Sweden. Land of snow. Of the midnight sun. Of ABBA, Ingmar Bergman and Blue Swede, whose "Hooked On A Feeling" gave us those immortal words, "Ooogah-chucka, ooogah-chucka, ooogah-ooogah-ooogah-chucka". There are no oooga-chuckas in Shotgun Messiah. The Swedish-cum-American metal quartet is more "Rrrrrreeeeeeedadadadaddadadawhoooooooom".

"We sound like what we sound like", say drummer Stixx, formerly Stixx Galore, formerly Pekka Ollinen of Skovde, the Swedish version of Jersey.

"But in Sweden, everybody wants you to sound like everybody else."

"Euro-pop", agrees vocalist Zinny J. San in disgust, spitting out the word like a plug of diseased tobacco. "Or", interjects guitarist Harry K. Cody, "you had to be Dokken or [The Michael] Schenker [Group]. We were freaks - we were into Alice Cooper and KISS.

"You can't even look this way", marvels Zinny, referring to the bans's L.A. locks and rock'n'roll regalia. "Because then they think you can't play, or they say, 'Oh, it's a fashion show'. It's ridiculous", he snears.
"We've never seen a contradiction. It was never, for us, that if you're a serious musician you can't spray your hair".

So spray they did, and maybe even mousse. And when the aerosol cleared away, what remained was a hard, buzzsaw sound highlighted by explosive guitar lines. Guitar World magazine's recent list of the six most promising new hard rock guitarists made sure to include Shotgun Messiah's Harry K. Cody (whose middle initial stands for his civilian last name, Kemppainen). With songs like "Shout It Out", the first single, and tough, melodic tunes like "Bop City" and "Nowhere fast", the band's selftitled American debut album should fine a niche somewhere, fast.

The road to that niche started several thousands miles away, in the Swedish capital of Stockholm. There, Zinny, still known as Bo Stagman, sang for Easy Action.

But, "I quit in '84", he recalls, "because they wanted to go more pop".

He soonafter found himself in New York, playing with a band called The Throbs, and then, 1986, back in Sweden to try to form his own group. The European rock press was following all his movements, and a magazine article about Zinny brought him to the attention of Stixx, Cody and bassist Tim Tim (Tim Skold). The three of them plus a vocalist friend were already together as aband called Kingpin, but the lead singer just wasn't cutting it and a replacement had to be found. That wasn't easy in Skovde, a military-industrial suburb of Stockholm best known for its Volvo factory.

"Skovde is a very small town", Stixx explains. "There are five bands and everybody knows each other. Tim and Harry had been together since '83, '84 in Kingpin, when I was still in this small, shitty local band, and they just needed a drummer and asked me".

In early 1987, the trio heard that Zinny was free, and a match seemed made in heaven, or at least as far north to it as most people want to get. With Zinny in place, the new quartet took off for America, which they quickly learned is the land of lawsuits.

"There was a San Fransisco band called The Kingpins", says Zinny. The told us, 'If you keep that name, there's gonna be a lawsuit'. So we wound up sitting around with a couple of beers, and a good friend was with us, and he just came up with it [the name]. It really doesn't mean anything", he contends. "It's just a good, strong name".

And along with it, they had a good, strong demo: a 1988 album, 'Welcome To Bop City', released on the Swedish label CMM.

"We recorded the album in 1987 just to come here", says Stixx. It was begun with "another vocalist, but his voice just couldn't do what it needed to. We're still good friends", he says.

Nonetheless, Zinny laid down new, improved vocals where necessary, and brought some of his own material in as well. The first album was principally written by Cody, but now the whole bunch of them are working out new songs. And too, they're getting more and more acclimated to Los Angeles. Their English, learned in Sweden's top-notch public school system, is virtually accentless. If you didn't know they were Swedish, you'd swear the guys came from The Valley or San Berdoo.

"L.A. is like one big vacation", Tim Tim enthuses. "Yeah", adds Zinny with a mile-wide smile, "after the first month, we were exhausted! Coming from Sweden, we didn't realize it was sunny every day!"

Part of the exhaustion came from the fact that their first home here was a house where, they say, Guns'n'Roses had previously lived.

"Everybody in Los Angeles knows it", swears Zinny. "They call it the Hell House!".

Since then, for the sake of sleep, the four have divided into two nearby apartments.

Now, with the "Shout It Out" video having been directed by rock movie auteur Penelope Spheeris (director of the rockumentaries "The Decline Of Western Civilization" and "The Decline Of Western Civilization Party II: The Metal Years", Shotgun Messiah seems on its way to stateside success. And more's the pty. Because staying in the U.S. and making loud music may leave these poor homesick Swedes - ahem - hard of herring...

Frank Lovece