Hailing from Örebro, Sweden, Truckfighters have become fundamental in the ‘stoner rock/metal’ sub-genre with fans all over the world, driven by the two founding members Dango and Ozo. In August 2019 the band returned from a two year hiatus kicking off with a world tour to celebrate the first album ‘Gravity X’. Originally released 2005 in Europe (2006 USA) it turns 15 years in 2020. The celebration jump started with selected shows in North America and a big European tour in 2019 and now this January Truckfighters tour Australia! We speak to guitarist Niklas Källgren ahead of the tour to discuss the Gravity X anniversary, previous tours down under and much more.
Andrew: We’re pretty excited to see you back in Australia, I think you were saying it was 5 or 6 years since the last time you were here right?
Niklas: I think it was 3 years actually, maybe 4.
Andrew: Oh ok do you remember much from that tour? How did it end up going?
Niklas: The last Australian tour was maybe the best one because it was really condensed. We had five days only in the country, we played 6 shows in 5 days because we did one of those afternoon shows as well in Melbourne. So that was really cool so I think that was the best Australian tour we did because there was not much other things to think about, it was only playing and driving and everything was ‘boom’, and then out again [laughs].
Andrew: Yeah as it tends to be but this time you are doing more shows and playing a lot of different places, some smaller towns along with the bigger cities so it should be a good tour by the looks of it.
Niklas: I hope so.
Andrew: It’s very exciting to see you on the west coast as well, you are coming to Fremantle which will be the last show of the tour right?
Niklas: Right, that’s going to be fun. We did Perth on the first Australian tour and we haven’t been west since then so that must of been definitely 6 or 7 years if I remember when it was the first time we were down there, maybe 2013. So yeah definitely 6 years for West Australia.
Andrew: And you are coming down to celebrate 15 years of “Gravity X”. Congratulations on such an achievement, it’s obviously been a long time since the album came out so what are your thoughts on that album now 15 years later?
Niklas: I think it’s still quite good, I mean we probably wouldn’t do a record like that now but it feels like it’s timeless in some way. We still enjoy playing the songs, some of the songs we haven’t played in more than 10 years so like 13-14 years so it’s like playing new songs for us [laughs]. So I think the album is still really good, I enjoy playing it and it seems like the fans enjoy hearing it which is obviously a good thing.
Andrew: Yeah definitely and obviously the fans are going to be expecting the whole album but are you going to be playing anything else or just the album by itself?
Niklas: We will play the album and then the encores we will do some other songs as well. We’re thinking of doing songs from the latest album for the encore because we never did any tour in Australia for that tour so I think it could be fun for the fans.
Andrew: With quite a few songs to choose from and with only a limited time for the extra songs, is that a difficult process for you guys to come up with a setlist at all?
Niklas: Well on this tour it’s easy since we do the one album [laughs]. But no normally it is very difficult and it’s also a bit difficult because we change drummers so often because then we can’t just pick and choose songs that maybe we would like to do because the drummer has to learn songs from scratch, so it’s not he knows all the songs a little bit like me. But also we can know all the songs if we just practice and listen a little bit and play a little bit and after a while we would know them again. But since we haven’t had the same drummer for that long and we can’t just change so much that we maybe would like to do.
Andrew: Yeah I would imagine it would be difficult. Who have you got as a drummer now and how long has he been in the band?
Niklas: Now we have a guy called Mr Toro and he’s been playing now since the first live show in June since the hiatus thing.
Andrew: How has that been going so far?
Niklas: I think it works well. I mean he’s learned the Gravity X album really good [laughs]. It will be fun, he will show you how to beat the skins.
Andrew: Nice looking forward to it! You mentioned just now about the hiatus coming back from a bit of a break. How was the break, was it a bit of a recharge? What was the idea behind the break and why did you decide to come back this year?
Niklas: Yeah we were a bit…I wouldn’t say bored out of our minds but we started to feel like it wasn’t as fun anymore. o then we decided to just leave it and see but it was quicker than what I probably expected, to be a bit boring but Oskar was more into, ‘I don’t know, maybe I will quit forever’, and I was like, ‘We’ll see what happens’. And then after about half a year, 6, 7, 8 months we both were like, ‘Ah this is quire boring’ [laughs], to not have an active band. So then we started to say, yeah maybe we should start playing next year already, fuck it.
Andrew: During that time off what were you personally up to?
