Generous Maria interview


1) Please introduce the band for the Italian readers…

Göran Florström: We´re a heavy rock band hailing from Gothenburg on Sweden´s west coast. Been around for a few years by now, from like ’98. Prior to our new album, “Electricism”, we´ve release the album “Command of the New Rock” and a split-CD and some singles and stuff. The band has been touring Europe, like Germany, Netherlands and Belgium, a few times but we´ve never reached as far south as Italy yet. Hopefully we´ll manage to do something about that in a not too distant future, it would be so cool to come and tour Italy.


2) Let's spend some words about "The Clock" on the artwork of the new album…

GF: So you noticed the clock there, did you? Well, your guess is as good as mine.. I´ve always been thinking of it as a time bomb or something.. time´s ticking away and sooner or later the flame on the cover is going to ignite something crucial and the whole fucking thing will blow up.. But to tell you the truth I have no idea.. The cover art for “Electricism” is done by the Italian art collective Malleus and this time, all we gave them was the title of the album and the music of the album. No requests for this and that, just “see what you can come up with when you hear the music and the title”. And I think they did great! I really love this cover!


3) What does it mean your name? Which is the meaning?

GF: Women´s always been a true source of inspiration to me, so I wanted to have a woman in the name. And since I don´t like mean women, of course I wanted her to be generous. To me “Generous Maria” is a promise for all kind of cool things to come to me.


4) Do you think that the label "stoner" could be correct for your music or not? Why?

GF: Well, when we first started out, we realized that the label we were given was “stoner rock” and I didn´t even know what it was.. But I can´t say we cared too much, one way or another, what they called us.. Later I understood that almost everything with a touch of 70´s sound to it was called stoner, and some of the bands they grouped us together with is really good and some is not so good, but what the hell... I don´t mind. To me, Generous Maria is more like “hard rock” or whatever... But labels.. they can be of some help sometimes and they can be a curse sometimes..


5) Why, in your opinion, Sweden and, Scandinavia in general, is the motherland of stoner/ hard -r'n'r as far as Europe? I Mean, we all know Sweden for death and Scandinavia for extreme or goth, why in your opinion is it also a good background for r'n'r?

GF: If Sweden is the motherland of stoner/hard r ‘n’ r, I really don´t know.. There are a whole lot of bands coming from here, that´s for sure. But there are a lot of good bands coming from other countries as well, like Italy, so I don´t know.. I´ve had that question a lot of times, why so many good bands come from Sweden, and I´ve never been able to come up with a good answer.. Maybe it´s the long, dark winters up here.. you have to keep playing to keep the depression at bay haha..


6) On your Website, in the biographical notes is written: Generous Maria sound unique. What does make your music unique and different from the other bands ,in your opinion?

GF: To me, this band has the exact right mixture between taking care of the heritage of r ‘n’ r and putting in newer ingredients, and that´s bloody unique. But that´s just in eye of the beholder, isn´t it? I mean, all bands are unique.. a band can be uniquely crappy, or uniquely un-ashamed copycats, or whatever.. But to me, what comes out of the Generous Maria blender is uniquely fucking good.


7) Reading your lyrics I've noted that they are a little bit deeper than the tipical "Rock'n'roll topics - rock, alcol, sex…". Where do you get inspiration from them? And what do you want to get to your listeners?

GF: Can´t deny I´m glad you say that. But I think we have to emphasize “a little bit”, because it´s not all that deep, right? haha.. Anyway, I´ve always admired the lyrics of Bon Scott, the perfect mix of humour and “coolness”, don´t you think? Guess I get my inspiration from stuff around me, like things I read, books, newspapers, and stuff I watch, TV, movies.. People I meet, my girlfriend Magdalena are other “things” that inspire me a lot.. It´s really obvious in a way, where would I get stuff to write about from otherwise..? I´m just glad as long as it works, sometimes it feels like “what the hell is this song going to be about..?”. But mostly it goes smoothly. I´m not all that much of a “storyteller”.. What I want is to present are a few “scenes” or “rooms” for the listener to enter and walk around in and look around in and make your own interpretation of where you really are.


8) Which is your idea of "relationship" between music and lyrics? I mean, do you think that there are particular sounds and riff for particular feelings or is it possible to do the same changing style and forms every time?

GF: First of all, to me a good rock song is a good song even if it has crappy lyrics, and a bad song doesn´t get better even if the lyrics are great. So the music comes first and lyrics is number two. A song can get interesting if the sound and the topic of the lyrics don´t really fit. I mean, singing “I really wanna kill you baby..” to real slow, beautiful music, can be so much more fun then doing a love song out of it, just because that would be the “right thing to do”, if you know what I mean? But still, there are no rules y´know .. You can do whatever you like, just as long as it sounds good.


9) Some last words for the Italian readers of MH…

GF: Would love to meet you guys, on a gig with Generous Maria or something like that. And don´t forget to check out our new album “Electricism”! It rocks!