Kategori: Intervjuer

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”Jag tar aldrig av min keps, Jan!”


Vi välkomnar vår nya skribent Anette Lind till Llaman och hon debuterar med en text om komikern Kalle Lind som pratar punkig skolpolitik och musicerande kristdemokrater, vi kommer i fortsättningen vända lite på steken och fråga musikfrågor till personer som vi kanske inte i första hand förknippar med musik, precis på samma sätt som vi inte förknippar alla musiker vi har intervjuat med mat. Hoppas ni också tycker det är kul! Härmed lämnar vi över ordet till Anette:

Flera svenska politiker bär på popstjärnedrömmar. Det står klart när man läser nya boken 52 festliga riksdagsledamöter. I den berättar Kalle Lind om kristdemokraten som tog sig ton i talarstolen, finansministern som blev låttextsstoff och om moderaten som skrev lite för burleska melodier. Llama Lloyd träffade författaren för ett samtal om rock och dess skenbara motsats: Den osexiga riksdagspolitiken.

Kristdemokraternas ledare Göran Hägglund får ofta beröm för sin ”objektivt” goda smak när det kommer till musik. På spotify-listan Hägglund lanserade inför valet 2010 finns bland andra Elvis Costello, Pink Floyd och Cardigans och när han blev nyvald som partiledare i fjol nämnde han David Bowies ”Heroes” som ett passande soundtrack. Men skulle han någonsin ställa sig upp i riksdagen och sjunga själv? Förmodligen inte, eftersom den rollen redan fyllts av partikamraten Roland Utbult. Den 27 april 2011 fick Roland Utbult feeling när han skulle hålla ett anförande om vanvårdade barnhemsbarn. Stående i talarstolen sjöng han ett stycke ur egenkomponerade sången Elsas visa och fortsatte sedan lugnt sitt tal. 

Händelsen finns med i 52 festliga riksdagsledamöter, en bok där författaren och komikern Kalle Lind gräver fram lustiga fakta om svenska politiker förr och nu. Kalle Lind kallar det ett ”demokratisk-estetiskt” problem, om fler ledamöter skulle få för sig att börja skråla i riksdagen. ”Vill vi lyssna till Annie Lööf i Imperiets Jag är en idiot eller Gustav Fridolin i Du lillgamla, du fria?”, frågar han sig. Kanke inte. Eller kanske ändå. Visst är tanken på det snustorra riksdagshuset som en pampig rockarena liiite lockande?

Anette: Vilket band du hade velat se uppträda i plenisalen?

Kalle: Plenisalen är lite som en amfiteater, men ledamöterna sitter ju nertryckta på stolar, så det är svårt för dem att rocka. En gång när The Bear Quartet uppträdde var det bara keyboardisten som satt och spelade deras låtar. De valde att presentera sig med ett performancetänkande snarare än ett poptänkande. Så de hade säkert kunna använda plenisalen till något konstnärligt intressant, även om de antagligen vägrat av politiska skäl.

A: Hur bra är talarstolen för en politiker som vill marknadsföra sig som artist?

K: Enda gången någon gjort det blev det löpsedel, men jag tror bara det funkar en gång. Om Roland Utbult hade dragit upp gitarr och orkester nästa gång hade han kanske fått en löpsedel till. Sen kommer talmannen säga till: ”Så här kan vi inte ha det, Roland! Det här är ett seriöst forum!”.

Om sossen Kjell-Olof Feldt, Sveriges finansminister under 80-talet, närde en dröm om att sjunga visor i talarstolen vet vi inte. I 52 festliga riksdagsledamöter får vi bara möta honom som ofrivillig rockpoet. Socialdemokraterna drev förslaget om att införa löntagarfonder (i korthet: en väg att ge fackförbunden del i ägandet i privata företag), men Kjell-Olof Feldt var inte frälst. Under en debatt i riksdagen skrev han följande rim på en papperslapp:

”Löntagarfonder är ett jävla skit / men nu har vi baxat dem ända hit”.

Feldts svekfulla rim fångades på bild av en fotograf och medieskandalen var ett faktum. Vad han föga anade då var att händelsen senare skulle hyllas av schlagerartisten Pontus Platin och ökände producenten Billy Butt i låten Fonderna är skit.

A: Finns det någon annan politisk groda som du hade velat se musiksatt?

K: Svensk riksdagspolitik framstår som så oerhört osexigt och man kommenterar den tyvärr inte så mycket i popmusik. Jag inbillar mig att det gjorts mycket i England. The Clash och Billy Bragg har säkert utgått från vad Margaret Thatcher sagt. Men om jag haft ett popband hade vi nog kommenterat saker som alliansregeringen sagt och gjort. Som Jan Björklunds skolpolitik. Keps i klassrummet, det hade kunnat bli pop av det. Lite punk. ”Jag tar aldrig av mig min keps, Jan! Jag tar aldrig av mig min keps, Jan!”.



A: Det låter ju skitpunkigt.

K: Jag gillar den sortens ofinurliga uppkäftighet. Även om jag är elak ibland när jag skriver vill jag vara det på ett snyggt vis och inte bara säga: ”Reinfeldt är ett jävla rövhål”. Det är inte så finurligt. Punken är mer primitiv och det finns mycket humor i att vara rättfram. Du kan vara mycket grövre och direkt i pop jämfört med skriven text, eftersom popen bygger på känslor, snarare än intellekt.



A: Det hade blivit stelt i moshpiten om man tvingats stå där och tänka efter.

K: Jo, precis. Proggbandet Blå Tåget skrev åtta minuter långa, resonerande låtar om till exempel USA:s efterkrigspolitik där de gick igenom allt decennium för decennium. Det är ju inte så svängigt, men det går att göra.

