Last week, AD phoned Victor Håkansson - the central figure behind The Culture In Memoriam - at his home in the South of Sweden. While they haven’t set foot in the U.S. yet, Victor told us about his, um, anticipation for the day he does. He’s unsure of when exactly he’ll be touring the New World, but his soon-to-be-released LP, Abolish History, This Is Our Story, is stirring mix of politics, poetry, brass and singer-songwriter bravado.
AD: How’re you doing?
VH: Well I was quite sober when I woke up… but I’ve done better since then.
AD: Who is The Culture In Memoriam? How many members are in the band?
VH: The Culture in Memoriam is a political, social experiment with me as the only regular member. Quite an organic thing, I rotate the members - we’re like a big commune with 15 or 16 different members together - of good looking, sexy, honor kids trying to revolutionize the music industry… and the world, of course.
Continue Reading/MP3s After The Jump…
AD: So what are your revolutionary goals?
VH: I’m not a naive person, in thinking that a band could turn the world order in another direction. I’m just trying to focus on the struggles that are going on the streets right now. So I’m focusing on the things we do right now, the small things, the suburbs are rioting, burning cars and stuff. The small ones, it’s going to lead to a bigger revolution someday, I hope. I’m talking about economic revolution, of course, but also a social revolution.
AD: You’ve said before that you hate music, and more broadly, art. Why then record a record?
VH: I’m doing music I hate because it’s the only thing I’m good at and it keeps me from going to the factory- I hate working and I’d rather do this than working 9-5 at the factory, somewhere, building a car that I can’t afford.
AD: Sweden has become a huge source of culture coming into America, from furniture to bands, does it concern you?
VH: Swedish capitalism is just as bad as American capitalism. If Sweden is a great imperialist nation - I hate it.
AD: You come to America, you do the tour, and people buy the record - that’s the normal strategy. Seeing as you seem to express that you hate that system, what do you expect when you come to America?
VH: I don’t see a contradiction, I’m working-class, and I’m selling my time and my effort for someone else’s pleasure and trying to make a living on it. In Sweden there are white-trash, skinheads, they’re Nazi’s. There’s a lot of fights, it was hard growing up in school - everyone I knew growing up is working at the fabrics, factories - it’s really sad growing up in Europe and having a working-class that is so splintered - turning against each other - it’s sad.
AD: Are you hoping people are going to see your shows and be renewed politically? Do you want them to go outside and burn cars?
VH: I want them to fuck more and think less. I’m trying to make people focus on the small issues, the small struggles going on everywhere at all times - small pieces of communism are everywhere. From school kids stealing pencils from their lessons just because they like to paint at home - or people stealing beer from the market cause they’re so fucking bored they’d rather be drunk. It’s the small struggles going on all the time - I’d like to tell them that they are communists.
AD: How do you see TCIM going forward? Do you see yourself doing more songs in this style?
VH: I think I have done quite well with TCIM, I see no reason to stop now. I’m not heading for the world revolution or any of that shit. But I’m heading maybe for a social experiment that would end in a great sexual orgy somewhere - maybe in L.A.
AD: Are you concerned that people will like the music too much, and not care about the politics?
VH: No, I’m not worried about that at all. I see it as a joy - it’s like when you fall in love - it’s one of the most revolutionary things you do, you don’t care about the state government or the police, you just fall in love - you are in your world, you have your own rules, you control your own mind - it’s about lust and love. If any people listen to my record and don’t think political about it - it’s when you don’t think about politics at all - you are most political of all, most revolutionary.
AD: I wanted to speak about Situationalism – a strand of Marxism that you have said you are highly influenced by. How do you see it, and Marxism, fitting together? How can people around the world learn about it and how is it applicable to the music they enjoy?
VH: The people in all Western society are practicing Situaltionalism right now, when they give their lover a smile, when they watch porno - it’s going on all the time, everywhere - I don’t see the problem or the hard way to tell people that “this is Situaltionalism and you are a revolutionary” you don’t need to tell them. Someone tells you they masturbate to your work, it’s amazing. They go on the toilet and they masturbate, it’s amazing. It’s a revolution practiced. Masturbation during working time is the most revolutionary thing to do in our part of the world.
