Mia Coldheart By: Jennyfer Star Recently, I had the opportunity of doing an interview with a killer all-female rock band from Sweden. Just a week before they were to begin the recording of their eagerly awaited second album, we talked about tour memories, influences, and of course, the upcoming album. Enjoy! JS: You have played together for a long time now, can you tell the Crucified story for the people that haven´t heard about you before? MC: It started out in Stockholm, Sweden in 1998. In the beginning it was Ida, Klara and Nicki playin together with another vocalist. I joined in 2001 as a lead guitarist, but took over the mic in 2003 and the year after we got a record deal with GMR Music. Our debut album “In Distortion We Trust” was released in January 2005 and then we started to tour, the first year in Scandinavia and France, and in 2006 we got gigs all over Europe, Russia and Australia. With all this fun, we didn't really start to work on album no. 2 until pretty late. Things just came in the way.. We have to write songs. Ok, that can wait, we got a tour in Australia - lets go. We have to write songs. Ok, that can wait, we got a tour with Motörhead in the UK - lets go.. And so it went on. But finally we decided to have a total stop and just focus on the new stuff. And here we are now, just about to enter the studio again, anxious to see what the future brings out! JS: How would you describe your music in five words? MC: Rough Heavy Sweaty Party Rock JS: You have been on the road a lot since you released your first album "In Distortion You Trust". Which countries have you played in? MC: Italy, France, Germany, Holland, The Nederlands, Spain, Switzerland, Russia, Australia, UK, Scandinavia /…/ We've been drivin up and down back and there during a few years now. Hope to tour the US with this next album, it's about time!! JS: Which city do you usually have most fun playing in? MC: Hm.. hard question with many answers! But to choose one I have to say all of us enjoyed the gigs in Melbourne. We got to stay there for 5 days and check out the city and just have fun, it was totally awesome! JS: Do you plan to conquer the United States anytime soon? And has your album been released there? MC: It's absolutely a plan. We will release the new album in Europe in the fall and hope to release it in the States as well. “In Distortion We Trust” was released in the US by Liquor and Poker Music 2005. We really have to get over for a tour, I really think the US need to be hit by Crucified Barbara, hehe.  JS: You´ve already played with some of the biggest bands in rock. For instance, Motorhead and Sepultura. Is there any other specific band you would wanna go on tour with, and why? MC: The most unexpected thing happened before we ended up on the In Flames / Sepultura tour. We didn't have tickets for the Stockholm gig and really wanted to see them. We tried hard to think if we knew anyone who just could get us in 'cause no one had any money at all. Then 2 weeks before the gig, we were called in to be a support act for the Scandinavian part of their tour. Can't think of a better way to see your favourite bands playing!! But, I think it would be really fun to go on tour with Hardcore Superstar for example. They're a fantastic live band and great guys, and I think it would make great gigs for the fans of both bands. Then of course there are tons of other great bands we would like to play with… Some of them are listed on the question below, regarding our influences! JS: What´s your favourite outfit on stage? MC: I mostly wear some kind of sweaty plastic or leather pants, a home cutted band t-shirt from some of my favourite band, and a pair of steady boots that keep me balanced during the headbanging. Once I had high heels, and that was a nightmare, felt completely uncomfortable. Never again! JS: So, I know you are soon entering the studio to record your second album. Can you tell us some more about this? MC: We will begin the recording May 5th, and will release it in the beginning of the fall. The album will be recorded by Jocke Skog, also known as the keyboard player in Clawfinger. He is an amazing sound engineer and we did a test recording with him that totally blew us off the chairs… Producer is the incredible vocalist Mats Levén. He has done a fantastic work with the pre-production and has taken our songs to the next level, we are in very good hands! JS: Are the new songs similar to the old ones or have you developed a new sound? MC: I feel kind of deaf when it comes to figuring out how/what we really sound like. But for sure you will get a more "mature" Crucified Barbara, we're better musicians now, better songwriters, more depth in the lyrics. There's a big range of genres mixed in our music, you'll find everything from pop/rock to old school hard rock to thrash metal influences. We have worked extremely hard to write damn good songs, and we're really excited to introduce the world to the new Crucified Barbara. JS: Describe a typical Crucified Barbara fan! MC: We have so many different kinds of people coming to the shows, since the music we play appeals to both fans of punkrock, sleaze, metal… At many gigs, the organizers tell us that there are more girls in the crowd than a "regular" (read: male bands playing) club