Ofinurlig, men på ett helt annat sätt, var moderata riksdagsledamoten Carl Axel Roslund, som också finns med i Kalle Linds bok. 2002 släppte han en skiva med namnet Mina egna sånger. På skivan hittar man låten Åh en sån natt, där Roslund snickrat ihop en något våldsam sexakt:

”Hon stod i parterr
och jag red’na som en märr
och jag slog’na på truten så det börja bloa
Sen sa jag till henne: Din förbannade gnoa!”

Inte helt otippat fick Roslund en del kritik för den ofräscha kvinnosyn som låten verkade spegla.

A: Vilken nuvarande riksdagsledamot skulle du sätta ditt förtroende till för att spåna fram en (förhoppningsvis lite bättre) hit?

K: Det finns inte så många osäkrade revolvrar i riksdagen nuförtiden, som är helt tokiga. De flesta är välkammade och så oerhört medietränade. Men Fredrik Federley (Centerpartiet) hade kunnat bli en utmärkt housemakare, han har ett konstnärligt och popkulturellt intresse. Något jävligt mycket storstad, jävligt queer, larger-than-life-musik. Hade (migrationsminister) Tobias Billström gjort musik hade det blivit som Uno Svenningsson. Slätkammat, urvattnat och intetsägande. Federley är en posör och posörer gör bättre popmusik. Bowie gjorde bättre musik än Uno Svenningsson, den måste du ge mig?

Text: Anette Lind
Bild: Anders Roos / Roos & Tegnér

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Nick from Islands loves chocolate balls and rhubarb.

Last Monday, at Pustervik, I met Nick from Islands, who has made one of this year’s most under-rated albums A Sleep & A Forgetting. You really should check it out.

If everyday would be a holiday, what would be the holiday cake?

Nick: Oh, you know what that lyric refers to, right? The line is ”Everyday is a Holiday”, it is a pun actually, Buddy Holly is who it’s referring to. When Marc Bolan of T-Rex was killed, he was driving his race car through the rural highway and smashed into a tree. And in his gloves compartment there was a little pin, a little badge that said ”Everyday is a Holly day” and that’s where the line comes from. So it’s a pun if you will. But if there were a cake for that maybe holly… everyday.. I don’t know, something with booze in it because Marc Bolan was drunk and fucked up and I think the pilot who flew the plane that killed Buddy Holly was drunk. And I think Buddy Holly was drunk [takes a zip of beer] Booze cake.

Would that be something you’d wanna have everyday, though?

N: No, an everyday cake should be healthy, it should almost be savoury, lots of greens, lentils, flour, glutenfree, you know. If it’s sugar, stevia. All natural.

Yeah, what ever happened to stevia? I read an article about it years ago but did it ever kick off?

N: No, people just didn’t like it, they just want that good old-fashioned sugar. Or they want that garbage aspartam stuff.

I took this off your twitter, they eat a lot pie in Twin Peaks, right? So what’s your favorite pie?

N: Rhubarb. I fucking die for rhubarb, it’s my favorite. Would you like a beer or something, where are my manners?
R: Sure, thanks. I brought Swedish chocolate balls.
N: Oh, that’s amazing, thank you, holy shit balls! No fun intended. Did you make these?
R: Yeah, I made them.
N: No way, that’s fucking incredible, thank you!
R: I don’t know if I should tell you this because you’re gonna look differently at Swedes but they use to be called N****r balls.
N: That’s pretty fucked up but this is incredible [munches]. Holy shit! This is Peter, our driver, try a chocolate ball!
Peter: Oh, that’s delicious. Thank you. You made these?
N: Is that coconot?
R: No, but you could put coconut instead of sugar on the outside.

If somebody’s ribs are peaking through their fur, what would you feed them?

N: Baby back ribs, it’s the back of a baby cow’s ribs. It’s what you feed Americans in the middle of the country. I’m a vegetarian myself, though, but for the sake of the joke let’s go with baby back ribs.

How do you kick open a coconut?

N: You break it on a rock? And then you kick it. I guess ”kick” is a poetic license, yeah. You smash it with a rock or at the end of a tree. I once was stranded on an island in Panama and had no food, I was stuck, missed the last boat, no one else on the island so I had eat, to survive, on coconuts.
R: Oh, yeah? For how long?!
N: Just for the night, but I was there for the whole day, I was lost. It was fun, though. I had severe diarrhea so I wasn’t exactly hungry. TMI!

If you were to poison someone what would you serve your poison with?

N: These chocolate balls, definitely, cause I would eat a bunch.

Do you often keep bread in your pockets?

N: No. No way, I try to stay away from bread.
R: Yeah, no gluten?
N: There’s no nutrition in bread. It’s just starch.
R: You mean there’s no nutrition in any bread or just industrial?
N: Not really, nothing good, nothing great.

What kind of diet do you have?

N: Well, paleolithic, no I didn’t mean that. But I try to cut down on bread. I eat too much bread. As a vegetarian. And I’m drinking bread. This is bread in a bottle, so yeah, I do carry bread in my pockets.

So where is the meat you eat? I got that off a lyric somewhere.

N: Yeah, that’s from ”Don’t call me Whitney, Bobby”. That was sort of about body dismorphia and body issues, people with body issues who have either anorexia or bulimia or something. I don’t know what the context of the line was but, food, I guess. The food would be the life giving quality that people deny when they have problems.

What have you eaten here in Sweden so far?

N: They fed us here, we had mashed potatoes and sausages. I had a veggie sausage and a little salad, it was good. Last night we came into Malmö really late and I had a salad.
R: You should’ve gone and had falafels. Falafels are really good in Malmö.
N: Really, well we were in the suburbs, so.
R: That might’ve been even better.
N: We didn’t see anything else around, but I will keep that in mind cause we’re going there in a few days.

So where is home and what do you miss from it when you’re on tour?

