This group is raw and heartful if you can say so. Anders Jakobsson was the man to answer my questions the 28/6-00

History?

-To boring to say once more. The one who is interested reads the biography on www.nasum.com

Please tell me a little about every member?

-My name is Anders Jakobson,and I play drums in Nasum. Sings a little on the recordings but not live. I have a past as guitarist and basist in Nasum before our originaldrummer quit and I tokk over his role. In the real life I work as a webdesigner on our local newspaper where I also freelance as a journalist, illustrater and even a some more things. So I have many things to put on my card. Beside that I like to read, look at TV/Movies. It´s a pretty normal life.

Our leadsinger and guitarists name is Mieszko Talarzcyk. He´s also responsable for our recordings because he have the studio Soundlab with Mathias from Millencolin. It´s a very popular studio which have been more popular for every day which goes. It´s always booked months before the bands coming. Mieszko have also been in USA and produced Relapseband Exhumeds new record even if he mixed it here in Örebro. He likes to play PC-games and he is very good at Quake which he also does new tracks to.

Our basists name is Jesper Liveröd and he lives in Kristinehamn. He came into the band spring 1999,when we felt that we really wanted a basist because people asked us all the time if we could play live.  Jesper came into the band very fast even if he is from Norway from the beginning and that he is the youngest in the band. Jesper also plays in the hardcoreband Burst which have a new record on it´s way. He is the groups academic boy even if he now takes the job which he can get when he waits for something else.

Do you have any other groups on the side?

-As I said Jesper plays in  Burst, we other guys have some projects and other bands but because this interview is about Nasum I don´t want to talk about it.

Why this extreme music?

-Why not? Nasum was founded by a coincidence, when some short grindsongs was written "by mistake" in another band which I played with then. We have always liked grind and it fell natural to play it. Much because the grindscene have been very little, especieally in Sweden. 

What are you being compared to in reviews?

When our first record came "inhale/exhale" was reviewed the bands which the label have been written in the papers which came with the record which was pretty boring. When you get about 150 reviews in the same time from thelabel and when many of them are written like the biography you get sad even if the reviews was good. When we talk about Human 2.0. havent we read so many reviews yet but a influence which always come back is Napalm Death which is in order because they are our big influence. Some reviewers have fun when they describe and compare the guitarsound with that record and that record. So we can hear the most in our reviews. Many refernces on the last record was fun because they we´re so wrong. 

Have you heard anything about Human 2,0?

-The reviews which we have heard have been positive. We write everything we read on our website. And that which "normal" people have said is also positive. Some like the first record more but I can think that it depends on that it have been out in 2 and half year and the new one only in some months. 

Do you care about reviews?

-Yeah, of course you do. It´s a kick to read that people like what you do. And the "bad" things said about the first record we took with us in the studio when we did the new record.Some people said that they thought that the last record was to long so we did the new one shorter.  

In which country do people like you best?

-It´s difficult to say but because we are on an american label so comes the most mail from USA but also from countries in Europe. In the last months I think we have good the best response from Sweden. I think that Sweden have woken up when it´s all about grind and Nasum. 

You Anders did the fanzine Hymenbefore, nothing on it´s way there?,

-I have some planes on a paperzine with the girl I love, so we will see what happens. Otherwise I write in the local paper  Nerikes Allehanda as I said. But any more issue of Hymen it don´t come, if it´s going to be something there it will be on the net. 

What´s the most funniest to be doing a fanzine and what´s the worst?

-The funny thing it´s to feel creative. It´s a good kick. The most and worst thing it´s to hold the deadline. It´s much better when anyone else decide the deadline. 

What shall a good fanzine be about?

-I think that fanzines must be about something else than only interviews and reviews, something odd that´s different. A novel, a comic or something else. Fanzines got more boring when "songtalk" (låtsnack) was in every zine. 

These "funny" and comicquestions, can´t we take them away? 

-If you do a serious fanzine it can be good to cheer it up a little with a funny question. The most funny question I have read in a fanzine sounded like this." If you got an offer to be playing with Slayer and the only demand was that you must play in Moomincostumes, would you take it?" It´s more fun to read than "Does the ball jump in the wood" and that sort of questions. And it was fun to read Sikä Äpärä whn it was going on but it was thier style to be odd. It´s only a shame that that zine started a school and that people did bad copies on that zine.

Do you have any favouritezines right now, on paper or on the net?

-I don´t really read any fanzines nowadays but tow very good are Salvador and Metalwire.  Both are serious but bith have a sense of humour I like. Then I like Chrome too. I have been put out of the fanzinescene totally. Netzines haven´t I read so many because I think they´re only a number on the net. The point with fanzines on the net is that you must update often and do things that a reader want to come back to. Some pople only put up a number and then happen nothing in four months and then the point get lost.

What do you think about the new way to communicate with email and internet and so on?

-Very nice and quick. It´s much more easier to write back and write a fast answer if you compare to sit down and write a normal letter, put in an envelope and go to the postoffice and mail it. And then you can put things in email like photos and other things. It´s much more easy to communicate with the "fans( I really hate that word, but the fact is that we have fans) via mail, website and communities on the net. And it´s more easy to fanzinepeople if you think of that they got the whole interview written down and they can use it as it is. 

Is it something you use much yourself?

-Ueah, but unfortunealy is the emailing only fun til you reach the point that you get so many mails that you can´t answer them. And then it´s not long to the shitpost is coming in, what do you do then. 

Isn´t it difficult to be only three members, don´t you want a guitarist more?

