"Don’t be bitter. Be happy. That’s the best medicine in the world."
The first time I saw HardCore SuperStar was at the Underworld in Camden; the album was “Bad Sneakers and a Piña Colada”, I had never heard of these Swedish hell raisers before and I will always thank my friend Paolo for dragging me there that day. Half way through ‘Have You Been Around’ I was hooked, also due to the lead singer’s energy and charisma. I made my way to the merchandise stand, got my copy of the album and a much treasured picture with Jocke Berg.
Ten years later, the venue is The Relentless Garage, the album is “Beg For It” and Jocke Berg is sitting in front of me on HardCore SuperStar tour bus, ready to answer my questions. The sexy stage persona I remember is probably inside the venue doing sound check; instead, busy making me a cup of instant coffee, here is his twin brother: just as handsome, but sweet, almost kind of shy, looking for the right English words in his funny Scandinavian accent.
Altsounds: Hi Jocke, Welcome to Altsounds!
Jocke: Thank you!
Altsounds: You define your music as Street Metal, can you explain what you mean by it?
Jocke: We define it that way because we combine sleaze rock with trash metal and the trash metal comes from the punk scene and it wears street, that’s why we combine the sleaze and the trash, and we thought Street Metal would be a good name for it. It’s regular sneakers with blue jeans and then leather jacket, streetwear, streetmetal...
Altsounds: So you created the name for it!
Jocke: Actually we did! We were the first band who ever created it.
Altsounds: That’s very good, gives you a very strong identity...
Jocke: Yeah, I think so!
Altsounds: Who are your main influences?
Jocke: That’s the funny part, because everyone thinks because of the way we look that we grow up with Motley Crue and that LA scene back in the 80s, but we didn’t. Adde, the drummer, grew up with King Diamond, Slayer, Anthrax... We all did. So our influences are from the trash metal scene, death metal scene, sleaze, everything. That’s the beauty about HardCore SuperStar, because we are not so narrow, we have a wide music spectrum.
Altsounds: In your latest album “Beg for It” the sound seems much more “metal” to me, heavier. Do you agree, and how do you explain this?
Jocke: Yes it is, but if you like our self-titled album, “HardCore SuperStar”, and our album after that, “Dreamin’ in a casket”, if they had a child it would be “Beg for it”, because the black album (HardCore SuperStar) has more of the rock’n’roll trash thing, while “Dreamin’ in a casket” is maybe more metal and clean.
Altsounds: What happened with original guitarist Silver and how are things going with new HardCore SuperStar Vic Zino?
Jocke: I haven’t spoken to Silver for... half a year or something like that
Altsounds: Wasn’t a friendly split then?
Jocke: We just grew apart from each other. When he left the band he started doing other things with other bands, and we kept on doing what we had been doing all the time, so... I hear he’s still married and satisfied with his life, but now we have Vic and he’s more an all round guitar player. He can play so many styles, his technique is unique because he can play anything from jazz to death metal.
Altsounds: I think he contributed to that different sound we were talking about...
Jocke: Yeah, I think so, because Silver is more like a regular rock’n’roll guitar player, he’s good at what he does but I think Vic contributed with a lot of better things for us to develop and to grow as a band.
Altsounds: You took part to a series of Festivals last summer, are you trying to reach a new audience?
Jocke: We’re always trying to reach a new audience! (laughs) We did Download, I always heard so much about it...
Altsounds: Was it your first experience at Download?
Jocke: Yeah. A few years ago they used to call it the Monsters of Rock, is that right?
Altsounds: Yeah.
Jocke: When I grew up, I used to see magazines back in Sweden, “wow, the Monsters of Rock!”, and now we play there ourselves, but I didn’t know how big it was! It’s so big, it’s like 90,000 people out there! It was so unreal for me. We did lots of Festivals, but Download was probably the best thing for me this summer.
Altsounds: There were some big names out there, did you meet anyone who left you literally star struck?
Jocke: Actually, there was a funny thing: Marilyn Manson had his own outside toilet! And it said: “Only Manson”. I had to take a picture of it ‘cause I thought it was a bit tacky to have his own toilet, what the hell!
Altsounds: “Men”, “Women” and “Manson”... Mmm, yeah, it is a bit weird...
Jocke: Yeah! (laughs). Then we met Slipknot, spoke a couple of minutes with Phil Anselmo from Pantera, I met a lot of interesting people.