N: I just moved to Los Angeles, I was homeless for two years, just in between, I would sublet and house-sit and go on tour but I got a place in May in Los Angeles. There’s a restaurant near me that’s really good, an Italian restaurant that I like. But I cook at home a lot when I’m home so that’s probably what I miss the most so I can regulate what I wanna eat and I know what I like so I eat that, it’s very nice. So I miss that. That’s a relatively new phenomenon cause I’m been homeless of drifting for so long.
R: I thought about that, I’ve never been in a band or anything but I’ve done longer trips and I agree that what you miss after a while is cooking. I have this idea of opening up a café at some point and it would be fun to have people who are coming through on tour to come over and cook!
N: You get the ingredients?
R: Yeah, I get the ingredients and people would come and cook.
N: It would be very cool. Yeah, that would be fun. Unless they’re ”naw, I’m too tired”. I mean everybody might not wanna do that. I’d be into it though. Be kinda fun, get to sit around a table. That’d be cool.

So what do you normally cook?

N: I like kale, I like chick peas, I like brown rice, I like avocado, I like onions. Generally those sorts of things. I can make good pastas too. Eggplants, pastas and yeah. But this shit, [holding up a chocolate ball], I gotta save the second half for after the show because I don’t wanna be full while playing. That is fucking gooood. Is that sugar on the outside?
R: Yeah, it’s called ”pearl sugar” in Swedish.
N: It looks like salt or something?
R: Yeah, I know, I don’t know if you can get it outside of Sweden, I was going out with this girl in Spain and she didn’t know what it was either.
N: I’ve never seen it before.

What’s on your rider food-wise?

N: Um, nice meats and nice cheeses and breads and fresh veggies and fresh fruits and local beer.
R: So what kind of beer did you get here?
N: We got Tuborg and weirdly Brooklyn Lager. I use to live a few blocks from that brewery in Brooklyn so that’s weird.
R: You should just go to the bar and get a ”Stor stark”, which is a big strong beer, which is what you say in Sweden if you just want a beer. And then you’ll get a local beer, Pripps, one of biggest.
N: They said they were gonna bring up some local beers.
R: It’s not very good, but it’s local.
N: I like local, I like to see what the locals are eating and drinking.
R: There’s a few micro breweries coming up the last couple of years that are a lot better than Pripps.
N: That’s good.

Do have any recipe you’d like to share with us?

N: I have this really good lentil soup I could make. No, I’ll share my thing which is probably the most exotic for you which is breakfast tacos. I get like sprouted corn tortillas, corn tacos, fry them up on a pan and then I fry up some onions and mix in some black beans and egg. Stir-fry that up, combine it and then I put white cheddar on the corn tortilla. And then the black bean, egg combo thing and then I have cilantro, avocado and tomato.
R: Cilantro?
N: It’s like a green, a parsley-like herb. It’s delicious and makes things taste really good. And then hot sauce and then fold it up and put it in my mouth. I make it every morning, it’s my favorite thing ever. It’s not the healthiest, but yeah.

islandsareforever.com
twitter.com/nickfromislands
Islands on Spotify

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FIDLAR likes cheap beer!


I recently got struck by the great track Cheap Beer (stream below) by FIDLAR (stands for Fuck it, dog. Life’s a risk), a young Los Angeles band who’s been stirring the blogosphere a bit and will debut an album early next year on Mom + Pop. This will our shortest interview so far:

What’s your favorite brand of cheap beer?

Elvis Kuehn, guitar/vocals: Tecate
Max Kuehn, drums: Budweiser
Zac Carp, guitar/vocals: Coors
Brandon Schwartzel, bass: High Life

FIDLAR on Spotify
FIDLAR.tumblr.com
twitter.com/fidlarLA

PS. I highly recommend that you check out the video to No Waves.

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Galia and Carim from Psapp share everything, including placentas and half-sucked sweets.

Do you know the band Psapp? It’s a duo consisting of Galia Durant and Carim Clasmann from England and you’ve probably heard their theme music for Grey’s Anatomy. We emailed them both and asked some questions about food, with the questions inspired by some of their lyrics. Galia is also the excellent illustrator who made our logo! Check out her stuff here: www.galiadurant.com.


A few Psapp tracks, far from all are on Spotify.

Are you feeling peckish?
Carim: No, not right now, I’ve just had some sandwiches.
Galia: Yes! Always. I bet Carim would eat some cake if you offered it to him. He also made a very profound observation which is that you always have room for icecream however full up you are. It’s true — I have never turned down icecream, that would just be madness.

If so, for what?
Galia: I would really like some very smelly cheese on some delicious chewy bread with some chutney and a glass of chocolate milk. And some icecream obviously. Basically just a dairy binge.

You got a song called Everybody wants to be a cat. Do you have cats yourselves? If so, what do you feed them? Mice and canaries?
Carim: Yes, I’ve got a cat called Marbles. I feed her dry and wet food but she tops up her diet with mice and birds. I’ve got a video of her eating a rat in the kitchen — do you want a copy?
Galia: Yes, two tabbies called Badger and Button. They bring in baby rats sometimes and once they’re dead, they try and pretend they’re still alive by throwing them around the room with their paws. It’s horrible to watch but oddly compelling.

Have you ever seen a slug eat a chip?
Carim: No, not yet but I’ll try to tempt some slugs in the garden next time I’ve got some chips. This is a scientific study long overdue.
Galia: The song that the slug eating a chip lyric came from is by David Shrigley from his Worried Noodles compilation — so we can’t quite take credit for it… At the time we recorded the track, we did discuss slugs eating chips. It’s rather improbable as if slugs come in contact with salt then they dissolve.. I just googled slug and salt and found this.

