SQUARE

Martin & Martin from the group Square have been so nice to answer my question about the group. It was anyway good that not the whole group is answering because then it have become a really long interview. This was done in January 2008(I forgot to translate this interview)  

For how long have you been on the road?
-SQUARE released their first record 2002. We use to say that we started to think about this seriously in 2000.

Earlier bands?
-Our basist comes from the band which is bubbling and it´s called UNIFORM. Otherwise I can say that it was in this band it started for the most of us.  

Örebro  is known as a city with much good music….does the musiclife lives or? Favourites from the city?
-Nja... it´s OK I presume. It´s missing promoters who burns for the music which can do other things that only put a band on stage and copy posers…the best thing is if you do everything yourself but it´s a lot of making then. Some people is always burning so it´s so that you stick to them. There´s a lot of bands, many heavy bands .

Some favourites are:: Cosmic monkey, Truckfighters, Uniform, Deadman, Preset boys, golden recivers, Manwhore

I have only been to Örebro once and that was when I saw Lords of the New Church in som place called Lord Nelson, tell me a little about Örebro?   

-Haha, Örebro is allright I presume...
It´s a little bit boring that there isn´t any good places to play live in…but the latest I heard is that the only place we can play on is going to be rebuild to houses there people live…that´s a little bit typical Örebro.  

Do you care about football....then it´s good with ÖSK? Or is it Forward which is the thing(Me myself is a GAIS-fanatic) ?
-No we don´t care, the official meaning is that sport is a way to be together and get condition in the same time. It´s a little bit the same way as shagging, it´s really nice that people does things that they like it. Of course do we care about people who sleep together and would surely go there if anyone gave us a awaymatch., we could even come to an open training. But it´s not so that we support any special team.  (We had a meeting there we decided to support a team in the sport of life but we couldn´t get it together so we didn´t care about being official with that)

How will it go with ÖSK 2008?
-They will surely get it cosy together.

Ska music isn´t so very modern right now?
-No it isn´t.

But I understand that you don´t give a damn about trends?
-No, it´s not really right, our new white shorts is really trendy.

Howcome it became music like this?
-We thought it was cool , swinging and really tough but in the same time we understood that this is one of the most backstriving styles which is around. The most things sounds almost the same , of course there´s a lot of the tings which is good. But we cannot say that it was our meaning to play pure skamusic, in which wave it is been classified.  

You been a lot abroad and played , how did it become that you were in Luxembourg and played? How was it there?  
-Haha, We should have been been concurrent’s to Motörhead(in another place) but they cancelled in the last minute, It´s unsure if this was put an effect on our audience this evening but we surprised them as ususal. It´s often so that the booker writes Ska on the poster . It was as always straight ahead from us, a nervous audience who couldn´t stop staring with a silly smile on their lips and then they bought a record each and went home…

Or this is the way I remembered it anyway, They have a really fine valley in Luxembourg which is really good to run in/fall down to. They have a little train that you can go on and then you can check out twomansporters over there too.

Do you play with a lot of different bands or how is it, is it only with skabands but as a a skaband you often play with a lot of different bands?
-Yeah, skafans are a little bit…and the usually don´t like the stuff we do. No, I have no idea,,,and in the same time they´re so polite so they wouldn´t have said to us if they didn´t liked it. But, my analyse is that it isn´t pureskafans which shake their booty to sqrrr.
To answer your question:
Yeah we plays with a lot of different bands and we have never been playing with a band which feels like  Sqrrr.
Maybe it´s why we try to do some mix of different styles we too....

What does punk mean to you? Is it only a word or is it a lifestyle?
-Lifestyle, fucking cool if it is done in a lively way. We often look at each other and say that it´s time to go on really much.

EMO on the other side seems to be the most boring you can be,  Then it´s more riot to be a nun or so

Is there any good bands outside Örebro today?
-Yes, it is, Maggots for example is extremely cool.

How do you think it is to live in Sweden after the government changes places from red to blue? Was it a good or bad choice the Swedish people did?  
-It´s starting to be noticing in my wallet , it´s not so easy to get money if you plays ”small” music. From 2007 you don´t get as much money from the government, it´s not gold…

In France they have a fucking good system for these things, it doesn´t matter which music you play, if you play 80 gigs or more a year, you get/a small) payment from the state as a culture worker. That makes it possible for bands to do gigs without feeling nervous that they shall go back in your wallet every time you play.  And then more people get the chance to see a concert. The Swedish people seems to be dissatisfied …as they didn´t understand what will happen if they vote so. And then I think that the blue would win again if it was a chance to new election now.  

