Hardcore Superstar tour Australia in June 2018, ten years after their last visit to these shores when they hit just Melbourne and Sydney (I was lucky enough to be at that Sydney Show). It wasn’t meant to be that way though – the band were meant to play Australia’s now defunct Soundwave Festival in 2014 – we even interviewed Jocke (which is where that interview comes from). The band though pulled out at the last minute after having their set time rescheduled from a decent 4.00PM slot to a ‘gates still opening’ 11.30AM. We never got to see them that year, though we did get the interview and as we’re catching up with Jocke again this week we thought we’d run that 2014 interview as a teaser…
Mark: Hi, it’s Mark from The Rockpit, in Australia, how’s it going over there?
Jocke: It’s going great; I’ve been doing a few interviews.
Mark: Are you looking forward to coming over?
Jocke: Yeah, of course, it’s about 5 years since we were there.
Mark: Yes, it was in the “Dreamin’ in a Casket” days, when you came over for a couple of dates in Sydney and Melbourne?
Jocke: Yes, it’s been too long!
Mark: So how did you get invited to Soundwave? I’m always intrigued when a great band we don’t really get the chance to see over here gets invited!!
Jocke: Thank you!! It’s going to be awesome, I have heard so much about Soundwave.
Mark: It’s great that a band like Hardcore Superstar have been invited, because I guess, the festival is more “metal”, with a little bit of “Punk” thrown in, and for us Sleaze Rock fans it’s a chance to get to see something that Europe, the UK, and US, have been able to see for years! Why do you think that is? Is it the distance?
Jocke: Yeah, maybe. It’s like 25 hours of flying for us. I don’t know why it is like that, maybe it is the distance.
Mark: We had Crashdiet out here early last year, so maybe we may get a few more bands over soon! The first time we heard of you was when you released, what was your first worldwide released album, “Bad Sneakers and a Pina Colada”, the lead single off that, “Someone Special” which was back in 2000, was constantly played on Australian radio. Were you aware of that?
Jocke: No, I didn’t know!
Mark: It was a real big thing over here.
Jocke: We will have to play that at Soundwave!
Mark: If you did play that, it would absolutely make my day!! I bet you haven’t played it for a while now!
Jocke: Actually we play it every night now. We stopped playing it about 3 or 4 years ago, but started to play it again on this tour for this record.
Mark: Have you got any Sidewave shows whilst you are here, or was it too late to get anything organised?
Jocke: Actually we have been promised two shows, one in Melbourne and one in Sydney.
Mark: That would be great; most bands that come over do get a couple of shows, I’ll certainly be flying over for one of those! One of the things that must be really hard for bands like you is picking a festival set list. How on earth do you get the best of your albums down to what must be just 6 or 7 songs??
Jocke: Yes, I don’t know how long the set is going to be, maybe 30 minutes. I don’t know! We have to play “Moonshine”, we have to play “Last Call for Alcohol”, and “We Don’t Celebrate Sundays”, and “Something Special”, and then we’ve only got two left!!
Mark: “One More Minute” would be a good song to play off the new album; I think people seemed to like that one down here. Is that a chance?? I don’t want to pick your set list for you though, or it won’t be a surprise for me!!
Jocke: I will write that down and talk to the guys!!
Mark: Let’s talk a bit about the latest album, it was released in February 2013, how do you tend to write? I read somewhere that you were once so inspired by a tour you did, you wrote all new material for a new album. What inspires you these days?
Jocke: We are the kind of band that tours a lot, and we get excited by the fans we meet, we meet crazy people, quite often actually!! Our lyrics contain a lot of irony, but that’s the thing that inspires us, lyrics, touring and meeting different kinds of weird people, meeting awesome fans, and that’s what we write about. We’re not the kind of band that writes about dragons and knights!!
Mark: Real life stories, tales from the road, that’s great. What can people here in Australia, who have not seen you before, expect from your live set? What sort of a show will you put on for us?
Jocke: They are going to be blown away!! It’s always like that, you know, we get people who say they don’t really like us, but they check us out and go “wow!” what a great band!! It’s always like that, always!! We put a lot of power and a lot of energy in to the set.
