There is something very, I wouldn’t say defeatist about it, but it’s a kids preaching to the converted kind of deal. I think that when we were a hardcore band and we were hardcore people and such an integral part of the scene, which is a very small scene. With The Refused my ambition wasn’t to be accessible, but just to be radical and kind of annoying. Is that something you’ve done all along with your music? With all the bands of yours that I’ve heard it seems as though you have been able to take what some people might consider radical politics and make them accessible without watering them down. I met him through the last The Refused record and I asked him if he wanted to work on this record and he said yes. He’s worked with The Veils and some Nick Cave.
With the new record we only did an English version but we worked with an American producer, Adam Greenspan and it didn’t make sense for him to fly over to Sweden, record a record and have no idea what was going on with the lyrics. The previous record we did we did a Swedish and an English version. We’re ambitious people and we wanted to do something substantial. Singing in Swedish is fine but if you want to reach outside of Sweden it’s hard and you become nothing more than a cult phenomenon. When we did two records in Swedish and we started honing in on what we wanted to do as a band we thought it was good enough to be everywhere. I mean, when we started the band singing in Swedish was a very different approach. INVSN, it could be the same for that.Īt one point INVSN had Swedish lyrics but with English lyrics you can obviously command a much larger international audience.
With The (International) Noise Conspiracy I was pretty stoked that we had a band name that was kind of an idea what the music presented. Tom Murphy: Some of your other projects that might be more familiar to most people like The Refused and The (International) Noise Conspiracy had obviously political content with names that suggest such and I was wondering if the name INVSN had similar connotations.ĭennis Lyxzén: Not really. We’re including the bulk of the interview in Q&A format because it felt like a conversation more than a typical interview and so many of his ideas are relevant for punk, music and culture in general today. We recently had a chance to talk with Lyxzén as the band was getting its current tour under way with a stop tonight at Larimer Lounge in Denver. INVSN recently the 2017 album The Beautiful Stories on Woah Dad!, a reminder that punk need neither be didactic or purely created for entertainment. Charismatic, nearly supernaturally energetic and witty, Lyxzén and his bands have exerted a lasting impact on punk and popular music. The band’s lead singer Dennis Lyxzén is one of punk’s all time great frontmen who many of you may have seen on vocal duties in The Refused and The (International) Noise Conspiracy. And like Gang of Four, INVSN isn’t short on experimental flourishes that ensure the music stays fresh and challenging. It’s melodic yet intense compositions recall the appeal of Gang of Four who likewise made pointed social commentary with contagiously danceable songs. INVSN is a post-punk band from Umeå, Sweden that has mastered the art of making radical politics accessible to a wide audience.
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