Years back when I got my hands on their old demo tapes I didn't know what to think. The sound quality on those ones are pretty damn lousy. I was very surprised when they later on released an LP on Yellow Dog, and to my great satisfaction they kicked a buttload of more ass then on the demo tapes. Excellent band, cool guy to interview! Although maybe not exactly my finest moment, not too bloody happy with all of my questions.
We did this by ICQ with a lot of sporadic pauses, but the whole thing ended on October the 9th.


Hey there� Let�s start with a simple question. Could you introduce yourself and the rest of the band?
Hi. Sure, Im Chris and I play guitar in Bombstrike... The rest of the guys are Kraister - vocals, Mange - Guitar, Fenok - Bass and Zwemp - D-beat... We are all living in different parts of Sweden, but we are based in Karlskoga...

I see... Well, since living in different parts of Sweden, doesn't that cause a problem with rehearsals? Or are you just one of those bands that only rehearse before a gig or recording?
We have also been without a rehearsalroom for one year or so... But finally we are gonna have a rehearsal next weekend, and it's gonna be the first in 6 months or so... (but we have played 5 gigs during that time) So, yeah, we are one of those bands.. haha.. But hopefully we are gonna start to practice more. Kraister lived in Norway for a while, but he's back in Sweden now so that makes things a bit better...

What have the responses from the shows been like then? Have people noticed how bent out of shape you guys have been? Haha
How do you go about writing your songs then, do you go into strict writing-mode when it�s time to do a new record? Maybe you guys have done a little something on your own and then would try it out together when you actually will rehearse, I don�t know. How have you been doing? :)
We did a 14 show tour in Europe last year, so those songs are easy to play since we have played them a lot... and the gigs after the tour are played after the same song-order so we don't really have to practice them.. Yeah, we have added the songs from the new EP, but It's pretty much the same songs as we played at the tour... In other words, we have not been out of shape at all... just a bit drunk sometimes. hehe..
Making new songs? Well, It's basically us meeting up a week or two before we go into the studio, and I show the guys the new songs and then we record them...

Haha. I missed your gig at Crustfest this summer, I was there but �unavailable� at the moment. But I actually heard some guys say that you were a little bit un-edgy ;) haha
So you basically do all the work in the band, writing all the music and lyrics?
Festivals.. It's impossible to hang around a whole day at a festival and try to stay sober... And we often play as one of the last bands, so yeah, some of us where e little more drunk than the others... shit happens..
I do all of the music in the band, and me and Kraister used to write the lyrics 50/50 as on the LP, but now Kraister does all of the lyrics. I also make the homepage (www.bombstrike.tk) and handle most of the Bombstrike contacts.

Ahh, contacts. So I suppose that you�re the one that�s got the main-contact with Yellow Dog, zines and such. What was the response like after the LP/CD was released? I mean, did other labels get in touch and wanted to release something, did you do a lot of interviews, were all the reviews great? Is there a craving for Bombstrike in the world?
We have only got good reviews... but there where not so many CD/LP's that found their way to Sweden... mostly in the US and Germany and the rest of central-europe.. I have made some interviews and yeah, we have been talking to a bunch of labels about fourthcoming releases... when we were to release our new Ep we had about 4-5 labels that wanted to release it, but we asked Yellow Dog Rec. first since they did a great job on the CD/LP...

Have you gotten your hands on the new EP yet? It seems like Yellow Dog definitely took their time on that one, thinking of doing your next release on another label?
The new EP is in the mail as we speak.. so I should get it any day now.. We are going into the studio in 3 weeks to record our side to a split 7" with Legion 666 from Canada. And that will be released on Schizophrenic Records from Ontario, Canada... so, yes, we will change label on the next release. But that does not mean that we won't be working with Yellow Dog anymore... They are great guys and we'll see what happens in the future.

As you said you toured Europe last year, and from what I've seen on the pictures it seems to have been a crazy and great experience. Any new tours/gigs in the planning?
Just some gigs in Sweden.. But we have people working on some gigs for us in the UK. But nothing is confirmed yet...

Something I just thought of� When I visited your website I saw that you had a picture of the guy the cops think killed Anna Lindh, and with the slogan �just do it� next to it. What was your reaction when you first heard someone stabbed her? I was initially surprised, since that sort of stuff doesn�t happen very often in Sweden. But to be honest I wasn�t really sad, I sorta felt nothing at all when she later died. But it seems like she meant a lot to everyone else.
Shit! This fucking circus really pisses me off!!! Yeah, it felt strange when she died. (Anna Lindh was the foreign minister of Sweden, maybe you should mention that for your non-swedish readers) But all this shit about "a country in grief" bla bla bla... that's crap! 98% of the swedish population don't care... people get killed every day. She's not the queen, you know... It's just the media wanting to sell some extra numbers of their papers, and then the swedes go: Uh? Oh, Im so sad.. *buhu* When she was alive noone cared a fuck about her... And then, the days after.. You were not allowed to have fun, everything got cancelled... tv-shows, sport-games... even comic-strips in the newspaper... god damn!! It's all a national mourning directed by the media... But the picture on our homepage, It's the surveillance photo from the store where she was stabbed.. and the killer has a Nike-shirt on him, so the slogan "Just do It" makes it funny, and we really need some humour here... haha... although I don't wanna take credit for the picture, since I just found it on Internet...

I couldn�t have said it better myself. And I couldn�t agree more either! Although I was gonna mention that she was our foreign minister when I put the interview on the website, didn�t feel like I had to explain to you who she were :)
Damn it. I have to be honest and say that I can�t think of another question to ask. Lame� oh yeah. You�re living far away from each other, Bombstrike doesn�t rehearse more than you have to. Does that mean you all have other bands that you spend more time playing with? For instance, Zwemp�s in M�rder too if I�m not mistaken.
Yeah, he is singing in M�rder... Kraister used to sing in a Death-Metal band called Butchery but they are not around anymore... Too bad, they were great! Fenok plays in the grindband Scurvy, but they seem to have some problems with members.. I hope they will sort it out, coz they are fucking great too... And I just started to play in a band called Neolithium, we'll see what comes out of that..

Not that many bands� Most musicians play in 10 bands nowadays.
Ok, so� Now it�s the end. I can�t come up with any new questions. Sorry, I know you feel heart-broken right now. Hope you can go on living :) Thanks for doing this interview� Anything you�d like to say, ask, complain about�? It�s all up to you what will happen now!
Well... I whould just like to thank you for showing interest in our little band.. And for you readers, please check out our homepage at: www.bombstrike.tk for news about fourthcoming gigs and releases...
Cheers!!! // Chris & Bombstrike.



Related links:
Yellow Dog Records
M�rder
Scurvy