GOOD AT MUSIC, RUBBISH AT PHOTOSHOP

Last week, we got rather excited when it was brought to our attention that Swedish pop darlings Those Dancing Days had an album, In Our Space Hero Suits, what is coming out on October 6. The proper ace thing, tho, was their explanation for the rekkid, as the press lady told us it was about "life and pretty boys". So we thought, who better to rate the current crop of pop pashes?

When we meet Those Dancing Days, they have not had much sleepy, having stayed up all night like naughty scamps to finish the album artwork. The fact that they still look resolutely perky and beautifully attired is testament, then, to their general levels of amazingness. Also the fact that they are all about 14 and still go to school.

Let's remind ourselves of why Those Dancing Days are wicked.

Do you see? Very good. Now, shall we talk to them?

LIPSTER: Hello, Those Dancing Days. Have you had a busy summer?

MIMMI (bass): We are always here. We are playing tonight a couple of gigs.
REBECKA (guitar):Back and forth some times, but it has been fun.

LIPSTER: Tell us about the new album.

REBECKA: It’s been quite fast, we haven’t had time to change the sound that much. So the songs stick together well.
MIMMI: We had this really prolific time in late fall and early winter – we did five songs in that period of time. We didn’t have any plan, it’s not a concept record.
LISA (keys): …it’s more like, ‘Here, we made some songs...’
LINNEA (vocals): We haven’t had that much time because we’ve been in school, so five songs for us is quite a lot!

LIPSTER: Do you write together?

REBECKA: Sometimes you go home and think ‘Ooh, good line’ [motions scribbling].
LISA: So the lyrics we write separately…
LINNEA:…but the music together.

LIPSTER: What’s the album all about then?

LISA: The songs are quite fairytale-y …
REBECKA: …they are like little stories…
MIMMI: …there is one underwater, there is one in space…
REBECKA: ...it’s not the pretty boys thing.
MIMMI: It was quite evil for them to say that, because Rebecka only said that in one interview one time!
LIPSTER to REBECKA: Ah, so it’s you who likes the pretty boys!
REBECKA: No! I hope everybody does.
MIMMI: Indie music is very emotional and romantic.
CISSI (drums): It’s not like ‘There is a good looking guy, let’s write a song about it!’.
LISA: The record is a collection of thoughts from our heads. If Rebecka is inspired by pretty boys then her song is about pretty boys, but really it’s a mix.

[They all giggle.]

REBECKA: It’s more like a string, that [at this point Rebecka demonstrates the universal hand gesture for extending a piece of string. Sadly she’s still got her coffee in her hand, which splats all over her lovely candy striped dress.]
ALL: Ohhhh!
MIMMI: We are very tired, so we are going to do this a lot today.
LISA: Cissi was up till four finishing the album art.
LINNEA: Cissi and Rebecka did it.
CISSI: We never went to sleep, we went straight to London.
REBECKA: It’s nice, it’s the rock and roll lifestyle!
LISA: Or the indie lifestyle, maybe.
CISSI: I think that you can hear that they are teenage lines, because we are still teenagers, and I think they will change when we get older.
LISA: I like it, I think it’s good, because I think they’re quite free. I think when you’re getting older you’re getting more rules. It’s important to be free.
MIMMI: And even though it’s different lyrics writers for every song, we can all understand it, so it’s not like ‘Ooh Rebecka writes so difficult songs and only she knows what they mean. We all understand the whole.
REBECKA: We have become like a family lately because we meet so much and start to think the same type of words, talk at the same, say the same things.
MIMMI: Same words, same rhymes…
CISSI: We share clothes and make up…

At this point, Lipster gets a little bit vexed, because we have sort of based the whole interview on the theme of pretty boys and their pash-worthiness. We have also prepared some alarmingly literal questions surrounding how inspirational said boys might be.

LIPSTER: Um, I have a quiz on pretty boys. Shall we scrap it?
TDD: No! We don’t want to skip that bit! Yeah - pretty boys!
LIPSTER: Thank fuck for that. However, we will make the point that it is something Rebecka said only once, and that we are doing this for jokes. Ready?
TDD: Are we gonna score points on them?
LIPSTER: Indeed we are. Out of ten, please.

[Immediate eruption of giggles]
LISA: I saw them today on a magazine!
REBECKA: I never heard about them.
CISSI: They are on MTV all the time… he can’t [points at singer], he’s so bad at [suddenly makes alarming singing/licking mime.]
MIMMI: Lip-syncing!
CISSI: Yes! He sings with a tongue, he’s like [does licking again.]
LISA: [sarcastic] I like their styling.
REBECKA: I think they get zero, those two.
LISA: No wait! Maybe they give us inspiration but to write about nerdy boys.
LINNEA: That’s mean, they’re trying to be cool.
LISA: He tries hard, with his little leather jacket. One’s got a little hat, and one is a pretty boy.
LIPSTER: Look at the fiddly hair!
MIMMI: That’s like a whatdoyoucallit, mullet?
CISSI: But I think the song is pretty catchy [starts singing it] and in the video they are running around in a boat.

LISA: I say zero. He is so urrr, I get a noise when I look at him. Who is he?
MIMMI & REBECKA: Gossip Girl!
LINNEA: That’s not Gossip Girl, that’s High School Musical!
MIMMI: They look the same…
LISA: …if it was from Gossip Girl then I would have been like, ‘maybe…’ but now it’s zero.

MIMMI: Are they boys? It looks like a girl. She is really cute. They are cool, these are like clothes I would wear.
CISSI: This is inspiring!
MIMMI: We want to go to Japan. We want to play for these people!
LISA: What would say on the scale?
CISSI: I think they are clothes inspiration for Lisa [who is wearing a very beau blue chambray shirt and troos.]
LISA: I forgot my tie...
MIMMI: ...but if you had a tie, you would have looked like Avril Lavigne.

