Cheers to Nina and Krisse for giving us an insight into all things Śmierć!
Swedish quartet Śmierć’s third album ‘Opór’ (reviewed here) was an unexpected highlight of 2024 for us. The band originally formed with the aim of playing “straightforward, melodic D-beat orientated punk”, but in ‘Opór’, they’ve created so much more; am experimental record replete with dark, atmospheric instrumentals, yet one that still rages as hard as any D-beat combo you’d care to mention. We caught up with Nina (vocals/keyboard) and Krisse (guitar) shortly before their recent show with The Restarts at London’s New Cross Inn.
So, how have you all been since the release of ‘Opór’?
Krisse: We’ve been good, thanks! We did a tour of Australia, which went really well. The album came out around Christmas 2024, and we just won an award for it in Sweden – it was the Independent Music Awards, with different genres of music, and we won in the punk category.
How did that feel?
Nina: Actually, I was surprised how fabulous it felt, because we were just happy to have been nominated, but we didn’t expect to win. It was so fulfilling to hear that people understood what we were trying to do with this record!
K: The punk genre is quite broad – both in Sweden in general and at the awards – so there weren’t really any other bands that sounded like us at the awards. There was one band that was a kind of crust/black metal hybrid, and two bands that were more like pop-punk/skate-punk.
N: And that skate-punk sound is really big in Sweden at the moment, that sort of happy-go-lucky sound – very different to what we’re doing!
K: Those kinds of bands have way more followers and listeners than we do, so we certainly didn’t expect to win!
Can you give us a short history of how Śmierć came to be? How did you originally form?
K: We originally formed in 2017; it was our original drummer and original bassist who formed the band, and they asked me if I wanted to join them to play some music. It was fun, and we thought we had potential, so then we asked Nina to join us. That’s when we really got started – we wrote a lot of songs very quickly, and recorded the first album less than a year later.
N: When I joined, I really wanted to do something that I’d never done before. I’m usually a drummer, so I’ve never been a frontperson before, and I really wanted to give it a try. I’m really into the D-beat sound and atmosphere, and now that I’m 20 years older than when I first got into music, I wanted to express myself in a different way – especially, I wanted to explore what it would be like to create lyrics using the Polish language. It turned out that Polish was very unique in that respect, compared to Swedish or English, so that really made the band come together in a way that it still is today.
What was it that originally made you want to try writing and singing in Polish?
N: Well, I went to Poland for the first time in 1990, just after the wall came down – I was very young back then, and I was totally blown away by the country, about how kindly I was treated there, and how curious the people were! They wanted to know so much about the outside world.
I bought some tapes of Polish punk bands, and got in touch with the people who made them – nobody spoke much English, so I had to learn Polish to communicate! During the 90s, I went back and forth to Poland, and got involved in the punk scene there, and learnt more of the Polish language. So I’m totally a fake Polish person! [laughs]
It suits your music well!
N: I think so too! It added another ‘layer’ to the music, to what we’re trying to do with Śmierć.
As I said in my review, I think ‘Opór’ is so much more than just a D-beat album – it’s so atmospheric, especially with the instrumental parts that lead into the songs.
N: Thank you! I think that D-beat is in our DNA as a band, and to be able to work from there, to allow ourselves to experiment, and still retain the D-beat fans is wonderful.
K: When we started the band, I decided I didn’t want anything to limit us in any way – no ideas about what we should be or have to be, we should just try different things and see what sounds good.
Were there any other particular influences that were/are important for you, besides D-beat bands, or did your sound mostly just come from experimentation?
K: Mostly from playing around with my guitar at home, and just finding things that I thought might sound good for the band. We usually start by writing the intros to the songs, and the faster bits kind of build from that. But sometimes it’s more like a jigsaw puzzle – building the songs from bits and pieces that we’ve been working on. I listen to a lot of different music – for example, new wave, dark wave, synth-based stuff…
N: Adding to that, when it comes to the vocals, I would pick a little bit of the Billie Holiday that I grew up with – the sadness and the grief that comes out of her voice – and also Kate Bush, that kind of thing. If you’d asked me 20 years ago, I wouldn’t have had the courage to sing that way, but now I just do it and if somebody likes it, then great!
You’re based in Stockholm, right? How do you rate it for punk and hardcore, in terms of bands, venues, etc.?
K: It’s never been great in that respect. We have quite a lot of bands, but there are never enough venues; there is one great DIY space for bands to play in, but in general we need more places.
N: And if you’re a kid, and there are no all-ages venues for you to see bands in, then you probably won’t get involved in the punk scene. But things are slowly improving – ask me again in five years’ time, and I’ll probably have a different answer for you!
K: You don’t get many older bands and younger bands playing together – the younger ones tend to have their own thing going on, and to be fair, it is really cool.
N: Also, in a city where there are hardly any places to live that are affordable, that also affects this kind of independent culture, so I would say that Gothenburg and Malmö are better in that respect. You can go to either city and easily find some like-minded people to play in bands with or go to shows with.
Tell us more about the Australian tour that you did recently – how did it go?
N: Oh it was amazing – it was our first time in Australia, and when it comes to the punk scene there, there were several things that blew my mind. We just talked about the Stockholm scene, which is very divided, but the Australian scene is the opposite, all very intertwined. The queer people, young people, older people, they all go to the same shows and enjoy themselves.
The women, in particular, absolutely own the stages when they play, and it’s wonderful that the girls in the crowd have women like them to look up to – which is something I didn’t have so much when I started getting into this kind of music. It’s such a great atmosphere, and we loved every second of the tour!
And finally, what does the near future hold for you? How’s the rest of 2026 looking?
K: We’ve started working on the next album, writing new songs. Only one is finished, and we’re playing it tonight, but I’ve got the basic riffs for at least ten more. So I’ll play them for the band, and we’ll see what comes out of that! It’s probably going be more straightforward D-beat than the last one.
Apart from that, not really many other plans so far. We’re playing a couple of festivals in August, in Sweden and Poland – we try to get back to Poland at least once a year, there are so many punk festivals there!
‘Opór’ is out now on Nikt Nic Nie Wie/Prank Records; check it out and keep up to date on all things Śmierć via the links below.
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