Altsounds: You’ve been touring more or less non stop since and you’re finally having a break after this UK Tour; are you looking forward to it, and what is the first thing you intend to do with your time off?
Jocke: Yeah, we’re going to have a month off now. I bought a new house with my girlfriend (to be wife) , so I’m going to paint a little bit my new house, do things that you don’t do when you’re on tour. It’s going to be nice doing something else actually.
Altsounds: What are the best and the worst thing about being on the road?
Jocke: The best thing is when you’re up on stage for like one hour, one hour and a half, it’s the best thing, I mean, I wouldn’t change it for anything, anything in the world! The boring thing is the other twenty-two and a half hours, it’s so boring! You’re on this bus, you’ve watched all the movies... What shall I do now? You sleep eight hours or you do like Adde and sleep fourteen hours a night. We drink beer every day, but you have to do it in a grown up way because I have to sing every night, we’ve been out now for like two weeks, I drank alcohol but I haven’t been drunk, pissed once, ‘cause I have to sing the next day.
Altsounds: Is there any copy of “Beg for it” in the shops, and is there anything you would like to say to sell it?
Jocke: If you want to listen to a very good album before you go out to a club or a concert, you have to listen to HardCore SuperStar “Beg For It”. You must do that, because I promise you’re going to be in the best party mood ever!
Altsounds: Have you been writing any new material while touring?
Jocke: Yeah, we did this European tour last fall and we have recorded like ten songs, we brought a mobile studio with us on the road and I did vocal tracks for two songs, because I have to take care of my voice so I couldn’t do anymore, and we’re going to do the other eight when we get back home. We recorded two songs, but we have like... Martin and Adde have together like forty new songs, I’ve got like eleven and Vic’s got like sixteen seventeen new songs. The bank is almost full!
Altsounds: Do you know when it’s going to be released?
Jocke: Don’t know yet, but hopefully early next year.
Altsounds: And what can we expect from it?
Jocke: I think we’re going to go back to be more “easy listening”, catchier, although the trash metal influences are going to be there of course. I think we have a really good formula now in HardCore SuperStar, because we write songs that we like and they turn out to be good. If you listen to the songs you can hear that we like them, and people buy the record, because there has to be a little bit of love in the music, you know?
Altsounds: Are you going to play more Festivals this year?
Jocke: Yeah, hopefully. We would love to go back to Download this summer, but we’re also going to do some Swedish Festivals, European Festivals... Most of all we want to come back to Download!
Altsounds: Scandinavia, especially Sweden, has one of the richest rock scenes in the world for such a small place in my opinion, how would you explain this?
Jocke: Don’t know... Maybe something in the water supplies? (laughs) Yeah, must be something in the water we drink! I don’t know... In Scandinavia, especially in Sweden, either you play soccer or ice hockey or you play in a band. It’s like that. We grew up in a small village near Goteborg, the second biggest town in Sweden, and there were hundreds of bands just in that little village...
Altsounds: So out of all that something good must come out!
Jocke: Yeah!
Altsounds: Fellow Scandinavian legend Michael Monroe just announced his comeback with a new band, some sort of supergroup including Sammi Yaffa, Ginger from The Wildhearts and Todd Youth.
Jocke: Really? I didn’t know that.
Altsounds: They just announced it in a press conference. What do you think of the 80s revival wave taking over the rock scene in the past ten years?
Jocke: I’ve known Michael for almost ten years, and a better entertainer than him is hard to find. We did a duet together, an Alice Cooper song, and the energy he’s got is like “Wow! Take it easy man!”. How don’t know how old he is, but must be at least ten years older than me. He’s a really good frontman, he’s the best. Axl Rose once said in an interview that without Hanoi Rocks there wouldn’t be any Guns’n’Roses. That’s quite a good review i think!
Altsounds: Totally! Do you still want to be doing this when you’ll be his age, and if you do, would you be doing the same thing or exploring other directions?
Jocke: I’ve always been an energy hunter, I always liked a lot of energy. When I’m out on tour I always go out and run, 5 kms or something like that, to stay in shape and because I like the energy, and on stage if there’s no energy I’ll leave the stage immediately, because it’s the best thing to look at a band that has this kind of energy. So, I think I’d probably be like him at his age, because he’s the same guy as me.
