Levitation Interview: the Hives Wax Deep ATX Roots

The Hives pose for a portrait at Mohawk ahead of their Levitation set on Halloween night 2021. (Photo by David Brendan Hall)

Though the Hives would be the first to tell you they’re no shoo-in for an event rooted in psychedelia (as vocalist “Howlin’” Pelle Almqvist declared onstage, “We’re quite possibly the least psychedelic band at the festival”), their Halloween headlining of Mohawk fit the mold in their own ways.

For one, Levitation has long eschewed a one-genre format – organizers clearly understand that sonic diversity proliferates an inclusive and harmonious community of live music diehards. And let’s be real: Almqvist practically embodied the term “levitation” throughout the set, spending roughly half of it off the ground. He effortlessly launched into flying high-kicks, mid-air splits, crowdsurfing and continually scaled the walls and railings of the venue.

“This is the most psychedelic I’ve felt!” exclaimed the tireless frontman at one point.

Generally speaking, an undeniable sense of belonging permeated the performance, a mutual embrace between band and audience that underscored the need for total release during a post-pandemic Levitation.

Almqvist set that tone in his greeting following high-octane opener “Come On!” – “You people look like a bunch of fuckin’ freaks … I feel right at home!” – and that sentiment is anything but isolated to this performance. Actually, the Hives’ affinity for Austin is traceable to their origins as an internationally touring live band.

That fact came to light during my pre-show interview with three of the group’s founders: Almqvist, guitarist Nicholaus Arson and drummer Chris Dangerous, discussing that career-defining, Austin-centric anecdote, plus the band’s feelings about Halloween and human sacrifice, and what their upcoming new album might sound like.

Austin Chronicle: There’s been a big break since the last time y’all played live, and you’ve been back on the road recently. What I’ve been seeing this weekend is some of the best sets in Levitation history. It feels like there’s a lot of pent-up energy from all the fans. What’s been y’all’s experience with that? Do you think your recent shows are some of your best, or is there at least a significant difference between these and past shows?

Pelle Almqvist: We’ve been really great. The crowds have been a little out of practice sometimes. It takes them a song or two to get back into the groove of being a post-pandemic crowd again. Maybe some of them are not used to the physicality.

AC: So the main difference you see is in the audiences, but the Hives are on point — that’s what you’re saying?

Nicholaus Arson: The Hives are on point.

PA: Yes. I’m nodding, on the tape. The suspect is nodding.

AC: I caught one of the livestreams y’all did from Sweden back in January. Personally, I got sick of livestreams during the pandemic pretty quickly, but I made some exceptions for ticketed ones here and there, like yours, because it involved real audience participation with the live call-ins, song requests, and chat interaction. What was that like to be playing to nobody and still have to deliver the way that you normally do?

Chris Dangerous: We had a DJ in the room that had sampled the audience sounds from our previous shows in each of the cities that we played. So we had really, really loud audience participation noise between songs in the room. So that way, it didn’t feel empty. I think we tried to do one of those where we didn’t have it, and it fucking sucked.

NA: But we could trick ourselves with just the noise – it worked really well. We were live and had people calling in and stuff. That’s one of the reasons we’re in such good shape now, I think. We were in decent shape before that and then we had to practice really hard. And then we were super good doing that.

AC: I tried to request a song, but hey, you know, there were a lot of people calling.

PA: We had like … looking at the phone after the show, there was like 1500, 1600 missed calls or something.

AC: So you could actually see that?

NA: Yeah … but it was actually fun to pick up the phone and call some people and talk to them. Every once in awhile it was someone you knew, like “Hey it’s Brian!” And you go, “Is this Brian from Birmingham?” “Fuck yeah!”

PA: Yeah Nik would spend the rest of the night calling people up like “I had a missed call. It’s live!”

AC: Is that a true story?

NA: Yeah! It was super fun.

PA: It was like hanging out in the dressing room after a show. It was actually pretty realistic – the whole situation.

The Hives levitating at Mohawk. (Photo by David Brendan Hall)

AC: So that was a little piece of human connection you were regaining at the time. And how about now? You’ve played a few shows … you were in Atlanta. In general, what did it feel like to be back in front of people for the first time?

CD: It’s like you said in the beginning, it’s a lot of energy that has been saved up and you’re obviously kind of nervous about doing it, like a full tour, because it was so long ago, apart from the digital world tour.

AC: And shit is still in flux somewhat – it’s still a little freaky out there.

CD: Yeah, it is, but, I mean, it’s just going better and better I think. The last show we played was Nashville and that was probably the … I don’t know … if there were some sort of judges judging, I think … I don’t know … I think that show was the best so far.

AC: One thing about Levitation is that it’s full of die-hards for the music and you guys are a little bit outside of the pocket of psychedelic music, so…

PA: Yeah, it’s not very psychedelic at all, actually.

AC: Do you feel some sort of connection with that scene anyway? Like, what’s it like going into a festival like this?

PA: Our influences are the other side of the garage rock spectrum, I think, but I like a lot of psychedelic music, even though it’s not what we do at all.

NA: I think our connection with psychedelic music is that we like the bands that then became psychedelic. They were sort of straightforward garage rock and then two years later, they turned into … for example, a lot of people consider Music Machine a psychedelic band and we’re totally into that, but to me they sound more like rock and roll. So there is a connection.

AC: Yeah, this festival, before it was Levitation, used to be called Austin Psych Fest. Levitation kind of opened the door for it to be a little more diverse – some hip-hop, some garage, some different things.

