Interview with Nikola Sarcevic

Interviewer: Oliver Marx . 2004 . label: burningheart.com . millencolin.com

Nicola Sarcevic - Love Trap

Punk76: I know your band now since such a long time. I remember you playing in front of fifthy people, sharing the stage with Satanic, playing barefeet, ska´ing around. Now Millencolin is such well known band and you even reached gold in Australia. Could you describe how that development came, from a small band to a Gold status band?
Nicola: Well, it´s been almost 12 years since millencolin started so it´s been a lot of hard work, around 750 shows. so i think our success has been a slow but steady process until where we are today.

Punk76: I think you have no change in your band constillation, since that EP from 93´, wich was called "Use your nose". So, how is that possible to keep such a good mood inside your band? Do you have a recipe for any other bands, how to keep the peace inside the band? Or do you all just fit perfetly together?
Nicola: I don´t think that we are a perfect fit. Like in every band, we also have our arguments at times but the key might be that we first of all are very good friends. and that friendship might be the difference.

Punk76: I heard a strange story years ago: It was about wich band should make the deal with Epitaph records. No fun at all or Millencolin. Millencolin was lucky enough to get that contract and NFAA quit. Can you confirm these rumors?
Nicola: All i know is that Epitaph wanted to sign no fun at all but then they heard our album and said they wanted to sign us. If that was the reason why no fun at all didn´t get signed at the time, i´m not sure. but the whole situation was quite strange back then.

Punk76: Today there is not much Ska to find in your music anymore. When did you recognized, that Ska don´t fits any more into the Millencolin-music pattern?
Nicola: I don´t know really, we usually write similar songs to what we listen to and i didn´t listen much to ska after 1995 or so.

Punk76: I turned 28 years now and sometimes I think I get to old for punkrock, but then I come back and think of all those amazing bands that come up constantly. I think you are 28 or 29 years old now too, so how do you feel in Punkrock business?
Nicola: Of course we´re all getting older, and all these new bands are coming up with a lot of energy that we also used to have a few years ago. a lot of times it´s good to bring out younger bands on tour. they can inspire you and give some energy back to you. but sometimes it feels a bit weird to play in front of kids who are about 10 years younger than we are.

Punk76: Erik always takes care of your cover artwork, merch and even the website. I like his artwork very much, but have you ever thought of an non-drawed-cover, with a normal foto on, or just script or something?
Nicola: Not really. We trust Erik and i think he is doing a great job and as long as he wants to do the artwork, merch and website, we will let him continue doing it.

Punk76: Back to the old days, when your EP "Use Your Nose" came out on Burning Heart in 1993.I renember something unclear, that said: "A skateboarders and snowboarders dream have come true". Do you renember how you all felt and reacted, reading reviews about a small swedish band, wich plays unbelieveable melodic stuff?
Nicola: In a way those days were a lot of fun and exciting, but i´m much more happy and confident in what i´m doing today so it´s not like i would those days to come back. But maybe i miss the spontanity we had on the first couple of albums, a little bit. Now everything might be a bit to organized in the studio and not so much room for just having fun.

Punk76: Which magazine started to pay attention to the band for the very first time?
Nicola: I think it was a swedish fanzine called "Musikbotanik". We did an interview which i think used to be out on our website, or it might still be there to read. I´m not sure.

Punk76: I am completely in love with your whole disco, except "Home from home". I renember an announcement by Millencolin, wich said: "It´s time to change our sound a little bit. This time it´s more rock". If I say now, that the sucsess of Bands like the Hives, Turbonegro or International motivated your band to play a more rock influenced sound, is it right then or not?
Nicola: Well, i don´t it´s that black or white. Of course we are infected by todays music and what we´re listening to. And yes, we all like the hives and turbonegro but it´s not like we tried to copied what they were doing. The songwriting all comes natural, it´s not like you decide within the band to sound a special way or so.

Punk76: There is one thing that I really would like to know. Obvious you had english back in school, but does somebody at Burning heart- or whereever, corrects your mistakes, that you made in your lyrics? If yes, did these persons corrected even your elder releases like "Tiny tunes"?
Nicola: They never corrected my english on the recordings, they only correct the lyrics in print on the booklet or the artwork. the only people who correct my mistakes are the other guys in the band or the producer if he hears something weird being sung in the studio.

