Interview
by
Steve Brydges
with
Johann Lagerloff
One can dance to Kid Commando, quite easily. But they are not a dance band. They’re more a tribe - talented primordial beasts who pound out primal beats that cut to the gut and leave the listener wanting to dance a tribal jig in a pool of their own innards. Listening to Holy Kid Commando is a hoot, a regular laugh-riot for the ears. Detuned strings - hammered, jabbed, plucked and otherwise mistreated - bark and make mouth-harp noises. The drums… Oh!, the drums! Like being lost in the South African desert only to be found by a bunch of angry bushman. Bob your head and wiggle your toes while you’re spinning oblongly on a spit over a roaring fire. Other times, like on the brilliant and retarded “Black Beauty,” immersing oneself in the song is like being thrown around a wrestling ring with ropes made of brick. They’re still springy, but they hurt a lot more. And every throw is down a flight of stairs. With a mop over your head that has a herd of angry bees in it.
These are the innumerable, childlike joys of the Kid Commando experience. Their live performance will remain a mystery on these fair shores, but their album, Holy Kid Commando (on Ache Records), need not elude you. Please, for the love of all that is (un)holy, seek and enjoy.
How'd you get hooked up with a Canadian
label like Ache Records?
We didn't really know about them when they contacted us, but we got a really good feeling about them. I guess they got hold of our split 7" with Arab on Radar and liked what they heard. We really like the fact that even though Ache is technically more or less a DIY label, Andy has high ambitions and is not stuck in genres or scenes. He tries to get his records out to all kinds of people; he puts out all kinds of different music, and lets the music speak for itself.
I believe your drummer is actually an entire Indian or African tribe. Confirm or deny.
It's one guy, but his limbs work individually, and with lots of individuality.
Why do you eschew the bassist? (Do either of the guitarists play a baritone guitar?)
It's a boring instrument. I've been close to getting beaten up by bass players more than once for saying that. Joachim did play bass for the first months, but then we put bass strings on a guitar instead. Much more fun. Since a few years back, me and Joachim are striving towards equality in frequencies and volume. The idea is that the band should have no rhythm and lead section and no frontman. Every members’ spiritual presence is way, way more important than the sound they produce.
The guitars sound totally detuned or out of tune. I love it. Sounds like
rubberbands strapped to jaw-harps played by hobos with vertigo. What sort of tuning or detuning do you involve in your set up?
Sometimes I feel seasick during shows, but I never had vertigo. Maybe when we get to the really big stages... Detuned strings have a life of their own. If you hit a normally-tuned string ten times, you will get the same sound every time. With a really detuned string however, it's a lottery. We like the element of randomness and not being in control. We actually try to keep our instruments in tune, but it's pointless most of the time.
This is an actual quote from a rock venue talent buyer about Kid Commando: "Reminded me of when kids repeatedly beat on things. When my son was three, he beat on my guitar and called it a piano. Let me guess... Kid Commando are actual kids, right?" How does reading that make you feel?
I LOVE IT!!! Add to that that we have lots of facial hair and a weird conception about how to be sexy and you got a really surreal, disturbing image.
Sometimes when I hear some random new rock band, I get an image of what clothes they wear and even how they are as persons. All this based on other bands I've seen and met that have a similar sound. The world of rock is very superficial, but to me, that's one of the things that make it so interesting. To me, creating music is so much more than the music itself. Kid Commando works hard to be hard to define, and being mistaken for kids is therefore a great compliment for us. You should not be able to figure us out just by hearing the music. You shouldn't be able to figure us out at all.
What role does a certain childish exuberance play in the music of Kid Commando?
It's one of the cornerstones. You always have your favorite new ingredient to add to the big dough that is Kid Commando, and I think the childish stuff has been a major part since the beginning. I think it would be very difficult to do interesting stage art and recordings if you don't let out the naive kid in you. Society in general has very little room for adults with a child’s mind, so it's very pleasing to have a forum where you can live that shit out.
You sing in English. Why not sing in Swedish?
Even though we are not rock 'n' roll traditionalists, I would have to say that tradition made us sing in English. There are a few good examples of rock sung in Swedish, but to few to really inspire me to do it. I guess the only way to do experimental rock-music is to change certain parts of the rock 'n' roll formula, and leave certain parts untouched. I know, it's post-modernistic bullshit, but anyway, it feels natural for us to sing in English and we don't have the energy to go against that feeling.
Swedish is a wonderful language, but it's not rock.
