Originally published in ‘zine issue #37, 2006
Growing up in Gothenburg, Sweden, the down-to-earth Anders Björler and his brother, The Haunted bassist Jonas, and former drummer Adrian Erlandsson had a band not too dissimilar to their current outfit. Back then, they took advantage of government programs to benefit their band.
“Yeah,” Anders begins, “that was more like a remnant of the socialist government. I think that those funds are long gone ‘cause the economy is going down, you know, so that was late ’80s, start of ’90s. But you can still apply for, like, a cultural grant that provides that you can seek financial backing for tours or for recording an album, stuff like that.”
The money for which the young musicians applied were earmarked for music courses that would help educate people on how to find success in their musical prospects. They signed up for classes such as composition and studio recording. But they, as well as many other bands in Sweden that have grown up to world tours and successful albums, observed that no one administering the courses physically took attendance at the classes. All the boys had to do was sign paperwork saying they attended in order to show that they put the government funding to its proper use. They promptly took the course funds they received to buy musical equipment.
The courses that provided the most money were for Christian music instruction. “A kind of double standard, coming in there [to sign the attendance sheets] with, like, band shirts with inverted crosses.”
On Politically Incorrect, Bill Maher asked his guests whether it would matter if they kept who won the presidential election out of the papers, that it doesn’t affect people’s lives that much.
“I mean, politics in Sweden doesn’t really matter that much, and the same goes for U.S. in some cases. Republican, Democrat, you have two parties to choose from. Like, in Sweden, you have 100 or something. The difference is so small between each party, so it’s almost that you feel that it’s pointless that you go to vote, you know, because what they promise, nothing that they gonna to do anything about, anyway. Because we have both the right and the left government, and the change wasn’t that big. Very, very minor.
“Of the whole media situation you talk about, that keeping that information about the media, I dunno,” Anders stops and takes a deep breath. “If people wouldn’t know about it, you know, I don’t think people are very well educated about what’s really going on in the politics, like lobbies and, or a secret conference with big business. I don’t think many people know about it.
“I only read Al Jazeera, so I’m not one to talk,” Anders laughs. “No, but I actually have a glance on that site. Yeah, I take a quick look to, kind of, weigh in the facts from the U.S. conflict, check the different stories somehow, to create an interesting balance.”
“The war against Islam is just blown out of proportion.”
Immigration is a hot topic in the United States, as everyone knows, but in Sweden, the people aren’t upset over how immigrants are entering so much as what happens afterward.
“I think the most upset about how the immigrants are treated, because the––it’s like a double standard about, from the government point of view, that, of course, we could, we should receive immigrants, and take care of them, you know. But when they are in the country, we don’t do anything to make them feel good or feel welcome. We just put them in segregated living, we don’t teach them to talk Swedish; just everything to create problems in suburbs. I think people are more tired of the politics surrounding the immigrants than the actual immigrant.”
The way people relate to others on the basis of race in Sweden is a lot more open there than is the case in other countries.
“They’re very open in Sweden, that, yeah. But, I mean, we have guest workers that came here already in 1940s from Greece and stuff like that, and they came here to work because we needed people to work. So we kind of used to, like, immigration from an early age. I mean, U.S. should be as well, you know?” Anders laughs, “You all had immigration since the 17th century. But I think the media situation in U.S. kind of makes it harder for people to appreciate other cultures. Like, the war against Islam is just blown out of proportion.”
Many Swedes have respectable skill at communicating in English.
“Yeah, it’s taught in the, like, fourth grade, but I think they’re changing it now so it starts at the first grade level, ‘cause it’s such a big international language, so you kind of have to follow at a young age, even. But then you’re really taught all the way up to high schools, grade school.
“And the American culture is so strong in Sweden,” Anders continues. “I mean, Levi’s, Coca-Cola … It’s almost like a cultural revolution. It came creeping, you know, after the,” he pauses to gather his thought, “it started in the ’60s, I think.
“It started even earlier, I think, with Elvis Presley and rock music. But, I mean, I noticed it on the ’70s, ‘cause I grew up there, so it’s easier for me to relate, and American movies, American TV shows, American music, that all contributes to that you learn English somehow. And they even passed a law in Sweden that they should promote more Swedish films and Swedish TV programs in the media because there are so many American programs and movies. The cinemas here show, like, 99 percent American movies.” ■
Photo: from a The Haunted poster
