are obviously great bands playing rock music with a punky approach, as Beast for example, or punk music with a rock approach as Motörbreath.
How did the name Iron Lamb come about?!
Well, that´s a long story, that I´d rather keep to myself. But I can say as much as that for me the meaning of the name just grows stronger and stronger for every day, and it´s a big part of our concept, both lyrically and musically. The way I see it you can look upon a band name in a couple of different ways. You can see it as just a name, nothing important, something to describe the members and distinguish the band from others. Or you can look upon it as a part of a concept, in a bigger picture. For most people listening, you don´t study a band so hard that you can (or want to) fully grasp their concept, so often this is something that only the members themselves appreciate, and maybe the odd fan. In the light of this, I don´t feel comfortable trying to explain the band name since I know that most people reading this won´t (fully) understand what I mean, they will just see it as a quote in an interview, and that will just make us look pretentious. So people can interpret it as they wish, as just a silly band name when all the good ones were taken, or as something else.
Well, that´s a long story, that I´d rather keep to myself. But I can say as much as that for me the meaning of the name just grows stronger and stronger for every day, and it´s a big part of our concept, both lyrically and musically. The way I see it you can look upon a band name in a couple of different ways. You can see it as just a name, nothing important, something to describe the members and distinguish the band from others. Or you can look upon it as a part of a concept, in a bigger picture. For most people listening, you don´t study a band so hard that you can (or want to) fully grasp their concept, so often this is something that only the members themselves appreciate, and maybe the odd fan. In the light of this, I don´t feel comfortable trying to explain the band name since I know that most people reading this won´t (fully) understand what I mean, they will just see it as a quote in an interview, and that will just make us look pretentious. So people can interpret it as they wish, as just a silly band name when all the good ones were taken, or as something else.
The press release states that Erik Danielsson of Watain fame did the cover art and layout for the album, who did that come about? Is he a fan of your music?
No that is not correct, I don´t know why Pulverised wrote that in their press release.. He did help with some technical stuff concerning putting the layout together, and he contributed with the font that is largely used throughout the layout, but Grga did almost all of the creative designing. However, we couldn´t have done it without Erik, so his help and good judgement is highly appreciated, but to say that he did the cover art is just not true. We are friends since the late 90´s and he did do the cover art and layout for our first 7" ep, designed our logo and has done t-shirt motives for us as well, so it was a natural choice to ask him to help out with putting the record layout together for this one as well. Honestly I don´t know if he´s a fan of our music, but I do think that he respect our integrity and support what we are doing.
I know you covered a Motorhead song on your debut album, do you have any other covers in your aural artillery that you play live or plan to record?
Yes, we have previously recorded "Fuck off, we murder" by GG Allin (released on the Motorbreath split) and "You won´t change me" by Black Sabbath (not released anywhere yet), and we have played "No Rules", also by Gg Allin at most of our live shows. We have also plans on recording more covers, and probably playing other ones live as well, but exactly which ones we will have to let the future tell.
lyrically where do you draw inspiration from?
The lyrics are inspired by daily life, and the impressions we get from our current world state. I try to keep them as simple and straight forward as possible, and they are 100% honest and no cliche rock n roll crap about fast cars and loose women. They deal with the frustration you come across from waking up in the morning and experiencing the world, the sheep mentality of most human beings, their shallow shepherds and the dubious preachers, the darker passages of the human mind.
Whats your favourite things about being involved in a band and playing music in general?
To create something, and to do it together with people I respect and appreciate. Those two things together (usually) leads to having a good time. I enjoy playing live, the uncharging power of performance, and to see the audience go nuts in front of you, and I like to travel along the world and seeing different places.
Any advice for those reading this interview who are thinking of starting a band of their own?
Do it for yourself and not for anyone else. Don´t set out to follow an ongoing trend or to fit in, everything is constantly changing anyway so no use trying to keep up.
What are your plans for the rest of 2011 and also into 2012?
We have a few Sweden gigs booked this autumn and a small european tour in october/november, other than that we´re working on new songs for an upcoming 7" record and possibly a split 10" as well.
Where can people pick up the album and also merch? The last words are yours, thanks for answering my questions!
CD www.pulverised.net
LP www.hrrecords.de (they also have one t-shirt design).
For other merchandise, contact us through ironlamb@hotmail.com
Thanks for the interview and support Kat, take it sleazy! Rock and/or roll!!
/Johan
Iron Lamb are also my band of the week this week on the Terrorizer Magazine website, link here:-
http://truecultheavymetal.com/blog1.php/2011/08/31/band-of-the-day-iron-lamb
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