Graveyard frontman gives shout out to fellow Swedes the Hellacopters

By Steve Newton

I called up Graveyard frontman Yoakim Nilsson at his home in Sweden the other day to do an interview in advance of his band’s first ever (and sold out) Vancouver show next Saturday (December 12).

Whenever I think about Swedish rock bands I think about the Hellacopters, who I discovered in 2002 via their By the Grace of God album and haven’t stopped raving about since.

So of course I had to ask Nilsson if the Graveyard guys were Hellacopters fans as well.

“Yeah, you could say that we are,” he replied. “Actually we just finished a tour with the head guy from Hellacopters [Nicke Andersson], in his new band, Imperial State Electric. They opened up for us on the Europe tour, so it was kinda weird for us, touring with the head guy from Hellacopters, which is, in our opinion, a much bigger band that’s been around much longer than we have.”

I also asked Nilsson about the current music scene in Sweden, and whether there was a lot happening rock-wise in his homeland these days.

“There’s always something cooking,” he said, “but I haven’t really been out that much watching too many bands. I’ve been working too much with Graveyard, and when you get home the first thing you don’t do is try to find new music. It’s kind of nice when it’s just quiet, too.”

“But I guess it’s a lot of different things,” he added, “as always. I mean there’s always a lot of metal music coming from Sweden.”

For more from Nilsson–including his band’s love of the blues and the return of original member Truls Morck to the lineup–stay tuned.