The Hives

With their latest release, the Black and White Album, Fagersta, Sweden’s The Hives have entered a new chapter in their career. Though still steeped in ’60s garage rock tradition, you can feel the band stretching their legs with their new material, enjoying new grooves and new swagger. Bass player Dr. Matt Destruction in part credits their new lease on rock to working with a variety of producers, including acclaimed hip-hop producer Pharrell Williams.  

So I’ve been listening to the Black and White Album all day…
Me too. We haven’t had time to rehearse all the songs, so I listen to them to go through them once again. Instead of rehearsal I listen to the songs, the ones we haven’t played yet.

I was especially interested in what it was like for you, as a bass player in a rock ‘n’ roll band, to work with a hip-hop producer for the new album. What was it like, working with Pharrell?
I couldn’t imagine it being easier than it was. When they record it, he just plays on his synthesizer and comes up with something, then you just play the same octave. You have it in your headphones and you can pretty much play the same stuff…figure out if it’s doable. He has the keyboard so he has more keys you can go down. It was interesting.  They just record stuff quickly on the demos, and you work on them, actually. You don’t rehearse, you just pick a song and then you’re on it. It’s a faster way of working. We did like 100 songs a week or something.

How was it different from working with more rock-oriented producers?
He did totally different stuff. It’s more like the beat, or the idea what the beat was, that he was doing something bass-oriented for the swing of the song. What happened, he had one song idea done already when we came in. And then we recorded that. And then, he’s a jazz musician, [he used] totally different chords and notes than I would have played. It turned out great, and really quick. He just did the song on the keyboard and just played it once and recorded it like, “Oh, this is how we should go.” Then you just had a couple of minutes to check it out for yourself. How did you play that? I have to think of something else, then we just re-do it.

I noticed that the Black and White Album was recorded in several different studios by, what, like three different producers?
It was…um….like five.



It’s definitely your most stylistically diverse album. Did that variety come about from working with many different producers, or was that a goal you had in mind before you started recording?
The whole idea was in mind when we started, to have different styles. We wanted songs to sound really different. That was really good, eh? It worked. It was fun to go to different places and have different sounds, and different people too. We learned a lot making this record. The idea was to make the songs like a greatest hits record, where you hear one song and it sounds like this, then you play the next song and it’s another type of song. And just to make sure the songs sound really different we went to different studios and worked with different people, so we knew that would happen. 

Tonight you play a headlining set, then tomorrow you meet up to support Maroon5. What are the differences between performing as a headliner versus opening up for another act?
It’s not that big of a difference from our point of view. We do the same thing, we just go up and play our songs and just enjoy ourselves. It’s probably the reaction that’s different. Maybe its just more intense to have only 30 minutes to do a good set, so we try to take all the best parts. It’s more like the support [slot] is like getting run over by a truck, and then when we play by ourselves, you get run over with style. If we have only 30 minutes to play, we play the most energetic songs we have, and the best songs we have to offer. But it’s more like a quick set that’s maximum all the way through. So it’s really, really energetic in that way. When we play by ourselves, it’s more dynamic. In 30 minutes you don’t have as much time to be so dynamic, you know. It’s enough, but when we stop the show as a supporting band people want more, so we have to go off. So that’s different. People don’t get to see a whole show.

Do you feel any kinship with other rock ‘n’ roll bands that broke out in the United States around the same time that you did?
Yeah, the White Stripes and The Stokes, we met them a couple of times. We meet Jack [White] sometimes. Yeah, I would say we have good relationships with them, because we met when we were playing on tours.

Your music’s been associated with a lot of American sporting institutions, NFL, wrestling, as well as on the Cartoon Network, your song [“Fall is Just Something That Grownups Invented”] is one of their promos. How do you feel about your music’s association with all these various entities?
Well, it comes from all different directions. You can’t say it’s gonna turn out this or that. It’s fun, it’s interesting to put out our music in places like that. You reach a lot of people, I think that’s okay. Sometimes, maybe there are limits to what you would do, but as long as you pick the ones that you feel that you can stand for and would be a good thing for your band, I think that’s okay.

What products wouldn’t you want your music associated with?
Yeah, maybe like McDonald’s. We don’t want our music to be too commercial at all. I don’t know. Nothing like that. Music is music. As long as you can separate the music and, you know, what the band is and what it’s all about, I don’t mind being on the side of something else as long as you can separate the two. If you have a product, or football…as long as you can separate. Like, here’s the music and here’s the sports. I’m cool with it.

You might find this question kind of funny, but how long have you worn a moustache?
Since ’97, ’98.



So you’ve worn a moustache for the last 10 years or so. Which would you sooner cut off, your moustache or a pinky toe?
I can take away them both [laughs]. That was pretty easy. I could go without a moustache or a pinky toe as long as I still have my bass guitar and my fingers.

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