interview with Blender Blues Band (BBB)
How was the band formed? Three of us used to play together in a couple of different bluesbands during the 80’s and early 90’s. One night me (Jocce) and the drummer (Perka) happened to meet at a club and talk about ol’ times. At one point or another he asked me “Why don’t we put together a band again and do a gig here?”. After a few beers that sounded like a great idea, and it actually wasn’t half bad the next day either. So we contacted our old bassman and another guitar player, rehearsed a bit and did the gig. Four years later, we’re still very much active.
Can you tell about your band? No, it’s a secret. Seriously, the original idea was to form a blues band, but right from the start we expanded quite a bit and play anything from blues, rock, soul, funk and reggae. Even some latin inspired stuff. Most of it gets a sorta bluesy foundation anyway.
Where are all band members from?/Who does what in the band? Jocce Ekström (me) is from Uppsala and plays the guitar and takes care of most vocals. Magnus Ollas is from Sigtuna and is a great guitar player. Plus he takes care of the vocals on some songs too. Perka Eriksson is from Uppsala as well and bangs on the drums. Perra Andersson we imported from Stockholm. Really hard to get a visa for him to Uppsala so we’re rehearsing in Märsta which is smack bang in the middle of Uppsala/Stockholm. Border security is tight.
What was the ambitions of the band when you started? Do one gig and have some laughs!
Could you explain your music to someone that haven't heard you? Remember when smoking was allowed at bars? Those smoke stained joints with sticky beer floor? Half the audience dancing on the tables and the other half passed out under them? We sound like that.
Where was your first gig? Hijazz in Uppsala. Great place. Reminds me of old Rackis (Rackarbergspuben) in Uppsala which was a classic music pub where most of the blues giants played when it was still open.
Where was the latest gig? Actually, latest was at Hijazz as well. We play there a couple of times a year. Love the place.
Who writes your songs?/ Who writes the music, who writes lyrics? Magnus Ollas is the one who comes up with the music. He usually shows up at rehearsals with some new musical ideas. Then we run through it, make a quick recording with an iPhone which I bring home. I then write the lyrics and try to come up with some kind of melody to sing.
Who has the best sense of humor in the band? Must be our drummer, Perka. He’s the designated driver and I’m sure he must have a great sense of humour to put up with it.
What's good/bad with the band? We always say we’re the friendliest little blues band in town. We want both the audience and club owner to be happy and have a good time. And so far, they usually do. The bad thing is that we’re not as pretty as Justin Bieber (any more).
What are your songs about? There’s a trick to writing lyrics I’ve been using over the years and that is to just start to sing something. Hum along and just blurt out whatever words come to mind. When you stop thinking and just do it, what comes out is often the most important thing you want to say. That gives me a few lines of lyrics I can work on at home. The theme usually comes quickly that way, but completing it with the right words and phrasing, that’s just hard work and persistence.
Do you write your own material or mainly covers? The last few months have been very productive and we’re moving from exclusively covers to more original material. Even when we do covers we try to arrange them a bit differently. Put a different spin on them. Except when we’re doing Dag Vag (Swedish ol’ band) when for some reason it has to be exactly like the original. At least Magnus says so, because he’s the big fan.
Have you made any albums?/If yes what are they? Not yet. Thinking about it though since the number of original songs are growing and people have been asking about it on some of the gigs.
Do you have any clips on YouTube? Yep. We have a channel there (https://www.youtube.com/blenderblues). We usually try to bring a video cam when we’re out doing a gig. It’s good to be able to look critically on how you perform and sometimes it’s good enough to put on the tube.
How old are you?/What got you started in music? Quite a wide age span in this lil’ band. From 40+ to 60+ (won’t tell who’s oldest).
At what age did you start playing? I (Jocce) started playing guitar when I was 12. My mum taught me the old classic “Oxdragarsång” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMl1R7g3c9o). Two chords I played for hours and hours.
How old were you guys when you first stood on stage? Young blood Magnus wasn’t even 40 the first time BBB entered a stage so we were all quite young, at least compared to BB King. We all started doing gigs when we were like mid teens or something. Combined, we’ve been doing live gigs for over 150 years!
What year was the band started? Started in October 2010, first gig in January 2011.
Best/worst gig you've played?
First gig at Hijazz was very special. Was my first time on stage in 15 years and we all hadn’t been performing together for more than 20 years. Big crowd of old fans and musician friends who wanted to see what we were up to this time. Filled the place up and we all and everyone there had a blast that evening.
Worst gig ever was probably a private party at an American Car Club outside Stockholm. When we came there we realized it was a farewell party because they had been forced to leave the place they had been at for many years. Small, really drunk and sad audience in a freezing cottage somewhere out in the forest in the middle of winter. No one paid any attention to what we were doing.
What places will you be playing in in the immediate future? We’re doing a gig at Pub 19 in Uppsala on May 3. First time there so it’s gonna be fun. It’s a sister club to Katalin which is the biggest live music club in town so it’s a way to get in there also. Then there’s gonna be a couple of private parties over spring/summer and then back to HiJazz in september for our autumn gig.
Is it always the same songs live? I think we have close to 40 songs now that we have played at one gig or another and usually we don’t need more than 20 or so for two sets of 45-60 minutes (depending on how long guitar solos we wanna do). So we try to mix it up a bit. Basically so we don’t get bored ourselves.
