Missbrukarna is a band at the intersection of two of my obsessions: early ‘80s Swedishhardcore and the invention of hardcore itself. The first band on the seminal “Really Fast”compilation LP, Missbrukarna may not be as well known outside Sweden as other bandson that record, but in Sweden the band has many diehard fans. Collectors know that theirsplit EP with Panik is one of the rarest Swedish hardcore records; one of its songs wasincluded on “Bloodstains Across Sweden #3” LP. Rolf Revålt was a founding member ofMissbrukarna, but he also played in Dagens Ungdom, a band now labeled “DIY” due totheir appearance in Johan Kugelberg’s list of the top 100 DIY records published in UglyThings magazine. Rolf also has played in a few other bands, such as Rolf & Revoltorernaand Swinehood, and, still active in the punk scene today, he has written many songs forTotalitär. We talked via e-mail in late 2005 about Swedish punk as he has witnessed it overthe last 25+ years.

MISSBRUKARNAan interview with Rolf Revalt

Interview and introduction by Stuart Schrader.

First Missbrukarna gig, June 1980. Photo published in a local newspaper.

MRR: First, what does Missbrukarnamean?Rolf: It means The Addicts or The Abusers.

MRR: Now, let’s begin with history: firstcame The Turfs. What was their soundlike? When did that band start? Rolf: The Turfs came first; our sound wasvery sloppy. We were not the best musicians,and it was the first band I played guitar andsang with (I had been playing drums in punkbands like The Källare and Massgrav). Theother two members were Hasse on drums(very sloppy! Helater sang inMissbrukarna) andMats on guitar andvocals. Mats and Ialternated betweenguitar and bass andlead vocals. (Matsalso played in TheKällare and later inMissbrukarna). Wealso had a guycalled Bullen, notfrom the beginningbut he sang occasionally. He later had a punkband called Faktor 4; I played drums in thatband. Well, this sloppy band started sometime in 1978 and the first song we everplayed was “Boredom” by The Buzzcocks.We had lots of songs! I think there wasn’t arehearsal without some new tune. We did ourown songs but we also had lots of covers.We covered The Standells, The Seeds, 13thFloor Elevators, McCoys (YES! We wereaware of those old punk garage sounds—twoof us had that Nuggets double album onElektra). My main influences were TheStooges (covered by The Källare), MC5—stillare!—Ramones, Runaways, The Twinkeys,Buzzcocks, and several others. We also hadan improvised tune called “Attackera Mig”(Attack Me); it was played different everytime. I remember one take sounded very sim-ilar to what Napalm Death later achieved!Sometimes we also improvised the last tuneat the rehearsal (it could be that old tune “I’ma Man” or something) and it reached out tobe between twenty or on one occasion fortyminutes long! So we were influenced byeverything from ‘60s garage and pop tobands from the new punk/new wave era. Andwe could also be a bit “experimental.” Andprimitive! And we all bought lots of records!Still do! We were big fans of KriminellaGitarrer. I think they’re among the bestSwedish punk bands ever! In The Turfs Ieven wrote a tribute song to their singercalled “Stry Terraries Glasögon” (“TheGlasses of Stry Terrarie” because he hadwritten a tune called “Anna Greta LeijonsÖgon” meaning “The Eyes of Anna GretaLeijon”).

The last gig we played as The Turfs (weonly did two gigs) was in front of an audienceof about 500 people and it was one of theworst live experiences I’ve ever had! It was atotal disaster! Everything went wrong! The

crappiest sound I’ve ever heard! The guitaramplifier sounded like one big BBR-RRRRRRRRR... I was so ashamed after thatgig; it was embarrassing to go out of thebackstage area and face all the people. Butone nice punk named Pungen thought it wasa good gig! He had seen a crappier gig withEbba Grön (then the biggest punk band inSweden). That last concert with The Turfswas in early 1980. So we decided that thebest thing we could do after that terribleevent was to change the name of the band.

