In-Store Session:Swedish sorta-punkers grow up, make more music

Millencolin - Machine 15
Posted by Laila Hanson on 07-Jul-08 @ 01:05 PM

[3.5/5]
Rewind to 1993, and Millencolin were pounding out that patented early-'90s Epitaph double-time skate-rock beat, singing about Nintendo, soup and Mr. Clean. Fifteen years later (yes, that's part of the story behind the album's title), Machine 15, their seventh proper album, finds the band comfortably settling into the mid-tempo poppery that made 2000's Pennybridge Pioneers so great. The result is a much more cohesive record compared to 2005's somewhat bi-polar Kingwood, which jumped around between straight-ahead rock and the band's older, faster punk sound. On Machine, the band dabble with strings on several tracks ("Done Is Done," "Ducks And Drakes"), and get more contemplative ("Saved By Hell") then we've heard them before. Vocalist/bassist Nikola Sarcevic mixes things up vocally as well, giving a more gruff performance on "Who's Laughing Now?". There's a decent amount of variety, like the super-catchy title track and the radio-ready "Brand New Game," though the record gets a touch repetitive as the tracks wear on. Case in point, "Route One" and "Danger For Stranger," which follow each other in the tracklisting, begin with almost the exact same drum roll, tempo and similar progressions. Word to your mother--mix that shit up next time. (BURNING HEART/EPITAPH) Casey Lynch

ROCKS LIKE:
Millencolin's Pennybridge Pioneers
Jimmy Eat World's Jimmy Eat World
The All-American Rejects' Move Along

IN-STORE SESSION WITH GUITARIST MATHIAS FARM

What's the story behind Machine 15?

There are lots of things that add up to 15. There's 15 tracks on the album, me and Nikola [Sarcevic, vocalist/bassist] started to skateboard when we were 15 years old, we've been a band for 15 years--lots of 15s, so it just fit.

Machine 15 goes in the opposite direction of Kingwood with no faster punk beats. Was that an intentional move?
Not at all. Me and Nikola write the songs for the band. We're always writing songs, so when its time to do a new album, we get together to compare what we have. We always just try to write 20 really good songs, it doesn't really matter if they're fast songs, rock songs, pop songs. They just need to be good.

Do you feel like you're beyond the skate-rock pigeonhole?
Once you put out your first record and you get labeled in a genre, it's important to make progress and have fun and offer something new. For us, we don't want it to be the same record that we did 10 years ago with every new record.

Does part of that have to do with getting older?
It doesn't have anything to do with age. I could be in a grindcore band playing my ass off. It's really about how you make progression. When we started the band, we just did what we wanted--we even played ska-core. I personally think it would be kind of boring if we did the same thing every record. [For Kingwood], the faster stuff just popped up in the rehearsal room, but again there was no intention to make it any one way. I'm still proud of Kingwood, but its kind of a weird album; it's kind of divided.

What's "Brand New Game" about?
Everything is new with the music industry, everything is changing with downloading free music. The verse is made up of titles of our old songs, it sums up that things are changing. We're facing not getting paid for our work; it's scary. When you can get something for free, people think they shouldn't have to pay for any of it. That's the way society works now.

Where does Millencolin fit into the music scene these days?
It doesn't matter what you call the music now at all, we've always been a punk-rock band. Punk rock is about doing what you want to do, it doesn't have to be fast or slow. It's more about lifestyle. If you think about what Bob Dylan did when he decided to go electric, he got all these people that hated it and booed him. That was punk rock, because it's what he wanted to do and he did it. --Casey Lynch


Official Website: http://www.epitaph.com


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