Interview with F.K.U done by Patrick
1. Hello please introduce yourself to the readers? At what age did you first start listening to metal music?
Pat - Hi there, I’m Patrik Sporrong aka Pat Splat, the guy handling the bass duties in F.K.Ü. My first contact with metal, or to be more precise, harder rock, was when I saw KISS live back in 1976 at the age of ten. I was totality blown away and there and then I decided that this was the best music ever and that this was something I wanted to do as well.
2. Who were some of the first bands you listened to and who are some of your current favorite bands?
Pat – Well, for obvious reasons KISS was one of the bands I was deeply inspired by and listened to a lot. Then there were Sweet and Alice Cooper that also were in the line of the music I really liked. But pretty soon the search for harder stuff started and bands like Iron Maiden, Metallica and Slayer took over my life. My love for these bands is still intact. Some of my favorite bands right now would be Wolfbrigade, Terrortron, LIK, Södra Sverige and Henrik Palm.
3. F.K.U was started in 1997 what gave you the idea to start this band and who would you say are F.K.U’s biggest influences?
Pat - Well we started the band as early as 1987 actually and then our second big influence besides horror movies was the crossover thrash scene with bands like Crumbsuckers, Carnivore, Wehrmacht, Mucky Pup, D.R.I. etc. And among them one band particularly, namely the band S.O.D., and band that also gave us the idea for our band name.
Since S.O.D. had a song on their album “Speak English or Die” called Freddy Krueger, that and our wish to make the name an abbreviation with three letters, just like D.R.I. we went for the F.K.Ü. aka Freddy Kruegers Ünderwear moniker. Adding the umlaut to the U just to make it more metal.
Our first logo even had a pair of boxers with Freddys knife fingers emerging.
And our main goal was the same as it is today, to have fun!
4. 1981 is the bands newest release, which is being, released through Despotz Rec. how did you and the band come in contact with this label?
Pat – We felt that it was time to move on when it came to record label and we were having serious thoughts of going back to releasing it all by ourselves as in the early years but then I heard from a friend of mine that Despotz knew that we were in-between labels and ask him to ask us to get in contact with them. And it only took one phone call to realize that this was a label we wanted to work with.
5. How long did it take the band to write the music for the new release? Does the whole band work on writing the music or does one member usually write everything?
Pat - On this album Larry and Emp wrote the music, I wrote the lyrics and then we just isolated our self’s in the rehearsal room to make it all merge together into one bloody mess. We were really focused and we decided early on that this album should be short, aggressive and in your face with no fillers. We really had fun recording this album and I think that is reflected in the final result.
6. Lyrics are based on slasher; horror movies released in 1981 what gave you all the idea to do a concept release from the year 1981?
Pat - We wanted to make an album that was 100% focused on paying tribute to the slasher classics and since 1981 was the year when a lot of the best ones in the genre were released, we basically just came up with the idea of focusing on that year.
Calling the album 1981 and naming the songs by the movies that inspired them was our idea with being as honest as we could be with our intentions with this album.
The songs included on the album are definitely among our favorites but there are many that were left out since we wanted to make a relatively short and intense album. Titles like Happy Birthday To Me, Bloody Birthday, Bloody Moon, Cannibal Ferox, Final Exam, Graduation Day could easily have made it if we would have released a double album. But since we decided in an early stage that we wanted to make a short and intense album we had to be extremely selective choosing the ones finally ending up on the album
7. Besides the 1981 release are the bands previous releases still available to buy? Does the band have any other merchandise available if yes what is available and where can the readers buy it?
Pat – Our 1999 debut album ”Metal Moshing Mad” has been out of print for a long time. That goes for both the original pressing and the 2007 re-release. Our second album from 2005 ”Sometimes They Come Back… To Mosh” is still possible to get hold of from some retailers. ”Where Moshers Dwell” 2009 and 4: Rise of the Mosh Mongers is still available both through our home page and most bigger retailers.
8. What have been F.K.U’s most memorable shows over the years? And who are some bands you have had the pleasure to share the stage with?
Pat – Some of the highlights in our career so far would be the 2007 west coast us tour we did with Engorged and Ghoul and playing Sweden Rock Festival in 2010 in that it was our first appearance at a bigger festival.
When it comes to bands that we liked sharing the stage with there’s many. But to name a few: Ghoul, Engorged, Hyades, Entombed, Meshuggah, The Ugly, Dr. Living Dead.
9. Are their any shows or tours planned in support of 1981?If yes where will the band be playing?
Pat – Well, things are brewing in the F.K.Ü.-camp, for sure, and although we cannot give you the specifics, there's more to come in a not to distant future and hopefully it will involve the more southern parts of Europe.
10. Besides thrash metal do you listen to any other genres of metal or music in general? If yes who are some of your favorite bands?
Pat - Personally I’m really into bands emerging from the early 80’s German syntwave known as “Die Neue Deutche Welle” with bands like D.A.F. and Der Plan. And of course all in the band are heavily into horror movie soundtracks, for obvious reasons
11. F.K.U draws influences from horror and slasher movies when did you first start watching horror movies?
Pat - My earliest memory is me being 6 or maybe 7 years old, sneaking into the living room in the house were I grow up, and hiding behind a sofa to secretly watch the original ”Invasion of the Body Snatchers” from 1956. And from that moment I was totally hooked and have been a big horror fan ever since. After that my parents realized it was no use trying to keep me from watching horror movies. Thanks mom and dad!
12. What are some of your all-time favorite slasher, horror movies? And what do you feel makes a good horror movie?
Pat - Well my all time favorite when it comes to horror is the first two original Halloween-movies. Both when it comes to the movies and the soundtracks.
Then I have a soft spot for Day of The Dead (1978), Psycho (1960) House on Haunted Hill (1959), Happy Birthday to Me (1981), The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) to name a few.
13. Who are some of your favorite horror movie actors? Are their any directors that you like to watch a lot?
Pat – If we stick to the horror genre some of my favorite actors would be Jamie Lee Curties, Amy Steel, Linda Blair, Kurt Russel, Donald Pleasence and Harry Dean Stanton to name a few. When it comes to directors/writers there’s nothing that beats John Carpenter / Debra Hill.
14. Do you all watch the remakes of horror movies over the last 15-20 years or do you prefer to watch the originals?
Pat - Obviously we are big fans of the horror from the 70s and 80s but I think that especially the last couple of years has seen some really good ones coming out, like A Dark Song, Devils Candy, Raw, Happy Death Day and The Untamed to name a few. I like it when the makers try to do something new even if they use an old formula, like Cabin in The Woods that as released a couple of years ago. 90 % of the remakes I would say are a waste. Why fix something if it’s not broken?
15. Thank you for taking the time to fill this interview out do you has any final comments for the readers?
Pat – Thank you! As mentioned earlier we’re working hard to be able to come over to a town near you to spread some horror and metal to all die-hard moshoholics and until
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