…And so came the mighty rise ofMissbrukarna. Wenow had Hasse onvocals and a guycalled P-G onbass and a guynamed Johan ondrums. In fact,after some consult-ing, I found out thatJohan actuallyplayed drums onthat disaster gigand on that occa-sion we had two

singers: Hasse and Bullen. We kept some ofthe tunes from The Turfs but wrote a lot ofnew songs. We wanted to sing only inSwedish (in The Turfs, we also sang inSwedish but as I said we had lots of covers)and we wanted to play more punky—faster!We also wanted our concerts to be high ener-gy, to move around, not stand still, like all theother bands in thislittle town. Whenwe rehearsed wetrained ourselves tothrash around. Itwas quite hard, butat least we tried! Itdidn’t really matter ifwe missed somenotes—it was moreimportant to be funto look at.

We did our firstgig as Missbrukarnaearly the summer 1980, and it was a suc-cess! I don’t think we ever did another lousyconcert after that! Missbrukarna played theirlast gig in 1988. We had a long stop after therecording of our cassette and we did one gigin 1987 and that last one in 1988. At thosegigs we had two new members, Gacken(used to play in a band called Rymdgrisarna,which means Pigs in Space) on bass andLennart on drums. Earlier Lennart hadplayed in Totalitär; you can hear him on theirdemo EP. He also played organ in TheBangsters, where I drummed. The Bangstersreleased some records on the French NewRose label, and the guy playing guitar andsinging actually played bass onMissbrukarna’s Krigets Gentlemän tape. Healso played bass in Rolf & Revoltörerna. Nowhe lives on his own country-tinged music,under the name Sigge Hill. At those latergigs, I played guitar and Hasse screamed.

We were more hardcore than ever at thosetwo gigs. We played faster than Totalitär,man! We had a pack of new hardcore tunes,some of which Totalitär later recorded. Ishould also mention that I also drummed withMissbrukarna. Our drummer Johan movedback to his old hometown of Stockholm so Ihad to sit in. He only played on our EP.

MRR: Was Panik a totally separate bandfrom Missbrukarna? How did you end updoing a split 7” with them?Rolf: Panik was a totally separate band fromMissbrukarna. They mostly played coversand they were really a rock ‘n’ roll band. Theymade some punkier tunes for that EP. TheForsa Ljud record label and studio wanted todo a record with two popular bands from thistown of ours, and that’s how the split EP hap-pened.

MRR: Do you have any crazy storiesabout playing in Missbrukarna? Did youhave wild live shows? What bands didMissbrukarna play with?Rolf: No, and this is boring. Nothing specialhappened at our gigs! Well, once someoneshut off the electricity when we played but thetune was almost finished, so it didn’t reallymatter. When we were interviewed at thelocal radio station, they actually played thatincident, because someone had recorded theconcert on a portable recorder. I really wish Ihad that live tape! We also played live on theSwedish radio program “Ny Våg,” which was

a classic punkshow that wenton for years. Itwas an on-the-spot broadcastand it didn’tsound so greatdue to bad tech-nicians. “Ny Våg”once hadrequested listen-ers to vote for thebest punk tunesthat year (maybe

1981) and we reached, somewhere between25 and 30 on that top thirty list with our tune“Du Är Inte Du.” Fun! As I said earli-er, we tried to have wild live shows! We most-ly played with local bands, but the mostfamous band we played with was Stockholmband KSMB (Kurt Sunes Med Berits). Theyliked us!

MRR: Is this the correct order of record-ings: split 7”, V/A Raped Ass, V/A ReallyFast #1, Krigets Gentlemen? Were thereany other recordings?Rolf: I can’t recall the correct order (whetherRaped Ass was released before the ReallyFast record). We also appeared on a tapefrom Peru called La Protesta Continua onBakteria Tapes. It was released in 1988 andwe play “Du Är Inte Du” and four tunes fromour cassette. We have some songs from ourtape on a compilation tape called Syfilis 001.

The Turfs, 1979. Rolf in mask.

The Källare, 1979.

Syfilis was a punk fanzine done by a nicepunk girl in the town of Nässjö, Sweden. Ican’t remember the year,but somewhere between1984 and 1986. We havesome rehearsals record-ed and a quite boring live-in-the-studio recording,done by the Forsa Studio,and also some liverecording with lousysound quality. We haveone song on a compila-tion tape from ForsaStudio and it’s called“Jag Skiter Väl I Dig”(“Don’t Give A Shit AboutYou”). Quite good!