PA: I like a lot of psychedelic music, but the thing with our band is pretty much trying to be as un-psychedelic as possible. I had a friend who was into psychedelic music and he gave me the Sonics record – it was called Psycho-Sonic, so he thought it would be a psychedelic record, but he was like, “This is probably something you would like.” And it was.

NA: It changed our lives.

AC: In what ways?

NA: That it was some of the greatest stuff we’d ever heard. It was like discovering AC/DC, or discovering the Ramones, or discovering, you know … because they’re one of our top five bands.

AC: I’m going to backtrack just a little bit because we were talking about y’all getting ready for the livestream stuff, sort of training to get out there again, so … one little interesting Levitation connection I wanted to talk about … Pelle, you’re kind of already the master of “levitation” with what you do. Am I right?

PA: Yeah I levitate – pretty high. But intermittently. Intermittent levitation.

AC: Is that something that you have to practice or is that something that just sort of flows out of you like the words you say on the mic?

PA: I don’t practice, but I think if I stop doing it, it will stop working.

AC: So you don’t stand in a room and try to float to get ready, right?

PA: Am I getting it right? I don’t know. I guess I just kind of jump and don’t think about it too much. That’s like the thing of talking between songs. I feel like if I start thinking about it then I’ll probably just mess it up. It’s better if I don’t think about it …

NA: I never thought about that. It’s a jam – it’s a jam thing going on. Without us knowing about it.

PA: Yeah, I’ve been jamming between songs. They’re gonna fire me know – the secret’s out.

AC: So … y’all haven’t had a record out for what …?

NA: One hundred years.

AC: Like nine years, which seems like a long time.

PA: It is a long time.

AC: Generally speaking, I feel like the Hives have pretty big gaps between records, so where are you at with new music and the creation process?

NA: We have a lot of new things and a lot of it’s good. We just have to buckle down and put it on record.

PA: Yeah, it takes awhile to make a good record. I mean, this gap is ridiculous, but our normal gap, so to speak, is also kind of long. I feel like I know a lot of bands that put out half-as-good records as we do twice as often. With that logic, this is going to be pretty amazing.

AC: Without giving anything away, can we expect some particular sort of evolution from the Hives?

CD: There are so many songs, so this could take us any direction.

AC: And by so many songs, you mean things that you’ve written that you might or might not put on there?

PA: Yeah, probably stuff that we’ll release at one point or another, but there’s so many different types of songs, so they could be either a very straightforward Hives record, or they could be something that we’ve never really done before.

AC: Alright, let’s do a quick round table. Each of you give me one word giving me a sonic inkling of what be on this record.

CD: Laser sound.

PA: ROCK.

NA: I was going to say … “Boom!”

PA: That could be the title right there: “Laser Rock Boom.”

AC: And how do you feel about Halloween? Is this a special thing? Do you care?

PA: Swedish Halloween is more about human sacrifice and it’s more old-school. It’s not as gimmicky. We meet at the cemetery and we light some candles for our relatives and then we sacrifice one relative.

AC: Perfect, so who’s going tonight?

PA: Well, we’re not at home, so we can’t really do it appropriately.

NA: We can’t participate.

PA: It’s also illegal here. Murder is illegal.

AC: Well you are in Texas.

PA: Well if they’re on my lawn. I don’t have a lawn in Texas so …

The Hives at Levitation. (Photo by David Brendan Hall)

AC: Y’all have been playing quite a long time now.

PA: We’re celebrating 30 years next year. It’s a long-ass time.

AC: So that practically makes y’all classic rock. Do you stop and think about that sometimes?

PA: I try not to, but yeah.

AC: I can remember seeing the Hives at a place called La Zona Rose when I was a teenager, and it was an incredible show.

PA: That was a good show. I liked that place, it was cool.

AC: Y’all have surely had a ton of experiences in Austin, so is there anything particularly memorable about Austin or anything that sticks with you.

CD: Because it was the first city we came to in America.

AC: At South by Southwest?

PA: Yeah, in ’99.

CD: It has a very special place in our hearts because … the week we spent here playing that show we were young kids, so it’s always fun to come back and we’ve played so many places here. Like Emo’s and Stubb’s.

PA: I remember a lot of those … and Ego’s. I remember that one. And I remember taking a full roll of a disposable camera walking around from the hotel, because everything was like, ‘This looks like America!’ Like a photo of a fire hydrant and then being like, “Look how wide these sidewalks are!” Everything was interesting.

NA: We spent a week here for the one show and we saw all of the other bands and stuff we wanted to see … the Donnas, I think, and the Bellrays played … and Supersuckers … those were all great bands that we could check out. Then we walked that whole week, all over Austin. Like if we wanted to go to the record store or something, we walked there and we walked back, and we saw the whole town.

PA: Yeah, it’s like Austin was the star of our touring abroad outside of Europe. We’d done like one Euro tour before we did Austin. So tonight is like us coming back into the world, in a way. It’s pretty full-circle to be back in Austin.

CD: It’s a homecoming.

NA: Yeah, that’s sort of stayed the same all through the years.

AC: Are y’all taco fans?

ALL: Yeah.

PA: And the tacos taste exactly the same as they did in 99.

AC: That’s reassuring, isn’t it?

PA: Yes, it’s comforting!

AC: Speaking of reassurance, if y’all could give one message to the people of Austin to help people feel that everything’s going to be OK, that we’re moving in the right direction as a global music community, what would it be?

PA: We’re happy to be back and we love you. You’re safe, because we’re back!

AC: Any other parting words?

PA: Thank you, Austin, for everything you’ve done for us. And you’re welcome, for everything we’ve done for you.