"Swedish bands are shit!"

Surely you don't mean that?

"Oh yes I do!" emphasises Tim Skold, bassist-turned-vocalist of Swedish band Shotgun Messiah. Since relocating to LA four years ago, Tim and the rest of the big-haired bop-rockers have wised up about their homeland. Shit bands, shit industry, shit prospects. Most people would agree.

As a result of moving to Tinseltown, the band's straighter-than-straight guitar Rock has developed into something a little more unpredictable. Take, for example, the fact that they're just about to release an EP of mainly Punk covers and you'll understand that Shotgun Messiah are trying to shake off the shackles of traditional Swedish Rock...the doing-it-by-the-rules mentality of not allowing any kind of diversification from the monotonous European stadium Rawk avenue. How did the EP, 'I Want More', come about? Tim, one of those insufferably bouncy Swedes, thinks about the question seriously before answering.

"We've always tried to prove something in the past. Like the first self-titled album, we were saying 'Hey, look at us, we can play wicked shit!'. The second one was like 'Hey, we can write really good songs!', really showing off, you know? After touring for so long playing covers of The Ramones' '53rd And 3rd' and The Stooges' 'Search And Destroy', we finally said 'Fuck it, fuck what anybody else thinks, let's just do what we want'.

Hence the EP, and the same attitude will carry on into the third album, which we're just starting to record now. It's a far cry from the straight-laced approach we had in Sweden."

Sweden is far enough away that Tim has only been able to return there for Christmas ("...you know, the parent thing"). LA doesn't exactly inspire him. Indeed, he's more cynical about its 'great promises' than most of us, but he still seems to think it's the hub of Rock'n'Roll universe. Shame there's nobody within that hub who can conjure up enough money for Shotgun MEssiah to come over to England.

"We've become very cynical. We've started to think we're never gonna get to England. It's never gonna happen..."

But surely they must have realised that Sweden's closer to England than America, and that the chances of touring our wonderful country would've been that much better had they stayed there?!
Original vocalist Zinny J. San returned to Scandinavia about three years ago, having had enough of the so-called 'American Dream'. Maybe it's time for the rest of them to go home too...

Pippa Lang