MRR: Was the KrigetsGentlemen cassettedistributed much whenit came out? It seemslike many unplayedcopies have surfacedin the last four or fiveyears. Did it originallycome with a lyricinsert? I’ve seen only one copy with thelyrics.Rolf: The cassette was distributed throughthe SAM distribution, as our split EP was.Well, some of the cassettes…because I hadloads of them at home for many years. Andthat’s maybe why some cassettes have sur-faced in recent years. I’ve even seen copiesof the tape being sold on the internet! Wemade 500 copies of that cassette. And yes!We put a lyric sheet in every one of them.

MRR: Do you remember any of the press-ing information for the split 7”? It seemslike one of the rarest Swedish HC/punkrecords. Also, do you recall why a verysmall number of the copies include amimeographed insert?Rolf: The split EP was at first pressed in aquantity of 500. There was a second pressdone, also of 500. I don’t think there are anydifferences in pressings. The second presswas done because the record turned out tobe quite popular! I’ve seen some collectorssaying it’s very rare and pressed in just a fewhundred copies, but 1,000 total werepressed. It’s still rare, ain’t it!? That insertwas done just for the fun of it. I was at schoolwhen that EP came out around November1980 and me and some pals copied up about150-200 inserts at school secretly.

MRR: Missbrukarna was one of the firsthardcore bands in Sweden. Early on, whydid you play so fast? At what point didyou realize that you were playing “hard-core” and that it was something differentfrom the punk rock that came before it?Rolf: Why we played fast? Well, personally Ihave always liked fast and trashy music. Wegot a kick out of it—playing fast is fun! Well,at first we were just a punk band with some

råpunk [raw punk] influences. But later onwhen we heard faster and faster stuff we also

wanted to getfaster! I remem-ber hearing “PayTo Cum” by BadBrains (guesswhy we have acowbell on sometunes on ourtape?!), DeadKennedys, UKSubs, Stiff LittleFingers, andolder bands likeKilljoys (UK),Users and, oneof my all-timefavorite bands,The Dils (theirfirst record, Irecall, had beencalled the firsthardcore record!)And of courseWeirdos! Love‘em! And Crime!And Germs!

Well... Discharge!!! That Hüsker Dü live LPwas a real blast!! Gang Green! Gang Green!Gang Green!!! It’s hard to remember when Ibecame aware of the hardcore term. I boughtthat DOA LP Hardcore 81 early 1982 Ibelieve and there you have that word hard-core. This punk historians all know. Somaybe from there on it was more and morehardcore on our minds.

MRR: What was your initial feeling aboutDischarge?Rolf: I loved to hear fast stuff and Dischargefuckin’ floored me! Hasse, the singer ofMissbrukarna, had bought the Fight Back EPbecause it had a circled A on it! Must be goodhe thought!And I wasat his homeand he saidhe wasgonna playa band thathe was sureI was goingto dig. (Thiswas in1980.) Andholy shit wasI impressed!Fuckin’ fast and raw! Short songs, shortlyrics! He bought it down at the universitytown Uppsala and he was going to visit thatcity again so I asked him to buy a copy for metoo! And soon I had that first 7” also. Then Ibought Decontrol. Fantastic! I had to write afan mail! Soon I got an answer from Cal! Hehad sent me a badge, a patch, lyrics, andthat ready made interview they sent to peo-ple and publications interested in them.And…on the back of one of the stencils hewrote, “Thanks for your interest in the band.

Good luck with your own band! Cal.” Was Ilucky?! I got to see Discharge live inStockholm in 1983 and I must say I was a bitdisappointed. Not that it was bad, but I hadhoped for a more action on the stage. Suchviolent music must have a violent appear-ance! Maybe they were tired. Maybe theymissed Bones? One thing that impressed meat that time was their drummer’s hardenedhair! Not one inch it moved when he headbanged as he played! And their first threesongs done as a medley was really a blast!