Being Londoners, do you often eat fish & chips?
Carim: Maybe once a year. I know only three places where you can get nice fish & chips: Faulkners on Kingsland Rd., a place on Farringdon Rd. near Mount Pleasant and The Rock and Sole Plaice near Covent Garden.
Galia: Toffs of Muswell Hill is good… I eat fish and chips quite a lot, with big fat sour gherkins and lots of lemon juice but the portions are so massive that even I (a real piggy) can’t finish all my chips. London is very varied in food quality and you have to be careful where you get your fish and chips from as sometimes you end up with soggy precut chips and a cruddy piece of frozen fish with orange breadcrumbs all over it. Be warned, visitors…

What does victory taste like?
Carim: Victory tastes of meat! Arrrgggh!
Galia: Yep, something very bloody and red, maybe a ribeye steak which is just cooked for 30 seconds on each side — is that too specific? I think a big phallic salami might be a victorious flavour too.

Do you bake bread and make milk?
Carim: I’ve only baked pitta bread and pizza dough which is not quite the same as baking bread but I’m quite intrigued by the process of turning flour, water and yeast into solid bread. maybe I’ll start after the next album. I can’t produce milk myself but Galia has donated some of her breast milk for a cup of tea of mine.
Galia: Since I have just had another baby I have new supplies so I am thinking of branching out into breastmilk icecream which is meant to be very nice. I love baking bread — I love the smell and the cosiness of home cooked bread. Carim and i have experimented a little with different yeasts – in Germany it’s much easier to buy fresh yeast and it really makes a difference to the end product — bread made with dried yeast never seems to rise as much.

Have you ever lived on a farm?
Carim: I do actually live on a farm, when I’m not in London making music with Galia. I always used to live in cities so I fancied to do something completely different for a change and now live in the sticks. It’s great fun but I can’t have any chickens, llamas or lambs as I’m away too often and they need daily attention. 
Galia: Only when I visit Carim. We drank some fresh warm milk last time I was over, it tastes very different to the pasturised homogenised stuff you get in the supermarket — more cow-like.

What do you buy tinned?
Carim: Chickpeas, bamboo shoots, kidney beans and sweetcorn but I also have dried chickpeas and dried kidney beans in the basement so does that count?
Galia: My grandpa was a bit of a gastro-adventurer and loved collecting odd tinned things — the best thing in his cellar was a tin of ants in chocolate but i don’t remember them ever being consumed… Perhaps they’re still there…

Do you have a grocery list in your pocket now?
Carim: Nope, it’s sticking to the fridge.
Galia: I did up until about minutes ago when i gave it to my chap as he’s off to the shops to buy onions and smelly cheese. I really, really want smelly cheese.

Is the dad in ”Dad’s Breakdown” your dad?
Carim: No, but I do call him dad to amuse him.
Galia: He is my dad in real life, and I think he feels a certain paternal affection for Carim, who is almost a relative.

What did your parents make you for breakfast at weekends growing up?
Carim: I really can’t remember. An early sign of Alzheimer’s I suppose.
Galia: My dad used to buy the croissant pastry you get in tins in the cooler section at the supermarket and then would make a big deal about assembling and baking them — it was a real ritual…

Would you eat a half-sucked sweet?
Carim: Sure, if it’s Galia’s.
Galia: Thanks babes! We like to set each other dares to eat or drink stuff that is rotten or mouldy or just disgusting, I would give some examples but they’re probably too horrible to publicise. Last week we ate the placenta from the baby — my chap made it into a chilli and we have kept a bit for Carim in the freezer when we see him next. It actually tastes quite nice although it is strange eating your own meat…

What’s your favorite fruit?
Carim: Fruit salad, why just have one fruit when you can have all of them at the same time?
Galia: That’s cheating but I AGREE. Also, we have been growing strawberries in our garden and when they are picked fresh and still warm from the sun, it’s hard to beat them.

I heard you’re working on a new album. How’s that coming along and is there any food that gives you that extra boost to create?
Carim: It’s coming along nicely, supported by a strict diet of too much cake and PG Tips [tea].
Galia: Carim and I have a very good symbiotic relationship where I obsessively bake cake and he eats unbelievable amounts of it. At our last session we ate loads of cheap chocolate and crisps. I do like the extremes of good food and crappy processed rubbish — there’s a place in my heart for both.

Have you got a recipe you’d like to share with us? Maybe a soup or a cake?
Carim: I don’t bake cakes as I know too many great cake baking people feeding me but as for soups: make your own stock:
It’s amazing to witness leftover bones and veg being transformed into fresh stock. Especially chicken stock tastes delicious but I also make lamb stock and a mixed stock which I use for sauces. At least once a month I take all the bones and veg cuttings out of the freezer and first roast or fry and then boil them for half a day, let it all sit overnight and then boil it up again the next day and finish it off. My freezer is usually full of bones but no human ones as I don’t think they’ll develop a good flavour.
Galia: This is a recipe from loveable fat-tongued Essex boy Jamie Oliver — a celebrity chef in the UK. These brownies are the best brownies ever, and really easy to make. The sour cherries cut through the fatty sweetness of the brownie in a really good way. If Carim is cross with me, I can usually be guaranteed forgiveness if i knock some of these up. Try it with any angry person in your life.

xx Gal and Carim xx
Psapp on Spotify.
Domino Artists: Psapp.

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Alex of Dirty Beaches prefers squid ink paella over Facebook censorships.


While we were at Primavera Sound in Barcelona Éric had a little talk about food with Alex Zhang Hungtai who under his moniker Dirty Beaches make dirty, slow rockabilly that is inspired by the movies of Wong Kar-Wai, the passage of time and travelling without a home to return to. It might make you think of Alan Vega and his old band Suicide.

Hi Alex, what does your tour diet consists of?
I guess it depends where you are. While being on tour we mostly eat at the gas stops, so we eat the paninis a lot everything else is pretty expensive. But here in Europe we have a nicer treatment because the promoters take us out to dinner in every city and usually it’s pretty nice, especially in Italy, Portugal and Spain where the food is amazing.

