Sister, Cari Crow speaks about the new tour

Interview by Ilaria Degl’Innocenti

Swedish glam punk band Sister from Stockholm is planning to come back to Italy soon, this time as headliner. Tour dates in Italy are: February 20^th in Turin, 21^st in Padua and 22^nd in Milan.

The band performed many gigs as supporting act to famous bands, and this will be their first time as headliner. Alan ‘’Nemtheanga’’ Averill from Primordial discovered Sister through their Ep “Deadboys Making Noise”, and signed them to Metal Blade Records in 2010. They released “Hated” as first full-length in 2011 and in January 2014 its follow up, named “Disguised Vultures”.

Cari Crow, the band’s drummer, explains their music and reveals details concerning this tour and other studio projects.

Your album is called Disguised Vultures. Would you consider it an evolution?

Yes, I definitely would. We worked more together as a band on this album and did most of the recordings live in the studio. Me and Jamie wrote all the lyrics on this one which also was a new thing. It’s heavier than the first album and a totally new way of recording for us. To me it’s a really honest rock album that shows what a band sounds like live without any crap.

This year you will be headliner through all the tour. How does it make you feel?

It’s just great to finally do a headline tour after years of touring as support for other bands. We will have a longer set and a mixed material from our latest releases. The tour will include some festivals but mostly club scenes where we belong.

Could you tell us about the making of the videos you released?

We released three videos from our latest album. “Sick”, “My Enemy” and “Slay Yourself”. All three videos have been shot by our long-time friend Jimmy Johansson.

We were all very involved with the making of the videos and it’s basically just raw material, what you see is what you get. No expensive, over the top, Hollywood-like productions. Just us playing live on stage or in a basement full of gore, naked people and pigs.

In Autumn 2013 you recorded a follow up of “Hated” with Martin Sweet and Linus Nirbrant. How did such cooperation begin?

We worked with Martin before. Both on “Hated” and “Deadboys Making Noise”, thus we put a great trust in him. Martin told us about his friend Linus and his studio and we got hooked. It was a great cooperation.

Did Martin Sweet adopt specific methods working on “Hated”? Which are the main differences with Disguised Vultures?

This album and “Hated” were done in two totally different ways. This time we worked in the same studio with all music parts and did most of the recordings playing live, together in the studio. This album is more alive and shows how it sounds when we play live like the way it should be. “Hated” was recorded in different studios and was not mixed by Martin.

Cari, how did you start playing with Sister? Are there some specific artists you would consider as your main influences?

I started the band with some other guys back in 2005/2006 but nothing really happened until I met Jamie later on. We shared the same love for bands like Kiss, WASP, Mötley Crue and Guns N’ Roses and decided to just go for it and see what we could make happen. Things went well and we quickly got a name in the underground scene in Sweden.

You usually describe your sound as a mix of influences, but are there some genres which mean more to your latest album?

I guess we’ve gone a bit heavier on this album but influences are the same. I don’t like genres, I have an idea of what I want this band to be but I don’t have a name for it. I just wanna mix heavy music with punk attitude and put some lipstick on that!

“My Enemy” and “Naked” are definitely very catchy songs. Could you tell us more about them?

I think these are the songs meaning the most to me on this album. The lyrics of “My Enemy” came out one night when my head was just literally blasting all these thoughts about the way I felt right there and then about myself and about things that are going on in this sick world. This song really came out the way I wanted to. It’s so raw and honest.

I’m also very satisfied with the video for the song which was done in a very simple way. It really captures the chaotic feeling that it has.

“Naked” was also written during some dark times. I wrote the music on piano one night and the lyrics pretty much came out at the same time. I wanted a creepy “Marilyn Manson meets Alice Cooper” feeling in this song. The lyrics are about the long, hard working, struggling battle that is everyday life for everybody.

Have you got a specific message for your Italian fans?

I’m looking forward to getting back to Italy. The Italian gigs were booked at the last minute for this tour and it feels great that we managed to squeeze them in. Italian fans have been great to us since we first played there and we hope to see you guys this time again.

Are you planning to come back to studio working any soon?

Definitely. After this tour we will be 100% focused on the new album. We already started working on new songs and there is great stuff coming out.