Interview made by my bro Arnaud from www.nothingbutabeatdown.com

First of all, could you introduce us Dead Reprise please guyz. When did the band start ? Who plays in the band ? How came your name change from Under My Hood to Dead Reprise ?

Hi ! So, I'm Anders and I play drums. We started the band in 2001 in the area of Fagersta, Sweden. This area had a big scene during the '90s with bands like 59 Times The Pain, The Hives, No Fun At All, Kazjurol, etc... There were lots of shows and Burning Heart Records took its first breath there as well. Most of the bands died and the interest in this kind of music kinda died too. We wanted to bring the shit back and started this band. We are now based in a city called Örebro which has a pretty good scene at the moment. Dead Reprise is a four-piece hardcore band and we have Billy on the guitar, Patrick on vocals and Erik on bass. We started out with a different bass player but he quit this summer. I feel that we have a solid line-up now even if Erik is living about 200 kms away from the rest of us. We changed the name cuz we didn't like it too much. I mean we just had a couple of demos out and some limited shirts with that name so it wasn't really a big deal you know ? It's easy to spread the word through internet nowadays.

What are Dead Reprise members musical backgrounds ? Have you guyz had any other past/present bands ?

Sure we have been in many bands but nothing that deserves to be mentioned here except for Molly's Gusher that Billy plays in. That is a rock-band that I like a lot. They are really heavy and has vocals that sounds like Ozzy which is really cool. One of my favorite bands, check them out on www.myspace.com/mollysgusher if you like more styles than hardcore. I also play the drums in a band that have been around since 1988. They are called Bad Dreams Always and I joined them about 4 years ago. Chris Dangerous from The Hives is actually the original drummer of this band. It is straight up fast hardcore influenced by DRI, Slayer and Bad Brains. We practice like 4 times a year though. Erik plays guitar in the old-school band Go For Broke.

What are you guyz doing for a living in your regular life ?

Everyone needs to get cash to pay the bills. I work in a big storage along with the drummer of Path Of No Return which I tour a lot with. I try to be on the road for as much as I can since I love it and I just came home from a tour they did with Arch Enemy here in Scandinavia. Billy is a constructor worker at a factory and Patrick study to be a teacher. To be honest I don't know what Erik does at the moment but I think he's working in a clothing store in Linköping.

How could you describe your sound to kids who don't know you ?

Well, Dead Reprise is nothing but real hardcore the way we want it to sound. We try to mix fast parts with heavy breakdowns and just keep it energic and powerful. We won't follow any trends, we just do our thing. Like it or leave it.

What do your lyrics talk about ? Any message ?

Patrick write most of the lyrics and it is mostly about personal experiences and his thoughts about things around us. There isn't really a special message in the lyrics. We've always said that, we want the reader to use the brain and build his/her own picture. So much shit is happening in this world and everyone can be part of changing it to a better place in that way you want it. Some of us are vegetarians and some of us are even drug free but that isn't something that we want to push. It's more like on a personal level. I think that everyone should take a look around and live their own way and just do what their hearts tell them. Forget about the trends that come and go. Do your own thing and struggle for the things you believe in.

You're from Sweden, could you tell us more about the scene nowadays in this country ! Any friends' bands to recommend us and local bands we should keep an eye on ?!

When we started out there weren't too many bands around in the hardcore scene since most of them called it quits in the late 90's. Since a couple of years back we can definitely see it growing a lot. Path Of No Return who are good friends of ours made a lot through the years, at least in our area. We got so many young kids, both girls and boys coming to the shows and support the bands and buy merch which is awesome. Örebro got a strong scene right now. Check out the youngsters in Lost Kind to begin with. What else do we got ? The Kind That Kills, For The Record, Go For Broke, Damien, Spiteful, Hour Of The Wolf, The Romance. They all got myspace so just search the name and check it out (don't need to, I update with bands links here). It's definitely a good mix of old school and metal influenced bands. There is a whole bunch of emo bands coming up here and there too but I got no interest in that so I can't help you out with that (we ain't diggin' that shit here too ahha !). Thanks to Chris Dead and his love and passion for hardcore we got many good shows here, mostly in Linköping, Örebro, Gothenburg and Stockholm. Many of the American bands are coming over for shows up here in the north again which is awesome.

How is the crowd reaction to your live shows ? Any good venues in your area for hardcore/metal gigs ?

Some shows have been really amazing, like Deadfest in Linköping that was really violent and just insane. I love it when people go nuts and singalong. We've had some good shows here and there but I prefer a venue called Skylten in Linköping which have had lots of cool shows. Kafé 44 in Stockholm is small but perfect for crazy hardcore shows. We will play there with The Hope Conspiracy and Nine in January.

What are your fave shows/fests memories ? Any good bands you like to tour with and sharing the stage ?

Lately I would say Deadfest in Linköping, that was just amazing ! We hungout with our friends in Hoods and just had a blast the whole weekend. A festival called Augustibuller in our area was rad too as we got to play the same day as Sick Of It All. We had a really good crowd reaction and the day before that we did Suck'N'Summer in Germany with No Innocent Victim who have been a great inspiration for us. Dave Quiggle did the artwork for our MCD so it was awesome to finally meet him and the rest of the band. In the early days we did a tour in Poland and all the shows there just just off the hook. Aww shit that was really cool. We made many new friends down there. The response was really good, especially in the city of Zielona Gora. Our 2nd gig ever was in Helsinki at a huge festival with cool bands like Down My Throat and Bolt and I will always remember that trip. We sucked but got to have a really good time and that's what matter. We got really drunk on the boat too of course. We got many many memories with this band and we will make some more in the future for sure.

