"We Are The Only People That Are Allowed To Fuck With Our Legacy"

"It was indeed an unlikely resurrection,” laughs Refused frontman Dennis Lyxzen on being asked just how Refused went from being the most broken-up band on the planet to touring and recording a new record. “It’s one of those deals where it’s hard to point to a single occurrence and say ‘that’s what it was’. Instead there were a number of smaller things that led to everything falling into place. One of the most important things was that when we got the offer to do Coachella back in 2012, we were all living in the same city at the same time — and that hadn’t been the case for years. Also, Kris (Steen) hadn’t played guitar for ten years, and David (Sandstrom) hadn’t played drums for ten years. But those guys had started playing together again — just jamming — and they also had Magnus (Flagge — bass) with them. At the same time David and me had started a hardcore band together called AC4 — so we were all just hanging out. Then we got the Coachella offer — and it’s an offer we’d had before but had always knocked back because it seemed like too much of a leap for us. But now the circumstances were right. I remember we got the offer by email but David was like ‘don’t reply, let’s just wait.’ I actually didn’t think it was going to happen, but he phoned me up a couple of weeks later and just said ‘I’ve talked to the other guys — we’re doing it’ (laughs). And I was like — ‘but we haven’t practiced’ — and he just said ‘we’ll make it happen!’”

But even at this stage Refused had no real plans to embark on a fully-fledged reformation. 

"The Coachella offer was so good we had the opportunity to do what most bands our age can’t do."

“It was meant to be ten shows — Coachella and some other festivals — and that was going to be it. But we took things seriously and we practiced hard. Because the Coachella offer was so good we had the opportunity to do what most bands our age can’t do — just practice. We literally all took two months off from our lives and jammed every day for three months from eight to five. We knew that if we were going to come out and play again that expectations would be really high. We knew we had to be fucking good. I’d always been playing but some of the other guys hadn’t played live in like twelve years. For Kris — he hadn’t played live since our last show in 1998.”

And how did things go from playing shows to writing a brand new album?

“It was a slow-burning process,” Lyxzen admits. “Of course we were playing together again — so that helped. But also Kris, David and Magnus had their project together on the side. They were writing these weird instrumental songs and recording stuff even after Refused started playing shows again. Then Kris started thinking maybe Dennis should sing on one of these songs. So one day I got a call to meet the guys in a bar and when I got there they were all grinning like little kids and they said ‘We want to do a new Refused record: are you in?’ (laughs).  And I’ve got to admit I was sceptical at first. I thought it was over. I knew the legacy we had with The Shape Of Punk To Come and I had a band of my own. But as soon as they played me some of the riffs they had I knew we could be onto something.”

Lyxzen then goes on to reveal a completely left-field element in the band’s decision-making process. “We were backstage at the Download festival and some guy came up to Kris — I think he was the touring drummer with Ugly Kid Joe or something — and says ‘you guys are just playing shows right and not writing new material?’ Kris said yeah and the guy told him that was the right thing to do and to keep it that way. Kris got so pissed off about it that night that he was determined we write at least one new song. All these weird little things happened and here we are talking about a new Refused album in 2015 (laughs).”    

"One day I got a call to meet the guys in a bar and when I got there they were all grinning like little kids."

It’s fitting that Lyxzen mentions The Shape Of Punk To Come. The band’s 1998 swansong has long been hailed as one of the greatest hardcore albums of all time and has been embraced by successive generations of fans, many of whom wouldn’t know Black Flag from Agnostic Front. Accordingly, any new material created by the band would be judged against this classic set of tunes. Were Refused worried that they could damage their legacy by making a new album? Or even worse, did the members fear being labelled sell-outs for their sudden conversion on the road to Coachella?

“Look, everything people think they thought about our band we thought about it ten times before they did. This is our band, this is our reality, we understood all the implications of doing a new record,” spits an animated Lyxzen. “If we wanted to really cash in I’m pretty sure we could have just continued to tour the Shape songs for another three or four years. That would have been the safe way to do things.

“As for sullying our legacy, yeah the thought occurred to us. It’s a weird thing to have a legacy hanging over you — to be defined by other people’s expectations of what you are — or at least what people want you to be. I think what upset people the most about Refused writing new material was that our arc in history was supposedly already written. These people could say ‘yeah they broke up: the cops came to their last show and they never got the recognition they deserved — and I love Refused.’  So when we come along and say we’re making new music — we’re still here — that upsets people because it fucks with their perception of what Refused is supposed to be. 

“But you know what? We are the only people that are allowed to fuck with our legacy. We are the only people that should define the direction of our band. If people don’t like the new record that’s fine, but it’s our prerogative to make that record. I’m not going to allow what people may say on Facebook to dictate what I’m going to create.”

Refused are not stupid people. Even a cursory listen to Freedom reveals they never had any intention of trying to create The Shape Of Punk To Come part deux. “We weren’t interested in making Shape… part two because we knew that was impossible. It was a time and a place that created an influx of madness that in turn created that record. Instead we wanted to know what Refused could do in 2013 and beyond. That said we did consciously set out to make a Refused record — even though we were very different people who listened to different music compared to the band who made Shape back in 1998. We actually wrote a lot of songs — but only some immediately felt liked Refused songs. Other songs we wrote and worked on for ages but when it came down to it they didn’t feel like Refused songs so we didn’t include them in the final record.”

Freedom is definitely a considered record but it also surprises with left-field excursions into funk and pop amidst the explosive bursts for which the band have always been known. Somehow the band even partners with pop supremo Shellback (Maroon 5, Taylor Swift & Pink) for the tracks Elektra and 366. 

“Well there were a couple of reasons for that,” explains Lyxzen. “First we met at some awards show and it turned out that he was a huge Refused fan who taught himself to play drums listening to our records. Second, while we were working on the record we didn’t really let anyone listen to what we were doing — we were quite secretive. But at the same time we did want some feedback. Someone mentioned Shellback, sort of as a joke, but then we thought it would be interesting to see what he thought of the songs. So we sent him some demos expecting we’d get feedback on whether a chorus was good enough or something simple like that. But what he sent back was a three-minute version of the song Elektra we’d been working on. Our version was seven minutes long but we all realised that Shellback’s version was way better than ours. We tried melding the two versions but then just decided to record his version with his arrangements. Sure, the guy is a pop producer with a great ear, but what he did for that track actually made it sound more like Refused. This is a band that will take risks. On paper working with Shellback sounded ridiculous but it worked — and that’s all that matters.”