Mats ”Masken” Sjögren
I first met ”Masken” when I had finished elementary school and started to explore the city of Tidaholm where the next step of my educational ladder were located. He was a dedicated hard-core punk rocker and played the drums in at least two great bands that I became aware of during this era. I enjoyed his company the few times we happened to be at the same place and I had respect for him and what he was doing as it seemed to be for the right reasons. Read further and find out yourself…
“Masken” at the catwalk. Photo by Unknown.
Hello there Masken! Please introduce yourself to the masses and reveal what´s going on with you, your bands and label.
-Hello there! Haha, well let´s get started right away…I´m 42 years old/young and has been more or less involved in the punk scene since the early nineties. Guess my so called ”musical carrier” started somewhere around 1991 when I was in a couple of bands that, at the most, played at the local youth centre. It was also around this time that I got my hands on some fanzines that, in hindsight, might´ve had something to do with the gigs that were made back then. You realized that you could make things happen if you wanted to and did it. Total DIY! A lot of different bands and projects has been executed since then and the ones that made it to the studio are: Zabba Yone, Antabus, Union 69, Hellshit and Sub Alert.
Occasionally I´ve done a few interviews to help friends with their publications but I´ve never had the grit to put a zine together myself so that kind of collaboration suits me perfect. Due to the band activities and the serious trading that follows I´ve also been running some distros to get rid of things. Fight Back were started in order to release and distribute our own recordings with Sub Alert and to this date we´ve released four 7-inces, one MCD, one full length CD and one CD/cassette with covers. I´ve also used the label to put out some other things as well, around 10 releases perhaps, and time will tell if there will be more of these. Right now I´m kind of fed up with releasing records and distribute them; but never say never! If my memory doesn´t fail me we started out in 2004 and we´ve become older and lazier ever since. We do exist as a label though, even if things are running slow at the moment. I´ve got ”Blogg As Fuck” too, more or less active since 2005, where I promote and review stuff. On top of this I´m the father of two hell raising kids, seven and nine years old, so there´s not enough time do to all the tings you want really.
Old label logo.
You´ve been spreading noise for quite some time now in different constellations. How does the scene of today look from your point of view? Does it differ a lot from when you started, and if so, what minor/major changes have you experienced since the beginning?
-Haha, sometimes you get the feeling of having exactly the same people around you that you had twenty years ago. Some are in ”new” constellations but a fairly amount of bands are actually still intact and active since the old days. All in all we´re doing exactly the same things as well. Releasing our own records and playing for food and gas. It´s almost like a ”company party” when we gather. Everyone knows everyone. Which, of course, is fucking fun, but sometimes I can miss a bit of regrowth and lowered middle age. Some new bands are still popping up here and there but in general it´s quite the same. What was fun then is still fun and the bullshit are still bullshit. The older I get the less I care about what others think of me though, and I´ve made a lot of incredibly nice and close friends through all these years and that´s worth a lot.
Can you recall how and when your interest in music, and more specific: d-beat punk, emerged and why is it still something that you want to engage in? What kind of personal qualifications or attitudes does it take to remain committed?
- I think it all started when I found some cassette with mixed punk on and from that moment I was stuck… At first it was the the common old bands you listened to the most. Later I bought two 7-inches with Rövsvett and the Anti Cimex Lp ”Absolut Country of Sweden”, and that lead me into hard-core and d-beat which are my favored genres to this day. Guess it has something to do with the energy and rawness. It´s hard to explain but this kind of raw energy speaks to me. The reason to why I´m still playing, blogging and releasing this kind of music is simply because it´s something that I love to be doing. Despite the whining in the previous answer I must say that most of the punks that I´ve met are absolutely fantastic and passionate about their engagement in the music and political stands. Drama and self-proclaimed importance dwell within every ”scene” I suppose.
Do you think that the punk scene still can be considered as a youth or sub-culture, and does this music still have the same kind of impact as it had twenty years ago?
