Millencolin

“Kingwood”, produced by Chips Kiesbye (Hellacopters etc) and engineered and mixed by Jim Brumby and Henryk Lipp, is the result that the impact of maturity and responsibility has had on the four-piece: twelve tracks of pedal to the floor, flame-licked speaker wreckers, powered along by a chemical clash of the political and personal and shot straight through with righteous starbursts of passion. Both the fastest and most heartfelt record that the Örebro gang have ripped from the studio, “Kingwood” is also the most coherent, streamlined, versatile and energetic.

The lead up to “Kingwood” has, however, been a long road travelled for the then-kids who assembled Millencolin through a bonding love of American melodic punk rock and skateboarding. Cutting their teeth within the eclectic Swedish live scene, where death metal and street punk bands would often find themselves on the same bill, the emerging Millencolin caught the attention of Burning Heart Records due to their riotous, intense live shows and songwriting savvy.

A trio of full-lengths fired forth from the band in the form of “Same Old Tunes”, “Life On A Plate” and “For Monkeys”, cementing their growing reputation as ones to watch thanks to a seemingly never-ending salvo of punk rock tunes. Bringing them to all corners of the world including their first participation on the ambulating North American punkrock fest ‘Warped Tour’ back in 97.

With the “Pennybridge Pioneers” album (produced by Brett Gurewitz/Bad Religion) released 2000, draw the band's circle of influences to a close and effectively paving the way for the 'new' Millencolin, who coupled their sense of punk positivity and scope of melody to the gritty sounds of garage rock 'n' roll, a formula that they compounded two years later with the mega-selling and accolade garnering “Home From Home” that included the hits “Kemp” and “Man Or Mouse”. All followed by a successful world tour filling up Brixton Academy in London and Olympia Halle Köln and sharing the same stages as bands such as Blink 182, Queens Of The Stone Age and Foo Fighters at the biggest festivals around from Big Day Out in Australia to Roskilde Denmark to Southside Germany.

Fast forward to 2005 and once again the band have reinvented themselves with a sound that stays true both in style and spirit to Millencolin. For Nikola (who, with Mathias, makes up Millencolin's songwriting nucleus), it was a chance to get back to basics after his solo album 'Lock-Sport-Krock' and to exercise a more relaxed approach:

"I was definitely not as pushy in the songwriting process as I usually am. I gave more space to Mathias. I live in Gothenburg and the rest of the band live three hours away. Every time I went there we would basically write songs. Nothing else. I was even recording the vocals in the early hours of the morning, from midnight until six!" Adds Erik: "It was one of the greatest recordings I have ever done. Everything was really relaxed - just a great vibe and this whole positivity around the recording. We were just hanging out and having fun."

The lyrical content of “Kingwood” also took a departure for Nikola: "I've written a lot of songs about myself over the years and last year, my solo album was quite personal lyrically. I didn't have that much inspiration to take from my own life this time! I felt like I'd emptied myself, so I wrote more about other people and from other people's perspectives."

The resulting album “Kingwood” (Erik: The title is an inside joke - Nikola bought a Kenwood sound system years ago and he's been calling it “Kingwood” ever since. In Sweden, the Moose is known as “King Of The Woods”, so that kind of explains the album artwork as well. In the song “Mooseman's Jukebox” Nikola sings the titles of songs that have influenced him over the years and one of the chorus lines goes "Kingwood days", which stands for our musical jungle - our influences") is testament to Nikola's statement, proving that, while the band rip out their fastest and most impacting material to date on the likes of “Farewell My Hell” and “Biftek Supernova”, the brooding power of “My Name Is Golden” and “Cash Or Clash” anchors the album into the kind of territory only previously held by their heroes Bad Religion in terms of social commentary.

The "new start" is startlingly evident on first single “Ray”, which name checks Greek Philosopher Herakleitos expression “Panta Rei”. "It basically means that you don't go down in the same river twice and I guess that's symbolic of life" says Nikola. A metaphor that could also be applied to the creative engine that throbs under the hood of Millencolin, as the spark that lights up 'Kingwood' just wouldn't work with any other band. Or any other people come to that, as the Erik explains:
"Ever since we started this band has been our life. Millencolin is always there for us."