Is there something in particular you like to eat here in Spain?
Yeah, last time I came I tried the squid ink paella. It’s all black and it’s really really good because they give you home made garlic aioli sauce with it.

Where is home and what do you miss most from there when you’re on the road?
I live in Montréal now. I miss the Portuguese rotisseries, Romados is a good one. There’s another one close to where we live, Ciranos. That one is really good too. Yeah, the Portuguese just know how to make chicken.

You were born in Taiwan, right? Is there something you miss from there?
I miss Taiwanese food the most because for me that’s comfort food. I would eat compulsively when I got back. Usually I gain a lot of weight when I go back, I’m not joking. My record is when I went back for two weeks and gained 15 pounds [about 7 kg].

Is there a Taiwanese dish in particular that you like?
Yeah, there’s a lot. The most famous ones you can get are at the night market eateries. The famous ones are oyster pancakes with a sweet sauce that they use. There’s also this kind of noodle, they stew the pork in tea and all the herbs and it’s really amazing. The soup is really earthy because you can taste all the herbs they use. I really enjoy that too. It’s really good during the winter time when it’s cold and you get a nice warm hot stew.

What would be the ideal picnic to take on a dirty beach?
Oh, that’s a really good question. I guess it depends what mood I’m in. I’m addicted to this hot dog place in Montréal. I think the owner’s family is from Chile and they make these crazy hot dogs, they call it completo and it’s a really nice sausage with a stemmed bun, with diced tomatoes, guacamole, mayonaise and hot sauce. It’s amazing. An ideal picnic, I would have two of these hot dogs, drink a horchata, maybe I’m saying it wrong, I think it’s Mexican. It’s a rice milk kind of drink, I think I’m pronouncing it wrong, but that would be really nice. And maybe for dessert I would get the gulab jamun, the Indian dessert, the little donuts that are soaked in sugar water, those are really amazing. I like really fatty food, or slow cooked pork belly. Haaa, I love that.

What’s your favourite food coming from the sea?
I really like sea urchin. It’s the kind of things they used for Japanese sushi, it’s mustard coloured. And it’s called uni in Japanese. It looks crazy because, I don’t know if it’s categorized as a shell fish, but it’s from the sea and it’s a black ball with spikes coming out but if you crack it and you open it, it looks like a really soft and mushy yellow substance inside. When it’s fresh and you make it into a sushi, it’s really fucking mind-blowing. I almost cried the first time I ate it.

What’s your favourite poutine flavour from La Banquise in Montréal?
I just like the regular one. I tried the Elvis one and I almost fucking died. It’s so disgusting. It has steak, sausage, bacon and pork chop, a bunch of really fatty stuff. I just thought ”I’m gonna go all out and try the fattest poutine”. It was so disgusting! I couldn’t finish it and I had really bad diarrhea the next day. So no, I like the classic poutine or the Italian poutine with meat sauce.

Do you have a soup recipe that you could share with our Swedish readers?
Yeah there’s this one that my mum makes that I really really love. It’s very easy to make. It’s tomato based with eggs. What you do is you pan grill the tomatoes first until they are kinda soft, you take them out and put them in chicken stock and you stir until it becomes red. Feel free to use less tomatoes because the base of the flavour is chicken stock. You add some garlic and at the end you crack an egg in and you stir it continuously in a clock wise motion until they become fluffy kinda like clouds and then it’s ready.

The set you just played here in the park, was it new music?
No, 99% was improvised but there was one drum beat that was programmed that I improvised on top of.

Are you working on new music right now?
Yes, lots. I’m scoring three films: two documentaries and one Italian horror film. I’m doing one EP and two albums and a bunch of 7 inches and splits with friends. I don’t know if the world is gonna end so I wanna get as much music out as possible before December! That’s optimistic, right? Live the most of your life.

Speaking of apocalyptic feelings, do you have a word for the student protesters of Montréal right now?
Yeah, you’re aware of the Sunday tam-tam jams and the people who play the cos-play, the Dungeon and Dragon guys? So if they pass that law that no more than 40 people can gather there’s no more tam-tams and there’s no more Dungeons and Dragons. That’s on a funny, lighter side of things. As much as we dislike that kind of things it’s also what makes it special and unique for Montréal. It just sucks when people tell you ”you can’t do this!” when ”why the fuck not?” Another thing that I’m really scared about is that everything my friends post on Facebook about the riots or if they’re doing anything that’s defaming Harper [Canada’s Conservative prime minister] it gets taken down Facebook the next day. So, this is really fucked up. That’s really bad censorship. That’s like fucking communist China. Maybe the world is not so fucking different, you know? It’s like when something doesn’t go the way they want, the government, they’ll fucking shut it down, whether you like it or not. This is the illusion we all live in, you know?

Dirty Beaches on Spotify.
dirtybeaches.bandcamp.com
twitter.com/dirtybeaches808

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Kafferep #1: Mire Kay

Vi besökte Mire Kay i deras studio när de spelade in sin debutskiva. Här får ni höra ett smakprov som än så länge går under arbetsnamnet ”Jazzlåten”. Och så frågade vi ju lite om mat naturligtvis!

Mire Kay består av Victoria Skoglund och Emelie Molin, som tidigare spelade i bandet Audrey. De släppte en EP förra året och i höst är det alltså dags för fullängdaren. Pepp!

mirekay.com
Mire Kay på Spotify

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Gus from Alt-J handles his jetlag with sausage rolls!

Δ (alt-J) are four guys from Leeds who met in university and make excellent pop. They consist of Gwil Sainsbury (guitar/bass), Joe Newman (guitar/vocals), Gus Unger-Hamilton (keyboards) and Thom Green (drums). We had a talk with Gus!

Hey Gus! Right now, what do you feel like eating?
Well I just had lunch, which was a cold sandwich from a motorway service station, as we’re on the road, so I’d love my next meal to be hot.