night, which is great to hear! I think I didn't really answer the question but really don't know how to generalize when it comes to our rockin crowd! JS: Can you tell us some juicy tour memories? MC: A lot of weird things have happened during our road trip, that's for sure! During rehearsal today I was laughing my ass off once again, when we started to talk about when Nicki and Ida went to explore the backstage of the baggage line. We arrived at an airport in Germany pretty late at night. There was really nothing to do, no people awake and it was pretty empty. We sat down in a bar and had some drinks. Boring! Then all of a sudden I heard some screams, I turn around and I see Nicki and Ida lying on the luggage band, one on top of the other, with their hands stretched out as if they were flying. I began to laugh so hard I couldn't even stand up. Since they were getting closer and closer to the black hole where the entire luggage disappear, I realised the possible danger in this game but they were beyond any help. And then they were gone. It was the most stupid, funniest view I've ever seen, but both me and Klara got really anxious. Who knows what happens behind there!? After 4-5 minutes, a gate opens and out comes the girls, escorted by 2 Serman security guards. The guards tried to keep their serious stone faces but, I guess it's not everyday they find 2 Swedish blondes floating in on the luggage band in the middle of the night so I don't blame them for smiling a bit. It might not be the juiciest story but it's one of my top 10 laughs for sure! JS: I think your music is a mix of a bunch of different genres, which is good cuz it doesn´t sound like all the other bands out there. Which bands are you influenced by and where do you find inspiration? MC: To mention some bands that are/have been important to all of us in one way or another; Motörhead, Monster Magnet, AC/DC, Metallica, Mustasch, Mastodon, Hole, Guns'n'Roses, Dolly Parton, Megadeth, Queens of the Stone Age, WASP, The Darkness, Tool, Clutch, UFO, Alice in Chains, Hank Williams, Accept, Led Zeppelin, Judas Priest, Cinderella, Queen, Runaways, Slayer… Personally, I listen a lot to non-rock music as well. My favourite at the moment is Alison Krauss, I have developed my voice a lot since I started to listen to her music and voice, rather than trying to be 100% heavy metal all the time I like to take the best from all worlds and then spit it out my way. I'm very glad I am as far away as I can get from my early teenage years when I was totally stuck with grunge for example, nothing else was accepted. -But I have to confess that I sometimes even back then, listened to Roxette ballads in my cassette free style, when I had secured that no one of my rocker friends was around. JS: Your drummer, Nicki, recently started working on MTV in Sweden as a VJ and host for their new hard rock show "Fuzz". How did she get get in contact with them and is she enjoying it? MC: I don't really know how it came she got the job (and it's too late in the night to call her up right now, don't wanna destroy her beauty sleep, we're rehearsing early tomorrow!) She did a great job for 6 months and it was a really cool rock show. It was the TV show that has been missing for the last years, 'cause there's a lots of people out there screaming for rock music, forgotten and new videos and bands, which also could be seen on the great response and increased views. Unfortunately MTV decided to not continue with FUZZ this year so people had to go back watching never ending commercial crap instead. Hope they reconsider and bring it back on again. JS: Usually when you are a female musician, people ask you about how it feels to be in the music industry as a girl. Like it would be a bad thing. Well, of course it could be, but I would like to know what you think is the best thing about being a female band? I mean, since there are not as many girl bands as boy bands, the competition is not as big. What do you think? MC: You'll get the respect that you deserve, that is my opinion and experience so far. You get more attention as a girl band, but you have to fight harder to show that you're good. It's not a big competition since there aren't many girl bands playing our kind of music, but on the other hand, we've seen examples of festivals that only add one girl band to the line up even though they had several good ones in mind, 'cause they thought it was enough with just one. That just doesn't happen with boy bands! So there is always two sides you can look at..  But I think we might get more spontaneous requests to do support gigs 'cause lots of boy bands are tired of touring with other hairy boy bands and we are considered fun girls to be around.. so in that case it's great to be an all female band. But what the boys don't know is that we're even worse than many boys and will do nothing but drink up their rider and mess up the bus…! JS: Thanks for your time! Any last words? MC: It's been good fun! Check our website for latest news, tours and a studio report.. We're really looking forward to release this 2nd album and we're looking forward to hit the road again as soon as it's out! Keep rockin and hope to see ya all out there!! Links: www.crucifiedbarbara.com www.myspace.com/crucifiedbarbara