Millencolin

Numbers are an infinitely powerful part of our lives. It's probably safe to say that numbers actually control our lives. When combined in particular arrangements they create codes or results which we use daily, such as phone numbers and addresses, and are also used in mathematics, economics and so many other essential aspects of our existence. Numbers themselves can even have meanings, for example there is "lucky seven" and "unlucky thirteen", and even the devil is represented somewhat by the number 666. For pop-punk pioneers Millencolin, it's the number fifteen that's been popping up a lot lately.

"The album is called 'Machine 15' but it's not really a concept album," guitarist / vocalist Nikola Sarcevic begins before reconsidering slightly. "Well actually, I'm not sure. I mean we have been around for about fifteen years now and the album has fifteen songs on it, so I guess there is a concept behind that, but there's not really anything else to it."

"The whole writing process was quite easy actually, I mean we did it quite similarly to the way we always do it with our ideas on what to write about. The biggest difference was that Mathias [FŠrm, guitarist] and me who write the songs, this time we didn't have face-to-face writing sessions, I think we only met like two times to go through ideas. And off those two meetings we made demos which we emailed back and forth, because we live in different towns, and we ended up with about twenty songs. A long time ago we used to write our albums in a rehearsal room, but I think this way works just as well."

It has been a long wait between releases for this legendary pop-punk quartet, whose last album 'Kingwood' came out in 2005. But, this does not mean that the band members of Millencolin have been completely absent from the music scene. Nikola keeps himself busy with his solo acoustic side project for which he has already released two albums, while guitarist Mathias FŠrm keeps additionally busy with his other punk outfit Franky Lee.

"Both of our side projects are in no way priorities over Millencolin, we are always Millencolin first. The side projects are just different expressions for us. We've obviously written different songs with those projects and I think we do that just because we are more experienced with song writing, I think that they also help with our writing for Millencolin too because we gain more and more knowledge by doing both things."

Returning to Lou Giordano, who also produced 'Home From Home', to produce 'Machine 15' sees the band pushing the boundaries of how far pop-punk can actually go, but still keeping to the same addictive and energetic recipe which Millencolin are renowned and loved for.

"Working with Lou was really good, probably better than last time. Over the last three previous albums, we worked with three different producers. And it's a great thing to work with new people, but there's something maybe even better working with someone you have used before, because after doing one album the band figures out the producer and vice-versa. So it made sense to go back to Lou, he's a great producer and a really funny guy. We can even talk politics with him, and you can barely do that with Americans."

Armed with the new album, the band will also be returning to Australia for a national tour to remind us just how good they are in a live setting. Even after all these years, Nikola Sarcevik assures me that touring is not a job for them, but something they absolutely love doing.

"We are really lucky to come down there again, I think we have been there seven times as a band, and I came down there last year with my solo stuff as well - we just love it and can never get enough. You have great beer, we really like that, we love Cooper's especially the green one Pale Ale, and I love Crown Lager too!"

Will Oakeshott

Millencolin play in the main room at the HQ complex on Thurs 3 Apr.

'Machine 15' is out now through Shock