Backyard Babies – 13-09-2008

Interview with: Nicke Borg
By: Sabine van Gameren & Elvira Visser

The Backyard Babies are on tour with their latest album “Backyard Babies. Today, at 13-09-2008, Nicke Borg took time to do an interview with Tempelores Magazine.

“Backyard Babies” has just been released. Can you tell us the most interesting fact about it?
Nicke: “There are a lot of interesting facts in every album I think. When it comes to recording and writing it was very interesting in the way that we used a producer called Jacob Hellner. He is mostly famous for working with Rammstein. As you can tell it wasn’t the sound where we looking for when we choose a producer, it was more they way that he works with bands. He is very focused and does not give up if something doesn’t work out. He twist and turns, does it again, tries another way around until it works. He really has that attitude. We are not such a focused band in that way so it was not really that comfortable. Half of the recording was a hell, and half of it was really, really fun.
Also, another different thing was that we wrote like ten, twelve songs and maybe recorded seven of these. Then we went back to the rehearsal studio and continue to write what we were missing on this album. What do we need, then we had another ten, twelve songs where we picked seven, six songs of. So, we recorded it in two different periods. It was really interesting. It’s a long process and it is really expensive but we thought it was a good idea. Sometimes when you write twenty/thirty songs, even though they are different there tend to be the same sort of vibe in it. You always come up with new ideas when recording, those ideas we used when we wrote the second part. I always come up with two or three songs during a recording, while we already had the songs to record. So that is our thought behind it. A song like “Saved By The Bell” for example is totally written in the studio during the recording and it turned out to be a very cool track.
So that is the most interesting thing about the album but the best part is that everyone seems to like it.”

It’s easy to put the link between The Hellacopters and Backyard Babies since Dregen have been in that band, I noticed you have a crashing helicopter in the artwork from “Backyard Babies”. What is that suppose to mean? Is that a symbolic thing or just a joke?
Nicke: “Yeah, what can that be? Can it be symbolizing something? Most people don’t even notice it. It’s up to you to decide what you think it is. Someone is falling out of it I think.”

Exactly five people are falling out of it.
Nicke: ”Five people exact… Even the keyboard player.”

Only one of you is watching it.
Nicke: “Is that Peder? Maybe that is because he is together with Nicke Andersson girlfriend her sister. I am not sure. I never thought about that, that only one was watching it. The whole artwork in general we were very proud of as well. We used the same guys as in 1994. We maybe had at some point different photographers, but to put the artwork together we used the same guys. His name is Micke Eriksson. We wanted some more symbolized things. Like the New York buildings when they are building New York. Sitting there up high when one little wind can mean death. That is how the business is today. You never know, one side wind can be a disaster. And actually, you are hanging really loose in this business today. We are not afraid of being Backyard Babies. We are there anyway. That is what it symbolizes as well. Life and death is there every day.”

In albums before you have worked with a lot of guest musicians. In “Backyard Babies” you only worked with Dizzy Reed (Guns n Roses). Was it a specific choice, to work with fewer guests this time?
Nicke: “He is a really good piano player so it was great to work with them. I wanted Axl to do some background vocals but he was a bit too confused. “

In my opinion Backyard Babies is definitely a band you have to experience live. I know you guys tour a lot. Is this the Rock n Roll lifestyle you always dreamt of while being a young boy?
Nicke: ”When we were young, standing in our parents’ garage playing with a tennis racket you have this idea of what it suppose to be like. When we decided to form the band I think it was not just for the music, it was for everything. The traveling, the girls, the parties and then the music became more and more important. Otherwise you can’t continue to do it. We always put the music in the first place.
The one thing we share more then just being on stage is that we love traveling, seeing new places. For example, this tour we are doing now, we do a lot of eastern countries that you maybe wouldn’t go to as a tourist. We got to play in front of those people and it is a wonderful thing to be on the road. But it is also not that romantic as most people seem to think it is. We are still in that fucking bus 24/7. Now we have a girl support band (Crucified Barbara) with us. In two weeks we are gonna have another support band in the bus which will be five guys. I am not sure if it is going to be equal fun. At least now it smells like flowers in there! I rather watch a nice ass in the morning than a stinking guy.”