I’m glad to see Way Out West have booked you! What do you know about Sweden and Swedish food?
I don’t know a lot about Sweden, except that it has a good music scene. And the capital is Stockholm. Swedish food, as I understand it, involved a lot of fish, which sounds great to me.

What’s the deal behind your name, it’s ∆ but everybody says alt-J? You were also called FILMS and Daljit Dhaliwal? Do tell.
When we started the band we used the name Daljit Dhaliwal, knowing that one day we’d probably have to change it – so when we thought of the name FILMS, we did. But then it turned out there was another band called The Films, so we had to change again. ∆ was a keyboard shortcut discovered by Gwil, our guitarist – we thought it was pretty neat, and would make a cool band name. A lot of people think we’re fixated with triangles, but we’re really not.

You mentioned that you play an Nordic keyboarded Mac on stage. Care to tell us why?
Well, I used a keyboard made by Nord, a Swedish manufacturer. The only keyboard I used to have was an old Yamaha that was very limited. I used a lot of piano when making the album, so I knew that I’d need a keyboard which offered decent weighted keys and good piano sounds. My Nord does that and much more. It’s definitely a grownup keyboard.

Ah, I misunderstood that completely then, that’s what twitter does to you! It’s not easy trying to put Alt-J (∆) into a genre, have you made one up or how would you describe your music?
We don’t like genres very much, so we shy away form defining ourselves. However other people are welcome to have a go! We have been described as folktronica, which we actually thought was pretty cool.

You mentioned in an interview that you had a sausage roll after a flight back from NYC, is that the best cure for a jetlag? Can you explain to us what a sausage roll is exactly?
I think the key to avoiding jetlag is definitely food. A sausage roll is basically sausage meat wrapped in puff pastry. It’s very greasy but delicious. They vary hugely in quality though, so watch out for that.

What do you have for breakfast, have you gotten into the whole porridge trend?
I get bored of food routine very easily, so I like to vary my breakfasts. Right now, my girlfriend and I are very into fried egg sandwiches, but that could soon change. As for the porridge trend, this must have passed me by.

Do you have a recipe you’d like to share with us? Maybe a soup?
This is a great soup – cheap, tasty and very filling. Sweat some chopped carrots in butter with some cumin seed, then cook in vegetable stock till they’re soft; liquidise, then add a bowl of rice cooked in salted water; reheat then stir in 2 egg yolks; season and serve topped with paprika and chopped parsley.
Trust me, it’s amazing.

So, when’s the album out?
May 28th!

∆ on Spotify.
altjband.com
twitter.com/alt_j

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Phil Elverum (Mount Eerie) prefers his morning coffee to fish uteruses.

We sent our new French-Canadian writer Éric Morrissette to meet a feverish Phil Elverum at Truckstop Alaska in Göteborg, where his one-man band Mount Eerie was opening for Earth. Robin joined in but sat back while Phil chatted with Éric who offered him some Swedish food: senapsill [pickled herring in a mustard sauce] and gravlax [raw salmon cured in salt, sugar and dill] on knäckebröd [Swedish hard bread].

I should tell you guys that I eat this almost everyday. I grew up with this stuff around. In Seattle, near where I live, there’s a lot of Scandinavian immigrants and my family is Norwegian, many generations ago. In the last 10 years or so I got more into it and I eat this almost everyday, not the herring necessarily but this Wasa [knäckebröd]. It’s so good and you can put anything on it.

These days, what does your diet mostly consist of?
Well, I’m on tour so it’s rough. Hotel breakfast in the morning. I usually eat the muesli, and yogurt and egg and coffee and juice. I usually eat a bigger breakfast because it’s free at the hotel or it’s paid for so I usually try to eat as much as I can, because we don’t usually eat lunch. But yeah, mostly a lot of rice cakes and cheese and water and juice. I like to have grapefruit juice always going on tour for the immune system although it failed [laughter]. And then dinner is usually at the venue or like here tonight they cooked dinner for us and it was amazing but sometimes the venue people will take us out to a neighbour restaurant.

What can we expect to find on your rider?
We’re opening for Earth so it’s their usual stuff which is cheeses, meats, crackers, bread. I usually don’t eat that much of it. Some fruits, some juice when I can. It’s difficult on tour to not eat all the candy and chips that are just constantly available because that’s what is around and when you’re feeling like you want a snack, the first impulse is to put that chocolate in your mouth. But after a few days of that it feels horrible, so yeah, carrot sticks, celery, grapes, things like that. But that’s tour, I should be clear that’s not what I eat at home!

What’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever eaten while being on the road?
Japan is where I’ve eaten the weirdest stuff. Sea food, but a very broad definition of sea food, like anything that comes out of the sea. I told the people who I was touring with there, ”hey I wanna eat the weirdest possible stuff, I am here, I want to experience Japan in its fullest”, and so they were ordering me things, I ate caramelized crickets, just whole crickets, crunchy. Also some fish reproductive systems, like human brains kind of. I was like ”what is this?” -”Oh, it’s human brain, eat it”, but of course it’s just fish uteruses, which is pretty gross as well.

Was it tasty?
Hmm, no. I was focused more on trying to swallow it. I didn’t eat a lot of it. I ate some cow heart once. I gotta draw a line somewhere, though. Like for example in Norway I was at a place where I could order whale or seal and I didn’t want to take it that far for some reason. Meat eating is so arbitrary, the ethics of meat eating, it’s so, I guess personal. But for me, whales somehow feel more intelligent, more godly than me so I shouldn’t eat them. I probably wouldn’t eat a bear either.

