interview with Executioners
Have any of you played in other bands? For all of us, this is our first legitimate band.
What are your names? / Who plays what? There is Edwin Kjellberg on guitar and vocals. Adam Jonestrand on bass and backup vocals. Last but not least, Nicki Davidsson on drums and backup vocals.
Have you had other previous members?
We’ve had a few other people audition as singers. We had a dedicated singer joining the band for our first performance and remained with us for a while. Back then we were a black metal band. He eventually had to move. Then we settled on playing punk rock with Edwin as singer.
We once had a second guitarist. We are good friends with him, but we felt that his inclution in the band didn’t ultimately add much to our sound.
Where are you from? We are from Halmstad in Sweden.
What year did the band form? 2017
What's your style of genre? Punk rock with influences from hardcore, classic punk and rock n’roll.
What inspires you? The success, sound and history of other similar bands, as well as our personal interests and sociocultural events in society, both past and present.
Are you looking for a booking agency, and what are your thoughts around that? As a band, one needs to make good, honest connections with other people and organizers. If booking agencies can help us with this goal, we are always open to collaborate.
Are you looking for a label, and what are your thoughts around that? Labels can provide stability and a multitude of oppurtunities. As long as it’s an honest, collaborative relationship. Working with labels is not what it was back in the day. We remain open to change in our sound, but as long as label interference in our sound isn’t too intrusive, we will gladly work with a label.
What are your songs about? Current social trends. Philosophical concepts. Having a good time. Lyrical themes vary greatly, but we keep tongue firmly affixed to cheek and don’t take things too seriously.
Who does the composing and writes the lyrics? It’s a collaborative effort between all members while rehearsing. Lyrics however, can mostly be credited to Edwin. As he apparently has the most things to say.
Do you compose in a certain environment? We compose mostly during rehearsal. Trying different riffs and seeing what works together. Adam and Edwin will usually also come up with new riffs at home and show them at rehearsal in order to work further with them.
Have you done any covers live? We have played covers of Ramones, Fear, GG Allin among others. We do it mostly for fun, and the audience appreciates it.
What are the least and most people to attend one of your gigs?
Our biggest crowd was a few school classes, making up an audience of about 300. We’ve played that venue twice. We played three consecutive times for those audiences, making up a total attendance of over a thousand.
The smallest one was a poorly promoted Halloween gig at a local place. We played for about 12 people, half of them being venue staff.
What ages are most of your concert attendants? We mostly play for people from the local rock scene. They are in their 40’s and 50’s. Through promotion and connections we’ve also brought in a lot of people our age and in their twenties.
Do you always play the same songs live, or do you vary? We change our song lineup for more or less every gig. We write new material and don’t want the show to get stale and repetitive. We get a lot of repeat attendants and we want to make it exciting for them.
Do you have a regular place you play live often? NollTreFem is a local venue we play at often. They hold regular events for young bands and artists.
What was your first gig like? Very nervous due to inexperience. But it worked out fine.
What was your latest gig? NollTreFem during their 10 year anniversary celebration.
Where have you played live this year? A local bar which used to be called TNT Rockbar. A local punk festival called Halmstapunken. The venue was Kajskjulet. And NollTreFem.
When did you start to sell merchandise, and what do you have for sale? We started selling demo CDs in June of 2019. We’ve still got a few left for those interested.
Where can people buy your merchandise? Send us a message on Facebook and we’ll sort it out. More merchandise is coming.
What do you think about people downloading music instead of buying records now a days? Not good. The revenue stream is not as plentiful and it oversaturates the market. It makes you appreciate the music less in our opinion, as it feels more dignified to have a physical record. We mostly stream music ourselves but we make sure to buy albums sometimes to support artists and record stores.
How do you think the music industry have changed because of this? It makes people take less time to appreciate the record as a whole. It therefore makes the release of catchier, more immediate songs in the form of singles a more profitable practise.
What do you think of my work? Supporting bands and providing them with publicity is important. We need to work together to make sure rock lives on and thrives. So your work is much appreciated.
How do you think and know that this interview will help you in the music business? It will mostly likely help due to the fact that we get a chance to make ourselves seen and heard. Young bands need all the help they can get and we are sure that this interview will makes us known, at least a bit more widely.
Do you have any role models or idols?
There’s alot of them but a few good examples are the Ramones, Misfits , Motörhead, Fear, The Chats, Samhain, Darkthrone, Venom and many more.
There are also two local band we’d like to give a shoutout to called Headons and Scenic Belly. They’ve helped us a lot with getting gigs and providing equipment. We are eternally grateful to them and what they’ve done for us.
Why do you think that they exist? Because in the beginning, the world was created and human life sprung forth from the dung. Some of these humans wanted to play rock music. And that’s it.
Is it easier to find inspiration from older bands, or bands that are more active today?
The older ones are more well respected and have achieved a kind of legend status. People have always been inspired by legend and spectacle.
The younger bands make it known to us that you can still make it in the music business with that kind of music.
What have been your biggest obstacles? Finances are always the biggest hindrance. With enough money, we would buy all the equipment we need and tour the world in a heartbeat. Then there are issues with scheduling and making more efficient use of our time when rehearsing together. We also have quite different tastes in music, which can lead to arguments between band members. Other than that, we’ve been doing just fine.
What advice would you give other bands or artists?
Don’t expect anything to be handed to you, no matter how good of a band or artist you think you are. Just keep playing and networking. With hard work, you just might make it.
Also, make sure to talk and listen to each other when someone brings up any concerns or ideas they might have. It’s ok to argue sometimes. It brings you closer together.
Do you have any new material? We try to come up with new material all the time. We have some finished new songs that are not on the demo record. When it’s all finished it will be recorded and distributed.
What are your web sites? We don’t have a dedicated website. You can always reach us on Facebook by typing in our band name Executioners. An Instagram page will be available soon. More is always coming.
Do you have something to add?
Make sure to buy physical records and merchandise from your favorite bands. It really helps them out.
We of course want to thank you for the interview as well. Much appreciated.
