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Millencolin.
 You may not believe it, but Swedish punk act Millencolin's frontman Nikola Sarcevic has spent the last few days hanging curtains. "I guess I'm not very punk rock," Sarcevic laughs. Listening to Millencolin's latest record, 'Kingwood,' however, you'd have to disagree - it's the band's fastest, most energetic and most cohesive in years.
You've gotta forgive Sarcevic for growing up a little. Millencolin formed way back in 1992, and 'Kingwood' was recorded ten years after the release of their first record.
"I guess everything is a lot different now. We're more confident now - but maybe some of the excitement isn't there, you know. Not when it comes to the music, but with everything around it," Sarcevic admits. "I mean, the excitement for me is to write songs. That's sort of the whole point, the essence of me being in this band, to have a chance to write music. The kick and excitement that I get after writing a song is the same as it was ten years ago - or maybe it's a bigger excitement now. But everything around the band, with all the touring, maybe we're not as excited as we were back in '93 when we got a hotel room. Back then it was a big thing to get your first hotel room after a show, and we trashed the whole place. But in a way I think we're a lot more comfortable being on tour, sharing a bus with all the other band members and the crew, so I think the atmosphere and the vibe on the tours now is a lot better now then it was before."
Maybe that has something to do with Sarcevic getting some distance from the band back in 1997. He moved from the band's hometown of Orebro (English translation: Pennybridge) to Gothenburg, a few hours away from his fellow band mates. "I think it's one of the reasons why we're still playing together," Sarcevic claims. "I needed to get away from that town just to have the feeling that when I get home from the tour I don't have to think about the band, and for me that was very important."
Sarcevic also garnered some distance from Millencolin when he released his solo acoustic album last year, 'Lock Krock Sport'. But for now it's all systems go for Millencolin, who are a tighter, slicker and more solid unit then they have ever been. In Sweden, 'Kingwood' has outsold even the uber-successful last two albums, 'Pennybridge Pioneers' and 'Home From Home' and the band's recent European tour was a huge success.
Sarcevic remains wary of the band's upcoming dates on the US Warped Tour, playing alongside bands like My Chemical Romance - not the kind of band you'd have expected to catch with Millencolin a few years back. "We have this competition with those bands you mentioned, that style of screamo, emo thing. I think our style of punk rock has maybe lost some ground to that style of music. It's quite hard in the States for bands, because the competition is so big. But still, we're doing very good at it, and we had a really good tour, but you can feel that we've been growing more in Europe and in Australia on the last few albums."
And finally, in September, the band will be returning to our shores. It's been a long while but don't worry - the changes will only be good ones. "I think we'll be better!" Sarcevic laughs. "We'll play songs from the new album which we haven't played before. We're really looking forward to get down there."
When dB Magazine spoke to guitarist Mathias Farm a few months back, on the eve of 'Kingwood's' release, he was obviously amped about an Australian return, but drew a blank when asked to explain the band's Down Under success. "I don't know, maybe because of ABBA?" he said. So, I ask Sarcevic if he can come up with anything better, and for a brief second he lets up that ever-present humility (those curtains were "maybe not that nice, but they ended up OK"), shrugging "Maybe Australians have a good taste in music."
Matt Vesely
 | dB Magazine proudly present Millencolin at Thebarton Theatre on Tues 20 Sept. |
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