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Sometimes I’m reminded that there’s a connection
between growing up in an industrial town and making a bit of a show of drinking your coffee black. Or at least avoiding “capsules and stuff,” as Hives lead singer ‘Howlin’ Pelle Almqvist IVES Linn Koch-Emmery gets under the skin of Hives frontman Howlin’ Pelle Almqvist ahead of their visit to Dublin’s 3Olympia in April. PHOTOS Bisse Bengtsson says. “If you’re very involved in brewed coffee, you can probably tell the difference in all sorts of things. A bit like being able to hear the difference in different types of guitar distortion. I think it’s about how long you look at something. It’s like the Eskimos’ thousand words for snow”. Common to most small towns is also that at a certain point, they leave their young people something to fantasize about. It can lead to varying outcomes, but sometimes it leads to them starting a rock band. A quick compilation of Sweden’s most successful rock exports in the last 30 years confirms this image. It seems to require a lack of external entertainment for music to happen. According to legend, Howlin’ Pelle, Chris Dangerous, Vigilante Carlstroem, Nicholaus Arson, and Dr. Matt Destruction were five teenage boys in Fagersta when in 1993 they each received a letter with a time and place to meet. The sender, a man named Randy Fitzsimmons, explained his role as mentor and songwriter for their upcoming band. Four years later, The Hives’ first full-length album, Barely Legal, was released via the punk label Burning Heart Records. When the follow-up Veni Vidi Vicious was released in 2000, success was an international phenomenon. While the band’s members toured the world, their founder maintained a more laid-back profile. At regular intervals, he appeared with ideas and songs for a new album before returning to the shadows. Over ten years ago, he disappeared completely. “It was like the break never ended. He never showed up again,” says Pelle. Almost everything got an explanation. Just over a year ago, an obituary appeared in the Fagersta-Posten. “Perhaps he knew he was going to die, but we don’t know how it happened. We don’t actually know for sure that he’s dead. But we have to assume that he is,” says Pelle. “Or it’s just an advanced way to break up with us.” It’s vague, he admits. But Fitzsimmons didn’t leave his disciples completely empty-handed. The obituary pointed in a familiar direc43