Interviews

Erik Ohlsson - Millencolin (audio interview)

Walladmin

Heavy Metal Wordsmith

Mar 22, 2016

7 min read

The skate punk rock genre is a breed which has held it's form against the test of time over the years with very few bands who were big in the early 2000's still continuing on successfully around the world. Millencolin on the other hand have just progressively got better and better as the years went on and are still producing fantastic albums rich full of the punk rock we've known and loved for years, with a touch of maturity. Well that's usually what happens when you get old kids, so get used to it.

The Swedish four-piece who gained international recognition on a much wider scale following the release of their album Pennybridge Pioneers in 2000 and subsequent appearance on the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 video game soundtrack with track "No Cigar", have used their success to continue moving forward as a band testing the waters of new material and reproducing a total of 8 studio albums in their massive 24 year long career. In recent years it's become apparent that bands don't last the test of time but for Millencolin, the fact they are all great mates and split everything 25% between them must have something to do with the longevity of their band. That and they're actually fuckin talented musicians.

Their latest album True Brew may seem like the boys have taken a bit of inspiration from the Australian slang term "True Blue" but for rhythm guitarist Erik Ohlsson he swears it's nothing more than a sheer coincidence:

"The four of us [put in ideas and we] do a brew together [and] come up with ideas for the music, for the lyrics, for the artwork for the videos and everything, so what we're doing together is a True Brew of creative stuff"

Which makes sense, although when we quizzed him about the idea of marketing in the band's very own brewed beer to sell with their new album on the next tour, it seems we were already a bit late to that party:

"It's already on it's way in London. Our singer Nikola is a really dedicated micro-brewer and he put out a lot of beer already, but just like small batches. But since we called out album True Brew, we had to do a beer. Nikola is going over there for a brewing day before Australia, he's mixing with the recipe. It's going to be a very special beer!"

Sounds like the boys have had plenty of time over the past couple of decades to find new and improved ways to appeal to their ever growing fanbase. The boys will be here towards the end of next month and tickets are already selling fast to the below mentioned shows. If you haven't already jumped on board for this tour yet, you might want to act now before tickets sell out quicker than their new beer, which will most probably do the same when it gets released too. Have a listen to our whole interview with Erik below and get ready to pop a kickie when Millencolin bring their True Brew Tour to Australia in a few weeks.