Mark: Yes, I love the video for “Last Call for Alcohol” that you’ve just put out, I think that’s probably my favourite song from “Split Your Lip”. Why did you put that out now, was it a thank you to the fans?
Jocke: Yes, it was. We wanted to give something back for all the support we got from our fans, so that’s why we did that, and “Last Call” has been like an anthem for us to play. We picked that song because the crowd goes berserk when we play that song!
Mark: It is a fantastic song. Looking at some of the photos of the dates you’ve played in the UK, you played to some packed houses, with some really passionate fans, so I hope we can show you a little bit of that here! If we could take you back to your early memories of music, what was it that made you decide you wanted to be in a rock and roll band?
Jocke: I was 9 years old, Christmas morning; I opened up two presents I got from my mum and dad, the first one was Kiss, “Destroyer”, and the second one was Motley Crue, “Shout at the Devil”, vinyl, and from then I was so sure I would be in the rock and roll business!
Mark: That’s a couple of great albums there! And a couple of great parents buying you albums like that!! Mine tried to keep me away from stuff like that!! Taking that question a bit further, if you could have been a fly on the wall for the making of any album, at any point in time, what would it have been for you and why?
Jocke: There are so many albums where I would’ve liked to be a fly on the wall! Actually I’ll make it easy, “Shout at the Devil”, that would have been awesome to see what went on then. Trying to get the band together to record, without drinking Jack Daniels all the time, it would have been awesome to watch that scenario!
Mark: Probably the best album they did too! I always got the feeling that Hardcore Superstar took a lot of elements from these big bands and put them all together to make a very special band, for example Motley, Kiss, and I was always a big Hanoi Rocks fan, and I think I have a copy of a cover you did of theirs really early on in your career, “Don’t Ever Leave Me”.
Jocke: Yes, that’s right.
Mark: Is that where you’re coming from? We see all these great bands from Sweden, and also in the States, who still love all this “sleazy rock”. But, you guys seem to be doing it better than they did back in the day!
Jocke: Yeah, I think when people see pictures of Hardcore Superstar; they think we are Motley Crue! And we do love Motley, but, we also love bands like Suicidal Tendencies, Testament, and Slayer as well, and you can hear some of those thrash elements in our music, that’s why we call our music “street metal”.
Mark: It’s interesting, because on the last album as well, the opening track, “Cutting the Slack” reminded me a bit of The Doors, or The Stranglers, you certainly get a “Punky” sound!
Jocke: Yeah, we love The Stranglers!
Mark: On “C’mon Take on Me” you seemed to try a few things, and they all seemed to work. “Long Time, No See”, that song blew me away!
Jocke: Yeah, on that song you can hear influences from Mother Love Bone, we listen to a lot of music, and we try to get some of our influences in there, and at the same time, of course, the Superstar sound.
Mark: I just hope that one of the things that comes of you coming to Australia is that more people get to hear you, because I think, it’s as you say, people tend to look at a band and dismiss them, but there is so much good music from Hardcore Superstar.
Jocke: That’s the good thing about Soundwave; there are so many people there, it’s a big audience so there are a lot of people who can see us and see what we are about.
Mark: By the time you get to Western Australia, I’ll be in the photo pit for the first three songs, and then I’ll be out there in the crowd watching the rest of the set the rest of them!! It should be a great show!
Jocke: Cool!!
Mark: I have one final question for you, that we ask everyone, what is the meaning of life?
Jocke: Oh!! Wow!! That’s deep, man!! I must say, the meaning of life is, if I take an example for you, it’s not that funny to be on tour all the time, being away from the family and stuff. We are on stage for an hour and a half every night that is life!! The other 22 and half hours, I can live without! But, I do the touring because of the one and a half hours, so that’s life to me. To get out there and meet the fans, have a blast, you know?
Mark: Thank you so much for taking the time to speak to The Rockpit, see you when you come over! Have a safe trip, bye.
Jocke: Thank you for having me, see you.
Shortly after the interview Hardcore Superstar pulled out of their slot at Soundwave over a dispute about playing times – having their original 4.00PM slot moved to 11.30AM