Your lyrics have a delightful absurdist quality to them. What literal truth is one to take from such couplets as, "I'm afraid of dancin', and I used to love to dance. One time I clapped my hands, one time too many. I crossed the thin, thin line between disco and voodoo," and "I was raised by Indians. They taught me how to play the guitar," and, lest we forget, "Why did you stop breast-feeding me? I can't take the intimacy of someone else changing my diaper"? I mean, what the hell?
Absurdism is a goal in itself somehow. Art is to me about creating images beyond the actual image, and even though these lyrics sometimes are pure nonsense to the listener (and sometimes even to me), they add another dimension to the big picture. Making Kid Commando songs is a little bit like putting a puzzle together the wrong way, simple and complicated at the same time.
We didn't really know about them when they contacted us, but we got a really good feeling about them. I guess they got hold of our split 7" with Arab on Radar and liked what they heard. We really like the fact that even though Ache is technically more or less a DIY label, Andy has high ambitions and is not stuck in genres or scenes. He tries to get his records out to all kinds of people; he puts out all kinds of different music, and lets the music speak for itself.
I believe your drummer is actually an entire Indian or African tribe. Confirm or deny.
It's one guy, but his limbs work individually, and with lots of individuality.
Why do you eschew the bassist? (Do either of the guitarists play a baritone guitar?)
It's a boring instrument. I've been close to getting beaten up by bass players more than once for saying that. Joachim did play bass for the first months, but then we put bass strings on a guitar instead. Much more fun. Since a few years back, me and Joachim are striving towards equality in frequencies and volume. The idea is that the band should have no rhythm and lead section and no frontman. Every members’ spiritual presence is way, way more important than the sound they produce.
The guitars sound totally detuned or out of tune. I love it. Sounds like
rubberbands strapped to jaw-harps played by hobos with vertigo. What sort of tuning or detuning do you involve in your set up?
Sometimes I feel seasick during shows, but I never had vertigo. Maybe when we get to the really big stages... Detuned strings have a life of their own. If you hit a normally-tuned string ten times, you will get the same sound every time. With a really detuned string however, it's a lottery. We like the element of randomness and not being in control. We actually try to keep our instruments in tune, but it's pointless most of the time.
This is an actual quote from a rock venue talent buyer about Kid Commando: "Reminded me of when kids repeatedly beat on things. When my son was three, he beat on my guitar and called it a piano. Let me guess... Kid Commando are actual kids, right?" How does reading that make you feel?
I LOVE IT!!! Add to that that we have lots of facial hair and a weird conception about how to be sexy and you got a really surreal, disturbing image.
Sometimes when I hear some random new rock band, I get an image of what clothes they wear and even how they are as persons. All this based on other bands I've seen and met that have a similar sound. The world of rock is very superficial, but to me, that's one of the things that make it so interesting. To me, creating music is so much more than the music itself. Kid Commando works hard to be hard to define, and being mistaken for kids is therefore a great compliment for us. You should not be able to figure us out just by hearing the music. You shouldn't be able to figure us out at all.
What role does a certain childish exuberance play in the music of Kid Commando?
It's one of the cornerstones. You always have your favorite new ingredient to add to the big dough that is Kid Commando, and I think the childish stuff has been a major part since the beginning. I think it would be very difficult to do interesting stage art and recordings if you don't let out the naive kid in you. Society in general has very little room for adults with a child’s mind, so it's very pleasing to have a forum where you can live that shit out.
You sing in English. Why not sing in Swedish?
Even though we are not rock 'n' roll traditionalists, I would have to say that tradition made us sing in English. There are a few good examples of rock sung in Swedish, but to few to really inspire me to do it. I guess the only way to do experimental rock-music is to change certain parts of the rock 'n' roll formula, and leave certain parts untouched. I know, it's post-modernistic bullshit, but anyway, it feels natural for us to sing in English and we don't have the energy to go against that feeling.
Swedish is a wonderful language, but it's not rock.
Your lyrics have a delightful absurdist quality to them. What literal truth is one to take from such couplets as, "I'm afraid of dancin', and I used to love to dance. One time I clapped my hands, one time too many. I crossed the thin, thin line between disco and voodoo," and "I was raised by Indians. They taught me how to play the guitar," and, lest we forget, "Why did you stop breast-feeding me? I can't take the intimacy of someone else changing my diaper"? I mean, what the hell?
Absurdism is a goal in itself somehow. Art is to me about creating images beyond the actual image, and even though these lyrics sometimes are pure nonsense to the listener (and sometimes even to me), they add another dimension to the big picture. Making Kid Commando songs is a little bit like putting a puzzle together the wrong way, simple and complicated at the same time.