Melancholic NewWave-Pop from Stockholm 
Thanks to a lucky coincidence and a colleague with great taste in music, I discovered Stockholms THE EXPLODING BOY. The Swedish Goth/NewWave-revivalists fascinate with a mix of THE CURE, INTERPOL and EDITORS. After Gothenburgs CUT CITY, the next great Swedish band that pays tribute to a genre, that found its beginning on the day when Punk died. In May 2009 their new album “AFTERGLOW” came out in Sweden, on the 3rd of August it is going to be released in Germany, France and Holland. Wonderful songs like “Heart of Glass” impress with beeing dark, mellow and catchy at the same time. Recently THE EXPLODING BOY played at the (in)famous German “Wave Gotik Treffen”- festival in Leipzig, which regulary attracts the majority of the German Goth-scene – or let’s say a scene, that considers themselves to be “Goth”, but are a bit spacy in my view.
It was in the early 1980s when gothic rock became a subgenre of the Post-Punk-movement. Bands that have to be mentioned here are foremost ADAM AND THE ANTS, BAUHAUS, SPECIMEN, SIOUXSIE & THE BANSHEES, THE DAMNED, THE CURE, CHRISTIAN DEATH and ofcourse JOY DIVISION. Sometimes one gets the impression that the modern Goth-scene has almost forgot about those bands and that they are only obsessed with cheesy Electro/SynthPop-hymns, which I have a hard time to understand musicwise.
I interviewed Nick and Johan from THE EXPLODING BOY on this issue and also on their influences for their new album “Afterglow” and ofcourse on their personal Post-Punk favorites.
Nick, Johan, you played at the “Wave Gotik Treffen” in Leipzig, which is probably the biggest Gothic-festival in Germany. What kind of experience was that? 
Nick: It was an amazing experience and very overwhelming that so many people showed up…
Johan: Absolutely, It was a great experience. For me, I had never been there, and was always a bit jealous of friends who went there and loved it, and suddenly we got booked there, and the friends from Stockholm was in the audience! I even heard one of them cried when we played a sad song, so that is kind of a revenge I think.
It was the biggest stage we’ve entered as well, so that felt really good. I think our music gets better at bigger stages.
Don’t you find it sometimes strange how much the modern Gothic-scene (especially in Germany) is music wise and from the outfits detached from the scenes originators, which I still consider to be bands like JOY DIVISION, BAUHAUS and SIOUXSIE?
Nick: The Gothic scene today is more about the gothic style and the clothes. It is very rare that you see an “original goth” in worn out black jeans, pointy shoes and a SIOUXSIE T-shirt with the sleeves cut off. Now it is all about plastic and everybody seems to be into this S&M thing, and that had nothing to do with the gothic scene from the beginning.
What were your biggest influences when working on “Afterglow” ?
Johan: I think since we were just me and Les who made the first album, and now all the four of us, the other guys distributed with a lot of things to the sound, and that influenced us all a lot during the recordings. Stefan with a lot of PLACEBO-vocals and punk-guitars, and Nick with a lot of SISTERS OF MERCY-feelings and a lot of keyboard playing in the making of the songs. And though we like those things from the beginning, it is more obvious in this album. I think it feels very fresh and as a great mixture.
Nick: The biggest influence was probably Stockholm and Sweden in general. We recorded the album during the cold and dark period and that probably made the record what it finally become, melancholic, but with a strong underground party feeling to it.
Do you have favorites in the PostPunk – genre and for what reasons?
Nick: The early ADAM & THE ANTS stuff has always been a big influence for me…
Johan: I really like most of those bands like THE SOUND, MAGAZINE, BAUHAUS but early THE CURE stuff has always been one of the main influences. The common thing is that they’ve got a certain feeling I love. I don’t know what it is, but since I totally love melodies in a song it has probably something to do with that.
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