THE GOOD TIMES WE SHARED, WERE THEY SO BAD?
It’s now been seven years since Niccokick was formed, and three years since the debut album Awake From the Dead, My Dear Best Friend was released. Now as the band releases the follow-up The Good Times We Shared, Were They So Bad? they’ve somehow achieved the impossible…an even longer title than before. However, the album unveils a new musical maturity and…well, just a musical maturity…
The road leading up to the final version of The Good Times We Shared, Were They So Bad? has been filled with tours, death anxiety, breakdowns, therapy and the odd coffee break. Niccokick has been hard, but pleasant, work since day one. Combined with numerous other side projects, continuous touring and record producing, the band got close to a collective suicide in early 2007, due to pure exhaustion. Other bands have learnt their lesson through similar situations and slowed down. Niccokick learnt nothing and after having apathetically stared into the inside of some plastic carrier bags, they rose again, straight into top gear and they let loose as if their nervous breakdowns had never happened.
Because of, thanks to or despite all of this, The Good Times We Shared, Were They So Bad? is the best work the group has produced, and a good indication of what the Swedish indie scene should expect in 2008. With a little help from Annika Norlin (Hello Saferide, Säkert!), various other musicians and some friends, they’ve created a tight collection of songs just as suitable for the party as it is for the morning after.
Everything started in Ängelholm in the autumn of 2001, when the singer and songwriter Andreas Söderlund discovered that his brilliantly simple but beautiful pop melodies, sounded better if they were filtered through creaking guitars and falsetto screams. At a visit to his hometown Båstad he was beaten up for being too happy, and was looked after by Martin Stääv and Philip Hall when they found him in the gutter outside Pepes Bodega. As a thank you Andreas asked them if they wanted to join the best band in the world, and since that day the two friends have regretted saying yes. They advertised for a drummer but Andreas’ brother Mathias was the only one who applied.
The North West of Skåne has always had a vibrant underground scene since the 70s with bands like Kriminella Gitarrer and Bob Hund. Niccokick have taken some of that tradition and mixed it with their own generation’s influences, like Smashing Pumpkins, Dinosaur Jr and Pavement, managing to create a sound of their own, which also stands up internationally.
Their anxiety-fuelled party music was a success from the first gig at The Tivoli in Helsingborg. According to fans, a bootleg of the gig can be found on a secret Myspace page, although the band itself hasn’t been able to find it. Amongst Niccokick’s fans the Tivoli gig has become a well told story, and like the Uppsala show with Snook in 2004, it’s impossible for the amount of people claiming they were at the gig, to actually have been there. Rumour has it that the show in Uppsala was sponsored by a big brewery, the kitchen personnel plied the band with alcohol, the gig had to be abandoned after a few songs, a bass and four hearts were broken and the majority of the audience loved it.
Through constant touring and amazing live gigs they’ve won a legion of loyal fans, but the wider audience know them best for the hit single, Turn 27, and the earlier 2003 collaboration with Jose Gonzalez, I Want You Back.
Niccokick has always been appreciated for their visual work and their music videos are already established in Swedish rock history, especially the title track of the 2004 EP Run! Run! Run! (dir: Anders Weberg), where the band members are seen running through the southern Swedish landscape. The shoot ended with the police being called when Daniel “accidentally” climbed the fence into Barsebäck nuclear power station. However, it’s their music that has seen them rise above their competition and it’s impossible to ignore their influence on today’s Swedish music scene.
The Good Times We Shared, Were They So Bad? sees the beginning of a new era of the Swedish indie scene, which Niccokick had previously defined at the start of the twenty-first century. Niccokick is ready to get out there to create new live legends for the masses in 2008.
TIMELINE
Autumn 2001: Niccokick was born.
January 2002: The legendary first gig at The Tivoli in Helsingborg, part of the Popkorn competition. Get kicked out in the first round.
April 2002: The first demo. The Swedish music press, including Groove, Nöjesguiden and Sonic, took notice of the band and praised them to the skies.
Summer 2002: Recording the second demo.
December 2002: The third demo is completed.
June 2003: Daniel Teodorsson joins Niccokick. They release their first vinyl EP, Bye Bye! Friend. Play the Emmaboda festival.
November 17th 2003: The first EP, Turn 27, is released on CD.
Spring 2004: 35 gigs, 13 of which were together with Snook on the Hultsfred on Wheels tour that trailed through Sweden for two weeks in May.
June 2004: Release a new EP, Run! Run! Run!. Play the Hultsfred festival on June 19th. Recording for Swedish National Television.
October 20th 2004: Single release, Love & Neon Lights.
November 10th 2004: Niccokick’s debut album, Awake From the Dead, My Dear Best Friend, is released.
July 8th 2005: Gatecrash a jetsetters party in Saint-Tropez but avoid being thrown out through performing a much celebrated acoustic version of I Drink to Get Thrilled.
January 2007: Andreas Söderlund regrets writing Turn 27, which is about living the rock n’roll cliché of live fast, die young. Andreas wrote the song when he was 23, he’s now 27 and suffers from death anxiety.
February 2007: Andreas Söderlund burns out after working non-stop with producing & touring with Hello Saferide, recording with Niccokick, releasing an album and touring with Sounds Like Violence.
November 2007: Niccokick shoot their video for the first single from the Good Times We Had, Were They So Bad? A confused member of the audience gets up on stage, beats up Andreas Söderlund and accuses Niccokick of being red wine drinkers. The rest of the band get upset since they prefer beer and spirits.
February 2008: The Good Times We Shared, Were They So Bad? is released to the sound of united critics, singing the praises of the band’s genius. The video for The Poet is the first ever rock video to win an Oscar for best male support act.
The good times we shared tracklist:
1. 15 Broken Bones
2. The Art of Doing Nothing
3. The Poet
4. Troubled
5. White Light / Red Light
6. Your Hands Were so Warm
7. You must Be On Drugs Or Something
8. Teenage Love
9. Whatever Happens I’ll Love You
10. Don’t Say You’re Sorry
11. This Pain In My Throat Is Just A Sign Of Health Anxiety
Niccokick - Teenage Love
Niccokick - The Poet
Niccokick - I drink to get thrilled
Niccokick - Love & neon lights
Niccokick - Run! Run! Run!
Niccokick - I want you back (ft. José Gonzalez)
Niccokick - Turn 27