What food from back home do you miss the most when you’re on tour?
Vegetables. I mean it can just be hard to get fresh vegetables when traveling. Fresh vegetables of any kind, salad, kale, you know this vegetable kale? It’s a very intense green leaf. You wouldn’t eat it raw, you have to steam it. It’s really thick. It’s very rich in iron and calcium. And it grows all year round. Snow can’t kill it, it’s just so tough. It looks like a dinosaur’s skin. Super dark green. Sometimes it comes in purple. It doesn’t look like food, it looks like something you would see in the forest. We use that a lot, put it in sauces with rice. It’s very nutritious and good. We have some in our garden. So I guess I miss that. I’m a shitty gardener so that’s the only thing in my garden, everything else dies, but kale, you can’t kill it. I’ve tried!

What’s the best food to take on an excursion to the top of Mount Erie [mountain in Anacortes, Washington, Phil’s hometown and current residence]?
It’s a small mountain so you can walk up in about an hour. So, maybe something fancy, some sushi would be good. Yeah, I’d probably take some sushi and some coffee or tea. I don’t know why.

I was told that here in Sweden, people place some Knäckebröd in their pants when they go into the woods in order to protect their legs from the bites of nasty badgers. Are you as creative in Washington when it comes to badger protection?
[laughter] That’s seems like a total myth! That can’t be true. Badgers are not that big of a problem for us and we probably wouldn’t use a cracker for protection! [laughter]. Yeah, no, we haven’t had to face that yet fortunately.

So badgers in Washington are more well-behaved that in Sweden?
[laughter] Yeah, we have really gentle badgers, meaning non-existent badgers! There are no badgers there, as far as I know. Maybe deep in the mountains somewhere there’s one or two. They might be more of a Rocky Mountain thing.

So maybe if you had badgers you would actually put crackers in your pants?
Yeah, maybe i would, probably not though. It doesn’t seem like a good idea. There’s plenty of better weapons.

You have collaborated with ex-Montréaler Julie Doiron on ”Lost Wisdom”. Has Julie introduced you to the national French-Canadian meal ”Poutine”?
Julie hasn’t, but I am married to a French Canadian and she has. So I have experienced Québec through her a lot. It’s good. I love it. It’s intense but I think I tend to like over the top-food. I feel like this is intense in flavor, powerful food.

You find it over the top?
Yeah, because you have all these fries and gravy and cheese and all this intense stuff mixed together.

[Robin]: It’s the fattest thing I have ever eaten!
Yeah, exactly, it’s intensely unhealthy. What, you think its just an average everyday meal? [laughter] No way. I’m surprised you’ve survived if you grew up with it! [laughter]

You have covered Björk in the past [”All is full of love” on the Microphones’ album ”Blood”] and more recently referenced her song ”Undo” [on ”Voice in headphones” on Mount Eerie’s album ”Lost Wisdom]. What would you cook for her if you were trying to convince her to collaborate over a dinner?
[laughter] I probably wouldn’t try to convince her to do anything. I feel like she’s the one who invites people. I don’t want to be annoying. I would probably collaborate with her if she asked me, it sounds fun to me. But if I had to make a meal with her, it’s a good question… I wonder if she has any dietary restrictions.

I guess whale meat wouldn’t be a good idea.
No, maybe not whale. At the same time I feel like she could be into raw meat. Like a big plate of raw meat somehow.

What’s your favorite ice cream flavor?
I like really over the top-ice creams. There was this Ben and Jerry’s flavor for a while that is discontinued now. It’s called ”Marsha Marsha marshmallow” and it was just so gnarly. It was like the Poutine of ice cream with this marshmallow cream and huge chunks of stuff. It was so concentrated and powerful. It was deadly and addictive. It had graham crackers and it was a little bit salty too, it was amazing.

Salty ice cream, eh? Have you tried liquorice ice cream in Scandinavia?
Not in Scandinavia, but I once had it when I was a kid and I remember loving it.

Do you have a favorite breakfast musician?
I almost always, when I’m at home, eat breakfast in the same exact place – in silence. I have a chair by the window and go and read and I eat the same thing for breakfast. I have one piece of toast with peanut butter and lingon berry jam. Silence is what I listen to when I read and I usually spend between one and two hours and I just sit there with a pot of coffee and sip it. Eat my toast and my egg and I read the paper. I love it. I just space out and my cat looks at me. It’s nice, I miss that. It’s the thing I’m most excited about going home for. Like my silence breakfast ceremony.

Whats the cat’s name?
Pierrette. My wife thinks it’s funny. She names lots of stuff after French names that she thinks is hilarious that I just don’t get. She’s really into ”Roger”.

Your music evokes nature a lot. What do you think would be the ultimate culinary experience while listening to Mount Eerie or the Microphones, while sitting by the bonfire contemplating the universe?
Wow. Well my favorite food experiences around a fire are always really primal, like meat-based. Just take some meat, put it on a stick and burn it. But I don’t know if that necessarily matches with my music. But that’s probably what I would choose. I love eating cavemen style. I don’t know how it would affect the experience of my music though.

It would be quite a polarizing experience.
Yeah, maybe like a really primal buffalo steak and then a huge bucket of spring water, ice water that you dump over your head and try to drink at the same time. I feel like a lot of times with my music what I’m trying to do is to create alternating feelings of confusion and cloudiness versus moments of clarity. So maybe if your in the smoke in the fire and you’re all gross and got meat juice all over you and then there’s this awakening water blast. That might be a good meal!

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Grimes likes Papaya and Borscht!

This year’s best album so far is in my opinion Grimes’ Visions. Grimes is a girl from Montréal and she’s performing at our favorite festival Primavera Sound in Barcelona at the end of May. We talked to her a bit, naturally about food. We did this interview together with the brand new Swedish online magazine Mint.

Hi Claire Boucher AKA Grimes, right now, what do you feel like stuffing your mouth with?
Coffee.

I read that you went down a river on a self-built boat, what did you eat on this great adventure? Squirrels?
Potatoes.

