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Erik Ohlsson at the Warped Tour
7/24/00, Randall's Island, NYC
Photo © 2000 NY Rock
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Millencolin, the skate punk rock band from Sweden, crafted its name from a skateboarding trick called “melancholy.” Bassist/singer Nikola, guitarist Erik and drummer Larzon formed the band in 1992. They recorded and performed continuously – over 100 shows in Sweden in 1994 – and were signed to Epitaph in 1995. Since then, they’ve toured the globe repeatedly and released four CDs, the most recent of which, Pennybridge Pioneers, was released February 2000.
Before their set at this year’s Warped Tour, Erik took a moment to speak with NY Rock’s Alice Hammond about life on the road....
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NYROCK:
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Today, being a rain date, must take the tour out of its way a bit....
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ERIK:
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We went from Detroit yesterday to here [NYC]. This was supposed to be our first day off in thirteen days. We have another six in a row and then we finally get one day off.
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NYROCK:
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Aside from a day of uncooperative weather, how's the tour been going?
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ERIK:
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The tour is going great. We did the tour back in '97 as well.
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NYROCK:
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What are you guys doing after this?
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ERIK:
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We're doing European festivals and then on to Australia for a second time on this album. We were here for the Punk-o-Rama tour in March. Then we did a European tour.
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NYROCK:
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How has the response been around the world?
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ERIK:
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Really, really good. Australia and Canada are our biggest markets. California is really good for us too.
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NYROCK:
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How has the Internet been for your band?
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ERIK:
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Pennybridge Pioneers album cover.
Artwork by guitarist Erik Ohlsson.
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I'm making our own webpage at millencolin.com. I'm a webmaster, doing some stuff for people. [Erik also designed all of Millencolin's CD covers.] It's good to keep contact with the fans. I always have my laptop with me. And I get all the fan mail. We don't have enough time to reply to everything but we try to.
The best thing about the Internet is emailing, for sure. Keeping in contact with people.
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NYROCK:
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Do you think your fans would be surprised to learn that you're the one handling the site?
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ERIK:
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A lot of people think that we're not the ones checking the mail. But we are. It's hard to keep up though. If we hired someone to do it, people would get quicker replies. But we want to keep control over stuff like that.
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NYROCK:
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How do you feel about Napster?
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ERIK:
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There's a lot of people asking me that question all the time; so there must be a big thing going.
If I didn't have any money and wanted songs, of course, I would go on there and download MP3 files. Personally, I'm collecting CDs. So MP3 doesn't feel for real for me.
But I guess, in the future, when everyone has six-gigabyte MP3 players, of course, they're going to download it straight to their little MP3 walkmen.
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NYROCK:
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How has the press been toward you?
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ERIK:
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There's a stupid rumor in Germany that we said we didn't like NOFX and Pennywise – which was COMPLETELY misunderstood by the German journalist. We love those guys.
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NYROCK:
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Anything you'd like to say to your fans?
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ERIK:
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I hope everyone enjoyed our show at the Warped Tour because we're having a great time!
Especially Canada was huge. Incredible. Montreal, the pit was crazy. I never experienced that before. Like 15,000 people inside. A sea of people.
August 2000
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