Interview: Hyrda Knektar

Hyrda Knektar have a sound that is quite popular for Swedish bands to play now. And I like the mix of swedish punkrock and powerpop influences. To get a perfect mix of genres on the Compilation did I really wanted Hyrda Knektar to participate... and they did =) Here's the link to their song Diamant. Hyrda Knektar – Diamant


1. Hello, do you wanna start to introduce the band? Please translate your name - Hyrda Knektar and let us know how you came up with that name
Hey Schizo! We're just three fulltime working family fathers that kick this just for the fun of it. It's me (Markel Månsson) on drums and vocals, Stefan Lundblad - vocals and guitars and Thomas Wallander - bass and backup vocals. We all cheat on some other instruments such as organs and pianos aswell. We have also just recently added Reidar Assine on organs and Nicole Assine and Maria Resén doing backup vocals. Makes us sound massive live but they will soon be appearing on recorded material aswell!

2. How would you describe your music? Your lyrics are in Swedish, have you ever thought about to write lyrics in english? For the people who doesn't understand Swedish, what is your lyrics about?
How come it's so bloody hard to describe your own music although you know exactly what it sounds like?! I guess one could say that we're playing some kind of high energy punk rock with influenced by lots of different styles from rock n roll to punk to power pop to soul and oi! The organ is a big part of the sound and we've also used saxophone, trombone, trumpet, piano and harmonica in our songs so that gives us a special sound. To make it easy, people has compared us to the last Ebba Grön album and that might be pretty close.

Our lyrics are mainly reflections of our society and things we have experienced in our lives. We've all grown up in the suburbs south of Stockholm so we have kind of the same background. Most of our lyrics are kind of nostalgic, probably cause we dont live very exciting lives these days...  But we also have songs about broken hearts and a ballad about finding the love of your life when youve just gotten beaten outside the pub a wild summer night in Stockholm.

3. What do you think of the Schizo Punk Comp. project with bands from all kind of punk genres? And do you think it's just an utopia I have that I want to unite all punk genres?
It's a great initiative and I think you should keep it up! I dont see any reason why different genres should be held apart? I listen to a lot of different punk styles (and other music aswell), and I think alot of people do.

4. What do you think about the punk scene in Stockholm?
I think the punk scene in Stockholm is very well alive and kickin'! Many of the punks (and skins) have grown older but stay in the scene and there seems to be younger ones coming up all the time. There are many bands and I dont think the number of gigs are going down. In fact, for the last four years we've had the  anuall Pretty Shitty Kjell festival every easter who have given us bands like Peter and the Test Tube babies, Cockney Rejects, Cock Sparrer, Infa Riot, Anti Nowhere League and Angelic Upstarts and many more. So, all in all I would say it's a good scene.

5. Please tell me about your future
We are writing and recording tracks for a 7" thats gonna be released by Noise of Sweden and we're also playing the Dead Rhythm Fest in Västerås in September so I guess we'll rehearse some of the new songs until then aswell. Guess thats what's gonna be in the near future.

6. Contact info:
You can find us on Facebook, youtube, Spotify, ITunes  and www.hyrdaknektar.se
For information, interviews, booking and indecent offers - send a mail to: info@hyrdaknektar.se