Have you had any bigger tours from start to now? No, we’re too old for that these days. Been there, done that. But we did a nice trip to Härnösand in april 2013 and stayed overnight. Was great fun. I was trying to get permission from the hotel staff to trash the room for old times sake, but they were boring.
How big crowds do you usually play for? Small clubs with up to maybe 100-150 people.
What are the plans for the rest of the year? The plan is to write some more material, record an album and do more gigs than last year.
Where do you usually play? Stockholm-Uppsala area.
How do you get psyched up for a gig? Chamomile tea and ointment for our arthritis. 25 years ago it was Jack Daniels, groupies and loud music (note to wife: part of that was a joke, guess which part).
What are your goals with your music? We all have full time jobs and families (except Perra, he still rolls with groupies) and we’ve been playing for years and years before, so these days our ambition is to have fun and play some great music. Hopefully we can give people a good time along the way.
When did you decide to go all in for the music? We haven’t. I (Jocce) was pretty much all in for several years during the 80’s and early 90’s before I started my family. It was all great fun and there are lots of fun memories from that time. But I don’t wanna go back there again.
What are your sources of inspiration? Wow, tough question since we’re influenced individually by many different artists. Right now, I’m heavily into Joe Bonamassa who’s a great guitar player and singer. Magnus is both playing and listening to reggae and Joe Satriani. He’s also a bit fusion right now. And so it goes on. Maybe that’s what makes it fun, when everyone adds his own little quirks to the final product.
What's the first step when making a new song? That would be Magnus sitting at home, coming up with some fancy finger twisting chord progressions and showing up at rehearsals saying “I have an idea!”. Second step is usually me going “Oh, crap…” Cause I’m not used to more than 3 chords (that’s the blues ya know).
How do you feel about the downloading of music instead of buying albums? That’s fine, as long as the artist gets paid. There’s really no excuse any more to not pay since it’s dirt cheap on Spotify and similar services. Musicians need to get paid or there won’t be any music.
What would be your dreams for the band? We have no high ambitions any more. The important thing is to have fun together, both during rehearsals and on stage. That rubs off on the audience. We want to do more gigs though, but getting gigs is hard these days. Many club owners almost wants the band to pay to play. Ridiculous if you ask me.
When you are on stage, what do you fear most then? Wow, another tough question. We’ve all been on stage hundreds of times in our lives so we don’t really get stage fright any more. It’s important to not become disengaged though. The minute you start to relax and become complacent on stage, you lose the audience. That scares me.
Have you been in any other bands? We have all played in several different bands over the years and some of us still do. That’s been everything from blues, rock and funk to reggae and hard rock. I was even touring with a pop show for kids for a few years.
What do you work with outside of the band and the music? Jocce works with marketing at a university, Perka is at a car shop, Magnus is a bus driver instructor and Perra is an editor at one of the larger evening newspapers in Sweden.
What would you do if there was no music? Invent it. How hard can it be to bang a couple of rocks together and scream?
How important are your fans? First, second and third priority. We always want to deliver when we’re on stage.
How often do you rehearse? Not as often as we would like. Since we’re often working different schedules (day and night) and I’m traveling a lot in my job we have to try and squeeze in rehearsals whenever we can.
Where do you rehearse? Märsta, midway between Stockholm and Uppsala, which is convenient since we’re spread out over that area.
Name 2 of your own songs you like at the moment? Right now, there are two new ones with Swedish lyrics - Kanske du vill ha det så (Maybe that’s the way you want it) and Livet är inget enkelt spel (Life is not an easy game). They are two very soulful creations and are my favourites right now. Magnus loves Whisky and TNT which is also new and a kind of Texas boogie style in the tradition of ZZ Top.
What do you feel is the best live band you've seen? I have vivid memories from Thin Lizzy on the Renegade tour. Think it was in -81 or -82 they came to Stockholm.
What drives a band that isn't all that famous and renowned to try to make a living on their music and to keep playing? There’s lots of music out there, already written or not. It deserves to be played!
Do you have any webpages?
https://www.facebook.com/blenderblues
Any pearls of wisdom for all other bands out there? Don’t just play your music, play it for the audience. There’s a difference! I see too many great musicians on stage where their music never reach further than the edge of the stage because they don’t interact with people who came to watch. One great example from a totally different genre than ours is Slipknot. Look at them, they know how to work their crowd! You don’t need to be the best musicians in the world, but you need to be entertaining to watch and listen to!
What are the biggest obstacles for a band? Finding gigs today is a lot harder than it used to be during the 70’s, 80’s and even 90’s. Club owners and festival organizers are flooded with requests and you really need to be persistent and keep nagging them to get a foot inside the door.
Tell us about upcoming gigs and why we should be at them? Well, I think May 3 at Pub 19 in Uppsala is going to be really fun. For the first time ever we’re doing almost half the gig with our own material and we haven’t been on stage in Uppsala since October last year so there’s gonna be a big crowd. I expect it to be a really fun night for everyone involved!
What is your favorite crappy instrument? Egg harp. I was a sound engineer once at a concert and one of the bands had an egg harp. That’s one of those thingys that slices your whole egg in one go with some wires. You can apparently glue a small microphone to it and use a pick on those wires (as strings). With a little delay and lots of reverb it sounded