Spetsnaz

Start with telling us a bit about your selves and some about Spetsnaz earlier history as a band.
Pontus: - "It was the 12th of September, the day after the attack and we were sitting in a bar watching CSN. I had been thinking about starting a body band because I had been doing a lot of other music, but I had always been doing body music on the side. So there we sat and I told Stefan I felt like getting started, and then he thought that it might be fun joining in. Then we sat there, chatting nonsense and got blasted. Some time during the evening I came up with the name Spetsnaz and so it became our name and four months later we started making music. It's unbelievable since it started out mostly as a drunk-thing. That is how it all started and after that it became really intensive, we put in a lot of effort at the time to be able to play the summer after and then be able to gather at least 10 songs."
Stefan: - "The first thing we decided was when we were going to have world premiere and then we went from that. Otherwise it would never have been done."

What is Spetsnaz doing right now?
Pontus: - "Right now we're having a bit of vacation. The record is released and that is done. We are working on three new songs while we're out on gigs."
Stefan: - "We try to play as much as possible, so people get to listen and understand that they should buy the record!"
Pontus: - "We also try to melt everything right now, because everything has happened so quickly. It has only been 1½ years and we're already sitting with a record out?"

Compare for and against with the fact that everything has moved so fast for you.
Pontus: - "Because of the fact we have been doing this for so long a lot of it has become pure routine, but still, we have been places we've never been before. I mean, we have been out playing before and so on, men one has never seen a contract or so before."
Stefan: - "Vi have been playing quite intensive for several years, I mean, Pontus has had Octoberland which is a serious band, while I've mostly been seen in different cover-things for a couple of years now. Not that I feel that it's boring playing covers, but still, it's easy bought in some way. It takes a while before people realise that it's serious. It takes a while before you loose the red nose and silly wig."
Pontus: - "The good thin is that we have terribly bad patience, so it has to be done quickly. The bad things are that you haven't had time to reflect about anything really. But we like when it moves fast, we hate to wait!"

How did you think and how did you work to produce your latest released record?
Pontus: - "The thought behind the whole thing was this whole idea we came up with at the pub, the lack of that kind of music. I mean, I have never gotten along with the Futurepop or the Eurobody, or whatever you want to call it. I've seen all those bands which are big in that genre. One band does not do very much different compared to what the other does. It's not bad, but it's not good either, it never really grabs you like it used to do. Because of this lack we came up with the idea to do it ourselves, and we hope that we've done a good job. The thought was that we were going to go back to the roots and "rip" it as much as possible."
Stefan: - "The thought was to "rip" as much as possible, do the old bass body and above all we decided to be a live act. Pontus will sing, I will play the drums. It will be clear, it will be straight and it will be simple."

Is there any deeper thought behind the name 'Grand Design'?
Pontus: - "Grand Design is the creation of God. If you speak about the contents of the record the thought while writing the texts was that it wasn't supposed to be the usual about darkness, bombs, rockets and shit, but about life. I've worked a lot on making the texts getting the people getting started live. A bit of "urge music" in a way."

Is there something that mainly gives you inspiration for your texts?
Pontus: -"What inspires me is people's behaviour around me that disappoints me. You get sick of people who don't stand up for themselves and for what they think and run behind the backs of each other."

Is there any political thought about your music, if so explain!
Pontus: - "I feel that everything is politics, but from the beginning we said that we would not involve our own political views in our texts. Then if people want to read something in to it, here or there, right or left that is up to them. It's probably more a social stand taking from our side in that case."

How do you think Spetsnaz will evolve? Will there be any larger changes for your next record?
Pontus: - "We're almost done with our new record. We sat in a bar in eastern Germany that was only decorated with old Soviet flags, the painting of Lenin and a bust of Lenin in the bar which you could use as a barstool. At that bar they served a beer called Roter October that before only could be served to the elite of the red army, and that was their thing that they served that beer there. So there we sat drinking Roter October and came up with several songs. We thought we would pull it down a bit and make it minimalistic on the next record. There are so many bands under so many years which have released their debut record, and then they don't want to recognize it as theirs. That it doesn't feel actual anymore and then they don't produce anything more and I think that feels nice that we're not perplexed yet. We know what to do and we have a new record on it's way."

Will you make remixes on any other bands songs?
Pontus: - "Yes, we will make a remix for a German band called Proceed as soon as possible. It is about the most brutal thing I have heard as far as songs go. The singer André is really good."

Any last words from Spetsnaz to our readers?
- "Skål für fan!"

This interview was made 2003 and initially published on Neurozine.com