Swedish four piece Naco formed in 2000 and since then have been working hard on recording singles and getting their music known. I got the chance to ask the band some questions, so read on to find out about how they started, their musical tastes, and their forthcoming album.

What has the band been up to recently?

Kristian and Musse (who are the main songwriters in Naco) have been rather busy writing and recording demos of a few new songs that are planned to be recorded properly during the summer. Gus has been working rather heavily on the artwork for the forthcoming Naco single 'Revolve'…

You started in a band called 'Sycamore' which included a fifth member, why and how did you decide to form as a four piece, 'Naco'?

Well, the main reason for the split with Henrik Rosander was that he was not too keen on the way Sycamore's music was developing… He was mainly interested in producing heavy and filthy beats and the rest of the band felt this sort of hindered them from doing what they wanted to do… Henrik (or Henrok as he is called) has produced a few Swedish hip hop acts, but has now left the music industry to concentrate on studies… Kristian and Henrik were the ones that fell out with each other the most and no longer speaks with/to one another… Thinking back upon what it was like playing and recording during that time, some rather funny and crazy memories return: such as Henrik and Kristian shouting "You Goth rocker, you" and "Wigger bastard, you are!", respectively, at each other… As soon as Henrik left we were left without anywhere to record/rehearse (he owned the studio where we used to be). For a while Kristian and Musse were the only ones to keep on writing and playing, using the name Are Moral (since none of them actually are), but when Gus and Marcus came back and both turned out to hate the name it changed… (Musse and Kristian are still writing and recording some song under that moniker, and will probably release a single called 'Storylight'/'Into My Arms' early next year on Tremascenh Music)

How does the music you played in Sycamore differ from what you play now?

Well, basically it was a lot darker, more beat oriented and a lot more 'modern' sounding, with a lot of scratches and samples utilized… think of Sneaker Pimps and we'd say you are rather close to the sound of Sycamore, even though we were a wee bit heavier still… The funny thing is that even though none of us four that remained in the band liked it (the dark sound) at the time we all now have side projects that actually don't sound too far from that sound, especially Kristian's side project, Munk Sweden, which sounds a lot like Sycamore did.

What kind of music are you into? Who are your favourite bands/artists?

Maybe this question is most easily answered separately:
Musse: MaryLou Lord, Dinosaur Jr., Jesus & Mary Chain, My Bloody Valentine, Cindy Lauper.
Gus: United Future Organisation and a lot of old and contemporary jazz and bossa nova.
Kristian: Skinny Puppy, Stone Roses, South, Claudine Longet, Donovan, Francoise Hardy
Marcus: (N/A), but we all know he listens a lot to various hip hop, Americana (such as Grant Lee Buffalo and Lemonheads).

Am I right in thinking that all 4 band members have side projects? If so, what are they and how do they affect the band as a whole?

Gus and Marcus have no side projects of their own, but are both involved in Musses and Kristian's projects - Marcus is a full time member of Musse's project called Some Angels (sound a bit like Jesus and Mary Chain with female vocals…) and Gus has co-written a few tracks for Kristian's project Munk Sweden (some of which will be released on an album scheduled for release later this year (Munk Sweden also includes Alex Svenson-Metés of Radio LXMBRG who is the producer of Naco single 'Revolve')… Musse and Kristian have their own little project called Are Moral (kristian on vocals and guitar and musse on guitar)…

Will you be releasing an album anytime soon? If so, what can you tell us about it? What stage are you at of writing it/recording it?

Our first album should be out sometime early next year… half of the songs for the album (that has the working title 'Sudden Responses') are finished. Our vision for the album is basically to capture the sound of a band that really, really loves playing music together - it's not very pretentious with plans of neither conquering nor saving the world, but that's the way it is. We're just a tight group of friends who have a really good time together (Gus and Kristian are best friends since kindergarden and Musse and Marcus are also close friends since childhood).

What are your dreams or ambitions for this band?

Our dream has always been for someone somewhere to listen to one of our songs and drop us a line in an email saying that "wow, I really like this, it means something to me". That happened with the demo of 'Revolve' being put up as an mp3 on our webpage and the guy who runs the record label we're signed to contacting us after having listened to it. Basically, the dream was for someone who didn't know any of us, or had even heard of any of us, to 'discover' us (the way that all of us have stumbled across some brilliant bands) and find something in what we said so close to something within themselves that it was actually worth dropping us a line (like most of us in Naco have done with other bands, big or small). We are all students here in Sweden (apart from Gus who is finished with his' studies, he is now a designer with his own brand 'DFTS') and we don't aim to make a living from our music. Musse is studying archaeology, Kristian is studying forensic psychology and Marcus is studying modern history.

If you could support any band (past or present) who would you choose and why?

Kristian: I would have loved supporting The Stone Roses sometime before they broke big time… just for the sheer thrill of being someplace just before it sort of explodes the way 'Madchester' did… Nowadays the only band I think I'd like to support is Campag Velocet.

If you could star in the remake of any film, what would it be and who would you play?

Kristian: I'd have loved to play Peter Sellers' character in 'The Party'. Not that I'd do it even close to a millionth as good as he did, but just to have been allowed to hold hands with Claudine Longet.

What have you got planned for the rest of 2004?

Writing, recording and maybe some small scale gigs (might come to Manchester as our record company is based there).

Finally, is there anything else you'd like to add or promote?

Thanks for a brilliant website… Hope you'll all like our single 'Revolve'… that can still be downloaded for free from www.nacomusic.tk.

Thanks a lot to the band for taking the time to answer my questions! As is said above, you can find out more about them at their website, and to download their single 'Revolve', make sure you go to their site and click on 'downloads'.