Basswood Dollies

First of all, tell us more about yourselves and Basswood Dollies.
John: - "My name John Lindqwister and if we should talk about the musical facts I started out my so called carrier back in '89 with a band called Godplayers and we played some Sisters-covers, mostly to learn how it all works out and later we went on doing own songs. Ever since it have been quite a bunch of bands, for an example the hardcore act Lisa Gives Head, industrial metal band Headtrip Inc which actually made it through to some split albums. And later on I were in the band Cat Rapes Dog which I think most of the people out there who are in to hard electronical music know about. Since Cat Rapes Dog has been on ice for a while (we still have three gigs booked at the moment) I started Basswood Dollies with Joel after we had spent quite some time talking about it. After a bunch of tracks and some gigs we now have been signed to split a single with Diskodiktator and Top Gun. A nice and quite unusual initiative that we welcome with opened arms. We are reaching for the stars!"
Joel: - "My name is Joel Lindqvist. My musical path started out in Varberg where I made some music together with a guy named Thommie. We had some different projects together and did occasionally some gigs with our band Stamina Overload. Then I moved from Varberg and our project went down with it. After some years and moving around from town to town I finally ended up in Malmö and started out in Hype together with Robert Enforsen. After I choose to end my time in that band I started an own project with John, Basswood Dollies."

How did you come up with the name Basswood Dollies?
John: - "Actually it was me that came up with the name. It's quite simple; the English word for "Lind" (the type of wood) in our surnames is Basswood. And since we are pretty cute we added the name Dollies even though it should be "Dolls" since my original thought was about dolls."
Joel: - "I thought we should name the band Chicks With Dicks, but I let John decide!"

How would you describe your music?
John: - "Electro-rock 'n' roll is our interpretation of it. Most of all I think it comes from the feeling when we play live. I've played in another rock band so I guess that I'm damaged for life, but I guess it is a good thing and it will give a different shade to the band. After all, we do listen to other music than electronical."
Joel: - "Electropop-Rock 'n' roll! The music is totally synthetic but the feeling we deliver with our music is definitely rock and roll. I do the musical part and John does the lyrics and vocals. I let myself be influenced by quite many different styles of music, mix them in my head and stir it around. I'm really keen on octave basses and synth solos, so it's a great part of our music which some people despise. But I like it and that's the whole point with our music. We probably never going to be millionaires with our music anyways, so we could do the music we always wanted to hear ourselves!"

Some of your tracks have a strong political thought behind it. Is it important for you as a band to present these thoughts and were exactly are your political stand?
John: - "I felt that I wanted to send out a message and not just drivel lyrics without meaning. Still I wanted to keep it simple and not make the lyrics to hard to understand. Simple and straight forward. I want to sing about vegetarian ways of life and for an example sing that prostitution is not alright. I also want to tell you all how it is to live with the feeling to be a UFO in this society with it's fucked up ideals. We are absolutely left wing and I will lay my vote on Feministiskt Initiativ (a new born Swedish feminist party Editor's Note.) next year!"
Joel: - "I think that as a band you have a quite important part. You don't necessary need to force people to think they way we do, but at the same time I don't want to stick it under the chair either. I don't want a bunch of Nazis to listen to us and then it's pretty darn good if the lyrics tell everyone that we don't like Nazis!"

You have earlier been involved in acts like Hype and Cat Rapes Dog. Have you brought along some of those experiences from these former projects in to your new one?
John: - "You always will take with you your earlier experiences which you once learned in former bands and I think it's only a positive thing."
Joel: - "Yeah, of course you do! You always learn something new. Both technically and mentally. You could never have too much experience"

Have you some other projects that you could tip us off about? Old ones as well as new ones.
John: - "Yes, we have another one ahead which is much harder. You could say that it's EBM with a hostile message towards America, or rather against Bush and the gang surrounding him. Hard loops with a lot of distortion!"
Joel: - "Yeah, as John mentioned we have a stone hard EBM-projects under development. Further more I have a project called Block C together with two Germans. It's the same style as Spetznas, DAF and Proceed and we will probably release an EP thins spring, so keep your eyes open. But in the end it's mostly Basswood Dollies that keeps me busy. We have just been signed by Electric Fantastic Sound to release two tracks on an EP together with Diskodiktator and Top Gun and we have also an own EP in our plans later this year."

How are your concert plans during this summer? Have anything ahead?
John: - "Right now we will probably play at our single release. Where, when and how will be soon promoted."
Joel: - "We will do a gig in Varberg the 28th of June at the club Stahlwerk, on a new German festival the 21st of October and a gig in Gothenburg in November."

Any final words to our readers?
John: - "Like us for what we do. If you have a band, don't listen to whining assholes! Kisses and hugs!"
Joel: - "It's nice to be important but it's more important to be drunk!"

This interview was written 2005 and initially published on Neurozine.com