Interview: Niklas Quintana/The End Will Be Kicks
As soon as I heard that Niklas Quintana had a new band going, I was stoked. Having been a huge fan of both Him Kerosene and Breach, I couldn't wait to hear what he'd do next. And of course, I was not let down. The new \"If you see them tell them I love them\" MCD on Chalksounds is brilliant. So it's with great pleasure that I was able to have Niklas answer me a few quick questions via email. Here goes...
01. It's been awhile since Him Kerosene and Breach ended. What have you been doing since then? Did you spend a lot of time between projects or did you always have new music being worked on?
Tomas Turunen have been working on an album with a band called Neveres which also includes our guitarist Lasse Holmberg. I just to a break from music after we decided to kill both HK and Breach.
02. How did everyone in TEWBK come together?
I've been playing with Tomas in both HK and Breach and I, Lasse and Emil Sandsten (bass) shared a flat in Stockholm for a while. Since not one of us was playing at the time, we started to rehearse just for fun. It came out really good and we decided to record some songs.
03. How did you come up with the band's sound?
It's something that came naturally. Kind of a mix of everything we like to listen to.
04. Tell me about the new record. How do you think people will react to it? How do you want them to react?
Hopefully people will react the same way we do when we listen to it. we love it. There's a lot of 80's style music out at the moment so maybe some people will think we're out of style, but we couldn't care less. This is the kind of music we love.
05. How has the response been for the live shows you've done?
We've only done like four shows so far but I think the response has been good taking in count that nothing had been released at the time. Also we've been blessed with a lot of good friends that have helped to fill the floors.
06. How'd you guys hook up with Chalksounds?
We've been friends with Magnus for a long time and he also released the Him Kerosene EP \"no mend no repair\".
07. You've been playing in bands for quite some time. Any important lessons that you learned along the way?
We're still idiots. Maybe not as a naive as we once were.
08. Any advice for up-and-coming musicians you'd like to pass along?
I dont think we've ever done anything right so we're not the ones to ask. but a lesson learned is to not trust people in the music biz. A classic. Do what you do for yourself and people who like music.
09. What kind of stuff have you been listening to recently? Any recommendations?
There's a lot of good music out there so this is hard. The list could go on forever. personally I'm in a period where I listen to a lot of older stuff like
Valentine and Sonic Youth. And of course Blonde Redhead, Interpol, Riddle of Steel, Radiohead, The Smiths, The Cure, Johnny Cash, Morbid Angel, The Bear Quartet, Pixies, Aphex Twin and loads of other stuff. Also there's a new swedish band called C.Aarmé that really great. This is always a fun question to answer.
10. What's next? Tell me about your plans for the future.
We are doing a few festivals this summer and writing and recording as much as we can for the forthcoming album.