The Hives on indie sleaze: “‘Meet Me In The Bathroom’ is a history book of shit I did as an adult”
The Hives have discussed the indie sleaze era, and how it was immortalised in the book and film Meet Me In The Bathroom.
Meet Me In The Bathroom, Goodman’s 600-page oral history detailing the 00’s New York music scene was released back in 2017. The film version of the book, directed by Dylan Southern and Will Lovelace – who made LCD Soundsystem‘s Shut Up And Play The Hits documentary and concert movie – first premiered at the Sundance Film Festival back in January and released earlier this year.
Speaking to NME for the latest interview in the In Conversation video series, the Swedish band’s frontman Howlin’ Pelle Almqvist discussed the “fucking cool” era, and how The Hives didn’t realise the power of the time until after it passed.
“It’s funny that it’s now considered a ‘historical event’ and all that shit,” he said. “Meet Me In The Bathroom is basically a history book about shit I did when I was an adult! I think that’s cool, and it was cool when it happened.
“For us in the middle of it, it was hard to realise how cool it was until after the fact. You have to remember how fucking terrible it was before that.”
Elsewhere in the interview, The Hives called their recent tour mates Arctic Monkeys “the only good really popular band” around.
“They told us that the first week or month that they started the band, they saw The Hives and The Strokes and that was the thing that really started it off for them,” Almqvist said.
“We toured with them in South America about 10 years ago and had a great time, so I’m really happy they wanted us back. It’s a really great tour to be on; it’s really fun. I think Arctic Monkeys are fucking amazing. They’re the only good really popular band – and that’s not easy to do.”
Almqvist and guitarist Nicholaus Arson also discussed making their return with a new album 11 years after their last. ‘The Death Of Randy Fitzsimmons’ will arrive in August 11.
“You want to come back with a bang, you don’t want to come back with ‘adult rock’,” Arson said of the high-energy approach the band took on the new record.
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Will Richards
NME
