The Return of The Hives

He’s known for his insane stage antics and no-holds-barred approach to the stage but the voice of Howlin' Pelle Almqvist is much more subdued than I had expected. Although sounding quite happy to speak to me, I couldn’t help but fear that being one of his last calls I was just keeping this melodious lunatic awake.

Home in Sweden at the moment, the boys are enjoying a little rest after having just finished a North American tour with the Eagles of Death Metal, “they were a great band to tour with, great people and really fun.” There is definitely some similarity in performance between the sexual force fire that is EODM and the wide eyed stage antics of The Hives, Almqvist in particular (thus the ‘Howlin’ tag). It’s a shame Australia are only offered similar shows during the summer festival season, but when they do arrive this December, audiences can rest assured that the boys will put on one hell of a show.

Last October The Hives introduced their fourth album entitled The Black and White Album, nearly 4 years after the explosive Tyrannosaurus Hives. Not yet having had the chance to tour this record in Aus, Almqvist says they look forward to touring here with the new material and basking in the awesomeness that is Falls Festival and the Australian summer. “The first time we played Australia was the Falls Festival in New Years in 2001...the promoter lent us his house on the beach and we learnt to surf, since then Australia always has a special place in our heart.”

I think it’s fair to say that although The Hives seem to have been AWOL in the past couple of years; they have a pretty loyal following which has undoubtedly led to the excitement surrounding their return. Their fan base was tested with the release of The Black and White Album as it is a definite step in a slightly obscure direction. Indeed, quite far from the usual ‘black and white’ Hives formula. “We wanted to make it sound different...I guess the producers contributed to that but the producers were involved because we wanted to sound different too. We’ve never had producers before and now that we know what they do, they don’t really change that much, at least not in terms of what we do.”

The presence of Pharrell Williams on tracks Well All Right! and T.H.E.H.I.V.E.S. is hard to ignore as the record’s sound moves from hectic, to a more structured stripped back sound. “Working with Pharrell Williams kind of changed a lot, but that was different because we wrote the songs with him, whereas all the other producers just produced...they’re basically trying to make what you want to make sound better.”

On writing with I tried to manoeuvre the conversation in the direction of Randy Fitzsimmons. I was hoping that Almqvist would divulge some inside information on the elusive creator. The band claims that Fitzsimmons is the brainchild behind The Hives and all of the band’s tracks; he takes full writing credit. But when will he appear? Almqvist is coy and responds with a noncommittal “so far he has expressed no interest in making an appearance.” I wonder; is he smirking while on this faceless intercontinental phone call? “Nah nah nah, I’m not smirking, I mean I wouldn’t be smirking even if I was lying because we have talked about it so much that if it was a lie I wouldn’t be smirking anymore.” Shifty.

Well in that case, Randy Fitzsimmons new collection of songs on The Black and White Album marks a slight departure for The Hives, from a chaotic sound to a more structured and experimental one; but Howlin Pelle still manages to belt it out just as he did 15 years ago. Much like the transition from Barely Legal to Veni Vidi Vicious; The Black and White Album reveals a change in the bands approach to making a record while retaining key aspects of their sound.

“We felt like Tyrannosaurus Hives was as far as we could go in that direction and we wanted to go in 50 different directions on this one. We kind of wanted to... set ourselves free.” And that they did with a total of 14 tracks chosen by a friend from the many they had ready. I asked Almqvist about A Stroll Through Hive Manor Corridors which I felt was an odd choice knowing there were so many other possibilities. Here I may have dug myself a hole as Almqvist suspected that I didn’t like the track. Not wanting to offend, I reassured him I approved but was a little confused by their choice of a 2 minute 39 second instrumental. A few nervous chuckles later he explained “we wanted it to represent that it was a strange album...we wanted to make a strange record and leaving that in there kind of proved the point a little... but listening to the entire record it does stand alone.”
“We want every record to be a new record, but we also want it to sound like the hives as much as we can which is always a weird balance you gotta strike. How much we want it to be classic hives and how much we want it to be something new.”

Another song that jumps out is Giddy Up! which maintains the same quirky style but has a clear Devo influence, which Almqvist confirmed and added “the idea in the first place was that it would have that horse rhythm which we always thought of as an iron maiden thing... it was done when we got home, we produced it ourselves.” As for the songs that didn’t make the final cut, it’s doubtful that they will make it to the ears of the eager listener, “I think we all feel like we want to make ones for the next album...I feel like the songs that you write for a record should stick to that record, maybe if we do some sort of odds and ends collection they might end up there but I feel like it would be cheating putting songs that are 5 years old on a new record.”

So with a new record in mind, what does it mean for The Hives? Will the next be the last?

“We had an idea of quitting after 3 records, but now that we didn’t do that, the only other option is to go on forever.”

Sounds alright to me.

The Hives play:

29 Dec- The Forum- Melbourne, VIC
30 Dec- The Falls Festival- Lorne, VIC
31 Dec- The Falls Festival- Marion Bay, TAS
2 Jan- Southbound Festival- Busselton, WA
6 Jan- The Metro Theatre- Sydney, NSW
7 Jan- Sunset Sounds- Brisbane, QLD

The Black and White Album is out now through A&M/Octone.

Share this article on Facebook