AD: How would you classify this record? It’s revolution music, it’s love music, is it punk music? We love to put genre names on everything, how do you feel you fit in?
VH: If I’m going to LA, I would call it Christian folk - universal moral songs. I’m not labeling stuff in the way that America is over there - I sure would not label it Christian, I might have the right group for disaster.
AD: Are there any songs off of this record that you are most proud of?
VH: Nope. With the lyrics, I’m proud of “Unite!” and “Boredom.”
AD: I really like “Boredom,” and I wanted to ask, the chorus last line sounds like “Paperback write around the monkey and self.” What is it?
VH: It’s the Beatles song - “Paperback Writer” and the Monkey In Self. Grown-ups, young folks in ‘68, liked the Beatles and were rioting and have all these political ideas about how the world was going to work - now it’s just old stories - the May thing in Paris, it’s just history in the bad sense, people look back and not forward, talking about yesterday as a great moment or a sad moment. And not about the future in the sense that you can practice love or masturbation or whatever you like.
AD: What differences, politically or musically, do you see between Sweden and the U.S.
VH: I know a lot about American politics but very little about the American psyche - it makes no sense. They’re all fucked up idiots - they wouldn’t last for a minute in Sweden. I really can’t get it, how can people be so stupid, how can people not want to learn about the world - or where it is on the map, where different ideas came from. Why are people not angry about the situation, why are people not refusing to go to work? It’s a very, very rich country, people wouldn’t have to work at all if the money was spread in a different way - why aren’t Americans angry?
AD: Many are, but more care about the 9-5.
VH: The same is the true around the world; they care first about getting food - and then morals. First food, and then learning about the morals of stuff. When you go to work in Sweden, it’s a very political environment - you are slaving for someone’s wealth, not yours - you’re slaving for food, something that should be given to you anyway.
AD: Do you see TCIM are part of a movement, the beginning, or just another piece? You claim to hate art, but you have chosen an artistic medium to start this…
VH: I’m not starting a revolution; I’m just trying to tell people that there is revolutionary stuff going on all the time. When I tell people, “Well, your son stole some pencils from school because he loves painting and he wants to do it all the time - at home he can’t afford it - he stole them because of that.” He’s practicing a social revolution that’s been going on for years. TCIM is just people from this environment doing different kinds of resistance, social resistance, not just being lazy at work or not going to work, calling sick everyday. We’re not members of any communist party or anything like that - I hate that - we’re part of the people that’d rather masturbate at work than write numbers - whatever they do at work.
AD: What is a live show like? What’s it going to be like on stage and in the crowd?
VH: I’d like it to be as it is in Germany, where people dance - where people go home and do something better. I’ve heard that playing US is just the same as playing show in Sweden, where people just stand with their arms crossed and thinking for themselves and talking to a friend, “we can do better than that.” I’d really like people who think like that to come up on stage and maybe we can do something better.
AD: Will it be a full band or just you?
VH: It’s a full band, quite ordinary band. Just people plying rock music and trying to have some fun.
AD: How many instruments do you play?
VH: I was born with some kind of - I can play the most instruments but I’d rather have other people do it because it contributes to the thinking of TCIM - it’s a gathering of different minds - it is a way of looking at things and playing things.
AD: How old are you now?
VH: I’m 23.
AD: How did you come to be interested in these politics? And how did you come to be interest in punk?
VH: Growing up - I grew up in a trailer park-like area that is in the South of Sweden - I don’t know if you know anything about the South part of Sweden, it’s just like the South part of the US - it’s just racism and stupid. During WWII they were building concentration camps in Sweden, the Nazi’s never had to invade Sweden, because everyone was Nazi in Sweden, the highest concentration in the South of Sweden - there’s a lot of Nazi’s and white trash that you had to fight against growing up and having political ideas is quite opposite from that, you have to fight, you have to have some kind of weapon, the teachers are wrong. I watch Hollywood movies and read things - there’s stupid people there and here. words/ben kramer
Download:
MP3: The Culture In Memoriam :: Sad To Be
MP3: The Culture In Memoriam :: Boredom
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Purchase: The Culture In Memoriam - Abolish History, This Is Our Story
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His sound was amazing! The next big thing for sure.. I will remember where I read of this the first.
1 | john September 30th, 2008 at 8:59 pm/
John