-Not so many people, less problems. Remeber that Nasum was a duo under a very long period and it was very good for us.In a  productivity way but useless in the way that we couldn´t play live. Of course it have been very good with a guitarist more but it is much which must fit to make it to came into Nausm, both as a musican and as a nhuman being. 

What´s the best and what´s the worst of being three, is it one of you which come outside the other two?

-The disadvantage is that it sounds not so much on stage that we do on the records but it can also be an advantage because it doesn´t sound so thick. The advantage is that it´s more easy to put pepole together to make a rehearsal and it´s going much more fast to make everybody in the band to know a new song. It´s alittle so that Jesper is out because he lives in another town and not always can rehearsal when we other can. When we were writing the songs on Human 2.0. Jesper went to school in Uppsala so he could only be with us to write half of the songs on it. But he´s a member as much as we other are in the group and he´s going to take more place in the group in the future.

What do you like musiclife in Sweden today?

-Those questions I don´t like because I don´t sit down and think about those things. It could mean that the musiclife is good beacuse if it have been bad I have been complaining all the time. Sweden is the leading country when it´s all about music in different genres and that´s fun. Especielly when producers and songwriters starting to come foreward. We have some guys in this town who is doing hits to Robyn and that it´s really fun. One of the guys have been guitarist in one of Örebro´s biggest thrashmetalbands Fallen Angel once in a time, which do the thing even more fun. 

Any good bands?

-Yeah,of course - it´s a bunch of bands. Breach, The Hives, Within Reach, Daybreak, Bombshell Rocks, Millencolin, Kent, Entombed, Teddybears STHLM -I can continue for a long time

Is Relapse a good label?

-Yeah, beacuse they´re down to earth and they like the music they work with. It doesn´t every label do, especially the bigger labels. Now have the Europeoffive woken up more and that´s make the thing more fun. They have been let us make 30-40 telephoneinterviews with european press in a very short time so they seems to be on their way up. 

You have been released some more than Human 2,0, what is it and how can I get it?

-We have been released many records, and a complete discography is on our website.The last fullength CD "inhale/exhale"can you buy anywhere. The other records , we talk singles and so on you can buy from undergrounddistros or from us on the gigs. If we have any to sell, which we haven´t right now. 

Hur är en konsert med er? Våldsam?

-I don´t hope so, but it´s intensive and it´s fast and dangerous. We have succeded to be a good liveband I think. We are very tight and so and that´s important.

How does the average Nasumfan look like?

-He/she doesn´t exist, when we´re playing we attract people from every subculture. It´s everything from metalguys, crustpunks, hardcorekids and ordinary and normal people on our gigs so it´s impossible to say what´s our average fan.

Do you have good contact with your fans you think, in which way?

-As I said, true the net in the first place and on our gigs. 

Is it many interviews?Is it boring?

-It have been some since the record been released,but it´s only getting boring when you answer the same questions on and on again. This time it´s the first time we do so many telephoneinterviews on english so that is fun, which is hard work of course but it´s very fun too. But interviews are good and the most of the times it´s fun to answer them.

You know by yourself that is difficult to make good and original questions, do you have any suggestions on any question, and please answer it to?

-Question:Do you make any money on Nasum?

Answr:No. Not any sums so you can live on it. The money we make will cover the costs on rehearsalstudio, instrument, stamps and so on. So it´s not very often and money comes to my pockets of course of Nasum. If you will live on music you must sell very much , tour all the time and sell a lot of merchandise. 

What do you think of living in Sweden today?

-It´s very nice. I don´t think anybody in Sweden should complain because we have so high living standard here if you compare to other countries. Yeah, we can sit out there that all is so expensive and it´+s only shit on TV but out there is people who could give us 10 years of their life only to be living like us for a week. So don´t fucking complain. J

What can be better in Sweden?

-I think that the educationsystem could been changed a lot. I have in the last time heard a lot about how it´s in the school nowadays. It´s a horrorscenario compared to when I was in school. People don´t want to be teachers anymore because of the kids are like idiots and it´s dark I suppose.

Idols when you were small?

When I was little I had a genuine sportinterest which gets smaller for every day. So I was impressed by Mats Näslund and Torbjörn Nilsson and so on. The first musical idol was Kiss and they´re still very big in which way you see. And it was very fun to see them in my age. And back then my big brother was an idol and so was other people to.

The first record you got?

-I wonder if it wasn´t "Tintin i Hajsjön" which was the first record I got? The first record I bought was"Lick it Up" with Kiss.

What can you say to new bands who wants a contract and that sort of things, which advice can you give them?

-A good advice is not to be stressed. Of course you are very on when you have put a group together and you have recorded three songs for a demo. When you discover some months later that two of the songs was so bad and the third one got so much better when you took away some things on it. Take it easy. Record demos for your own before you let anyone else hear them. After that you must try to do your own thing. You can be influenced by other bands and you can sound like them in a nice way but no one wants to hear a band which sounds precisly like another band. 

On the other hand a band can have members which have some routine from old times. But I suppose that you meant real newcomers.

How did you got your contract with Relapse?

-They helped us to distribute a record which we did a long time ago,then we continue to hold the contact with them and becuase they got interested what we were doing we send them som cassettes and then it was ready to give out and they did it. 

Wisdomword?

-Think first,act later. It works everytime. 

Futureplans?

We´re going to record some new stuff in july and do some festivalgigs in the summer and then we´re going to see what happens in the autumn. 

Something to add?

-Thanks for the interview. Continue with Skrutt. All you other can surf to

www.nasum.com