The Hives

Tue 23rd Dec, 2008 in Features

Since emerging into the public gaze, proudly (and loudly) declaring themselves as – œYour New Favourite Band’, Swedish scamps The Hives have made a habit of not giving a hoot of what is expected of them. It’s why their latest record, The Black & White Album, surprised so many. Instead of featuring two non-colours as its sonic template, it was instead a multi-hued affair – incorporating everything from four-on-the-floor rock stompers to additional production from the likes of Pharrell Williams.

Chris Dangerous, drummer for the group, is – as you’d expect from the Hives – already ready to move onto the next phase of the band’s career. He’s been considering the follow-up to The Black & White Album. “We’ve started thinking more seriously,” he says from his home in Sweden, as the band prepares to visit Australia. “We have a couple of months off now…so we can’t just sit around doing nothing.”

It would seem to most fans of the band that they very rarely – œdo nothing’. If they’re not touring then they’re probably writing for the next album. But, while Chris agrees that it’s pretty much a great deal of action a lot of the time, the band loves every minute of it. “The day gets pretty long if you’re doing nothing,” he points out. “So you might as well pop into your home studio and think.”

Interestingly, it seems the Hives work on their songs separately rather than as a collective. Individuals come up with ideas and present them to the band as a completed piece. “If someone has a really good one then they scream really loud until they get their will through,” Chris explains. “But it all comes down to our mastermind.”

Ah, the infamous Randy Fitzsimmons – the Hives’ hidden sixth member. You never see his face – as only his legs have ever been visible, on the back of Tyrannosaurus Hives. Will we ever see his face? “You never know,” Chris teases. “He might change his mind. Maybe one day he’ll decide to go to a photo shoot and have his photo taken and have his face shown to the world, but as it looks right now I don’t think so.”

Perhaps he’s secretly the best looking member of the Hives? “No, I don’t think so. That has to be [frontman] Pelle.” Howlin’ Pelle Almqvist is, as they say, the man. When the band performs live, he’s like a man possessed. He automatically draws the eye, such is his charisma. It is, perhaps, something that the Hives have to rely on more than ever in the wake of The Black & White Album. It is their most musically expressive release to date – featuring a host of collaborators and different sounds that the band hasn’t really utilised in the past.

“They were weird,” he admits of the songs on the band’s most recent album. “We don’t really play all of them live because it just doesn’t sound good. The thing about the Hives is that we want everything to sound good just with the five of us. Some of the songs didn’t so we don’t play them, but most of them do. Frederick, my drum tech, is helping out on maracas at times. It sounds really good actually.”

More rhythmically propulsive than the band have ever been, Chris says it doesn’t matter whether they’re working on drums, guitars, bass, vocals or whatever. It’s their collective approach that defines The Hives sound. “We’re always talking about every hit, every note, and the words that Pele says. We’re always discussing it.”

Working with a variety of producers on The Black & White Album must have had a certain influence on their sound, though. The likes of Dennis Herring, the Neptunes, and Jacknife Lee all had their own unique take on the Hives.

“That’s the fun part about it,” Chris agrees. “Especially with the hip-hop guys; for them it’s nothing like we’re used to. We’re used to looking at an amp and working out how to get it to sound a certain way and we can spend days doing that. Recording with Pharrell, we just got into the studio and it was, ‘There’s the guitar, there’s the drum set: now play.’”

Did it surprise you that a hip hop producer wanted to capture you in the simplest way possible, rather than go crazy? “Yeah. He threw up so many things that he wanted to hear and we played everything pretty much, and then decided on what we thought sounded good. We usually get something to sound as we want it and then keep it. We don’t move many things, but it was just a very different way of working. He makes 20 songs a week and we don’t – so it has to be pretty different!”

The Hives touch down on our shores very soon. Check the Gig Guide listings below for the band’s shows.