Entrevista - Icos

Icos. Estes senhores andam algures entre o doom metal, o sludge e o punk-rock. E são bons no que fazem. Troquei umas palavras com Oskar, um dos vocalistas/guitarristas deste quarteto sueco, para saber como vão as coisas lá no norte.

Pereira- Please introduce yourself and explain, to those who dont know, what Icos is all about.

Oskar - We are a band from Gothenburg, Sweden.We got together as a band in 2001 with the vague intention of doing something different compared to our previous bands. Slower, darker and more emotionaly challenging was the leading words at that time and that's still the leading star until this day.

At this point the band-mebers are:
Erik - Guitars & Vocals
Oskar - Guitars & Vocals
Martin - Bass
Erik - Drums (2001-2008)

P - What is the origin of the name, "Icos" ?

O- We first thought that we had found a word with no meaning and that was the intention. A simple word that stands for nothing. Later we realized that it means something like "small house" in ancient greek. So that's probably a good meaning to the band, a small house for big adventures.

P - How is 2009 going for you guys?

O - Slow! Very slow. Our drummer left the band late 08/early 09 so we haven't made much noise since. But we recently found a drummer to record a song for the upcoming Falling Down II-compilation. The rest of the year will be spent writing new songs and taking care of babies (there will be two new members of the Icos-family in a very near future)

P -About the line up change. What happened?

Erik (our former drummer) left the band because of artistic indifferences.
We had been in this band for 8 years and shared the same visions and dreams. At one point we just realized that our visions had drifted to far apart to continue this mission together.

P - What are your plans for the near future? Do you have any tour planned?

O- There are no plans to tour during 2009. We are writing new songs and looking into the possibilities to play live in 2010 again.

P - When can we expect a new release from you guys?

O- Hopefully within 1 year or so. There are no exact plans at the moment but we are very excited about the new stuff we have written so far.

P - You played in Portugal last year. How was it? When can we expect you back?

O - As soon as we go on tour again. We had a blast the last time and will definately come back as soon as possible.

P- Can you share with us your best and worst memories from the road?

O - There are too many to just pick one. Especially the bad ones...

P - What happened to your plans to release an album with the british crust/sludge band Fall of Efrafa ? It is still going to be released?

O - Those plans got cancelled for various reasons. But the main reason would be that we lost our drummer as they set the deadline for the band and there wasn't enough time to pull that project off. Which of course sucks big time since that would have been an amazing adventure.

P - What are the concepts and messages behind your albums?

O - There are meaning and message in each and every song but it's not gathered around any specific concept.In "Walk with me" we deal with various political topics while "Fragments of sirens" are more focused on the personal struggles we've been deling with.

P- What are your influences when writing a song?

O - Everything between Robert Johnsons early recordings and our daily mood.
Every great tune and every intense emotion.

P - Sweden is a country well known for its ecletic and important extreme music scene. What do you think of it ; is it easy for a band like Icos to survive in Sweden?

O - Not really. There is a great scene as far as the amount of bands coming from here. But there's not really any scene for our band. We hardly ever play any shows in sweden.

P- What have you been listening lately ?

A few specific albums:
Kylesa - new album
Mastodon - new album
Bob Marley - Survival

And the all-time favorites:
Melvins - everything
Earth - everything
Neurosis - last 6 albums