The Dahmers channel classic horror vibes in Creepiest Creep

“It’s just plain catchy rock ‘n’ roll that should make you feel like partying. It’s not more complicated than that really. “

Swedish punk rock band The Dahmers recently released their EP Creepiest Creep. The work embodies the classic punk rock sound with gothic vibes. Since 2011 the band has been releasing horror themed jams that resulted in two full length albums as well as several EPs.

Guitarist Christoffer Karlsson and bassist Tobias Augustsson spoke with Resurget regarding Creepiest Creep and inspiration and work behind it.

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Kailey Howell: How would you personally describe your sound? Where do you draw some of your biggest inspiration from?

Tobias Augustsson: When we started out we just wanted to play loud punk rock music inspired by whatever we liked and that’s what we still do. we despise the idea of limiting oneself to a specific genre or artist for inspiration; that’s when things get boring and there are enough boring bands around.

Christoffer Karlsson: We all grew up with the music of classic rock bands like Kiss, Status Quo and Thin Lizzy, and later on in our early teens we all discovered punk and hardcore bands like Misfits, Ramones, Black Flag and so on. Besides that we just like music with good melodies so bands like the Beatles and ABBA also had an impact on our music. We also just happen to have a common interest in horror flicks so that also became a natural part of the band. So our inspiration comes from so many different places and have always been very natural for us. To summarize it, we just want to do what we feel like with out feeling limited by genre.

KH: Tell me a little about the inspiration behind the name of your band.

CK: The name comes from the necrophile, cannibal and serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer, charming right? When we were coming up with ideas for a band name that was one of the first suggestions that was mentioned at one early rehearsal, everyone just thought it sounded cool so we stuck to it. But we have always found a fascination of the dark side of the human mind and the things that are inexplicable. We also like the idea and contrast of combining dark things with our music which is quite melodic and catchy.

KH: I’m really digging your EP Creepiest Creep, is there one song that resonates the most with you?

CK: Thanks! It’s hard to say, I don’t think so. This EP describes the band very good in general because it got a good mixture and contrast of songs without loosing the main essence. Rock’n’roll riffs, punk energy and pop melodies, mixed up with darkness and horror.

KH: Was there any difficulties in writing the EP that weren’t faced when writing previous works?

CK: Not really, we basically write music constantly so we have a lot of songs laying around to pick and choose from when it’s time to record. Some of the songs on the EP were brand new when we recorded it and some had been with us for years just waiting to see the light of day. So it’s not like we sit down and start to write the songs for a particular record. It’s good to have a bunch of demo songs, cause we can choose the songs that will work good together when it’s time to record a record. And we have never been out of stock on songs. That’s the way we’ve worked basically since the start.

KH: What is one thing you want fans to understand with Creepiest Creep?

CK: Nothing special really. It’s just plain catchy rock’n’roll that should make you feel like partying. It’s not more complicated than that really. The EP was recorded by our selves in my basement home studio, and the cover art is made by our drummer Karl-Oskar Hansson. So it’s very DIY and that’s the way we have always liked to do things.

KH: What’s in store for The Dahmers for the rest of 2018?

CK: A bunch of gigs, mostly in Sweden unfortunately. We would like to do some more gigs around Europe again soon. Besides that we will release some new material this fall which we are really looking forward to.

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