“They are still just dropouts and losers,” says Joakim “Jocke” Åhlund, one- third of Teddybears, when we ask him how their followers have changed since the band helped reactivate the Swedish punk scene in the 1990s. He says it with love and with his tongue firmly in his cheek, though – something he does a lot during the interview. Teddybear Patrik Arve, on the other hand, finds it hard to pinpoint who he thinks really enjoys their music. He’s fairly sure that their fans haven’t changed much at all, until we suggest how they must have developed and diversified just as much over the past 20-odd years as their music has: along with those good old dropouts, devotees can now be counted among the school kids looking for a party.

We meet the two-thirds of the band in Jocke’s studio, an eclectically decorated space, where we find piles of fantastic vinyl records, including Primal Scream’s XTRMNTR and almost the entire Ramones catalogue. For our shoot, they have brought with them items from their own wardrobes, as well as their signature huge bear heads. There’s another palpable presence in the room: Dr. Martens. Multiple styles are strewn all over the studio during the shoot. The rebel nature of the brand makes the footwear an obvious choice for this shoot, and even more so since the introduction of their new line of vegan shoes – Patrik has been a committed vegan for five years now.

After posing in a pair of brown dungarees that reveal his many tattoos, Patrik tries on a black cassock with a pair of Dr. Martens Wilde chelsea boots, and then teams a tracksuit with a disco-ball version of the bear head – the perfect accessory for stealing attention. This is a band that is clearly prepared to put up with a lot for their audience’s entertainment, as well as their own: the bear heads are uncomfortable enough to wear when they are not covered in hundreds of tiny pieces of mirrored glass.

Missing from the interview is Jocke’s brother, Klas, who has also worked with artists such as Ellie Goulding, Katy Perry and Ghost BC. All three Teddybears have side projects, which contributes to the magic that happens when they all come together. “There are three guys in this band, and sometimes someone’s personality shines through more,” says Jocke, when we discuss the Rock On track Shades, on which his brother apparently shines through the most. “But you can also hear when it’s a mix of the three of us.”

Patrik’s other ventures include a children’s puppet show for television and five other bands, including the hip-hop/reggae group Swedish Tiger Sound and punk rockers Krösus. Meanwhile, as well as being part of Les Big Byrd, Jocke has produced up-and-coming acts such as Sudakistan. We ask them what a Les Big Byrd song featuring Swedish Tiger Sound and produced by Klas Åhlund would sound like, and the joint response is immediate: “Teddybears.” Each piece of the Teddybear puzzle is visible for anyone; you just have to look closely enough.

Patrik’s frustration and anger with the meat industry is also a big part of his life. “It’s a major problem in every way, that industry,” he says. “I have to do everything in my power to put a stop to it.” As a father of three children, aged 7, 10 and 13, his desire to promote veganism is stronger than ever. “The more people you reach, the more impact you have,” he says, going on to talk about how he would like to play with other vegan artists, such as Dennis Lyxzen of Refused and Mårten “Promoe” Edh of Looptroop Rockers. “I have tried to start something for years,” he says, but spreading the vegan message is proving to be a struggle. He also discusses his idea of taking a vegan hot dog vendor with him on tour – it sounds like a subtler version of Morrissey’s ban on meat at all his shows.

Teddybears are renowned for being outspoken, but they do not consider themselves a political band and their lyrics do not give away any particular leanings – “Though when we are asked something, we speak our mind,” Jocke says. No matter what subject their musical mix takes up, we believe that their audience of “dropouts and losers” will not be disappointed. For all those cult followers, and for the rest of the planet, Rock On is available now, and it might just be followed by a new album sooner than we think.

Rock On is out now on Deg in the Lake HB/Universal

Credits

Words by Filip Lindström

Photography by Felix Swensson

Styling by Fiffi Jenkins

Fashion credits:

All shoes By DR. MARTENS

#1 DANTE SHOES, 1460 VEGAN BOOTS AND WILDE CHELSEA BOOTS #2 1460 VEGAN BOOTS, DANTE SAND AND ADRIAN LOAFERS #4 WILDE CHELSEA BOOTS #5 LAMAR BOOTS #6 ADRIAN LOAFERS

Special thanks to Dr. Martens, KATARINA BANGATA 15, STOCKHOLM

Here’s a quite eclectic Mixtape the guys put together for us.

Caballo Negro (black horse in Spanish) is an 11 songs debut album that opens with the title track. Carlos Amigo mentions a song with the same name, made by the King of the Mambo, Pérez Prado, and he says that the Black Horse for him can stand for freedom but also a certain darkness of the soul. The inspiration that made the band name the album what they did came from a visit to Liverpool, where Carlos saw a statue of a black horse outside of his hotel, an image that stayed in his mind until the time was right to decide on an album title. When we meet at Stockholm bar/café Twang (where you can buy guitars and watch live shows as well as have a cup of coffee) Carlos is wearing a brand new t-shirt with the image from the album cover, a man in a horse mask designed by Sergio Barros El Hase, printed on it.

Arvid Sjöö is wearing a Les Big Byrd t-shirt with big golden letters and I learn that a member of the Stockholm kraut rock band, Martin Ehrencrona, helped Sudakistan with recording their first ever singles, some of which were in Swedish and some in English. The Les Big Byrd tradition continued since Jocke Åhlund, singer and guitarist in the charismatic kraut clique and member of the tremendous Teddybears, co-produced “Caballo Negro” with Luke Reilly.

Reilly is the head of garage label PNKSLM (Punk Slime) Recordings, a label that started as a music blog in London but which now is a flowering hit factory in Stockholm. Sudakistan was the first band to be signed and since then several other promising garage gangs has joined, including Holy, Boys and The Castillians, some of Carlos and Arvid’s personal favourites.

This summer PNKSLM threw a birthday party to celebrate their two active years. 29th of May five bands played in a hard-to-find warehouse in the south of Stockholm to an exclusive audience of 200 fortunate ticket buyers. Sudakistan played the final set but barely had time to play a couple of tunes before a fire extinguisher was set loose on the amplifiers by a member of the crowd. According to Arvid the band did not know the person responsible at the time, but they do now. “His name is Fabian and it wasn’t his intention to break anything. He drove us around when we toured Portugal, almost as an apology” he says and assures me that the amplifiers are all right, although still a bit dusty.

The band name comes from a nick name for South Americans, “Sudaka”, and Carlos speaks of Sudakistan in a beautiful way, as an imaginative country where everyone is welcome. Among the five band members, who all met while working as chefs and bartenders at a restaurant owned by Arvid’s parents, there are three languages: English, Spanish and Swedish. Some speak all three and some speak two of them, but their songs are sung in every tongue.

The day after our meeting at Twang is the release party for the black horse, a true punk rock festivity featuring Jocke Åhlund, Luke Reilly and a man in a horse mask on stage with Sudakistan. The crowd is dancing to the Latin rhythms and both Reilly and singer Michell Serrano surf upon their hands, joyous about the anticipated album being set free for the world to hear. All present in the concert venue can feel, just like Carlos described it, that Sudakistan is welcoming everyone to their crazy world, a place that seems truly wonderful.

Credits:

Words by Filip Lindström