THUNDERMOTHER: ‘It’s quite a classic hard rock album – it’s dirty and it’s divine!’

Swedish rockers THUNDERMOTHER will release their sixth album Dirty & Divine tomorrow (7 February), marking a loud and hard return with a triumphant new line up crackling with gritty authenticity.

They comprise Linnea Vikström Egg (vocals), Filippa Nässil (guitar), Majsan Lindberg (bass) and Joan Massing (drums). Two years on from the release of their last studio album Black & Gold, the Swedish quartet are back with a blistering onslaught of loud, proud and groovy hard rock and marks the debut of two new members: powerhouse frontwoman Vikström Egg and drummer Massing.

Dirty & Divine takes us on a journey of memorable moments, from childhood rock concerts to their love of loud amps, politics and then, just to ground it, a sweet, feel-good love song. Like their earlier work, the album retains a 70’s vibe, underpinned by an avalanche of hooks, yet all of the songs feel that they have a purpose. Some are more probing, even darker, than on their last album, yet with an inherent sense of fun which underpins the whole endeavour: ‘I would say there’s something completely new to this album,’ Vikström Egg said. ‘It’s quite a classic hard rock album – it’s dirty and divine! The title is a reference to having fun in the band. Actually, the working name for the album was High and Low because that’s basically what happens in our conversations. One minute we talk about a bad fart (laughs) and the next minute, we talk about how the universe is going to end and that’s how I feel about the album. We put a lot of time and effort into writing it. I almost want to compare it to scrolling on TikTok because you get the LA fires one moment and then you get a cute little baby, so it’s a little bit like that.’

‘We thought it was a great opener and then you get all the surprises afterwards’

The bluesey rock opener ‘So Close’ sets the tone for what comes next, with its blistering AC/DC-like riffs, big rousing chorus and commanding vocals from Vikström Egg: ‘That was actually just one of the most classic rock songs, a real “bam, meat and potato”, Nässil said laughing. ‘That’s so significant for us. We thought it was a great opener and then you get all the surprises afterwards. I wrote that one with my fiancé actually. I was talking to him about what happened with the old lineup and now starting again. The frustrating thing is being so close to making it and then something happens but I’m not giving up. I’m so close and I’m going to crawl over the finish line, if that is necessary (laughs). Just never give up, that’s what it’s about.’

‘Can’t Put Out The Fire’ is a brilliant homage to the power of live music and how it makes you feel, you’re transported right back to a venue and the headiness of the crowd: ‘The main riff and some of the main elements from the beginning came from a guy called Chips Keesby,’ Vikström Egg said. ‘They were planning a KISS tribute album but that never happened. Filippa got hold of the song and said could we please record it because it is so great. I wrote some of the melody and lyrics for it. I said since it was originally about KISS, why not just jump on that train? Because we all love KISS, obviously,’ she said, proudly showing me the KISS t-shirt she’s wearing. ‘I wrote about my first encounter with KISS when I got a piggyback ride to the front row with my dad when I was six, it was amazing, it was glorious!’ Nässil interjects: ‘Linnea is so generous, she said to us: “You guys have to sing, too!” so I start singing the first line and then our bass player sings the second line before Linnea takes over with all her power and glory!’

In some of their videos, Nässil is playing a beautiful-looking Gibson Explorer and I ask her what her favourite guitar is: ‘Definitely that one, for the reason that it resonates a lot,’ she said enthusiatically. ‘It’s a lot of wood, just playing one chord, it makes a lot of noise, which is perfect for riffing. And I love riffing! I do have a Firebird at home but I’d never play on it. I don’t know why!’

‘Majsan brings a real rock ‘n’ roll vibe to the band, she’s one-take tight in the studio, and she brings that fat, thick sound that we need!’

Dirty & Divine also welcomes back bassist Lindberg to the fold after a brief hiatus. Nässil is thrilled to have her back, holding down the bottom end while she scorches through her repertoire of unstoppable riffs and incendiary licks. ‘Majsan brings a real rock ‘n’ roll vibe to the band,’ she said enthusiastically. ‘She’s one-take tight in the studio, and she brings that fat, thick sound that we need. She brings the thunder to Thundermother! Linnea is someone I’ve always wanted to work with. I first asked her to join before I asked Guernica (Mancini, former lead singer) to join, eight years ago. So she has always been my first pick. I’m thrilled that she said yes this time. Then we searched Europe for a drummer, and we found her in France. Joan is a fucking beast on the drums! It just makes our music so much tighter and groovier. We were immediately better and more powerful live, so we decided to record this album live in the studio.’

It’s been a rollercoaster ride to get there, as they both admit: ‘I have to be honest with you, in the end with the old lineup, it was hard to write music at all,’ Nässil said. ‘We would not have done another album together, I think. There were personality clashes, it was hard to write together. As soon as Linnea came into the band, we started sending demos to each other and we did loads of writing, which was great, because she’s a fantastic songwriter. I was sending her the music and she was sending me these amazing lyrics and melodies. It’s been fun to work with someone that good. On the last album, we had outside songwriters because we didn’t have any energy in the band but now I can send Linnea music and kick back when she sends lyrics and melodies that just crush the song.’

There’s something beautifully intuitive about the way they write together and Vikström Egg, who comes from a melodic metal background, has clearly found her place: ‘Linnea said she hadn’t written a lot of rock ‘n’ roll and then she sent over songs which were great immediately,’ Nässil said. ‘One was so fantastic, I said we had to release it as a single immediately. That was ‘I Left My License In The Future’, which Linnea did a crazy good job with. I call it a procrastination anthem, it’s my favourite on the album, and I didn’t even write it (laughs).’

