,' maintains Pelle. 'Showing guts and balls is way more important than technique.' He sees the album as a Hives reset after the Covid pandemic stopped them in their tracks. 'The live show is really important, mainly for those euphoric adrenalin highs, but it was basically illegal for two years,' he says. 'So this album is post-prohibition rock 'n' roll. We're hoping people overdose on it!' Though The Hives formed 30 years ago and the frontman has hit 45, Pelle is hell bent on preserving the band's deliberately immature spirit. 'That is what rock 'n' roll is all){kind=link}
DRESSED in his sharp black and white suits, Howlin’ Pelle Almqvist is one of rock’s most flamboyant, energetic and, let’s face it, enigmatic showmen.
The Hives singer is renowned for crowd-surfing, amp-climbing, stream-of-consciousness ramblings and for occasionally doing himself an injury.
He fronts a band steeped in mythology, with each member adopting a pseudonym and guided, until a recent dark turn of events, by a mysterious songwriting guru called Randy Fitzsimmons.
But, as the Swedish garage punk outfit releases its first album in eleven years, I discover that Pelle isn’t putting on an act.
“I actually feel like I have to fake it in normal life to fit in,” he affirms.