Metal Hammar Italy
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!
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