INTERVIEW: The Hives on Hippies, Humility, and Collaborating with a Beastie Boy

The Hives have been purveyors of high-energy, punk-tinged rock music for over 30 years, but if the new album, “The Hives Forever Forever The Hives”, and a recent Australian tour are anything to go by, they remain at the top of their game. The band recently chatted with Man of Many about the new release, their black-and-white wardrobe, and getting a shout-out from The Rolling Stones.

“Everyone’s a little fucking bitch! And I’m getting sick and tired of this!”

So screams Howlin’ Pelle Almqvist, front man of Swedish rock and roll juggernaut The Hives, at the outset of the band’s riotous new album, “The Hives Forever Forever the Hives”. Equal parts acerbic and tongue-in-cheek, the exclamation acutely embodies the band’s attitude and perfectly showcases how they’ve lost none of their fire after more than 30 years together.

The album’s (at the time) imminent launch recently saw The Hives bring said fire Down Under, making a triumphant return to Australia after a decade-long absence. Before embarking on a series of barnstorming shows around the country, the superbly pseudonymed group of Almqvist, drummer Chris Dangerous, and guitarists Nicholaus Arson (Almqvist’s brother) and Vigilante Carlstroem—only bassist The Johan and Only was absent—sat down with Man of Many to discuss the new album, how they compare to the giants of rock history, and their knack for excelling at humility.

Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger

“If I try to explain The Hives to, say, a taxi driver, I say it’s like The Rolling Stones, but twice as fast,” Almqvist starts, half-joking. “It’s like more of everything: louder, faster, and more annoying than usual rock.”

Arson, clearly having played this game of cartoonish self-aggrandisement before, grins as he joins in: “I always say, imagine your best ever rock band, and then imagine it’s better. You should expect nothing but the absolute best, then enhance that, and that’s what a show from The Hives is going to be.”

“As you can see, we’re really fucking great at being humble,” Dangerous laughs. 

Joking though they may be, the band has spent decades building a reputation as a formidable live act, and I can confirm their recent performance at Sydney’s Enmore Theatre was nothing short of a masterclass; one of the purest distillations of the rock and roll spirit I’ve ever seen. Despite having been a regular gig goer my entire adult life, I need to cast my mind back to an AC/DC show from over two decades ago to find a fitting point of comparison.

When I ask how it feels to ponder over 30 years of the band, a milestone once reached only by nostalgia-fuelled groups like The Rolling Stones and the aforementioned AC/DC, Dangerous is quick to jump in: “It’s insane. And fucking exhausting.”

However, unlike those bands, The Hives have avoided becoming an exercise in reliving past glories, with “The Hives Forever Forever the Hives” sounding as potent and essential as anything they’ve ever made.

“We recorded while we were touring the last album [2023’s “The Death of Randy Fitzsimmons],” Almqvist reveals. “I think that helps, because everyone’s playing really well together, and we all have that energy and excitement from doing shows. Whereas if you try to start after a year-and-a-half hiatus, you’re just like, ‘I don’t remember how to play guitar.’” 

As for the vitality and urgency of the record, Almqvist explains that the band doesn’t really know how to do it any other way: “I think that’s due to the fact that we hate when it doesn’t sound energetic. It’s really hard for us to slow down and sound half assed, because that just doesn’t feel like The Hives.”

A Heart Full of Napalm

The sonic energy Almqvist refers to is matched by the album’s lyrical content, as demonstrated by the attention-grabbing opening couplet at the top of this page. When asked about the inspiration behind this, Almqvist reveals that the band has an ongoing debate around the best opening lines in music, and this was perhaps a subcocious attempt to replicate that energy and grab the audience’s attention right out of the gate. 

“We’ve had a long-standing discussion in the band around the coolest line that opens a rock song,” he explains. “Is it ‘I’m a street-walking cheetah with a heart full of napalm’? That’s pretty good. ‘I’m hot, and when I’m not, I’m cold as ice’ is good, too. An opening line is an important thing. It’s a kind of statement of intent, and ours takes inspiration from that. It’s so over the top that we talked about whether or not we should use it, but I’m happy it’s there to open Enough Is Enough.” 

You might think the playfully pissed off attitude that starts that track and continues via other standout songs like Bad Call and Legalise Living means The Hives go about their lives with a certain sense of rage. However, Almqvist explains that he has little to complain about in his life as a world-touring frontman of note, but he feels a certain duty to express the frustrations of others and that doing so can be somewhat therapeutic. 