Altsounds: Are you still playing for your fans after all this time or is it just the paycheque, and can you honestly promise I’m going to have a blast tonight?
Jocke: The most important thing is the fans because without them it would be like a flatline, but of course you have to have money to pay the rent...
Altsounds: But you still play what you like...
Jocke: Yes, and we love our fans, it’s the best thing in the world to meet fans... Still today, after twelve years, I was texting my fiancée and I’ve heard these two guys screaming like girls “Oh my God, it’s Jocke Berg of HardCore SuperStar!” and they were bending on their knees in adoration!
Altsounds: Oh God! (laughs)
Jocke: I was like “Oook... This is good, after twelve years people still love the things we do”.
Altsounds: I think after twelve years either you get to that point or you pretty much disappear...
Jocke: Yeah, and I think it’s because we keep it fresh, we’ll never be one of those old 80’s revival comebacks...
Altsounds: Thank God, I saw some ugly ones...
Jocke: We keep renewing, and I think that’s why young kids today still love us.
Altsounds: A more personal question if you don’t mind: you’ve mentioned your fiancée, your MySpace status says “In a relationship” and “proud parent”, but also “complete rockstar”... Apart from the fact that Motley Crue would be ashamed of you, you know that, right? (laughs), the question is, can these things (rock’n’roll, relationships, kids) actually go together?
Jocke: Yes, because being a rocker doesn’t mean fucking groupies or doing drugs. That’s not a rocker. A rocker is from the heart. I’m a rocker in here (putting a hand on his heart). I’m not a rocker that has to do this boring image stuff to feel good. I’m here for the music, and only for the music, and for my fans. That’s the most important thing. And that’s not because I have a child and a wife.
Altsounds: How old is your child?
Jocke: She’s five.
Altsounds: Is she from your current fiancée?
Jocke: No, from my ex wife (laughs)
Altsounds: Didn’t know you had been married already!
Jocke: Yeah. But sometimes it doesn’t work out, you know? You have to move on. Don’t be bitter. Be happy. That’s the best medicine in the world. Smile!
Altsounds: Always!
A hell of a lot of people all over the world will be reading this, anything you would like to add? You can say hello to your mum, have a political rant, we’ll publish anything really.
Jocke: I want to thank all the fans that have been supporting us for all these years. It’s been twelve years now, and without our fans we wouldn’t be here today. Every night when I go up on stage I’m so proud that there are people that are listening to us, that love us, and I promise you as long as I can stand I will always give the best to our fans.
Ten years later, the venue is The Relentless Garage, the album is “Beg For It” and Jocke Berg is sitting in front of me on HardCore SuperStar tour bus, ready to answer my questions. The sexy stage persona I remember is probably inside the venue doing sound check; instead, busy making me a cup of instant coffee, here is his twin brother: just as handsome, but sweet, almost kind of shy, looking for the right English words in his funny Scandinavian accent.
Altsounds: Hi Jocke, Welcome to Altsounds!
Jocke: Thank you!
Altsounds: You define your music as Street Metal, can you explain what you mean by it?
Jocke: We define it that way because we combine sleaze rock with trash metal and the trash metal comes from the punk scene and it wears street, that’s why we combine the sleaze and the trash, and we thought Street Metal would be a good name for it. It’s regular sneakers with blue jeans and then leather jacket, streetwear, streetmetal...
Altsounds: So you created the name for it!
Jocke: Actually we did! We were the first band who ever created it.
Altsounds: That’s very good, gives you a very strong identity...
Jocke: Yeah, I think so!
Altsounds: Who are your main influences?
Jocke: That’s the funny part, because everyone thinks because of the way we look that we grow up with Motley Crue and that LA scene back in the 80s, but we didn’t. Adde, the drummer, grew up with King Diamond, Slayer, Anthrax... We all did. So our influences are from the trash metal scene, death metal scene, sleaze, everything. That’s the beauty about HardCore SuperStar, because we are not so narrow, we have a wide music spectrum.
Altsounds: In your latest album “Beg for It” the sound seems much more “metal” to me, heavier. Do you agree, and how do you explain this?
Jocke: Yes it is, but if you like our self-titled album, “HardCore SuperStar”, and our album after that, “Dreamin’ in a casket”, if they had a child it would be “Beg for it”, because the black album (HardCore SuperStar) has more of the rock’n’roll trash thing, while “Dreamin’ in a casket” is maybe more metal and clean.