You´re many people in the group…how does it works?  
-It´s difficult to book the band, we have started to think of lying about all that…and say that we´re three and then have a lottery about who is going to get all the privileges as free booze , somewhere to sleep(that´s always a solution on that…hallo, we plays in the band , people is really guestful and always helps us, not maybe so good in Sweden as they do abroad)

Please tell me a little about every member, age, work, family and something bad about every one?
-Pete de-la-fete, trombone, 22, study to be a nurse, likes to take on himself, party and work with old people. It´s really good at Frisbee and doesn´t like to dance with guys. ,
Andrew, trumpet, 25, do a magister in economic history, a real  conesseur, likes taste and never go back, likes sextoys and Trivial Pursuit.
Martin, Vocals, 25, study philosophy, a guy who see the life from his ”lust-glasses”, goes in for full always and have temaparties who always go wrong and cooking is what he likes. Really good at sewing but can never arrive in time.
Fredrik, guitar, 24, works in a skateboardcomapny, have a cat and plays TV-games, sees many movies and is mostly not moving when he´s on a pub but sometimes he moves his body.
Claes, Guitar 25, Big a s a house , do roads, he´s the one who dances best in the group, he laughs in that way that many people laughs with him but the can scare people sometimes.  
Håkan Ficks, 20, works, he´s the second biggest person in the band , he´s a favourite among the female/male audience, have a big passion in food and his look. He snors really high.
Martin Ficks, 23, works, he´s always with on everything if he´s not so drunk that he cannot be awaken, he´s fascinated by erotic subculture and can imagine to be in a  Tom of Finland comics..

Is it many interviews? Is it boring?
-No, it´s not many interviews and if there is any so isn´t they so long. I have maybe done 15-20 totally. It´s fun but it takes time…especially the ones that you write;-)
The most fun interview must be when I((Martin) and the drummer(Martin) become interviewed in norwegian radio, haha. It become really dizzy  because they didn´t understood that we send foreward two people with the same name.

Please ask the question you never get?
-Shall we take off some clothes?

Please rank your five favourite records, concerts and most important things in life
-Records: Monks- Black monk time
Music machine- Turn on
Opration Ivy- Energy
Boney M- Boney M
Monster- Rockers delight

Concerts: SQUARE- Pragster festival in Norway  2002
SQUARE- Holland
SQUARE- Germany
SQUARE- Great Britain

SQUARE- Sweden

Happenings: The drunkenness, the dance, the virginity, the music and the poetry.  

The first records, the last one and the most expensive record ever bought?
-We haven´t bought our first record in common yet....

Most embarrassing record in your collection?
-We are not ashamed and not regret anything.  

How much does a record with Square sells?
-We had sold about 1000 of every record we have done and then we don´t know so much about the rest but it´s there about I think.  

What do you think about Mp3 and where do you stand when we talk about downloading??
-Go on, I download often and much. Do I find something I like I buy it of course. You only take home dirty copies of all material, I have some difficulties with argument that says that you steal, If people wants to buy mp3 is it good that they can do that but the prize should have been bound to quality,  

It could have done the thing more suited to the consuments, a mp3 have 10 times worser quality that a record, A record cost 150:-

We say that the standard amount of songs is 15 , a ten for every song and then should a MP´3 cost 1 krona.

.Is it something you do for yourself and if you do in which purpose?  
-My purpose is to see and hear if anything is going to be bought by me.

is it good or bad for a band of your size that people download your music?
-Only good, the eventually economic losses should be eaten up by the positive advertisment.

You have not any record company right now or, or why did you do Promo 2007?
-Yeah, now we have one(and soon is officially) we throwed the old, we didn´t get together but we´re still friends.  

How do you do advertisment for your band otherwise? Does people phone you and book you or must you do everything like that for yourself?  
-The same thing there, abroad shall we soon have a cooperation with a label. In Sweden do we do it for ourselves right now but we deal about a contract as we speak.
It´s really important that this goes along well…we worked before with an english company and they didn´t want the same things as we. Wer throwed them away too..

Futureplans with the music?
-Continue to do gigs and play as long as we think that someone likes us.  

What do you want for christmas?
 -That that fucking New York computer stops sending links to unlawful things in our forum.  

Wisdomowrd?
-Go on! Continue Go on!

Something to add?
-Nicht kleine.
(The rest can you find on internet)
( www.squareband.com )