I have seen you talking about vinyl records several times in interviews. I found some of your albums are available on vinyl as well.
Nicke: “ Yeah mostly, because of the artwork. Everything is bigger and better on a vinyl. If you are really picky on the sound, it is a better sound as well. Nowadays, it doesn’t really matter. I still remember like it was yesterday you got “Shout At The Devil” by Mötley Crüe. On the sleeve there is a black pentagram and then you open it up, you see four pictures of the guys in it. I have had it on my wall. And nowadays on Itunes you hardly see what it is. Vinyl is good in that way. Also, a lot of people like to collect vinyls. You can’t collect Itunes tracks. Like you download a cd on your computer… you can’t collect those like that. Vinyl is probably always going to be around. I think that cd’s maybe just disappear sooner or later.
I think we haven’t seen by far the end of how to release music. Maybe next year there will be a new way of releasing music. And maybe after that again. I think it was Elton John who said that his biggest wish that the internet will be shut down for two years. To see what is gonna happen. In a way I agree without sounding like I am struggling backwards, there is a lot of crap like music wise on the internet. Everyone can put their fucking music on MySpace. It is also good, but it makes the kids a bit spoiled. When you recorded a demo, you use to put stamps on it, send it to thousands of record companies all over the world maybe without getting an answer. Now it is just like press the send button. So in the end it has bad sides but good sides too.”

Do you think that if there are not too much cd’s anymore, people rather see live shows?
Nicke: “Well, there is one thing that is actually good for us as a live band. Even if you buy a live dvd, you will never catch the feeling like ‘I was there, in the front row with a bottle in my hand, I got sweaty, I could touch the guitarist’ Stuff like that you can not get via a live DVD or a you-tube video.”

I saw your video from “Fuck Off and Die”, you have some evil shadows there!
How important are video’s as being a visual aspect of Backyard Babies?
Nicke: “Video’s like ours are not really shown on television, so there is always the question why wasting money on it. On you-tube you can only see them in a small format. I do like good rock video’s. Like “Paradise City” by Guns ‘n Roses. We did a sort of tribute to that video as well. We did a video from “Roads” of the “People Like People Like People Like Us” album, where you see building up the stage, the lights you know… But in these days the music is not shown on television at all. It is sad I think. I say just put up a camera and we’ll play. But we are gonna do a video of “Nomadic” which will be our new single for 99% sure.”

About the virtual world of music, I have heard you have a Guitar Hero hit! Are you guys game fanatics?
Nicke: “No, Not at all. Actually I did not know about the game until one of our songs got in. I tried it a few times, because I have to promote the game, but I am not good at it. Probably, kids and grown up like this. The kids play it and then the parents have a couple of drinks and take over the guitar.”

You told the world that “Backyard Babies” is the most typical Backyard Babies album you made. What does that say about future releases?
Nicke: ”Well we are gonna celebrate our 20 years together next year. It’s not sure there will be a next release that year though, we will be touring a lot, but we already knew during the writing that this album was going to be a “Backyard Babies” album. I think that, if you don’t like this album, you don’t like the Backyard Babies or any other Backyard Babies album, because this is what we are about. We are very proud of the album.

Backyard Babies have been around for a long time now, I assume you will be around for a while as well. Is there something that you really want to do from the start but still have not done?
Nicke: “Sleep! Haha! Well, it is a very long time, and we like what we do. We always like to make people happy. But there is still a big, big island on the other side of the world. It would be nice to have more shows over there.”

In one word: Worlddomination?
Nicke: “You named it!”

Links:
Backyard Babies MySpace
Backyard Babies Official