Interview with Dennis Lyxzén of the International Noise Conspiracy

Interview . Düsseldorf . Stahlwerk . 03/31/06 . Interviewer: Sonja Hoff . Vagrant.com

International Noise Conspiracy - Up For Sale

Punk76: The INC does exist for quite a long time, what can we expect tonight? Is it new stuff only or a mixture between old and new songs?
Inge: Well, lately we have complied songs from “armed love”. So we are trying to play a bit old stuff because we have toured much with “armed love songs” now, that’s why we need new energy and inspiration. We have selected a couple of old corpses from the previous album…So that what we are gonna play tonight. There is nothing “new-new”, that we haven`t recorded yet.

Punk76: The show tonight isn`t a promo show for an upcoming album?
Inge: I wish…(laughing)..I would like to make another album soon, I would like to do it very much actually, to move ahead…We are writings songs….

Punk76: What was your reason for founding the band?
Inge: The band started in late 1998, we have talked about it for a while…We had this idea of trying to start a band which was different from the bands that we were playing in at this time, we wanted to play a different kind of music. We had lots of visions how our music, our lyrics about politics, the aesthetic and the outfits should be. We had this high ambition of being this band, playing shows at the weekend and release singles every now and then….that’s how we started in 1998..yes, and here we are!

Punk76: What do you think, INC, is it just Dennis because of his past at Refused, or the whole band?? In the hardcore scene, Refused is still alive…
Inge: It`s incredible…because no one cared about them when they were around..and then…one year and a half after they broke up MTV started to show the video of “New noise”. That was a big thing and they inspirited a lot of “crappy” bands (laughing)..
Punk76: I really like Refused and did you know that I played bass in this band? For me, INC and Refused are two separate things…I Think, that INC attracts a wider crowd.

Punk76: But I remember, when the first INC LP was released, there was a button on it “featuring Dennis L. from Refused”.. That’s why we came up with this question…If INC is still focussed on Dennis?
Inge: I don´t think it is…We never agreed on this “ button-thing, that’s stupid. I´ve never seen this...I guess it´s a “German thing”!

Punk76: Is it getting on your nerves, that many people just want to listen to your music for the fun part? Especially at festivals, the majority wants to hear good music and drink a lot. But they are not interested in the lyrics and messages anymore. What do you think about it?
Inge: I think, there are so many aspects of this band, we have a special kind of music, we have political lyrics, we have the outfits, the individual concept and a kind of acrobatic stage presence …It`s a package of a lot of different things or ingredients. Its not up to me to tell people what they wanna see in our band…
I remember when we started out as a band and started to tour in Europe we had this “garage- rock-thing” going on, the “Hellacopters” were big, the Hives were big and a lot of Scandinavian bands…and we toured around with them and that was cool because most of us bands were good and we always heard things like the MC5….and I think that we were the only band who cared about politics. I think we can track why the audience is in, I`ve seen that especially in Europe…Its quite satisfying because we don’t wanna belong to a scene….

Punk76: What actual musical influences do you have?
Inge: Wow….Well, I think I have about a thousand LPs and maybe five hundred CDs….Its funny, all of us love music and we love the history of Rock´n Roll.
But musical influences..Hm…Its not like that we sound like this or that band..Sometimes we come up with a part and someone says: Hey that sounds like that band and that’s cool and fun. We have such a wide spectrum of music, we like funk and reggae, soulmusic or hardcore, trash…that’s what we do…

Punk76: I read on your Website that you like the german Band “Einstürzende Neubauten?”
Inge: Oh yes, it’s one of my favourite bands. I got the tattoo, I got the logo! I`m a huge “Einstürzenden Neubauten” fan.. I´ve seen them live one time. It was amazing!!! And I´ve bought their first LP five years ago and it was the best thing I´ve ever bought!!! This is so fucking good…I´ve seen them live once, it was amazing…If I ever would meet Alexander, Jochen,..from the band..[Inge was totally excited in that moment]. And I love Nick Cave and the Bad seeds, The Cure…

Punk76: Why do you play a show which is sponsored by a tobacco company? As we all know, tobacco companies are responsible for deseases and cancer? Isn´t it a conflictive to your attitude?
Inge: Oh yes, that’s an interesting question. You all should know how many times we have debated that we have venues and festivals which are manly sponsored by alcohol or tobacco companies in one way or the other... Especially the most important festivals…I think in Germany, most of the venues are sponsored by tobacco companys..The Germans like to smoke..It`s amazing how many people smoke in Germany! We could be a band which boycotts venues or festivals or other places which are sponsored by these brands, we always want to go through to rate what we gonna gain or loose. Beeing a person like me, I don`t drink, I don`t smoke, so I don´t use any drugs.. technically I guess that I´m straight edge but I never call myself “straight edge”. That’s not my scene….The thing is that at those festivals we often play the headliners and we have a good slot and a lot of people watching us….and we say “OK, no one else is going to talk about the things we talk about on stage, and no one else is questioning the cooperation of adding drugs and rock´n Roll…”And we want to have the opportunity to play and speak to two thousand people as we can this night, for example…So, we should do it. And we woudn´t come here if these brands wouldn´t pay our flights or whatever..There´s no way of getting out of capitalism or branding in this world….But..I hope you get my point!

Punk76: Are you all fulltime musicians??? Or do you have other jobs in Sweden? Can you live from the money you gain from shows..I think many people have a wrong picture of a musician like you..I think its quite hard to live from the music..
Inge: When we are going on tour, we never make money out of the shows. All the money we gain from the show goes into production, renting a bus, paying a tour manager, …sometimes we do 100-150 shows a year..and we want to be as professional as possible and all the money goes into that..The money that we get comes from merchandise…So when I go on tour, I never know, if I´ll come home with money or not, it depends on how many people buy T-Shirts and CDs at the shows. I worked every now and then…but it’s manly music. I don´t have a continuous job…

Punk76: Ok..the last question: The future of INC- what can we expect?
Inge: Well, we started to write songs for a new album..just started..We have big plans trying to record a new album after the festivals…A new album with Rick Rubin again. He worked together with Rage against the machine , System of a Down, Public Enemy, Run DMC, Audioslave, Johnny Cash..and INC..wow, that’s sounds good being in that line (laughing)!!! Yeah, he wants to produce our new album, but at the moment he´s at the studio with Metallica. Our next album will be released (hopefully) early next Year and then we make sure that we come back to “Deutschland” because we fucking love it here, the fantastic audience, fantastic friends, big venues, much fun…I´m OK when I´m here, but when I´m outside Germany, I always felt lost..And I have a German girls name: Inge!!! Maybe, I´ll move here one day!

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