Punk76: Your first full-lenght "Tiny tunes" had a nice cover-artwork. I heard that you had trouble with Warner Brothers because. Please tell us the whole story.
Nicola: Erik took the idea of Warner's "Tiny Toons" for our first album, they got mad, told Burning Heart, that we had to change the cover and the title. We did and i´m not sure if burning heart had to pay them something or if not. I´m not sure.

Punk76: 2004, a new chapter in the Millencolin script: You decided to form a solo project. What should people know about that project and what is different to Millencolin. And what´s your topic?
Nicola: My soloalbum is a lot softer than what i´ve done with Millencolin. more acustic guitars and more real singing from me. There are 11 songs on the album and they mostly deal with love and relationships. the album will be out by the end of march through burning heart, in europe. it will also be out in japan, australia and north america. i´m very proud of my soloalbum and i think everyone who likes millencolin should check it out, coz i think they will like it.

Punk76: You always return to your hometown Örebro, although you must have made enough money by now, to live for example in the sunny States. What makes you always go back to Sweden, wich can be very dark and cold?
Nicola: We all love Sweden, i guess coz it´s where we come from and were brought up. i personally like the different changes of the seasons of the year. Every season has it´s own charm. Of course there are bad things about sweden but it´s what we know and where we feel at home.

Punk76: What do you guys do beside Millencolin? Do you have already kids?
Nicola: I have a daughter, so i´m hanging out with her a lot. The other guys don´t have any kids yet. Besides being a family man i try to take it quite easy, maybe write a few songs or so.

Punk76: You are signed to Burning Heart since the beginning of your band. I'll guess there must be hundrets of major labels, who offered you to sign. So, why don´t you?
Nicola: We like burning heart and the people working there so we´re happy to be on burning heart. But the contract with them has ended so it´s not decided where the next album will be released.

Punk76: You grew over the years with Burning heart records, wich started as a small office, to a big management label now. So, what means Burning heart to you? And are there any other cool swedish labels, that you like?
Nicola: As i said, we like Burning Heart and i think that it´s one of the best labels to be on in europe. there might be other labels that are cool too but i´m not that aware of who they are and what they do.

Punk76: I renember the old swedish skatepunk-scene, with amazing bands like Lapdog, Adhesive, that very old Randy stuff, Slobax, Concrete and hundrets of other cool bands. Your band survived in that struggle. So, what do you think have you done in a different way in comparison to these bands and are you sad to obey several parts of the scene dying
Nicola: I don´t know what we´ve done differently, but i know that we´ve always been very focused and aware of what we want to do and how we want it to be done.

Punk76: Which festivals or in wich countries do you really like playing? Do you recognize any differences between the people in different states?
Nicola: Since we live in cold sweden, it´s always nice to visit warm places like australia and california but except for that i personally like Montreal a lot. We always have great shows there. Germany is not that bad either.

Punk76: Your old release "Pennybridge Pioneers" reached Gold in Australia. You recorded with Brett Gurewitz from Bad Religion. First: What means that title, what does it stands for? And how did you felt to record with a legend like Brett?
Nicola: Pennybridge stands for Oerebro (free translation into english) and pioneers, well, that´s supposed to be us. To record with Brett meant a lot to us, since he is a legend to us. It was a big step for us to record that album in another country, with a different producer and studio, since the previous ones where all recorded with Dan Swanö in his studio in sweden. We needed to explore something different and to that recorded with Brett seemed like the only natural option at the moment. he did a great job on it and i´m happy with the whole experience. we learned a lot from it.

Punk76: Your old release "Pennybridge Pioneers" reached Gold in Australia. You recorded with Brett Gurewitz from Bad Religion. First: What means that title, what does it stands for? And how did you felt to record with a legend like Brett?
Nicola: Pennybridge stands for Oerebro (free translation into english) and pioneers, well, that´s supposed to be us. To record with Brett meant a lot to us, since he is a legend to us. It was a big step for us to record that album in another country, with a different producer and studio, since the previous ones where all recorded with Dan Swanö in his studio in sweden. We needed to explore something different and to that recorded with Brett seemed like the only natural option at the moment. he did a great job on it and i´m happy with the whole experience. we learned a lot from it.

