Interview with Loverboy, 9 November 2005

NB - Please introduce yourself.
L - My name is Love Jonasson, also known as Loverboy. I'm the singer in the Swedish garage band Sons of Cyrus. I am also taking care of a little record label called Transmission Records.

NB - Tell me how long do Sons Of Cyrus exist and what did you release so far (I know 2 albums and bunch of 45s)?
L - We have existed since 1997, but we have played together since 1996, back then we were called The Orphans, the name was taken from a gang in the movie The Warriors.
Like you said; we have released two albums, we released them on the Stockholm label Big Brothel. Six 7"s on different labels from Sweden, Germany and the US. And we have also been represented on various compilations, latest on a comp that came out together with the Italian fanzine BAM.
A third album with Sons of Cyrus has been released this autumn and it's called Monkey Business. On the album it is twenty songs, all our vinyl 7"s plus rare songs and a demo song is put together on this album. It is released by Dead beat Records in USA. www.dead-beat-records.com

NB - Do you play a lot outside of Sweden and can we expect you in Holland?
L - I think we play more outside Sweden then in our own country. The garage scene isn't that big in Sweden...
The summer of 2005 we did a two weeks tour in Europe. Most of the gigs were in Germany (my favourite country), two in Scandinavia and it would have been two gigs in Holland but the gig in Amsterdam was cancelled. So we played one gig in Groningen at Vera. And it would be real fun to come back. www.vera-groningen.nl

NB - Any crazy things that happened on your gigs?
L - I can tell you about the gig at club Vera in Groningen. I was a bit nervous before the gig because it's a kind of big place and it was empty before we started to play. It is not so fun to play at a big place with no crowed. So before we went on stage we drank a lot to calm down our nerves. When we started the gig it actually came a lot of people. It turned out to be a good, intense and sweaty concert.
But when we only had a few songs left I began climbing on the amplifiers and stuff, it was a big stage so there were many things to climb on. When I got on top of the bass players' amp I took a tremendous leap towards the audience, the amp overturned, a little lightning came out and the amplifier was dead. The others in the band had already started to play a new song, so we went on doing the same chord over and over again waiting for Mackie, the bass player to fix the problem. We improvised for a few minutes but when the amp didn't start working again the guitarist and me took of our clothes to get the audiences attention. In the end Mackie plugged his bass into the harmonica amp and finally we could hear some bass and it sounded even better then before.
We could go on with the song and the time we had struggled with the bass amp had actually given the song a new interesting five minutes intro unique for that gig.

NB - What are Sons Of Cyrus doing at the moment? Any new releases that we can expect?
L - We are not doing much but we try to come up with some new songs. It was our former guitarist, Loco Lopez (my brother), who came up with most of the songs for the band. Now when he has quit we try to be creative but it goes pretty slow.
We have some contacts in New York and hopefully we'll play a few gigs there next year.
The new Sons of Cyrus album Monkey Business is out now and we have also some unreleased stuff we hope to release soon.

NB - Were you in some other bands before Sons Of Cyrus, or are you involved in other bands at the moment?
L - I was in The Orphans before Sons of Cyrus but it really doesn't count because it's almost the same band. I was fourteen years old when I started in The Orphans.
Now I have a new project band called Last Crusade with members from The Hellacopters and Rio Grande. We don't play live but we have recorded two songs for a vinyl single on my record label. The artwork and mastering of the songs is finished, it's just the money to press the damn thing I don't have!

NB - Tell me about the song from your 1st album called "I Wanna Be". Homosexuality seems to be kinda taboo in garage scene, at least I don't know any band who sings about that.
L - Yes, it's a funny song. My brother wrote the lyrics when his (ex) girlfriend broke up with him. It's about when you get dumped; you are tired of all girls and want to try something new, so why not try a boy... It's simple and funny.
But the best part is that he could hide behind his guitar and I was the one that would stand up for the song and tell it to the audience. I wanna be a homo! I shout and hold out the microphone to the crowed and they scream back: Homo! The people that like Sons of Cyrus and see us live always wants us to play it, so it has to be something good about it.
Originally the band wanted the song title to be just Homo but the record label thought it was to offensive so they changed it to I Wanna Be.

NB - Not so long ago you started your label "Transmission Records". Tell me more about it? What did you release so far?
L - I've started it with a guy, we thought now we're gonna release a lot of vinyl records, do great cover artwork, release great bands. But pretty fast I got disillusioned, it cost a fortune to release vinyl records (you should know that) and my friend jumped of the project because he had a wife and a kid to take care of.
But I'm proud of what we did with the first thing we released. It was a 45 with the Stockholm band Rio Grande. They play good old rock & roll, they have a girl on vocals and she's got a great voice. Harry Balls on Lonestar Records in Germany helped me with the distribution so the 500 copies are now sold out. I helped Rio Grande to get in contact with a guy from Germany to book shows, so they did and now they have been on there first European tour.
Next release is the Last Crusade 7" but because of economical problems it has been delayed. I'm now looking for distributors who could help me with the finance. It's very good songs and the cover artwork is so neat, so I hope it will be out soon. www.transmissionrecords.se

NB - Can you tell No Brains readers where they can get your releases?
L - They can go to this site and check it out:
www.sonsofcyrus.com/buy.html
Or they can do it the slow way and ask Staffan our record dealer: info@bigbrothel.se

NB - What will be your next release(s)?
L - It is nothing planned at the moment but we have interested record labels from Germany and the US that want to release something with us.

NB - Tell me about yourself. What do you do except for playing in Sons Of Cyrus and run Transmission Records?
L - I work at a department store and sell mainstream records and dvds. It is an okay job but I don't have so much time to do creative stuff. I have a girlfriend in Berlin and she is top priority right now. We're gonna see each other two times a month.

NB - Your 5 favourite albums?
L - 1. I can begin with Joy Divisions first album that was never released. But it came out as a bootleg and then it was called Warsaw. It is a great album and sounds like punk but with analog synthesisers added.

2. Norton Records released a perfect party album with Gino Washington called Out of this world.

3. A couple of years ago I was at a club in Stockholm called Kafé 44. There I saw a gig with the band Dead Moon and I was totally stunned. It was the best thing I ever seen. One of their many great albums is called Destination X; side 2 is the best.

4. The first album with The Kids from Belgium, awesome!

5. In 1995 Emmylou Harris recorded a great album together with Daniel Lanois called Wrecking Ball. Listen and get emotional.

NB - 3 things you hate most?
L - 1. I hate that I can't see my girlfriend all the time.
2. I hate that I don't have the money and time to release a lot of records, art books, fanzines and create music.
3. I hate computers, that's why it took me a year to finish this interview.

NB - Anything you want to say to No Brains readers?
L - If you have managed to read this whole interview then I think you have done well!