Profile: IKONS
Name: IKONS
From: Göteborg, Sweden
Sounds like: Dark, dirty and droning
Listen: Good things (into my mind)
Discography:
2005 – EP1 (Militärindustri)
Links:
www.1kon5.com
www.myspace.com/1kon5
Give me a wall of bracing feedback. No, make it a wave - I want to get lost in it and let it carry me away. That's the feeling I get from listening to IKONS. The band has been around a few years, always lurking just below the surface, but the time has come for them get the attention they rightfully deserve. Finally, some new Swedish rock'n'roll that actually succeeds at sounding dangerous.
- Avi Roig
Who are IKONS and where are you from?
IKONS are Torbjörn Johansson, Jonas Bengtsson, Martin Olsson, Rikard Johansson and Carl Riis. Additional players are Magnus Wahlström and Magnus Delborg. All members share the experience of growing up in suburbs outside of Gothenburg, close to airports and woods.
What separates Ikons from the various other bands you are involved in?
Jonathan from Samuraj Cities is not with us anymore. Magnus Wahlström's main- project is Boat Club and he joins IKONS whenever there is time, and Karl Riis, whose project Outmen right now seems to start off pretty good. Musically there are some differences, but on the idealistic there are none. Everyone has a good ear for what fits and what we are trying to do. And whenever IKONS is working or playing, nothing else exists.
What do you do when you're not playing music?
Universities and factories.
What's your take on the current GBG music scene? How does it rate with what's happening in the overall Swedish scene?
I don't see how IKONS has anything to do with the current GBG-scene. And I don't even know if there is one. It feels like the trend right now and the trend that has been for the last few years everywhere, has been some sort of freight for the use of analog instruments. Not that there is anything particularly wrong with using laptops or ipods, but it seems to be some sort of stagnation in the process of using it, it has no direction, a bit boring now, and has been going on a bit to long. There are some really great bands in Gothenburg, like Studio, or Pistol Disco who're doing their own thing. The "Krautscene", or what you should call it in Stockholm seems to have some really interesting stuff going on. And the Swedish music-scene? Don't know, maybe not that interesting, and probably has nothing to do with us.
Name one trend you'd love to see get popular. What about one you wish would disappear completely.
Everything that takes a really long time to do, maybe chess playing. Current flirts with rightwing idealistics and tennis fashion.
Best film you've seen recently?
"Persona" – Bergman.
What's the future for IKONS? Where will you be in 6 months? Next year?
We never know anything; this band could die at any time, or start conquering the goods. Right now we are in a good spin, with new songs and new people in the band, and some gigs coming our way. Hopefully we will have some release out, if well just found someone who would like to release it. Give us an EP! The new song "Good things (into my mind)" we'll post for you is some kind of new direction, but definitely not the only direction the music is taking. We like to see the songs as contrasts to each other, and give much room for them to evolve. Unity in songs can be really important, but for us right now it tends to be boring, we want to see the larger spectrum of musical opportunities. We are in a creative mood of experimenting; new songs will point in a more Krautrock direction as well as the psychedelic sides of bands like Spectrum, Spacemen 3 and Hawkwind. That's the ideals; the musical reality is something for us to deal with. But, there will be soul.