‘My mom and I wrote it in the thunderstorm, so it really became a Thundermother song!’

The track also has a great backstory, as Vikström Egg recounts: ‘ The story is that me and my mom were driving in a thunderstorm. I don’t have a driver’s license, so I can’t drive. It’s not because I don’t want to but it’s because it just never happens (laughs). Also, I’m from Stockholm and here we don’t have to drive because we have really good public transport. My mom said: “If I have to drive nine hours in the thunderstorm, you can’t just sit there”. She told me: “We have to write a song now because otherwise I will fall asleep” (laughs). My mom and I wrote it in the thunderstorm, so it really became a Thundermother song!’

Nässil, for her part, gave birth to her daughter five months ago and I congratulate her on becoming a bonafide Thundermother and she grins: ‘I’m just looking at her feet here,’ she says, showing me a photo. ‘We called her Pippi, like Pippi Longstocking, a strong little girl. She’s really cute, Linnea is her second mommy.’ Vikström Egg, who is knitting a sweater for her own daughter throughout our chat, looks delighted: ‘I will be on the tour. I’ll be like: “I’ll take the baby, goodbye!”‘

‘Feeling Alright’ showcases a softer side to them, a track that Vikström Egg laughingly describes as her ‘happy sex song’. I tell her it’s a real feel-good, singalong song and she grins: ‘I’m so happy to hear that, that’s exactly what we were aiming for,’ she said. ‘We love it, actually. We’re rehearsing it right now and it’s tricky to do it in the rehearsal room but it’s going to be good. I think we did an amazing job with the melody and lyrics on that one. It’s a happy sex song, which I love! I have to quote Filippa because she says that all the sex songs ever released are always sexy. This is not sexy (laughs). It’s just about feeling alright as a woman, which I think is great, and also creating a good expectation for what sex is supposed to be.’ I tell her that her husband must love it and she laughs: ‘I hope so. I said: “It’s for you, baby!” It started with the big riff. It’s nice and soulful, isn’t it? I was out with my dog and I was trying to come up with a good opening line and then it just came (she starts to sing): “Happy is what happy do, what I do is making love to you”.’

‘I just sat and played guitar my whole childhood -it was idyllic, I was sitting in the fields playing guitar’

Interestingly, they come to the band with very different backgrounds, as Nässil explains: ‘ I think we both have musical parents, Linnea more than me,’ she said. ‘My daddy is an amateur bass player, he taught me acoustic guitar when I was just six years old. He played in a cover band, playing things like Red Hot Chili Peppers and Robbie Williams. My brother played a lot of piano at home when I was growing up, so I was like: “Ok, I can’t do that, I need my own thing, give me a guitar!” I grew up in the countryside with no neighbours on a farm. I had really nothing to do and no motorbike or anything, so I just sat and played guitar my whole childhood – it was idyllic, I was sitting in the fields playing guitar.’

Vikström Egg jokes that she’s a ‘nepo baby’: ‘My dad is a singer as well and my grandfather was an opera singer,’ she said. ‘My mother is also a singer. Not a working singer now but she has been a working singer and there’s always been music around. So it hasn’t really been a matter of “if”, it’s more like to what extent I would do this. My dad and I used to tour together in a band called Therion for eight years, we were symphonic metal. Not power metal like Nightwish, we were much more folky and proggy. Therion is insanely broad, because they started out as a death metal band in the 80’s, which progressed into this symphonic style.’

‘Dead Or Alive’ is one of the stand-out tracks on the album for me, a heavy hitting track at number seven on the album which, perhaps not coincidentally, would make a brilliant Bond theme. It’s impossible not to dance to it, with its massively energising chorus, and it would make both a fantastic set opener and closer. Nässil’s hauntingly melancholic guitar solo in it gives it a real grittiness: ‘I have to thank the producer,’ she said. ‘He pushes me every time but it turned out absolutely great. It was written with my friend and Linnea’s friend too, actually, Jimmy. I was on vacation with him and his girl and my fiancé. I said we should write some music together. We were sitting on his porch in his hotel room with the acoustic guitar every day, trying to come up with the songs. And we were listening to a lot of D-A-D (a Danish rock band), singing their songs like ‘Sleeping My Day Away’, so it came naturally to do that kind of a song. Jimmy wrote the music and I wrote the lyrics. It’s about going into the fall, when everything seems dark and you’re low and you don’t know why, especially here in the north. You really don’t know if you’re dead or alive but you have to get up and try again. Not every song can be happy, happy, happy!’

‘It’s our little way to thank the American crowd because it’s not likely we’ll go back there a lot’

‘American Adrenaline’, as the title suggests, brings the adrenaline pumping right to the end of the album and is their love song to the U.S. with a punky, defiant energy, accompanied by sensationally fast drumming from Massing: ‘She’s a fantastic drummer,’ said Nässil: ‘It’s a little bit of a salute to the audience in America because we toured there with The Scorpions. It was such a fantastic tour, the fans were so nice to us. I got a Texas flag folded! It’s our little way to thank the American crowd because it’s not likely we’ll go back there a lot.’

If she could go drinking with any musician, Nässil picks John Lennon: ‘He just seemed like a fun chap, a little crazy. I like him. I want to pick his brain a little bit. I would ask him: “Do you have any new ideas for a song?” I would like to hear what he would have done if he would still be alive. A lot of music went missing when he was murdered.’ Vikström Egg looks deep in thought: ‘For some reason, I want to say Amy Winehouse, even though I’ve never been really a huge fan of hers,’ she admitted. ‘I like her music and I like her singing and the songs that I’ve heard and for some reason, that’s the answer that my mind wanted to say today!’

(Top photo from left to right: Filippa, Linnea, Majsan and Joan.)