MRR: What were some of the other bandsplaying very early hardcore in Swedenthat you knew about then? Were youolder than the bands like Anti-Cimex,Avskum, Disarm, etc., who became well-known outside Sweden for playing hard-core? Did you think of yourselves as sep-arate from these bands?Rolf: I used to visit Sundsvall in the late sev-enties and early eighties and there they hadsome really aggressive raw punk bands. Atthat time it was the raw punk capital city ofSweden, with bands like Massmedia, earlyBrända Barn, Förbjudna Ljud, Pizzoar and soon. Very nice indeed!

I bought the first Anti-Cimex EP directlywhen it was released and I liked them. Also Igot that Sune Studs Och Grönlandsrockarnafirst EP. I liked that one too! I remember get-ting a tape from a Dutch punk with lots of UShardcore and Holland punk on it. I wasimpressed! And I got some Kloak Stank tapefrom somewhere with Swedish hardcore, so Iwas aware something was happening. Thebands didn’t come from the big cities any-more. I listened sporadically to the “Ny Våg”show and I actually knew one of the DJs fromhis fanzine. His name is Jonas Almqvist andhe did the Anarki & Kaos zine, which was oneof the best zines ever in Sweden! He alsosang in Lädernunnan (aka Leathernun). We

did feel that we werepart of a new waveof bands coming, butwe were not thatengaged in thescene. Yes, we weresome years olderthan the other bandsat that time.

MRR: What is thestory behind Rolf &Revoltörerna? Wasit a one-man band?

Were there other recordings in addition tothe two songs on Raped Ass?Rolf: Rolf & Revoltörerna was a fun thing, justa studio project. Never played live, but weheard someone had seen us play a gig downin Gothenburg?! It was a two-man band. Iplayed drums and guitar, and sang and a guycalled Swasse (he worked in the ForsaStudio) played bass. As I mentioned earlierhe also played bass on the KrigetsGentlemän cassette. We only recorded foursongs. These are: “Övervakad Tristess,”

Missbrukarna, 1980. Rolf on guitar; P-G

Pogo right; singer of Brainbombs center.

Dagens Ungdom, 1979.

“Stressad & Pressad,” “Sitt Still (Där Du Är)”and “Snuff Movie.” You can hear two tuneson the Varning För Punk boxset along with abunch of Missbrukarna songs.

MRR: Now, what is the story behindDagens Ungdom? This band soundstotally different from Missbrukarna orRolf & Revoltörerna, barely even punk.How would you describe the sound andlyrics of the band? The 7” was releasedon a well-known label, Mistlur. How didthat happen? Did the band play live?Rolf: Dagens Ungdom was an artier bandwith influences from Devo, CaptainBeefheart, Zappa, reggae, and the authorFranz Kafka—many of the song titles weretaken from his short stories and novels! Inthe beginning we were punkier, but as timepassed it got more and more complex. Iwas the drummer. Lyrically it was a littlequasi-intellectual. Some time after that EPwas released we split. We were definitelypunkier at the beginning but with a weirdangle to it. We covered Albertos y Los Trios“Kill” and Sex Pistols “Holidays in the Sun”(both in Swedish), and I tried to get them todo The Dils “Class War” in Swedish but itwas too punky for the other boys. Soon thesinger bought a cheap Wasp synth to makethe sound even weirder, and we all got intoreggae. The bassist and the singer wrotemost of the music and lyrics and they werereally into the more complex stuff, so it allwent further and further into a more musi-cally challenging direction. I think becauseof that, they got rid of me and the guitarist.A few weeks later the guitarist and I heardthat the band continued with two new mem-bers, replacing us with two of the mostskilled musicians in town. They had evenplayed jazz and fusion! Ugly, ugly, ugly!!Not that we cared that much because I’drather play straight-on punk ‘cause that’swhat’s got my nerves shakin’! I don’t like tohave to sit and think too much about what’shappening in the tunes I play! I wannarock!! The band played quite a lot live andthat record on the Mistlur label (same asEbba Grön) happened because we sentthem a tape and they liked it. Later on theband also made a crappy LP and after thatthey quit again, this time for real. I mustadmit we could be quite funny to see liveand after the split I saw the band manytimes and they were fun! I’m still friendswith these guys, no hard feelings.

