MP3: Trapdoor Fucking Exit - Into the light
I was disappointed to hear that Trapdoor Fucking Exit officially announced their demise last week, but not entirely surprised. Anyone following the group had to be aware that they have been slowly winding down the past few years, but it's still a bummer. I know I'll miss 'em. However, instead of doing the usual Friday retrospective post, I've asked guitarist Jens Åker for some post-mortem insight into the band's legacy.
Now that TFE has wrapped up, any regrets? Is there anything you would do differently?
Well, I don't really regret anything about the band that much, but I would have wanted to play more, tour more. The last few years of the band were real slow in that regard. Also, I have come to think that our second album "Be not content" wasn't all that good. It has some good songs on it, but it's not a good album as a whole. In retrospect, we should have left a couple of the bad songs off it and replaced them with the songs that became the "Devil's egg" 7", which were recorded at the same sessions. Still, you do what you do at the time and nothing good comes from regrets... you just try to do better next time.
What's you proudest accomplishment with the band? Got any particularly good stories?
I think we made some good music. I like the first and last records. Occasionally, we were pretty damn good live. I mean, I sure got off. I don't know about anyone else. For me, personally, the biggest accomplishment was that I managed to fulfill a few of my dreams: after ashram, I wanted to start a band in which I played the guitar and I wanted to go on tour, especially outside of Sweden, and be in a band that made records. So there's that. As for stories, I don't know if I have any that would make sense to someone who wasn't there. I think of Fagge getting drunk and being indecent to Americans. Worm-infested brie cheese in France. The porn and meat gas station, also in France. Very strange. Being a little too high and spacing out on riffs in Denmark and Germany. Little things like that.
What's next for you? Are you still involved/interested in the hardcore scene?
To be honest, I don't know much about what's going on in the hc scene these days. I guess I don't care as much as I used to, but I'll still check out a new band if I hear good things. There's just so much music to discover in the world, it's hard to keep up. As time goes on, I find that I'm interested in hearing more and more other music, from other scenes and other times. I do think there's a couple of really good bands around in the Swedish punk scene, though. Next for me is just getting on with it and starting a new band.
As this is an mp3 post, is there any particular TFE song you'd say is your favorite?
That's hard. To just pick one of your babies, you know? "Into the light" has a lot going on. "Run idiot run" was kind of a theme song. "Ride your pig" has a pretty verse. I don't know...
How about this: if you had to pick one song and one song only to represent TFE, what song would that be?
Go with "Into the light".
And so it shall be!
Trapdoor Fucking Exit - Into the light