Simon Rushworth
Crucified Barbara last tantalised UK audiences as supports on 2008’s brilliant Backyard Babies tour and the foxy fourpiece promised that was only the beginning.
With new record Til Death Do Us Party out later this month it seems this could finally be the Swedish group’s year and rushonrock caught up with lead singer Mia Coldheart to find out more.
A full review of the new record will appear here a week on Sunday as part of the weekly Rock Solid slot.
rushonrock: The last time we saw you over in the UK was on the Backyard Babies tour. How cool was that?
Mia Coldheart: It was a really good tour for us. I’d say it was just as important for us as when we went out with Motorhead a couple of years ago. It was great going on tour with such a good band and we knew all about BB even though we didn’t actually know them before last year. We play all the same clubs and venues back home and we’re part of the same scene but we’d never really crossed paths as bands. We live in the same city but we didn’t know what to expect from them as people. It turned out they were really, really cool guys.
rushonrock: After 10 years together don’t you wish you were headlining?
MC: Of course everyone knows it’s a lot of work when you’re the support band – you’re always the last priority. But the best thing about the last tour was that I don’t think anyone out in the audience actually had a clue who we were. They were all new fans and so the reaction to our music was even more special.
rushonrock: So what are the pitfalls of playing first on a UK club tour?
MC: Believe it or not there were no major nightmares on the last trip. As far as we’re concerned it was one of the smoothest tours we’ve ever done. Nothing really bad happened but we did lose the trailer at one point with all the gear in. OK, that was bad. Normally we travel in a mini bus with us and all the kit in one place. But Backyard Babies let us travel on their night liner and when that happens you get lazy! You just think the driver will take care of everything – and I mean everything. The fact we had a trailer sort of passed us by. We didn’t have a clue it was lost for a while.
rushonrock: ‘Til Death Do Us party has been four years in the making. Almost as long as Chinese Democracy…
MC: We have been working on it for a long, long time and we finally recorded last year. Next time we’ll start writing and recording as soon as possible because it is far too long between records. We know that. Part of it is that none of us have had a real job for the past two years and there’s been pressure to bring in some kind of income from somewhere. There aren’t many jobs which suit a girl in a rock band and I kept saying to my bosses ‘Sorry I’ve got a gig, gotta go!’. That held things up towards the end because we needed some cash. We’d never been so poor in our entire lives.
rushonrock: Has it been worth the wait and the poverty?
MC: I hope so. We’re really, really happy with the new record which is just as well. Looking back, when we first started writing it, we got really, really nervous and its started to affect what we were doing. Now we’re even more nervous because it’s been so long since we had a record out and expectations are so much higher that we don’t know what people will make of it. People are demanding a lot from this album and we want to deliver. We’re very proud of it and there’s not one thing we’d change if we were given the chance.
rushonrock: On the track Jennyfer there’s a really strong male vocal. What’s the story?
MC: The voice you hear is Mats Leven, our producer on the new record. He’s sung with some of the biggest names in rock over here and is a legend. As a band we wanted to give that song some more depth and I wanted a guest singer. I was thinking about who to choose but Mats was someone I’d been talking about for some time. I think he’s a really interesting guy and then it just so happened he produced our record. He started doing some backing vocals but right then I realised he was our guy.
rushonrock: Is it still – or has it ever been – tough being an all-girl band in a male dominated rock industry?
MC: Well we’ve heard so much over the years about how tough it really is and people always want to know just how hard it is. But from a personal point of view Crucified Barbara has never experienced any major problems because of who we are or what we look like. The only thing I think of which made me realise that some kind of prejudice dopes exist was when we were asked to play at a small festival in Sweden. The promoter said he wanted to put us on the bill but he had already booked an all-girl band. We were OK with that until we realised the girl band was one out of 25 acts and that was his limit based solely on our sex. Even if he’d said we have two bands that sound a bit like AC/DC and you’re one of them that would have been easier to take.
rushonrock: In general there are some great all-girl rock bands out there right now though…
MC: Yeah we’re all big fans of McQueen – I think we played with them in Holland once and they’re certainly been flying the flag for women rockers lately. I hope they continue to have a big impact on the music business in the next few years.
rushonrock: So what’s the biggest obstacle you’ve faced as a band during the past decade?
MC: I think over time it has to be money – or a lack of it. And there was the time when we changed the singer in the band. That was a huge wrench for everyone and a tough thing to do. It was hard but we felt it needed to be done if the band was to get really serious. We all hang out together and now everything is getting going again it gets pretty intense. But these days we know each other very well, we know when someone’s having a bad day and we’re there for each other. It’s better that way and it’s nice when you can tour with your friends.
rushonrock: So what does 2009 hold for Crucified Barbara?
MC: We’re hoping it will be our biggest year yet. We’ve already lined up some dates in Italy and Sweden and we’re hoping to play Sweden Rock again this summer. We’re planning on coming back to the UK if you’ll have us – the plan is to do a headline tour of club size venues which is where we’re at right now.