REBECKA: It’s just because you’re English!
ALL: Nooooo, nothing!

MIMMI: He is very cute, but not inspirational. You would not write a song about Orlando Bloom.
LISA: But he’s still a pretty boy. If you saw him at a club or something….
REBECKA: You can’t put a guy from his character. So he is nothing without Legolas. Legolas is the only thing that counts. So sorry Orlando, if you were Legolas your whole life, I should hook up with you, but otherwise...
ALL: [singing] I would write a song for you…
MIMMI: Is that who you get when you Google ‘pretty boys’?
REBECKA: I want to come up on the picture when you Google ‘pretty boys’!
LISA: I think if you put pretty girls, you would get more porno stuff.

LIPSTER: On another, unashamedly literal subject, I want to talk to you about dancing. So where are the best places to dance - in the kitchen doing the washing up, or down the disco, or in the woods round a bonfire?

MIMMI: I like house parties.
ALL: Yeah…
MIMMI: Because they always get out of hand…
LINNEA: …and then you are with your friends…
MIMMI: …and then you can choose the music.
REBECKA: I like to dance like that, all alone in the kitchen.
CISSI: I never dance alone. I remember when we were in the studio and just listening for the first time, and it was like...[puts hands in the air, starts jigging in her seat] ‘Yeeeeeaaaaaaaah!’
[All laugh]
CISSI: That was good dance.

LIPSTER: What is rubbish to dance to?

MIMMI: There’s a lot of bad dance music, it can be a bit boring.
LISA: What’s it called… Basshunter?
MIMMI: That is the worst song.
LINNEA: And it got number one in England.
LISA: He’s like this computer dork.
REBECKA: He hacked into everything and that’s how he made number one.
LINNEA: You don’t want to dance to that. When me and Mimmi had almost finished school, we had a gathering in the big room with the stage. And they had a competition - who could sing that song the longest. Awful.

OK then, Those Dancing Days, you appear to know a lot about dancing. After all, one does not call one's band Those Dancing Days, and make infectious, Hammond-drenched pop records, unless one is quite keen on it. So what do you make of this lot?

LISA: That’s good!
LINNEA: Is this like folk music?
LIPSTER: Yes, it’s called Morris Dancing, it’s an English folk dance.
REBECKA: I like! We should have them on stage!
MIMMI: That one I really like.
CISSI and LISA: Yeah!

MIMMI: That just looks quite uncomfortable.
LISA: I like break dance…
LIPSTER: …in the supermarket?
LISA: …Mmmmm, no.
CISSI: But if I were like going to buy some milk and it was a Chinese boy in the middle of the supermarket, I would be very happy!
LINNEA: It’s not very good because you can’t do the same. You just have to watch.
MIMMI: Yes, you can’t imitate. That [points at Morris Dancers], you can imitate.
LINNEA: With that [points at break dancer] you just have to clap your hands and be like…
LISA: B-boys! Fly girls!
ALL: Put your hands in the air…!
LISA: [singing]...swing ‘em round like you just don’t care!

ALL: Oooooohh!
REBECKA: Who is this?
LIPSTER: Its Cyd Charisse, she died about a month ago, but she was ER-MAY-ZING.
REBECKA: It looks good.
MIMMI: I wish I could look like that.
CISSI: I would like to dance like that.
LISA: High levels! She's got styyyyyyle.
CISSI: Nice style.

REBECKA: Ooh, I like!
LISA: That’s good, I think that’s us.
MIMMI: It’s like Rebecka!
CISSI: I think someone’s having a birthday. [Points at photo] Mimmi, it’s you!
LISA: Synchronized, in their living room. That’s the most party.
CISSI: This is how we party.

REBECKA: What’s that?
LIPSTER: She is some sort of disco dancing person.
LISA: Ewww, no. That’s boring.
CISSI: That’s not sexy.

MIMMI: Is that Paris Hilton? That’s not good.
CISSI: This is not so interesting, but I like Stars Are Blind, that song.

LIPSTER: Give us some tips on dancing...

CISSI: It should be, just a feeling. You don’t need to have…
LISA: …any skills?
CISSI: …yes, not like technical skills.
MIMMI: We met a guy once and Lisa was trying to be nice to him because he danced, like…
CISSI: ..really weird…
MIMMI: ….and MTV-ish, and she was like ‘Ooh, you dance really good’ and he was like [puts on smug voice] ‘Yeeeah, I do all my routines myself,’ And we were like ‘Noooooooo!’
LISA: He was so funny.

LIPSTER: IF YOUR RECORD WAS A DANCE MOVE, WHAT WOULD BE?

REBECKA: – I think it would be like this [starts doing very funny in-her-seat elbow dance, bopping up and down and grinning.]
LIPSTER: An elbow dance?
LISA: I like the dance move [raises hands, does push-the-sky, and starts singing non-specific foreign dialect.] ‘Umle-le-le he-le’
REBECKA: Hum-le-lehum-e-le?
[giggling]
CISSI: It’s always appreciated to play air drums. You can never go wrong.
MIMMI: And air guitar.
CISSI: When we do gigs I can see sometimes someone looking at me going ‘Yeah, yeah!’ [mimes very enthusiastic air drums and head-bobs] and I think, 'What are you doing?'
REBECKA: I’m not a drummer, but I can do ‘tsh, tsh’ [does the air high-hat.]
MIMMI: I saw Lisa's boyfriend do air guitar moves...
LISA: My boyfriend now do the air guitar, but my next boyfriend do the air drums.
[More giggling]
LISA: You should just move your body to the music, and feel good.
LIPSTER: Indeed. Thank you very much, Those Dancing Days.
TDD: Thank you!