Certainly, early doors, they didn’t imagine they’d last anything like this long. Time was, in fact, that like many good rock’n’rollers, The Hives believed their engine contained about five years’ worth of rocket fuel. Three albums, then they’d be done. After touring with the Rolling Stones, though, one month after the Arctics’ tour, they realised they didn’t need to be quite so certain about this, or anywhere near as prescriptive. Instead, they could just rock. Which is why, today, 22 years later, just like the Stones, The Hives are still rolling.
“That tour kind of solved that for us,” Pelle admits. “If I was an engineer or a carpenter, I’d always be running across dudes that had been doing that for 40 years. In music it’s less common. But even back then they’d been a band for 40 years… I was like, ‘They seem to be fine. They seem to be having fun.’ So why would we not do the thing that we love as we age? Am I going to stop eating good food and fucking? Why would I ruin this for myself by just letting other people do it? So that [tour] really helped me change my attitude.
“And now we’ve been a band for over 30 years, which is crazy. I don’t know anyone that’s done anything for 30 years. Not really. Apart from rock bands.”
Especially good ones. And as the songs on The Hives Forever Forever The Hives testify, this is a band that has placed its feet in two different worlds. With showmanship and chutzpah, The Hives are able to provide entertainment for audiences that stretch more than a hundred yards into the distance. At the same time, though, having made their bones in underground music and punk rock, their energy remains visceral, their teeth sharp. Only a fool would turn their back on them.
“It’s a great feeling knowing that there’s going to be some genuine terror there [when we play],” Pelle says. “That’s what you want the reaction to be. People wondering, ‘Is this legal?’ We did a tour with Maroon 5 a long time ago and their crowd were scared of us, which was also awesome. We want rock’n’roll to be that way. I remember walking offstage and hearing a girl say to her friend, ‘That was so scary!’ That’s the reaction we want.”
The Hives Forever Forever The Hives is released August 29 via PIAS.
Listen to Pelle on the Kerrang! In Conversation podcast.
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