The wait is over, and we have finally seen the release of ‘Overdriver;, the fantastic new album by high-energy rock’n’roll royalty, THE HELLACOPTERS, who are commemorating their 30th anniversary as a band with their ninth full length.
The successor of their glowingly praised, chart-storming comeback album, ‘Eyes of Oblivion’, is filled to the brim with roaring guitars and earth-shattering grooves, fist-raising energy and anthemic choruses, while keeping the variety richer than ever before.
Singles such as ‘Leave A Mark’, and the instant hits ‘(I Don’t Wanna Be) Just A Memory’ and ‘Do You Feel Normal’ have only shown a small part of the stylistic range you can find on Overdriver. With fast-paced bangers like ‘Wrong Face On’ and ‘Faraway Looks’ THE HELLACOPTERS even nod to their early days.
With so much variety on the album Dave Griffiths was only too keen to sit down for a chat with Robert Eriksson from the band to find out a little more.
“We didn’t actually sit down and talk about what we wanted with this album,” says Robert as we chat about the early beginnings of Overdriver. “There wasn’t even a discussion about what we wanted with the album as a whole, we basically just agreed on a bunch of tracks. We had a lot of demos that both Nicke and Dolf had been working on – so we just picked out what we thought could be a good fit for an album.”
“We are very much in the old fashioned LP way of thinking,” continues Robert. “You have Side A and you have Side B. You need an opening track for Side A , you need an opening track on Side B. Then you need a closing track for Side A etc. So yeah the Spotify thing and all that is a pretty low priority of how we think. But anyway we have a bunch of tracks and then we have a few extras just in case something doesn’t turn out the way we hoped. We recorded 13 tracks and 11 made the album… but ultimately I really think that the album is more varied this time. There are a couple of rockers on there, some power pop and there are some moodier, slower numbers as well. It’s all good though – I am happy with it.”
“At one stage we did actually have 25 songs floating around that we thought would work on this album,” laughs Robert. “But then we kind of all sat down and each member started to pick out their favourites – I think we picked 5 each or something like that – and then we just send in those lists to Nicke. And then without us knowing what the other members have sent in he’ll check what we have sent in. Of course if everybody has the same favourites than they will be the ones we record. But yes it is a bit of a fun process that we have in the band. I think I prefer that way than just sitting down and talking and being like ‘yeah I would like to do this one’. In a way I feel our way is more efficient.”
And if you are a fan of the time when bands would actually record B-Sides to go with singles then you are like because soon Robert was telling me how The Hellacopters did actually record B-Sides for some special projects this time around.
“We actually did find ourselves thinking this time that B-Sides would be good idea,” he says as we reminisce about the old vinyl and CD singles. “Before we actually recorded the album we recorded some B-Sides. That is actually the first time we have ever done it in that order – but a few months before we had some spare time and we thought ‘shit soon we are going to be working hard on this album so how do we do some B-Sides – lets record them before.’ So, we always enjoy doing covers so this time we recorded some covers – I think we did five covers all up. And yeah most bands don’t do singles as physical releases these days but we’ve done a vinyl single for Stay With You and for the B-Side we did a cover of The Cure which I think turned out great. Some people probably think it was a little weird for us to do a cover The Cure but I think it fitted us perfectly. The track sounds like us now and I think it is fun doing those B-Sides because they are little more spontaneous in the recording and it is a fun little thing to do on the side.”
The album also explores some deeper themes with a number of the tracks seeming to centre around isolation as a theme which is something that Robert also picked up on when he first read the lyrics of the tracks that he would be working on.
“I didn’t write them but yeah I realised that things like alienation were in there… and even not being able to fit into society,” he explains. “I think though that is something that has always been pretty predominant in our stuff. We’ve always looked at things that are shitty about society or things that make you feel like you are on the outside. I think this time around we hare just following in the footsteps of what we have done before.”
To finish off the interview Robert had a special message for all of the band’s Australian fans.
“I want you to sit down and grab your favourite beer or coffee and sit down and listen to the album,” he says laughing. “Go back to the old days when you would sit down and listen to an album and do nothing else at the time. Just listen to the music. I know a lot of people don’t have time to do that anymore and they will listen in the car or on the way to somewhere but I really hope that you can sit down, listen to and enjoy it.”
Overdriver is available now through Rue Morgue Records.
