The Hives Are Back In Town

The Hives' Pelle Almqvist is pacing nervously around Hoxton Square – a rare oasis of grass on the edge of North London – with a mobile phone fixed to his right ear. Dressed in his band's latest look, an all black suit with white trim which features trousers short enough to elegantly flap in the swirling breeze, he looks intense.  The Hives might be in the UK to promote their forthcoming album which is due for release in October, but, at the moment, as he turns on the spot to re-trace his past steps for the fifth time in as many minutes, Almqvist looks like he’s a million miles away and involved in the most important conversation he’s ever had.

It's twenty minutes later that I’m finally introduced to Pelle Almqvist, who, despite not being on the phone anymore, still carries that intense look on his face - the kind that makes women at his gigs melt and men feel underdeveloped. “I’d like to do it outside,� he tells his manager, who’s asked him politely where he’d like the interview to take place. Before his manager can attempt to offer an alternative, Almqvist is leading the way to a bench hidden in one of the intimate parks sheltered corners. It seems that while he was pacing back and forth earlier the rather intriguing interview location must have caught his eye.

Rarely does anything ever go unnoticed by twenty-nine year old Almqvist, or the band he fronts for that matter. The night before we sit on the weathered bench in Hoxton Square, for example, the Swedish band made their live return to the UK at London’s tiny 100 Club on Oxford Street. After a summer of European Festivals, the low-ceilinged venue is more reminiscent of the size of room where they’ve been putting their suits on for the last two months. Its matchbox size doesn’t concern the band, however, as they take to the stage purposefully, with Almqvist stating brazenly that, “The Hives are back in town,� before adding, in his part Swedish, part American, part Mick Jagger swaggering accent. “It’s been a while since The Hives have completely destroyed a venue of this size.�

One (very fast) hour later and the band have “destroyed� the venue, during a gig which sees Almqvist hoist himself onto speakers while women shamelessly grab more than they should; drummer Chris ‘Dangerous’ carried on top of the crowds shoulders back to the dressing room, and; The Hives, as a whole, look more together, more chaotic – yet equally as clinical – than ever.

“It’s really good to be out playing the new songs and it feels good, it feels overdue almost,� admits Almqvist, not even twenty four hours later. Overdue? Well it has been three years since the band released their last album, ‘Tyrannosaurus Hives,’ in 2004, to what he’ll agree was a mixed critical response. “We don’t make records that often, we tour a lot,� he explains, as he tries to justify the long wait. “We don’t really believe in recording the record on the road or writing the record on the road as such because it kind of means that, I don’t know, I’ve just always thought it seems that bands that do that, all their records end up being very similar to each other – so we’ve not really done that. I think that’s why it takes time, we have to tour and then stop touring and then we think about the record.�

When Almqvist stresses the lines “we have to tour and then stop touring,� it’s like he’s drawing a verbal line in the sand. Like most bands who hop between punk and garage rock, touring a record is almost, if not more intense than making it. That was certainly the case as the band wrapped up the touring of ‘Tyrannosaurus Hives’ – a tour which had lasted almost two years. As Almqvist recalls, the break wasn’t long, but long enough to sort out “a lot of issues� left in the wake of the tour “with people feeling exhausted and people, you know, drinking a bit too much and shit like that.�

The effect of this detox period, which saw the band return briefly to their native Fagersta, in Sweden, is apparent in their new material. The thrashing guitars which were once the chief categoriser of their sound have been toned down to reveal a more melodic Hives now armed with the rhythm to fill their new white dancing shoes. Songs like ‘Bigger Hole To Fill,’ and ‘Try It Again,’ are more bass driven, while, ‘Lasse Shuffle,’ like The Hives of old, is typically concise, but now the music is more demanding than ever. The Hives have gone from plug in and play, to plug in and really play.

So how has this come about? Well for the first time The Hives new album, rumoured to be called, ‘The World’s First Perfect Album,’ has been produced by “actual� producers. Something that Almqvist admits honestly has come about partly by intrigue (“we can make shit sound great on our own but it just becomes a bit too instantly gratifying to record the way we always have recorded,� he says), and partly by having the funds of a major label in Universal Music. “You don’t know for how long there will be major label money involved in making music,� he explains, “and it’s expensive going abroad to record so if we were gonna do it we were gonna do it now or never you know?