Altsounds: What happened with original guitarist Silver and how are things going with new HardCore SuperStar Vic Zino?
Jocke: I haven’t spoken to Silver for... half a year or something like that
Altsounds: Wasn’t a friendly split then?
Jocke: We just grew apart from each other. When he left the band he started doing other things with other bands, and we kept on doing what we had been doing all the time, so... I hear he’s still married and satisfied with his life, but now we have Vic and he’s more an all round guitar player. He can play so many styles, his technique is unique because he can play anything from jazz to death metal.
Altsounds: I think he contributed to that different sound we were talking about...
Jocke: Yeah, I think so, because Silver is more like a regular rock’n’roll guitar player, he’s good at what he does but I think Vic contributed with a lot of better things for us to develop and to grow as a band.
Altsounds: You took part to a series of Festivals last summer, are you trying to reach a new audience?
Jocke: We’re always trying to reach a new audience! (laughs) We did Download, I always heard so much about it...
Altsounds: Was it your first experience at Download?
Jocke: Yeah. A few years ago they used to call it the Monsters of Rock, is that right?
Altsounds: Yeah.
Jocke: When I grew up, I used to see magazines back in Sweden, “wow, the Monsters of Rock!”, and now we play there ourselves, but I didn’t know how big it was! It’s so big, it’s like 90,000 people out there! It was so unreal for me. We did lots of Festivals, but Download was probably the best thing for me this summer.
Altsounds: There were some big names out there, did you meet anyone who left you literally star struck?
Jocke: Actually, there was a funny thing: Marilyn Manson had his own outside toilet! And it said: “Only Manson”. I had to take a picture of it ‘cause I thought it was a bit tacky to have his own toilet, what the hell!
Altsounds: “Men”, “Women” and “Manson”... Mmm, yeah, it is a bit weird...
Jocke: Yeah! (laughs). Then we met Slipknot, spoke a couple of minutes with Phil Anselmo from Pantera, I met a lot of interesting people.
Altsounds: You’ve been touring more or less non stop since and you’re finally having a break after this UK Tour; are you looking forward to it, and what is the first thing you intend to do with your time off?
Jocke: Yeah, we’re going to have a month off now. I bought a new house with my girlfriend (to be wife) , so I’m going to paint a little bit my new house, do things that you don’t do when you’re on tour. It’s going to be nice doing something else actually.
Altsounds: What are the best and the worst thing about being on the road?
Jocke: The best thing is when you’re up on stage for like one hour, one hour and a half, it’s the best thing, I mean, I wouldn’t change it for anything, anything in the world! The boring thing is the other twenty-two and a half hours, it’s so boring! You’re on this bus, you’ve watched all the movies... What shall I do now? You sleep eight hours or you do like Adde and sleep fourteen hours a night. We drink beer every day, but you have to do it in a grown up way because I have to sing every night, we’ve been out now for like two weeks, I drank alcohol but I haven’t been drunk, pissed once, ‘cause I have to sing the next day.
Altsounds: Is there any copy of “Beg for it” in the shops, and is there anything you would like to say to sell it?
Jocke: If you want to listen to a very good album before you go out to a club or a concert, you have to listen to HardCore SuperStar “Beg For It”. You must do that, because I promise you’re going to be in the best party mood ever!
Altsounds: Have you been writing any new material while touring?
Jocke: Yeah, we did this European tour last fall and we have recorded like ten songs, we brought a mobile studio with us on the road and I did vocal tracks for two songs, because I have to take care of my voice so I couldn’t do anymore, and we’re going to do the other eight when we get back home. We recorded two songs, but we have like... Martin and Adde have together like forty new songs, I’ve got like eleven and Vic’s got like sixteen seventeen new songs. The bank is almost full!
Altsounds: Do you know when it’s going to be released?
Jocke: Don’t know yet, but hopefully early next year.
Altsounds: And what can we expect from it?
Jocke: I think we’re going to go back to be more “easy listening”, catchier, although the trash metal influences are going to be there of course. I think we have a really good formula now in HardCore SuperStar, because we write songs that we like and they turn out to be good. If you listen to the songs you can hear that we like them, and people buy the record, because there has to be a little bit of love in the music, you know?
Altsounds: Are you going to play more Festivals this year?
Jocke: Yeah, hopefully. We would love to go back to Download this summer, but we’re also going to do some Swedish Festivals, European Festivals... Most of all we want to come back to Download!