Niklas: I wrote songs for a solo project and then I recorded them I didn’t finish it, it’s almost finished. And then I did normal stuff like normal people have time to do like watch TV and hang out [laughs]. But no I didn’t do things specific in that way but I did do a solo record that might actually be a band for some kind of project because I recruited a singer now recently actually, I had already sang everything myself and the recorded everything and was about to plan the release and then I stumbled upon this guy who was so fucking good so I had to bring him in instead! So now I’m finishing the record again wth some new vocal recordings.
Andrew: OK cool! So after the Australian tour which will actually be the first thing for us for a tour as far as the heavy rock scene, what are you guys planning to do? Are you going to be doing more touring?
Niklas: We’re going to the States in February and then we’re just going to do some random one-off shows like festival shows in the Spring and the Summer and then we haven’t planned the Fall properly yet so we will see. We’ve kind of intentionally tried to plan a bit less now so we won’t get bored of it in that sense.
Andrew: Yeah I guess being in a band, especially these days, can be quite tough and inspiration can come to you from all kinds of places. Where is the passion for playing in this band coming from? Where do you get inspiration from these days?
Niklas: I don’t know, you get inspiration from life. It’s not a specific thing. It’s impossible to say one specific thing like that. It comes from everything and from the inside as well.
Andrew: Yeah and I would imagine being on tour must be inspirational as well, seeing different places around the world and stuff like that I guess.
Niklas: I don’t know if it’s more or less inspirational. Being on tour is more tiring than people think, you get exhausted from touring too much. Especially when you’re not young or when you’re not seeing the things for the first or second time anymore, then it’s not that exciting so you get this adrenaline boost in that way. So it becomes normality to be everywhere [laughs].
Andrew: Obviously there’s long periods where you are travelling and being on the road, how do you combat the boredom and that kind of stuff? How do you kill time so to speak?
Niklas: It’s different, I mean the days when you’re not so tired then it’s ok. Then we can work on our laptops a lot, we run the label ourselves and all that band administration so we have a lot of things to do. But some days you’re brain is too tired to do all this serious stuff so you sit there and, ‘What’s going on, let’s arrive soon’ [laughs]. And then I don’t really do anything to kill time, the brain is an interesting thing.
Andrew: Yeah but I suppose that all kind of disappears once you get on stage and see the crowd out there and start playing music, I guess that’s where the passion starts coming back in again.
Niklas: Yeah obviously you are touring for the shows, you’re not touring for the travelling. You’re not touring for lack of sleep, obviously you tour for the shows and that’s what’s fun and that’s the purpose of it.
Andrew: Yeah definitely. So you’ve been to Australia a few times so how do you find the Aussie audiences here compared to say your home country or places in the US and stuff like that? Are they all the same or are there much differences?
Niklas: I get that question a lot. I mean they go how are the audiences here compared to there and in my opinion people are people and they are very similar all over where we have been in the world at least. We’ve never played in Asia or Africa, I think people are similar wherever you go. Sure there are obviously small differences but I don’t know, I think it’s basically the same. People are walking out over here and go there, even if they wish they don’t [laughs].
Andrew: [laughs] I guess it’s one of those things, music is universal and no matter what country and what language you speak, it speaks to everyone I suppose.
Niklas: Yeah.
Andrew: So before I let you go, do you have any last words or messages for the Aussie fans before you come down to our country?
Niklas: Well you gotta get down, Australian fans! Once in a lifetime experience, the Gravity X album from start to finish. Words of wisdom [laughs].
Andrew: [laughs] Well congratulations on the 15 years, as I said before it’s a great achievement. We are looking forward to seeing you in Australia, it’s going to be some good shows. Hope you enjoy your stay here and hope you get to mingle with the crowd especially on the west coast of the country as well.
Niklas: Yeah we are really looking forward to the tour! It’s going to be awesome and we always have good times in Australia and that’s one of the reasons we keep coming back even though it’s such a long flight.
TOUR DATES
January 3 – Brisbane, Crowbar
January 4 – Sydney, Crowbar
January 5 – Newcastle, Small Ballroom
January 8 – Ulladulla, Marlin Hotel
January 9 – Canberra, the Basement
January 10 – Melbourne, Price of Wales bandroom
January 11 – Adelaide, Enigma Bar
January 12 – Fremantle, Freo Social
Tickets: http://www.truckfighters.com
