INTERVIEW: Have No Doubt, The Hives Will Live Forever

The Hives frontman Howlin’ Pelle Almqvist talks their new album, working with the Beastie Boys’ Mike D and why you have to believe you’re the best band on the planet.

“How are you, Pelle?” I ask the Hives frontman, a few seconds into our interview. He’s dressed in a suit and sporting that signature 1950s quiff, looking as though he’s just stepped off stage and walked straight into the room.

“I’m fucking terrible,” he replies, laughing.

It’s not the most reassuring start, but it makes sense. The past few days have been brutal. After spending twenty-two hours shooting a music video, Almqvist boarded a flight and travelled twenty-four hours to get to Australia. He’s had three hours of sleep in total, and now he’s in the middle of a full press schedule.

“I mean, I could have slept technically, but I didn’t. I sound like I’m complaining right now, sorry,” he adds, half-smiling through it.

There’s nothing particularly glamorous about the version of rock and roll he’s describing. No chaos, no excess. Just fatigue, jet lag, and an unshakable work ethic. Still, Almqvist carries it all lightly. If he’s suffering, it doesn’t show.

He’s used to this life by now. The Hives began in 1993, formed in the small Swedish town of Fagersta by Pelle and his brother, Nicholaus Arson. Friends were soon brought in, each adopting a theatrical stage name. The band’s moniker came via drummer Chris Dangerous, who pulled it out of a dictionary.

“We had this idea we wanted to spread like an infectious disease across the land,” Almqvist once said. And for a while, that’s exactly what happened. Their breakout single, I Hate To Say I Told You So, turned The Hives into a household name, cementing their place in early-2000s rock culture.

When we speak, he’s sitting in a Sydney hotel room as the city limps through winter. Australians love to complain about the cold, but Almqvist, predictably, is unfazed. “I’m from Sweden,” he says with a laugh, after I groan about the temperature. “This is not cold at all. It’s like plus eighteen, it’s fine.”

He talks about the coast, about walking from Bondi to Coogee and being struck by the eerie tension between postcard beauty and something darker underneath. “I like the juxtaposition of pretty beaches and haunted things,” he says. “It’s beach goth.”

The last time The Hives were in Australia, they were touring with AC/DC, a memory he looks back on fondly, even if the audience was more rock stalwart than Hives fanatic. This time, they’re here on their own terms, wrapping up the tour for The Death of Randy Fitzsimmons. And, as of today, releasing their new record The Hives Forever Forever The Hives.

In the press release, the band is described as “the best live band on the planet” and a “rock sensation”. The phrasing is loud, bold, and not particularly modest. It also recalls that famous Noel Gallagher line about Oasis, insisting they weren’t arrogant, they just believed they were the best.

“Other people called us that first,” Almqvist says, referring to the “best live band” title. “It’s a direct quote from Spin Magazine. They called us that and we kind of just kept it.” There’s a kind of truth buried in the bravado. If a band wants to exist at that level, they have to believe their own myth first. Confidence, for better or worse, becomes part of the job.

“It’s a big ask to stand on a stage and be like, ‘believe this thing I made up,’” he says. “You have to believe in it yourself in order to get other people to believe in it.”

But he also speaks with affection about a different kind of belief. The early days, when it was all potential and posturing, when the only people who thought The Hives were great were The Hives themselves.

“There’s a new song on the record called ‘They Can’t Hear The Music’ which is about that. You have this band, and you’re rehearsing, but you have it in your back pocket that nobody has heard it. We would tour the world and talk about how fantastic we were when nobody thought we were fantastic. Then when people did start to think we were fantastic, we sort of had an identity crisis.”

Historically, The Hives have been known for taking their time between albums. This one arrived much faster. Almqvist says it came down to a sense of urgency. There was something they needed to say, something they couldn’t afford to sit on. The name came together during a chaotic WhatsApp group chat, but once it clicked, it felt inevitable.

“We wanted something epic. Something that had a legacy feeling, a pompous thing. We already had the photo of us in the crowns and capes, so it needed to match that. We had the ‘Hives Forever’ and ‘Forever the Hives’. So, we just joined them.”

The music itself took longer. It always does. The band is obsessive in their process, relentless in their editing.

“We want to make the leanest machine. We don’t do nine albums a year. It’s the only way we know how to do it. The reason we don’t doubt ourselves is we doubt them so much before they’re finished. It’s a tornado of self-criticism for years before we put it out.”

That intensity has a pay-off. They don’t just like their own records. They stand by them.

“We pretty much only get good reviews. But I’m happy if we all like it. That’s hard enough.”

This time around, they had help from someone whose records they grew up worshipping. Mike D of the Beastie Boys joined the band to work on the track ‘OCD OD’, adding his influence and instinct to the song.

“It was as cool as you think it is,” Almqvist says. “There’s a fast, hardcore punk song called ‘OCD OD’. He basically just showed us what the Beastie Boys would have done with it, and did that. Since we were nine years old, I’ve thought everything the Beastie Boys has done is cool. So, it was pretty special for us.”

When Almqvist walks on stage, he becomes something other. The transformation is impossible to miss. His body moves differently. The energy feels nuclear. He doesn’t just perform. He explodes.

“Sometimes I feel like that person on stage is more me. I tone it down to fit into society the rest of the time. But I have that outlet where I can be the monster. Sometimes I feel like I was a misfit rebel. I’m not saying that in some cool way. It was very difficult growing up. I didn’t have anywhere to put that stuff. I disagreed with everyone all the time. Now I have an outlet and can relax the rest of the time.”

You’d think after thirty-two years of writing, recording, and performing, the process might get easier. But Almqvist doesn’t see it that way.

“No, I actually feel it more now. Because now you have to compete with all the stuff you’ve done yourself. You have to stack up to all of rock history. There’s a lot of rock records. To add one to the pile, we feel it has to be pretty special.”

This one is.

The Hives Forever Forever The Hives is out now. Listen to it here.