Magnus "Adde" Andreasson

Hardcore Superstar

New HARDCORE SUPERSTAR album.
It's good.
Review it.
Write & send questions.
Receive answers (could 've been richer)…
Listen to "Rime Of The Ancient Mariner" while working on the text.
"In A Gadda Da Vidda" is in cue.
Thanx Adde.

By Grigoris Chronis

• December 6, 2010

Also read: Harcore Superstar - "Split Your Lip" review

It's now thirteen years HARDCORE SUPERSTAR is alive…and kickin', we'd add! From the fuzzy days of "It's Only Rock 'n' Roll"/"Bad Sneakers And A Pina Colada" to today's global promotion by a grand label like Nuclear Blast and commercial success, are there time you try to see if the initial motive for forming HARDCORE SUPERSTAR remains the same?

Believe me, our motive is the same. We always try to find new ways to write and that makes it so cool to be in HCSS. We've never been afraid to add anything to our style if we think it will fit the music. We've been like that from the start.

Alright, with a brand new album in your luggage what I'd first like to ask is how is the title related to the cover artwork? Did you reject other proposals in order to come up with this specific CD front?

Title is not related to the cover. "Split Your Lip" is about how people combine violence with pleasure and the cover is another story. We had a rough copy of the album and our producer (Tobias Lindell) wanted to see if it was a party album. He hired the restaurant in a hotel and we invited some friends to join us. We got totally hammered and ended up in the hotels sauna with a boombox blasting out our new songs. Our guitar tech thought that "Split Your Lip" was about licking someone's pussy and pulled up his hand to his mouth and did the licking sign. We all thought it would make a great cover so we hired a hot chick a couple of days after and that poor girl had to stand there for a whole day and do that sign.

Speaking of CDs, the previous album was released on vinyl (thankfully, for us the romantic ones). Is there a chance for the new album to be pressed on vinyl?

I hope so. We've released all our albums on vinyl except for "No Regrets" and "Hardcore Superstar". I would be soooo cool to have a copy of "Split…" on vinyl. I'll ask Nuclear Blast.

Was there any change in the way you worked on your album this time? Gradually getting familiar with "Split Your Lip" I did finds enough in common with "Beg For It" but there's surely some behind-the-lines info you could share with us regarding the making of the new CD.

We wanted to a more human and live sounding album this time. We also wanted to simplify our writing and be more don't bore us get to the chorus. We recorded it live with all four of us (only overdubbed guitar solo and backing vocals) in the same room without a clicktrack just to sound as human as possible. "Split…" is less thrashy and I consider it our Friday night out album.

The two albums did not have a big gap in between. Was there such amount of inspiration or some of the songs in "Split…" were written in the "Beg…" days?

We wrote new songs for "Split…". We started to write after our little trip with MOTLEY CRUE last summer. We actually wrote a lot of stuff on the road this time, something we've never done before. Our manager told us to stop when we had like 35-40 songs. He said that we had enough good songs for about three albums. We've had a lot of fun during our last tour on "Beg…" and with that came inspiration.

Since HARDCORE SUPERSTAR became a big name (outside Sweden/Scandinavia, at least) in the last five years or so (I can recall "We Don't Celebrate Sundays" being a breakthrough song for the band's reputation in my country, at least) do you have any clue what amount of fans from your early days are still loyal to the band? There are many many cases were a band expands its audience but loses a strong portion of its original fan base when the band becomes a bigger name.

Every time we release an album I believe we lose some old fans but gain more new. That's only what I think though.

I've always wondered if a HARDCORE SUPERSTAR song could clock to 6,7 or 8 minutes? I know this is not a typical duration for the style you're performing but have you ever laid down any tracks that were too 'extended' (even if they finally did not make it to an album)?

We've never clocked our songs. Next time we'll outdo IRON MAIDEN's "Rime Of The Ancient Mariner" and record a 13.35 minute long song.

I now listen to "Moonshine", in specific: it has some weird ska/reggae verse part, to be honest. Your music making has often been described as rock 'n' roll or sleaze or heavy/thrash or whatever but I'd like to know if the band yourselves have any limitation in the open-mind-ness of your music? Is it all about good music having fun after all?

The best thing about being in HCSS is our musical freedom. LED ZEPPELIN always sounded like them even though they covered a lot of styles. I can't imagine that LED ZEP, THE BEATLES or even ROLLING STONES would have been around for so long if they hadn't covered and explored a lot of styles.

Seen you live in 2008 (I think, haha) at Germany's Bang Your Head! festival. You were a killer onstage, that's a fact, and I was glad to see you impressed a lot of traditional Metal fans too, who usual cannot tolerate "sleaze" (as thy say) bands. I've also seen this in songs of yours played at Rock/Metal clubs and this is definitely thumbs up. What's the recipe in a couple of words for HARDCORE SUPERSTAR to attract fans from various genres? Not many bands have achieved this after the 80s.

I think that people see and feel our energy and joy. Volume is something beautiful. It turns you into to a madman.

Have you ever performed at a Punk Rock festival? Would you like to?

That would be cool! I've always seen HCSS as a street band. We combine styles that originally came from the streets, we're a working class band…A sleazy version of Bruce Springsteen, hahaha!

Sharing the stage with big classic Rock/Metal names, do you ever stand sidestage to see how they perform, for transfer of knowledge?

Always! We've been fortunate and toured with our heroes (AC/DC, MOTORHEAD, MOTLEY CRUE) and learned from them. They have all been really cool and down to earth, something I try to be as well.

Do you ever feel tired/angry of/for all these 70s/80s names still selling arenas while thousands of more 'fresh' bands still struggle for a good slot in a gig?

Not at all. They deserve it.

If "Split Your Lip" happens to be the band's last album – yes, of course no one wishes for this to happen – you think it will be memorized as an appropriate swan release?

Yes! It has all the ingredients of a perfect HCSS album.

Hand on heart: Vic or Thomas? And why, in a couple of words.

We gained a songwriter with Vic and that's why we are already back with a new album. Thomas did not write songs and he hated to rehearse. Vic's a hard working man. Thomas is a good friend but lazy as hell. I like him a lot as a friend.

What was the motive for you being included here? Wow, I didn't know you were at the Musicians Institute in Los Angeles. When were you there? Did this period influence the kind of music you'd listen to and play, I wonder?

Paul approached me after a show in Melbourne and asked me for an interview. We had some drinks and I gave him some answers, haha! I went to LA when I was 19 years old and this was in 1996. I stayed there for two years and I honestly don't remember school that much but I do remember polishing a star on the Hollywood blvd with my dick. LA was crazy 24/7 for 2 years. I also remember having sex in English for the first time, haha! I met a girl one night and we ended up at her place. She wanted me to talk dirty to her and I used up all my dirty words within one minute. Think I gave her some Swedish dirty words too.

Thanx for your time again, Magnus. Wish you all the be(a)st for HARDCORE SUPERSTAR and the new CD. Anything you'd like to add?

Next time you run into a Swede…buy him a beer!

Share on Facebook

Share via Email