I remember I came across BRAINCOATS by an accident. I was a bit into Social Disortion about two years ago and was listening to their songs on YouTube. One thumbnail in the suggestions grabbed my attention – it was the Social Disortion logo, a skeleton totting a glass of wine and a cigarette. With one little difference, however. The skeleton had this odd, voodoo doll head, ominously smiling and gazing at me with its button eyes. It was an acoustic cover of the song „Reach For The Sky“ by a band called „BRAINCOATS“. I couldn’t resist listening to it, and it turned out to be pretty good, a very well done cover. I would listen to it over and over again. Eventually, I checked out their own songs, from their then first and only EP, Hopeless Arguments. The EP sounded nice, above all I enjoyed the song „Fine“, with its slow build-up, accompanied by frontman’s tender, but penetrating voice, which gradually led you to a massive guitar outbreak. I decided to keep an eye on this band. And, one year later, out of the blue, I was smacked in the face by their new full-length album Bad Dreams & Tumbleweeds, a copy of which I’m holding right now.

The band’s progress was almost tangible. The guitar play more sophisticated, the singer’s voice matured, even the voodoo doll grew a moustache. And as the band recently released their next piece, a five-song EP Madhouse, I knew I had to make an interview with these Swedish lads from Uddevalla! The frontman, Jonathan Thuresson, kindly accepted my invitation and is prepared to answer all my question with his manly voice.

Jonathan, let’s start off with a simple question: which three words would best describe your band?

Beer, food and Rock’n’Roll! Is that even three words?

Yeah, I think it’s fair enough. Sex and drugs are outdated anyways. Speaking of which, they say that the singer gets all the fan girls… is that true in your case?

I wish I could say so, but that would just be a damn lie. I thought I’d have it easy, being the singer and all… but our bassist, Anton, gets all the chicks. I guess girls can’t resist a slender, handsome man with angelic fair hair and nimble fingers!

Good for him that he doesn’t live here, the girls would sure fight over him! Anyways, let’s focus on your music now.  Let’s get back to the time you were recording your very first EP, Hopeless Arguments. Back then, what was your outlook as a band?

Well, to be honest, I don’t think we really had an outlook back then. We’ve been together for only a couple of years and I guess we just wanted to have something recorded and „out there“, to kinda feel like a real band and not just four guys playing together. However, don’t get me wrong, we were always serious about our music and wanted to be a decent band. We have changed a lot since our beginnings, but our attitude has always stayed the same!

That’s the way it should be! By the way, I can’t resist asking – how did you come across your mascot, that handsome button-eyed voodoo doll hunk? And why did you decide to call yourselves BRAINCOATS?

Believe it or not, both the mascot and the name came about the very first day of the band’s existence. I was playing in another band at the time and we couldn’t really afford a practice space. I was already jamming a bit with Anton, Simon and Charlie so I decided to just ask those guys if they wanted to share the room with me and my band. And, after a while, me and the guys have started to sound pretty good, so we decided to start a new band together. We met up in the practice room the first day of being a band. We didn’t even have chairs, so we just sat down in a corner and started talking about what to call ourselves. I already knew I wanted the name to have something to do with brains, or at least something gory. I think it was Anton who came up with the final name, after hours of some really, really bad suggestions. Anyway, we eventually came up with „BRAINCOATS“ and thought it was awesome and creative, so we just stuck to that. The mascot came around only minutes later, from kidding around with some ideas. We got a guy to design it for us and well, so there you have it.

So, with your brand new name and mascot, you were all good and ready to make some noise! Speaking of your music career, what was the most important turning point for you as a band?

It’s really hard to just pick one. We have had so many amazing things happen to us in the short time we’ve been around. We’ve gotten to record an album, two EPs, two music videos and we’ve been on a tour for the first time, so I can’t really single out anything particular. I think realizing that people actually like what we do and are spreading our music among their friends is pretty damn amazing. I mean just for someone to take the time to do that is so cool. We are very grateful for everything that’s happening right now!

Hard work brings profit! Incidentally, you aren’t the only Swedish rock band I’ve been observing lately. I’m talking about Royal Republic, four gentlemen from Malmö who have been seriously rocking the Europe stages. Are you going to follow in their footsteps?

The Vikings are making a comeback, huh? I’m going to be perfectly honest with you – I haven’t heard a single song by those guys. But that’s the thing about Swedish bands and artists, they’re never even close to being as big here as they are outside of Sweden. The radio and the music scene in general is just awful here, I never listen to the radio.

I couldn’t agree more, it works completely the same in the Czech Republic. So, how does a band from the north actually get recognized?

I guess you have to really push your music outside the Swedish borders to get even an ounce of recognition. There’s no way small bands like us could have gotten anyone to listen to our songs if it wasn’t for the Internet. It really helps to get the music from the artist directly to the audience, fresh and sincere, without anyone poking their nose into it and trying to make a profit off your band without having any relation to the music whatsoever. And that’s how it should be.

In fact, you aren’t all so unknown for the Czech audience – you have already played here!

Yeah! We toured your beautiful country last summer. It was a blast, we toured with two bands from our hometown, Repay and Lack of Loud. We also played one solo show, an acoustic gig at a psychiatric hospital, in a town called Havlickuv Brod. It was a bit creepy, but they really liked us so it was all good.

Recording songs, shipping your merch, touring Europe – I imagine you must have a tight schedule. How do you manage to keep things going?

Well, I’m currently unemployed so I have a lot of time for making music and working on cool stuff for the band, which is nice since that’s pretty much the only thing I care about anyway. Meanwhile, the other members are working their asses off to get enough money to print CD’s, T-Shirt’s, buy guitars… and beer! The band is always the main priority for all of us. As Anton said, maybe someday we can take over the radio stations, with some real music played by real people!

In that case, you have my full support! So, Jonathan, what do BRAINCOATS plan for the near future? As far as I know, you’ve recently swapped drummers and announced another European tour!

We are planning some really cool things for the future! There’s the tour you mentioned and we’re already writing the songs for the next album or EP, whatever it’s gonna turn out to be. And yes, we did get a new drummer. Charlie, our old drummer, is studying to become a music teacher and it’s impossible to make the time for both studying and the band. It’s really heart-breaking since we’ve been a solid little family for the past couple of years. But don’t worry, we are still very close friends and we still hang out. We’ve been seeing Elias, our new drummer, around for some time. We all went to the same high school a couple of years ago and he was playing in another band, which was actually our support band at a show some time back. We knew he was the guy we wanted since the first practice. He fit in right away and he nailed our songs immediately. He’s a really sick drummer. Plus he is very attractive and we love watching him bang those drums!

Can’t wait to see your new set playing! Are you planning to visit Czech Republic again soon?

Absolutely, we will come back to the Czech Republic very soon, I hope. You guys are awesome!

Looking forward! Alright Jonathan, it’s time for my last question – is there anything you would like to tell anyone who is going to start a band?

That’s a tough question, but I think I have the answer! Don’t start a band with someone just because they can play the guitar really good, sing super high or whatever. Chemistry and having fun should always be your number one priority. You’ll sound better and better as you go along and you will learn how to play together as time progresses. Don’t rush anything, just start playing with your friends and like-minded people. Band members may come and go, but always remember to have chemistry and fun, no matter what.

Well, I believe the future musicians reading this will keep that in mind! Jonathan, thank you for the interview! I wish you the best damn luck and hope to see you guys on the stage soon!

No problem, dude! Thank you for having me. I will see you soon, you can quote me on that!