Crucified Barbara

"Do you know what Swedish sounds like?" Crucified Barbara's bassist Ida Evileye is answering a question with a question. I tell her I've heard very little. "It's a beautiful language, but I think it's really hard to express feelings without sounding like, really dorky."

So the Swedish band sings in English.

"It's very hard to mix [Swedish] with this kind of music, because our language is very...It's hard; we've never tried it and I don't think we ever will."

'This kind of music' is her band's hard rock sound - a heady brew of modern metal, glam rock and punk spirit. The Stockholm-based four-piece are preparing for an Australian tour - their first shows outside of Europe. And on the evidence of the debut album 'In Distortion We Trust', Australia should be preparing too.

"It's so cool, we are really looking forward to it. I think we have five shows in twelve days, so I know we'll have some time off in Sydney and we'll have some time to check out the cities. I'm gonna see a friend tomorrow who has been to a lot of places in Australia and he's going to give me a small guide of where to go. So I'm gonna check it up on the internet to see the specific places where I want to go, because it's so big it might be good to know what you want to see."

The album was actually recorded in 2004, so it's no surprise that the band's attention is on their next record.

"It feels like we need to do something new. It's a slow progress. We're trying to learn how to use music programs which is totally new for us. We're not doing the old-school style anymore. It's hard, but I think we're getting there. It's gonna be a lot of fun when we record a new album to play the songs live."

Despite it being Crucified Barbara's second album, there will still be some new ground to cover, but the band understands the recording process now.

"Exactly and that almost makes it even harder, cause then you don't trust anybody. If [someone] says 'oh, I'm going to do this...' and then you actually know about the things [they're] speaking about, then you can feel like 'hmm, maybe that's not the best way'. When we did the first album we didn't know anything about recording, we'd only made demo tapes before. Of course, you have a better understanding of how you want your sound to be and how to achieve that, but it still makes it harder."

There's no guarantee they'll even use a producer.

"We've been speaking about that, I think it would be nice to work with someone who's got an ear for how to arrange songs and make them even better. It would be nice, but then you have to find someone that you get along with and that you like."

Another major difference is the fact that the first record was half-written with a previous vocalist. Guitarist Mia Coldheart stepped up to the microphone during the writing process.

"It had come to the point where it didn't work at all - no working relations or friendships, everything felt like it was way out of hand - and when we told her that we didn't want her to be the singer anymore we didn't have a 'plan B'." explains Evileye. "We tried out one woman who was maybe 15 years older than us and had a very special style with the microphone, which was hysterical...It was a lot of fun, but it was totally wrong! Mia had done all the backing vocals when we were playing live and recorded songs and she was like, 'I wanna try' and she sounded great. But she didn't know how to play the guitar and sing at the same time so she had to learn that which took a while."

By all reports Ms Coldheart is now a force of nature on stage and the band are forging a live reputation par excellence across Europe. To the point that they're supporting Motorhead for a month through England after Australia.

"It's gonna be fun, but it's not very nice to be in England in November. It's gonna rain like hell, I think." But you're from Sweden, "Yeah, but we're used to the snow!"

Wade Howland

Crucified Barbara play at Fowler's Live on Fri 20 October. 'In Distortion We Trust' is out now through Bleed Records.