Nervous Nellie

QRO sat down with three members, Henrik Jonzon (vocals/guitar), Andy Johansson (drums), and Magnus Johnson (guitar/piano/vocals), of Sweden’s Nervous Nellie to shoot the breeze before their Berlin gig. The band talks about the new album Why Dawn Is Called Mourning, speculates that the best American music is actually Canadian, and throws Minneapolis under the bus (where it belongs).

QRO: Alright, I’m with Nervous Nellie in… Berlin [laughter] at the Astra club, which I thought was all over town because I keep seeing those [Astra brand] beer signs…

Andy Johansson: It’s the same in Hamburg; we came from Hamburg. It’s their local beer; it’s all over.

QRO: So it was your first show with the Shout Out Louds (QRO spotlight on), working out some kinks but otherwise it’s going well?

Henrik Jonzon: Yeah, going well. We’re looking forward to the show tonight, you know, the little kinks should be out be out of the way by then, we hope.

QRO: I understand you’ve got a new album coming out this month?

HJ: Yeah, it’s called Why Dawn Is Called Mourning.

QRO: OK, is this your first tour to promote the album? Have you been playing songs on it live yet?

HJ: Well, we’ve tried a couple of the songs on there during the tour for our last album…

Magnus Johnson: I think normally we play the songs for an upcoming album more live, but this time we chose not to because if you play a song live for a year…

QRO: Yeah…

MJ: …Then you go into the studio and you’re…

AJ: Then you’re locked, into a mindset…

QRO: On how to play it, right.

HJ:

It’s better to be more open-minded, to save the candy for the people.

QRO: So that was a new strategy for this new album?

HJ: Yeah, apart from a couple of tracks.

QRO: Can you tell me what were the goals of the new album? Was it a departure from previous work?

HJ: I think, not so much a departure. Perhaps an extension, a natural step. The first album we did – [Why Dawn Is Called Mourning] is our third album – the first one we did was very indie rock, and raw, more Dinosaur Jr. (QRO live review), like a ‘90s-type sound. The second one we did still had those elements, but more folk and pop aspects to it. We were listening a lot to The Band and The Beach Boys. And

I think this new album is in a way a bit darker than the previous ones, but still with a pop sensibility

. Yeah…

MJ: And we chose to not be so… on the second album we were focused on having regular pop songs, you know, with verse/chorus/verse la-la-la. Now we opened up a bit on the structure, stranger parts and stranger instruments here and there.

HJ: We had a lot of references on the second album. On [Why Dawn Is Called Mourning] we said let’s not look at anything else. Obviously it’s impossible not to, because you hear music…

QRO: Sure…

HJ: But this time we weren’t listening to stuff to get inspired.

MJ: We’ve become more confident in ourselves, we know ourselves better musically.

QRO: When you say a more wide-open structure, are there any improvisational elements to this, as opposed to the verse/chorus/verse?

HJ: Production-wise, definitely. And that’s obviously the producers… they did a good job there.

QRO: Who were the producers for the album?

HJ: Two guys called Kaneoka One and Two Horses, so they have, like, show names.

QRO: OK, so one is named Two Horses and the other is named Kaneoka One. Are they Swedish, or what?

HJ: No, they’re German. Well, actually Kaneoka One is half-German, half-Japanese. The name kind of gives it away somehow… [laughter]…and he wears a kimono all the time.

QRO: That’s awesome!

HJ: No just kidding – he should though. That would be cool. Yeah, I know these guys; they’re out of Frankfurt. We recorded the whole album down there in two weeks. We’ve never worked like that before. So there is some improvisation because we do so much live. I think we we’re done in, like, ten days or something.

QRO: Cool.

HJ: Yeah, very cool. We didn’t think it was going to work. Because previously we’ve recorded a weekend there, three days there, and you spread it out over a long period of time and you kind of lose yourself. You don’t know what you’re doing really…

QRO: A more solid block of recording, ten days.

HJ: Which is good. I mean, for us anyway it’s nice because you can listen to it and remember that time, the emotions, and the feelings, and the ideas…

AJ: And the focus.

HJ: So I guess, it’s the most improvised album – but still not outrageous in any way, for us…

QRO: So are you guys based in… Stockholm, is it? Because I thought I had read that one pair of the brothers had grown up in America, at least partly…

MJ: Yeah.

HJ: Magnus and I were born in Chicago. Our parents are Swedish, but they worked there at the time. We moved back and forth, a year in Sweden, two years in the States, vice versa, going back and forth. But since we were eight or nine we’ve lived in Sweden. I moved back to the States a few years ago for a year, but got bored…

[laughter]

QRO: Where were you living in the States?

HJ: Minneapolis, that’s why.

QRO: So the other pair of brothers, are you guys [Andy & bassist Sebastian Johansson] from Sweden through and through?

AJ: Yeah, through and through. Pure Swedish.

QRO: Pure Swedish. That’s how I like it.

AJ: We didn’t grow up in Stockholm though. We grew up on a small town called Falken on the west coast of Sweden. So we are farmers…

QRO: Farmers, huh… is that by Lund?

AJ: Yes, it’s not far. 200 kilometers….

QRO: You know what this entire complex reminds me of? That anarchist commune in Sweden….