How your European Tour planned finally got cancelled ?

About the tour. Too many of the shows that were booked got cancelled and we got too big slots to fill in the schedule. In the end it wasn't really worth going so we just cancelled the whole thing to try again another time. We will hopefully go on a longer european tour when we got our full length out this spring. Would be cool to tour with bands like Hoods, No Innocent Victim, Ringworm or why not our friends in Awoken from the UK ?

Could you tell us more about your full discography with Dead Reprise !

Hmm, I think we have recorded about 4 or 5 demos through the years but the MCD "Death Of A Nation" is the only one we really released on a label. We are part of many compilations around the world but I can't remember the names of them all.

What about your latest new recordings and the "The legacy of kings" demo 2006 that you released after your mcd came out ? Any new release/studio time planned for 2007 ? What should we expect from your new shit ?!

We will enter a studio again in the beginning of 2007 to record about 14 songs. We have about 8 new songs at the moment and they sound amazing. It's a good mix of fast and aggressive songs with lots of intensity and some others that got more of the two-step tempo and a heavier sound with brutal mosh parts. Most of the songs from the latest demo will be on the album as well cuz they are such strong songs that deserve to be released on a real album. "Taste Of Suffering" is one of my favorite songs and I'm sure we will add even more energy to the songs this time. We might have a legend on guest vocals on one track but I can't let you know who that is yet.

Typical shit, what are your personal fave bands ?

Ohh man that's a hard question. We all listen to all kinds of music. We all like hip hop and rock as well as pop and metal. When I speak for myself I have to mention bands like Death, Satyricon, Neurosis, Isis, Earth Crisis, Integrity, Converge, Ringworm, Madball and Slayer as my favorites. But I'm also way into Coldplay, Deftones, Death Cab For Cutie and The Cardigans at the moment. Well you know, we like so many different kinds of bands and I can sit here forever droppin' names. I mean who cares ? I got inspired by so many styles of music. It depends on how ya feeling for the day you know.

Your influences as a band ?

When it comes to Dead Reprise I would say our main influences are bands that we all have been into for several years like Integrity, Hoods, No Innocent Victim, Hatebreed, Merauder, Cold As Life, Madball, SOIA and Earth Crisis.

Your first and best show you've ever seen as audience ?

Oh I can't remember that. I guess the first show I ever went to was with local hardcore bands. I've seen most of the bands I really want to see now. And that's a hell lot of shows and roadtrips all over Europe with many hours of no sleep or food haha. Neurosis in France in the summer of 2005 is one of the best experiences I've ever had in my entire life. Sick Of It All in Stockholm '99 was just killer. To see Path Of Resistance in London this year was kinda special to me too. While on tour with Crowbar in Europe we got to see Dillinger Escape Plan from the stage and that was fucking insane ! Oh I got so many good memories I can go on forever dude ! Let's move on to the next question...

About your debut official release "Death of a nation" mcd : how you get offered the deal from Dead Vibrations ? Are you satisfied with it now, be it the whole sound production, the distribution, feedbacks, etc.... ? Does it sell good if you know it eheh ? How you get Dave Quiggle doing your killer cover art ?

Well, we had some serious problems with getting the MCD out cuz some labels fucked us up. We didn't trust anyone in the end so we contacted our long time friend and brother Chris Dead who just started to work more serious on his own label and booking agency. He has helped us out so much through the years and he always believed in us and our thing. It was just natural to put it out on his label in the end. What I've heard, the MCD have got really good response all over the planet and we are proud and happy about that of course. Dead Vibrations is a small label but Chris is really dedicated and we know he would spill all his blood and sweat to make it work for us and the other bands he's working with. He is one of my best friends ever and I'm proud of it. He deserves a lot of credit and respect for all he has done to keep this shit alive in Scandinavia.

Any new real European tour planned for 2007 ? Any upcoming local shows soon or you're taking a real break during this winter ?!

Actually we have taken a little break after we played Deadfest in September. We played the same set of songs the entire year so we decided to let ourselves and the crowd take a little rest so we can concentrate on making new songs and record a killer album during the winter. The only shows we got in the plans right now are with Hope Conspiracy in Stockholm in January and with First Blood in March. We will try to tour a lot when we got the full lenght out. Like in the end of the spring and summer of 2007. Keep an eye open for that!

How we could buy you Dead Reprise merch ? What type of merch is available now ?

We got some cool t-shirts but they are almost sold out. We will save the last ones for the upcoming shows and print new when we got money again. Our website is down right now but when we got the new one online you can make orders through email.

You're free to end this brother ! Thanx a million for your time and answers !

Well thank you too ! We really appreciate it. To all of you who like real hardcore, keep an eye open for the Dead Reprise full length that will be out in the spring of 2007 !! Keep yourself updated through www.deadreprise.com and www.myspace.com/deadreprise. Spread the word about us. Thanks for your time !