Altsounds: Scandinavia, especially Sweden, has one of the richest rock scenes in the world for such a small place in my opinion, how would you explain this?
Jocke: Don’t know... Maybe something in the water supplies? (laughs) Yeah, must be something in the water we drink! I don’t know... In Scandinavia, especially in Sweden, either you play soccer or ice hockey or you play in a band. It’s like that. We grew up in a small village near Goteborg, the second biggest town in Sweden, and there were hundreds of bands just in that little village...
Altsounds: So out of all that something good must come out!
Jocke: Yeah!
Altsounds: Fellow Scandinavian legend Michael Monroe just announced his comeback with a new band, some sort of supergroup including Sammi Yaffa, Ginger from The Wildhearts and Todd Youth.
Jocke: Really? I didn’t know that.
Altsounds: They just announced it in a press conference. What do you think of the 80s revival wave taking over the rock scene in the past ten years?
Jocke: I’ve known Michael for almost ten years, and a better entertainer than him is hard to find. We did a duet together, an Alice Cooper song, and the energy he’s got is like “Wow! Take it easy man!”. How don’t know how old he is, but must be at least ten years older than me. He’s a really good frontman, he’s the best. Axl Rose once said in an interview that without Hanoi Rocks there wouldn’t be any Guns’n’Roses. That’s quite a good review i think!
Altsounds: Totally! Do you still want to be doing this when you’ll be his age, and if you do, would you be doing the same thing or exploring other directions?
Jocke: I’ve always been an energy hunter, I always liked a lot of energy. When I’m out on tour I always go out and run, 5 kms or something like that, to stay in shape and because I like the energy, and on stage if there’s no energy I’ll leave the stage immediately, because it’s the best thing to look at a band that has this kind of energy. So, I think I’d probably be like him at his age, because he’s the same guy as me.
Altsounds: Are you still playing for your fans after all this time or is it just the paycheque, and can you honestly promise I’m going to have a blast tonight?
Jocke: The most important thing is the fans because without them it would be like a flatline, but of course you have to have money to pay the rent...
Altsounds: But you still play what you like...
Jocke: Yes, and we love our fans, it’s the best thing in the world to meet fans... Still today, after twelve years, I was texting my fiancée and I’ve heard these two guys screaming like girls “Oh my God, it’s Jocke Berg of HardCore SuperStar!” and they were bending on their knees in adoration!
Altsounds: Oh God! (laughs)
Jocke: I was like “Oook... This is good, after twelve years people still love the things we do”.
Altsounds: I think after twelve years either you get to that point or you pretty much disappear...
Jocke: Yeah, and I think it’s because we keep it fresh, we’ll never be one of those old 80’s revival comebacks...
Altsounds: Thank God, I saw some ugly ones...
Jocke: We keep renewing, and I think that’s why young kids today still love us.
Altsounds: A more personal question if you don’t mind: you’ve mentioned your fiancée, your MySpace status says “In a relationship” and “proud parent”, but also “complete rockstar”... Apart from the fact that Motley Crue would be ashamed of you, you know that, right? (laughs), the question is, can these things (rock’n’roll, relationships, kids) actually go together?
Jocke: Yes, because being a rocker doesn’t mean fucking groupies or doing drugs. That’s not a rocker. A rocker is from the heart. I’m a rocker in here (putting a hand on his heart). I’m not a rocker that has to do this boring image stuff to feel good. I’m here for the music, and only for the music, and for my fans. That’s the most important thing. And that’s not because I have a child and a wife.
Altsounds: How old is your child?
Jocke: She’s five.
Altsounds: Is she from your current fiancée?
Jocke: No, from my ex wife (laughs)
Altsounds: Didn’t know you had been married already!
Jocke: Yeah. But sometimes it doesn’t work out, you know? You have to move on. Don’t be bitter. Be happy. That’s the best medicine in the world. Smile!
Altsounds: Always!
A hell of a lot of people all over the world will be reading this, anything you would like to add? You can say hello to your mum, have a political rant, we’ll publish anything really.
Jocke: I want to thank all the fans that have been supporting us for all these years. It’s been twelve years now, and without our fans we wouldn’t be here today. Every night when I go up on stage I’m so proud that there are people that are listening to us, that love us, and I promise you as long as I can stand I will always give the best to our fans.