AJ: Where in Sweden?

QRO: It’s like… Christiana?

[The entire band]: No, no, no – that’s in Copenhagen.

QRO: Oh, okay. Damn! I was trying to work in a Swedish reference and it backfired on me!

[laughter]

HJ: But it’s practically half-Swedish, I guess, the southern part is a popular spot for the Swedes.

QRO: So where’s the next stop?

HJ: Next stop is Dresden tomorrow. And we have, I think, another ten shows? Eight, nine, ten… something like that. Mainly Germany now, and then after that a show in Austria, one in Switzerland. It’s fun.

QRO: How are the Germans, are they a good fanbase? Good crowd?

HJ: Yeah, I think they’re the best. We’ve done most of our touring here. For obvious reasons…

AJ: It’s the biggest country in Europe.

HJ: And smack in the middle as well.

AJ: For every genre, for every type of band or artist can have their audience. In Sweden there’s nine million people. [In Germany] it’s 85 million or something. So many clubs.

In Sweden we have too many bands.

HJ: And too few clubs, too few radio stations…

AJ: Too many good bands.

HJ: Yeah, that’s right. There’s a lot of good music and nowhere for people to play. That’s why they leave Sweden.

QRO: Seems like the Canadian scene. Tons of good bands and they all ending up coming to the U.S. to play.

HJ: Seems like every band you like from the U.S. it’s like ‘Oh, they’re from Canada?’

QRO: From that one label especially, total Arts & Crafts domination… Alright guys, thanks for your time. Have an awesome show!

Click here for QRO’s review of Nervous Nellie at Astra in Berlin, Germany on March 25th, 2010

Nervous Nellie

The Thursday, March 25th Shout Out Louds/Nervous Nellie show at Astra in Berlin had been ausverkauft (‘sold out’) for weeks. But if your tetanus booster shots were up to date, you could have still snuck over the rusted fence into Astra of Berlin for this powerhouse Swedish showcase. The Astra club sits in the somewhat post-apocalyptic landscape of 99 Revalerstrasse, a sprawling industrial medley of graffiti-covered warehouses, skateboard ramps, and wild gypsy mutts. A raver’s dream destination; appropriate enough, because both Nervous Nellie and the Shout Out Louds, like so many great Swedish pop-rockers before them, inject a distinct dance-ability into traditional rock textures. The rock ‘n’ roll show turned into a full-blown dance party by the end of the night, helped along by a righteous fog machine.

When Nervous Nellie took the stage, frontman Henrik Jonzon admitted the band had never before played for such a large audience (approx. 2,000). The night was a coming out party for the foursome in a lot of ways. Not only were they getting great exposure opening for the seminal Shout Out Louds (QRO spotlight on), but they were also unveiling their newly released album Why dawn is called mourning. For a show that counted as only the second time the material had been played before a live audience, the group was remarkably sharp. Credit the degree of familiarity to the degree of family. The band consists of two pairs of brothers: Andy (drums) and Sebastian Johansson (bass) hold down the rhythm section while Henrik and Magnus Johnson trade guitar and vocal duties.

If you’ve never seen Nervous Nellie live, you might be surprised by the live act. On record, the band sounds like an updated Gin Blossoms writing sunny "Honky-Tonk Woman"-esque Rolling Stones anthems; twang-y, catchy fun inhabiting the trebly end of the register. In the live show, on the other hand, the bass and beats announce themselves in a big way. Andy is an animal on the drums, the prototypical long-haired, Fraggle Rocker; Sebastian, tall, gaunt, with a greasy black mop looks like he was born to carry a bass. Together the Johansson brothers ratcheted up the rhythm section with a nice hip-shaking, Modest Mouse (QRO album review) bounce.

Meanwhile Henrik and Magnus added a degree of theatricality, made up with white-powdered faces and reddened lips. It was a curious effect. In America, a powdered face either means you’re a goth-rocker or a mime. But this is Europe and all bets are off (or as my random, irrelevant non sequitur Swedish saying puts it: ‘Andra tider andra seder!’). Henrik seems to be a naturally outgoing frontman while Magnus is a bit more retiring. This makes for a distinct and sometimes disconcerting momentum change when they hand the vocal duties back and forth, but in general, the yin and the yang vocals of the two brothers enrich rather than detract from the proceedings.

By the time the Shout Out Louds came on the main hall of Astra was packed to the gills. Around 2,000 German hipsters jostled at the front of the stage while this intrepid (and morally suspect) reporter talked his way past security to a spot on a handicap ramp along the left wall. A perfect vantage point from which to watch the Shout Out Louds rev up the crowd during a roughly hour long set. The show concluded somewhere just after midnight, just the beginning of the night in a town like Berlin. Thousands of sweaty, smoking Euros filtered out into the streets looking for the next hotspot. Ach so! Nu är sagan all. Never fear, the Magnet Club down the road was throwing a Shout Out Louds after-party from midnight to… whenever. There’s no curfew in Berlin. Wunderbar!

<span style="font-style: normal"><img src="http://www.qromag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/nervousnelliemar25.jpg" alt=" " />Nervous Nellie, like so many great Swedish pop-rockers before them, inject a distinct dance-ability into traditional rock textures.</span> ...

by Mike Gutierrez March 31, 2010

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