MRR: What is your relationship withTotalitär?Rolf: Oh! Totalitär! These boys (‘cause theyare boys, but a little older now) are some ofmy best friends! Very nice people (and Iknow Poffen is reading this! That punk bas-tard!!) with good taste in music and goodideas. I got to know them in the middle ofthe ‘80s. Before I got to know them, I hadseen these guys at cafés, sitting and look-ing at new punk records they had ordered.I thought they should see my record collec-

tion! And I wondered if they knew I was anold punk musician. But I found out theyknew—they had even heard some of myold punk records such as Angry Samoans,Misfits, Kraut, Faith, Void, etc. because afriend of mine had borrowed records fromme and he also worked at the Forsa Studio.These Totalitär boys had done somerecording there, so they got to know himand visited him and he played my recordsand they listened to this older stuff. But infact they influenced me too! They weremore into the newer hardcore stuff at thattime and me I was a bit lost in that hard-core world. So when they gave me amailorder list downtown one day webecame friends, and I discovered lots ofnew hardcore bands thanks to them! Whenthey were running out of money, theyalways sold records from their own collec-tions to me, so thank you!! And later on Igot to write tunes for Totalitär, and as Imentioned earlier they have recorded someMissbrukarna songs too. I’m very proud ofthat! I also have a hobby band togetherwith Andreas (plays bass in Totalitär orTottis as we call them!) and the drummerfrom Brainbombs, Drajan. The band iscalled Swinehood and we’ve made one 10”on the Swedish Ken Rock label. Soon therewill be a 7” with eight songs also on KenRock. Trashy stuff! Evil!

MRR: When did you first hear the term“d-beat”?Rolf: I have consulted some experts on thissubject because it’s a little bit hard toremember when you first heard an expres-sion. We believe the term d-beat (d-takt inSwedish) first appeared in the late ‘80s orearly ‘90s. One of the main characters inthe d-beat world here in Sweden must bethe boss of Your Own Jailer Records,Jutila. He’s a d-beat fanatic and he oncemade a d-beat manifesto and that may bethe origin of the term in this country. Alsothe term must have become more visiblewhen the d-beat clones such as Dischange,Dispense, and so on raped our mindssenseless! So d-beat late ‘80s, early ‘90s!Before that råpunk, mangel, råös, andmaybe some Dischargetakt.

An old punk I know claims he heard theterm d-beat down in Gothenburg where helives, in the early eighties, sometimebetween 1982 and 1985 I believe. Seems abit early but who knows. And other punkterms we used were the well known oneslike thrash, speedcore, thrashcore, and soon.

MRR: To wrap up, do you have any plansto reissue Missbrukarna?Rolf: Well, it’s something I get asked aboutmany times. There are many interestedrecord labels (both American andSwedish), but I’m a very lazy person, sonothing has happened. I do think if it’sgonna happen, it’s gonna be on a Swedishlabel.

I asked Rolf about some of hisfavorite Swedish punk records.Here are a few of his anecdotes:

Dr. Zeke’s single, “Jag Ska AldrigDö,” is one of the best old Swedishpunk songs with its powerful sound.I saw them live (not many people didapparently!) and they sucked. Oldprogheads playing boring music.

Of course I loved early EbbaGrön. Everyone did! Contrary towhat many others think I don’t thinktheir stuff really sounds that greattoday. I love those early singlesthough, especially the first one!Great live band!

Glo – first 7”. Saw them once withLob from Göteborgs Sound singing.He was sleeping dead drunk underthe mixing table right before theirgig, but somehow he managed toplay the gig right through!Impressive!!! He once showed hiscock during a radio program (yes—radio!), and he’s written some funnybooks too.

Grisen Skrikers two EPs were fun,and they were really great live! Sawthem in Stockholm. They looked likenerds (this was before their EPs), butboy did they thrash around!

PF Commando’s first LP was quitefast I thought. I saw them when theyhad done their second LP and theysucked. Very boring slow stuff. Wescreamed for faster stuff but theysaid something like, “Hey, we’replaying rock’n’roll man.” Yawn...

Rude Kids – I like everything up tothat “Björn Borg” 7”. They were spaton by punk society because theysigned to a major label and theysang in English. Me, I didn’t care.They did some very tough punktunes!