-- by Jon Wiederhorn
In their native Sweden, the Sounds are big rock stars. They sell loads of records, play large arenas and their vivacious singer, Maja Ivarsson, has an army of peroxide-blonde look-alikes that salute her at every gig.
Now the hyperkinetic '80s-influenced band is gearing up to go global with its U.S. debut, Living in America. And unlike the many European artists who fly overseas expecting instant popularity, the Sounds are willing to play small clubs, run the radio-station circuit and work for whatever accolades they receive.
"I think it's nice to begin from scratch again," said synth player Jesper Anderberg. "It's very important to know that you're not big everywhere and you have to fight for it once more. That's why we fought for it the first time. We wanted to be the biggest band in Sweden, and now we want to be the biggest band in America."
The Sounds have already been trumpeted by Dave Grohl, and ex-Smashing Pumpkins guitarist James Iha dug them so much he brought the band to this country and signed them to his label.
"I just had a feeling after listening to the music that they were going to be insane on stage," Iha said. "And, uh, yeah, they lived up to my expectations."
Living in America culls together elements of new wave, soaring pop and early punk, bringing to mind such acts as Blondie, the Cars and Missing Persons. It's like a double espresso at nap time — a jolt of concentrated energy that leaves no room to mope.
"Our thing is to have as good a time as possible," Anderberg said. "We've had people come up to us and say, 'You saved my life this winter, because I was really depressed, and after I listened to your album I felt really happy.' That was really nice to hear."
The band formed almost five years ago when childhood friends Felix Rodriguez (guitars) and Johan Bengtsson (bass) were in high school in southern Sweden. They recruited drummer Fredrik Nilsson and started jamming together, but they weren't really a band until frontwoman Maja Ivarsson, a friend who played French Horn, joined up by happenstance.
"They were supposed to play a Smashing Pumpkins song, and I was the only person who knew the lyrics," she recalled. "Felix said, 'You have to sing because you know the song,' and I said, 'OK, this time, but only this time.' The next day at lunch break he asked me if I wanted to join."
The last to join was Anderberg, who met the group during a gig at the Hultsfred Festival. With their lineup complete, the Sounds immediately got serious with their jubilant music, and with the assistance of the Swedish government, which gave them a grant to help finance their musical education, they started writing original songs and touring.
"Sweden is a good country to grow up in if you want to do music," Anderberg said, "because you get a lot of encouragement. It's very inexpensive to buy instruments and find rehearsal spaces. The government is very supportive. They like when the kids play music. We will pay them back in some way, they think."
With an album title like Living in America, it might look like these Swedes are turning their backs on their homeland handouts. That's not the case. While they want to succeed internationally, they remain dedicated to the scene that spawned them. Incidentally, the title track is no cry of glory to the red, white and blue: "We're not living in America/ But we're not sorry."
"Sweden's the most Americanized country in the world, and maybe we don't need it [to be like that]," Ivarsson said.
"We only have American series on television like 'The Simpsons,' 'Seinfeld,' 'Frasier,' " griped Anderberg. "We know everything about your elections — more than many Americans. That's just kind of strange since we have our own culture and history."
Despite their seeming patriotism, the Sounds are pretty much apolitical, and when they hit the stage it doesn't make any difference to them whether they're in Stockholm, Boston or Beijing.
"For us, it's all about playing in concert," Ivarsson said. "When we're on tour, it could be 23 hours of hell and one hour of heaven [performing], and it would be worth it. What we love about this job is being onstage. It's the number one reason we do it."
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