- Hehe, I think the regrowth is starting to pick up again so it looks a bit better today than it did some years ago. It’s something I’ve been looking for; obnoxious kids without any gray zones that kicks us old farts aside to take some space. Although I understand that it´s not easy at all to get into this ”everyone has known everyone for 20 years” club. A bit sloppy expressed, but I think you know what I mean? Subculture I would definitely say it is, but youth culture…I´ll wait a bit to call it that again.
Jonson of Anti-Cimex. From Sika-Äpärä #5
Since this first issue of Hinsides is a thematic one with a focus on fanzines I´m curious to know which zines you´ve been into. What publications has influenced you the most and why? Who are rightfully acknowledged and who deserves a special homage according to you? Both past and present zines are welcomed to be mentioned…
-Oh! Fanzines is something that´s close to my heart and I dare not guess how many I´ve had in my possession over the years. Have done a couple of very tough cleansings (including all death / black metal zines) though, and ”only” retained 4-500 pieces. They take an incredible amount of space and why save something that´s never read, I reasoned. Then it´s better to pass them on to someone else who appreciates them. But I still buy a lot of zines because that´s something that I absolutely have to support. My absolute favorite zines are, to no surprise, many of the d-beat zines that came in the 90’s when the scene was completely flooded by them. And for me, just like to many others, SIKA ÄPÄRÄ was / is my absolute favorite. It knocked down like a fucking bomb and stirred up some dirt among the needy ”know it all” besserwissers who took themselves a little bit too seriously sometimes.
And everyone else, by the way, as there were no similar zines before. It was all about booze and Discharge, haha. After that, there came a lot of Sika clones but no one reached the class of the Finns. They still had the important glimpse in their eye which the imitators were not able to catch. The result those imitators came up with were some kind of faked roughness with Finnen and Jallo as the obvious idols. Next came the Fårskalle/Fettkross which was quite entertaining. Then there were Absurd and Eibon, both from Uppsala who were totally absent from the Sika complex. Damn good both of them. Other Swedish favorites from that era are Banka Bäver (later Backlash), Feeble Bastard, Nitad, Filthnoise, Painkiller and Poverty. Favorites from this side of the Millenia include A monument to failure, Skitliv, Mission and Väckelse, Quarantined and Flyktsoda. Kissan Päivät I can probably push in there as well. The favorites from the 80’s are first and foremost Banan, but also the spirit of Skottkärran and Träsket Glöder. Of course there are several more zines from both the 80’s and 90’s that should be mentioned here but these are my personal favorites. Please inquire if you have anything for sale. Maybe you have something I’m looking for!
Allmänt skitsnack, m.m, m fl. Fårskalle #1
Ok, last but not the least important questions; What makes a d-beat punkband relevant today? Do you have any good examples of contemporary acts that brings the goods in a way you feel are up to date without violating the framework? Tell us about the last performance you saw that blew your mind.
-I´m of the opinion that a band does not have to be the tightest or the most popular or ”likable” to serve the right to exist or appeal to me. There is some kind of fucking feeling, that I can’t define, that should show up to sound good in my ears. You can come a long way by sheer willpower. Many of the old crude gangs from the especially 80´s are good examples of this. But apart from all the old classic bands (which I also love) there are a lot of Swedish bands that are active today that I like a lot. Like for instance Anatomy-71, Sulfur Dioxide, Paranoid, Strul, Anti-Metaphor, Chronicle, Böset, Panic Attack + a whole lot more. Should add that not all of these play D-beat, though. The last time a band blew me off my chair at a gig I can´t really say, but Massgrav in Jönköping last year was a joy, as always. Thesame goes for Anti-Metafor in the same place but on another occasion. They were also damn good. Take care!
You´ve just read an excerpt from a longer interview with “Masken” made by Hinsides Magazine. The conversation as a whole are available on paper in the first issue of this Magazine together with a lot of other exclusive content.
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