WELCOME BACK
After a lengthy lay off, ‘the Swedish AC/DC’ return with the hope that “we’re on an upward slope”.
PONTUS SNIBB AND his Malmo-based band Bonafide first emerged more than a decade ago. Combining brutal riffing and Snibb’s bluesy vocals, they were dubbed ‘the Swedish AC/DC’. Since then members have come and gone, they’ve released six albums and supported icons including Deep Purple, Status Quo and compatriots Europe. But after 2017’s Flames album the band went uncharacteristically quiet. Until now.
Well, we’ve been playing. We actually released a live album around 2019, but it was just a special album for fans, that could only be bought at shows. Then a little thing called covid happened.
The Swedish government dealt with covid in a different way from the rest of Europe. How much were the band affected? We couldn’t play any shows. I’m a full-time musician, so I didn’t get any support from the government. So it was like “What am I going to do to pay the rent? ” I played acoustic shows for people at their homes, up to the number of people that was allowed. I have a blues side to my music as well as the Bonafide rock side. So when I came to the stranger’s house, I didn’t know if I was coming because of the blues or because of Bonafide. That was always fun to see.
Snacket, a track on the new album Are You Listening, is sung in your native tongue – which must be a first for the band, and a rarity for any internationally renowned Swedish band. What was the thinking there? It’s mostly directed to Sweden. The song’s message is kind of ‘don’t get too big for your boots’. The song is actually in Sconish, which is like a Southern drawl, like a Texas dialect. My dialect is from Malmo, which people think of as a hillbilly accent. So yes, that was the first time for us, although Opeth sing in Swedish as well.
There’s
