Swedes are good at rock and metal today because they’re serious people, says Conny Bloom

By STEVE MASCORD

SUNSET Strip, Seattle and London have been left in the dust; the capitals of Scandinavia are now the hotbeds for rock and metal.

Some would say they are even the last bastions.

From the poppy sounds of Reckless Love to the progressive and theatrical enormity of Ghost through to the extreme exhortations of Opeth, it’s a part of the world where black t-shirts are the uniform of a massive export sector.

But why? Some say it’s because of funding for musical education that other countries don’t have. Others point to the popularity and influence of acts like the Darkness in that region at a crucial time in the lives of a generation of young musicians.

Conny Bloom and the Electric Boys were doing it all at the end of the eighties, propping up bars in West Hollywood when only Europe and Hanoi Rocks were breaking into the spandex scene Stateside.

And he has his own theory.

“I think Swedish people are pretty serious,” he told Hot Metal in the wake of the release of the band’s latest album, Grand Explosivos.

“That can also be a negative thing but as far as rehearsing and working on stuff…

“You know, it’s not like you go have a drink before rehearsals, as you would in England where you meet at the pub and then you go to rehearsal – which I kinda like more, actually.

“You see what I mean? When you’re serious about something and you do it often, you become good at it.”

Bloom says different countries in Scandinavia are musically better at different things.

“I always saw Sweden as a pop country whereas Finland I see as being as more of a rock country,” he observed.

“They always had more melodies and we had the attitude.

“I think (Hanoi Rocks) Andy McCoy actually said this in some interview.

“The best thing is always if you can mix the two and a lot of bands … like The Who, for instance, a perfect example … a mixture of great melodies and songs with the attitude as well.

“There is that melody tradition (in Sweden) from the sixties pop and what ABBA later took forward.

“…especially nowadays. There’s a lot of AOR bands. There’s a lot of melodic stuff. There seems to be, like, a trend with that kind of music at the moment.”