“I know our life is great, but it’s not great for everybody on the planet,” he says. “We have to complain for other people, and we put that stuff in the music so we don’t have to walk around being angry the rest of the time. It’s pretty great. As a band, you put all your aggression into the shows and the records, and then we’re pretty serene people the rest of the time.”

Dangerous expands on this, saying, “It’s the same as the way the most extreme metal guys are the nicest dudes.”

When I raise the (I would argue demonstrable) theory that those into extreme metal are friendly people cosplaying as someone horrible, and hippies are horrible people cosplaying as someone friendly, Almqvist chuckles: “Fucking hippies.”

An Intergalactic Collaboration

The new album is the band’s seventh studio effort, and it sees them partner with someone who likely wouldn’t seem obvious, but actually makes quite a lot of sense when you consider the raucous Swedish outfit draws as much inspiration from the garage punk of the ‘70s, ‘80s, and ’90s as the rock titans of the 20th century. 

“We worked with Mike D, which came from us being fans of the Beastie Boys forever,” reveals Almqvist. “From listening to Fight For Your Right when we were children, to them putting out “Ill Communication” with Sabotage and stuff around the time we started the band, they were just the coolest-sounding thing around. It sounded more punk than most modern punk bands. Sabotage was a rap song with only one chord, and it was a worldwide hit. That’s pretty remarkable. The Beastie Boys albums always sounded so cool to us.”

So how did the collaboration work?

“He’d make covers of Hives songs, basically,” reveals Almqvist. “We’d send him demos, and then he’d make a version in his little Beastie Boys studio and send it back. We’d take some of that stuff and mix it into our version.”

Here, the least talkative of the Hives, Carlstroem, chips in, “I remember he came to the studio in Stockholm. He was there for a couple of days, and just the fact that he knows who we are is cool. And for him to be in the room and work with us was just fucking great.” 

“He sang a line, and everyone was like, ‘Oh, that’s him! That’s a Beastie Boy!’” exclaims Almqvist as the rest of his band laughs. 

“He had one of the weirdest takes, too,” the singer continues. “Because I called him on the phone to figure out how we can work together, and he said, ‘I really like you guys. You’re one of the only bands that sound good with two guitars.’ And I thought that was such a weird thing to say. He was like, ‘It’s you guys, Blondie, The Strokes, and AC/DC.’ And I was thinking, what about Television? Or The Rolling Stones?! There are so many bands that sound good with two guitars, but I think he likes us because they (jokingly gestures to Arson and Carlstroem to his left) are like half a guitar player each, so it sounds like one guitar.”

Dressed to Impress

Second only to the impressive catalogue of songs guaranteed to send a live audience into an absolute frenzy, The Hives are known for a very particular black-and-white aesthetic. Before sitting down with them, it occurred to me that I couldn’t recall ever having seen one of them in anything approaching a colour. 

“You know, when we get home, it’s like, red and blue and anything, just so people won’t recognise us,” confesses Dangerous with a laugh. 

“It’s also weirdly relaxing,” says Almqvist, picking up the thread. “We keep it hidden, but there is some colour there. Sometimes, we even bring coloured clothes on tour for a day off. You can just walk out of the hotel that way. Straight past the fans. It’s like a pair of red shorts is our camouflage.”

As for their particular take on rock and roll style, the front man feels the music does most of the talking: “There’s no real rock and roll edge to our wardrobe. We wear nice suits, but because the music’s so rocking, people think it’s a rock and roll style. But it’s actually kind of conservative.”

“It can also just be in your walk,” adds Arson. “You can wear whatever the fuck you want, and if you walk like a rock star, that’s your thing. Walk with a bit of sass.”

Sass is certainly a quality The Hives have in spades, and after more than 30 years as a musical force to be reckoned with, they’ve more than earned it. When I ask if anything stands out as a particularly memorable moment from their long career, they immediately recall a show from their time supporting The Rolling Stones on tour. 

“You think of them as these icons, but watching them soundcheck, you notice that they’re an actual band that still has all the same sorts of issues we deal with,” explains Arson.

“Yeah, they were still practising Satisfaction and the like,” Almqvist elaborates with a hint of disbelief. “And we were the only people in the stadium.” 

Carlstroem finishes the story, “Anyway, they played Rocks Off, and Keith walks up to the microphone and says, ‘The Hives, eat your hearts out!’”

“That was pretty great,” concludes Almqvist. “We can live off of that feeling for a long time.”

“The Hives Forever Forever the Hives” is out now. Catch it in all the usual streaming places, or pick up a copy on vinyl from your local record store.