Are you looking forward to eating anything in particular during the Primavera Sound festival in Barcelona? I warmly recommend the pancakes with chocolate at the food court!
Anything with chocolate, haha. I’ve never had Spanish food, so literally anything.

What’s your favorite fruit?
Papaya.

What does your rider look like, is there any food on there, or is there only alcohol?
Haha, no just water.

If you’re inviting someone over for dinner, what do you make them?
I’m a terrible cook, but I try to make things like stir fry if I’m trying to impress someone. Maybe quinoa, veggies.

Do you bake a lot? If so, what?
Haha, never. Sometimes I try to make cookies. The only thing I can successfully bake is cornbread.

Do you have a recipe you’d like to share with us? Maybe a soup?
Borscht:
Fry 3 onions in tons of oil and boil beets in water. Put the onions in the beet water with all the oil, add dill, carrots, potatoes, other veggies, let it stew for a while. Add cinnamon. Serve after like 8 hours with sour cream.

If you’re on tour, what do you miss from back home? Poutine?
I hate poutine haha, but I like the sandwiches at Casa del Popolo. Usually I just eat at home, things that are cheap and easy and in bulk. I don’t know how to cook meat – so generally lentils, potatoes, broccoli, various beans, fruits. Stuff like this. I don’t eat out much.


Grimes live at KEXP.

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Fruit Bats loves food! And gives us a recipe for a chili!

Eric D. Johnson of Fruit Bats

Eric D. Johnson of Fruit Bats
On Friday the lovely Fruit Bats play our town’s best venue, Truckstop Alaska (only 100 SEK! Facebook). We got a hold of their frontman Eric D. Johnson and he gave us these lovely answers to our foodie questions! English? Why? Check the bottom!

If you don’t know Fruit Bats, they’ve been around for ten years, play folky pop and have released their fifth album, Tripper, on Sub pop this year. At the moment it’s on #19 in my Albums of the year. Why not listen to the single You’re Too Weird while you read the interview?


Fruit Bats – You’re Too Weird.

Right now, what do you feel like stuffing your mouth full of?
The one thing I consistently crave is spicy, spicy Asian soup – preferably Tom Yum or Tokyo-style Ramen, but any spicy noodle soup will do! Second choices being Middle Eastern food or Mexican food.

As you’re called Fruit Bats, I gotta ask; what’s your favorite fruit?
Definitely passion fruit, with mango being a close second choice. Most kinds of berries as well.

Do you like seaweed in your Thai? Or do you think it serves a better purpose between bloody teeth and smooth stones?
I love seaweed in my aforementioned spicy soups (especially my homemade miso noodle soup) better than teeth or smooth stones.

Do you sleep on a bed of mustard seeds?
Usually not, if I can help it. That sounds uncomfortable.

Spiders and snakes often pop up in your lyrics, have you ever eaten any of these?
I tried rattlesnake once, in Texas, of course. But never spiders. However, I’ve eaten alligator, crocodile, jellyfish, and kangaroo.

What does your rider look like, is there any food on there, or only alcohol?
Definitely food! Good cheese and bread is a must, as well as exotic fruits. Our rider food tonight in Malmö was most excellent (very good fresh made bread, Havarti cheese, goat cheese spread with beets, salami, very nice). But of course beer (micro-brews or local ales preferred) and white and red wine. We like to eat and drink.

If you’re inviting someone over for dinner, what do you make them?
It depends on the amount of people. If it’s a large group, I have a chili that I enjoy making (vegetarian or bison, depending on the group). If it’s a smaller group, I usually do a tapas-style spread or Mediterranean type foods, hummus, baba ghanouj, feta, olives, pita, pilaf.

Did you have a time to celebrate Thanksgiving before you crossed the pond to tour Europe? Also, what’s your favorite part of all the goodies?
No! We left the day before Thanksgiving, and sadly had to miss it. It’s my favorite Holiday, because the only real point of it is to eat. I enjoy the stuffing and potatoes best, but it the turkey is done properly (juicy and not overcooked) the whole thing can be pretty fantastic.

Do you have a recipe you’d like to share with us?
Sure! Here is my chili recipe (the vegetarian version, but you can easily add meat by browning beforehand with the onions and peppers.) If you can’t find the ingredients here, you can approximate with what is around! Make it as spicy or not spicy as you like.

Ingredients:
2-4 cloves of garlic
1 large white or yellow onion
1 large bell pepper, or several chili-type peppers like poblano, anaheim or the like
16 ounces of prepared black or pinto beans
12 ounces of well roasted New Mexico green chilies (you can use bell peppers as well, roast them in the oven first)
8 ounces of corn, removed from the cob (canned corn works quite well also)
3 large cans of crushed tomatoes
8 ounces of vegetable broth
1/2 bottle of dark Scottish or Irish ale
several large dashes of crushed cumin
several large dashes of salt and pepper
several dashes of hot sauce like Tabasco, to taste
small dash of cayenne pepper
large cube of salted butter
fistful or finely chopped cilantro
2 bay leaves

Directions:
On high heat, heat butter in the pan. Add onion until soft, followed by the garlic and bell pepper, cook until well soft. Add some of the cumin, salt and pepper. Add the rest of the ingredients except cilantro, bring to a low boil. Add more salt, pepper and cumin (to taste) and turn down to simmer. Simmer for several hours. Add cilantro before serving, or use as garnish. Add extra broth or a bit of water if it is too thick.

Serve in a soup bowl garnished with chopped raw onion, grated English cheddar cheese and sour cream. Serve with rice, macaroni, or tortillas. Wash down with Mexican beer and lime. Eat outside in bare feet if weather allows. Tastes even better after sitting in the refrigerator for a day or two and then reheated.

English-Swinglish! This site is in Swedish, but on occasion, when we interview people in English, the interview won’t be lost in translation. It’s so more people can read it and enjoy some cooking!