Punk76: Nikola, I listen to Punkrock since ten years now. I renember that I started with Dead Kennedy´s, Ten foot pole, Lagwagon, Millencolin, Propagandhi and thausand of other melodic bands. Over the years I developed a very different taste of music. Shure, I still love listening to Poppunk/ melodic Punkrock, but I made good experiences in Streetpunk, Emo and Hardcore also. So, how was it in your case?
Nicola: When we started millencolin we were very much into bands like Op ivy, bad religion, nofx, pennywise and the descendents. it was more or less all we listened to at that time and a very big inspiration on our sound. on the last couple of records i think we´ve been more and more influenced by more emotinal bands like samiam, jimmy eat world and those kink of bands. But at the other hand we all listen a lot to other kinds of music. i guess you can hear that from listening to my soloalbum.my main inspirations for that project has been bands and artists like simon and garfunkel, kristofer åström, elvis presley, bob dylan, elliot smith and red house painters.

Punk76: Is there anything that you dislike in Punkrock?
Nicola: It depends on what you mean with punkrock. If you mean the music, then not really. I mean, you have to take it for what it is. Of course there is good and bad punkrock and i don´t like all of it. But it´s the same in any genre of music, you can´t like it all. But to be honest, i´m not listening that much to punkrock these days. Not like in the beginning when we started Millencolin.

Punk76: How did your parents reacted as you told them, that you want to be a musician? And how did they reacted, as they saw that you catched Gold? By the way- is it important for you to make good money and to reach Gold with your band? Or are there any more important aspects in music for you?
Nicola: My parents didn´t really know too much of what i was doing when i started to play in my first band. I guess they just thought it was good i was doing something and it took them a while to understand to size of our success. To sell gold was never a goal for us. One of our first goals when we started out was to maybe one day have a 7 inch or an ep out or maybe get a show out of town. Then little by little we gained more success and then a couple of years ago we got a goldrecord from australia. It felt good. Money is something everyone needs to be able to live and i guess it´s not less important to us than to anyone esle, but it´s not what we think about when we´re making music. It´s something that comes secondary as a bonus.

Punk76: How did your parents reacted as you told them, that you want to be a musician? And how did they reacted, as they saw that you catched Gold? By the way- is it important for you to make good money and to reach Gold with your band? Or are there any more important aspects in music for you?
Nicola: My parents didn´t really know too much of what i was doing when i started to play in my first band. I guess they just thought it was good i was doing something and it took them a while to understand to size of our success. To sell gold was never a goal for us. One of our first goals when we started out was to maybe one day have a 7 inch or an ep out or maybe get a show out of town. Then little by little we gained more success and then a couple of years ago we got a goldrecord from australia. It felt good. Money is something everyone needs to be able to live and i guess it´s not less important to us than to anyone esle, but it´s not what we think about when we´re making music. It´s something that comes secondary as a bonus.

Punk76: You shared the tour with Anti-Flag a couple of years ago. How did that came?
Nicola: We needed a support band, they were interested and we knew they were a great band from seeing them on the warped tour. So we brought them a long.

Punk76: You shared the tour with Anti-Flag a couple of years ago. Today they are really popular - or better you made them popular here trough sharing stages with them. How did that came?
Nicola: We needed a support band, they were interested and we knew they were a great band from seeing them on the warped tour. So we brought them a long.

Punk76: Please list some of your favourite bands, even some of the underground bands.
Nicola: Kiss, Otis Redding, Operation ivy, Kent, Bob dylan, Bob marley, Madonna, Jimmy eat world, Manu Chao, The smiths, Samiam, Nofx, Hank Williams, Kristofer Åström, Elvis Presley, Bad religion, Simon and garfunkel, the Beatles. I don´t know too many underground bands, at least not any who are among my favorites.

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